August Homesteading Notes

08-21-04

To honor the cool wet weather, we started a crockpot of chili last night. Lots of garlic cloves, onions and V8 juice. I'm just putting in the cooked ground turkey meat. It has only rained a little today but the sky is staying cloudy and it is nice and cool with a North wind.

In honor of having so many eggs to use, I made ice cream. We don't have an ice cream maker so I just mix and stick it in the freezer. I found the same type of recipe the other day and it said to wait until it was slushy and mix with an electric mixer until very smooth. I will try that today. It always comes out so good but it is better with LOTS of eggs in it.

Several weeks ago, I started asking for ideas and recipe that would use lots of eggs since we had so very many. I did find that the puppies, Beau and Sammy, just love scrambled eggs for breakfast every day. They can easily eat a dozen between them at one time. But the latest suggestion was to make egg noodles, dry them and have plenty for all year long. I never had good luck making them, so I asked extra questions and now think I can do it right. I have a pasta press that has never been used. Okay, it was used to make one BIG mess but now I want to try again.

I looked out the kitchen window yesterday to discover that the Pampas Grass is blooming. I spent the time killing about 2 dozen grasshoppers that were all over both the plants. The hoppers have wiped out all the mint and probably other plants that I haven't noticed. This year, they are leaving the sweet pepper plants alone. I have been picking one every few days. Randy doesn't like them but I sure do.

We finally had saved up and bought a cam corder. The prices have sure come down while they are much easier to use and the capabilities are ever improved. We hope to be making some how to do it CDs and DVDs which we will one day have for sale. A few ideas here and there and hopefully we can build a business we can call our retirement. Randy's day job won't hold together for much longer so we need to get some things going very soon. The cord that Randy thought he had, did not fit so what he has taken as practice cannot be viewed yet.

Byron Tumlinson had mentioned in his Bio-Intensive Gardening section about how vinegar was a great weed killer. My project for this coming week will be to keep a spray bottle full and go out every day and at least kill the pests in our yard. We have an awful crop of stickers that will invade the gardens and the house. They hurt and can stay in the skin for years if not properly pulled out. OUCH. I dream of a yard with a lawn where one could walk barefooted. Sigh. Such are goals.

This is another month nearly gone. Whenever you make promises that are difficult to keep, time passes oh so fast. Your deadlines sneak up on you. This is a time of the dog days of summer and they are mere kitty cats and oh so mild. We are forecast to be back to the mid 90s but that's much better than ten to 15 degrees hotter. Some writers tell of upper 40s and lower 50s and how nice it is to be cooling off again. Ah fall will be here soon enough.