Britesea - Living the good life in rural Oregon

[Britesea]

I went into town to meet up with my friend C; she's planning on making paella for my DH's birthday dinner. He turned 58 yesterday but had to work; we're going to her house tomorrow to celebrate. I have a paella pan, plus I have a pretty good stock of saffron in my freezer from when my mother lived in Spain so I gave her some. Then I went to the tire shop to get the tires on the truck rotated. Ugh! Turned out they were too old and had some badly worn spots, so I had to buy 4 new tires. That was definitely NOT in the budget for this month. That just set back my program to pay off our debts by another 2 months but at least we had the money to buy them.

Came home late because of that, and in a bad mood. Didn't feel like doing anything so the dishes went unwashed. I just sat at the computer and played solitaire.

I'm on jury duty alert for the next month; have to go in on Monday for orientation and then be on call for the entire month of March. Oh Joy.

We're supposed to get rain and snow starting tonight, for most of next week. We had a little bit of rain, and I saw some gropple in the late afternoon, but by sunset the clouds were breaking up. I don't know if the weather is gonna cooperate. Too bad if it doesn't; we desperately need some snow pack on the mountains. Crater Lake has 32" of snow on the ground, normally at this time it's more like 110".

I was tired of chicken, so I broke out one of my jars of beef and veggies. I thickened the gravy and dumped it in a pan and put some Tater Tots I found in the freezer on top. Ta-Da! Tater Tot Pot Pie.

 

[Britesea]

I'm so glad we don't have anything like that nearby. I don't know if I'd be able to resist the temptation. The donuts made in the grocery store bakeries are very resistable, heh.

Yesterday we went to C&D's house to celebrate DH's birthday. C made paella. He was thrilled! It's his very favorite, but we don't have it very often because of the cost of the seafood. We sat around and talked and watched I,Frankenstein on Netflix, and then it was time to go home and take care of the animals.

The daffodils are already coming up because we've had such a mild winter; so of course it snowed yesterday. We got about 2 inches, and by mid-afternoon it was nearly all melted. The forecast shows 0 precipitation until the 10th now; so much for the big snow storm they were predicting. I guess I'll be starting seeds this month, because it sure doesn't look like we'll be having a cold spring.

 

[hqueen13]

That's not good :-( hope you get a little more soon. Spring just won't come here. Another storm is on its way tonight, maybe the one that missed you? It's supposed to last almost 3 days, starting with freezing rain tonight, rain tomorrow and finishing with snow on wed. It's a good thing is not all snow or we might have gotten 3+ feet out of it. We couldn't handle that!

 

[Britesea]

Just chuggin' along here. Millie the pup is 70 lbs already, and not 6 months old yet! She isn't hyper like Lucy, our older dog- a labrador/aussie mix; at 11 years old, she runs circles around the pup.

We spent some time working on the new bed for the asparagus. I am putting some weed blocker under the raised bed in an effort to keep the couch grass out of the bed. I've made it 12" deep- hoping that will be deep enough for the asparagus roots. We got everything set up only to find that we didn't have enough weed blocker, so I ran to the Home Depot to get some before they closed; we'll have it ready for tomorrow. Then we have to dig out the old bed and transplant the asparagus plants, plus I bought some new crowns. I decided to go ahead and plant them, then put up a row cover in case of freezing weather. DH is grumpy because we had finally gotten to the point where we could harvest some of the asparagus from the old bed, but I pointed out that the couch grass is so bad in that bed that it's choking out the asparagus. In another couple of years, we would have lost the whole bed. I also need to re-set the gopher chasers as they have come mostly out of the soil.

Making blackened chicken with rice and green salad tonight.

 

[hqueen13]

That couch grass sounds awful. I'm wondering if it is the same as something we have here, and I just don't know the name.
Good luck with the asparagus! Mmmm fresh asparagus!

 

[wyoDreamer]

I believe your couch grass is the same as our quack grass. It grows out runners and every bit of root left in the ground will grow new grass.
It grows as a clump right?

 

[Britesea]

Couch grass is also known as witch grass, quack grass, knot grass and probably a few names that would be censored. I grows as clumps, and it is almost impossible to totally get rid of because every stalk that makes it above ground sends strength to the roots to keep going. You have to be OCD about pulling EVERY stalk for something like 3 years before the roots finally starve and die. Very few people can manage it. I certainly can't, which is why I'm trying a good quality weed blocker.

So the bed is back in place, with the weed blocker underneath it, and soil put back into the bed. I hope all the roots are out- I tried the best I could, just couldn't afford all new soil. We have rain on the forecast for Wednesday, so I want to try and replant the asparagus before that. I have several other beds I'd like to redo with the weed blocker fabric, but I think I have time to do them before the summer crops need to be planted. I put blocker down on half the garden last spring and it worked very well-- those beds will be where I plant the spring crops like favas and peas.

Gotta run- I have a ton of errands to do in town and I want to get home in time to fix a nice dinner.

 

[hqueen13]

I'll have to ask what is called here, other than weed of many cursed names, lol

 

[Britesea]

Got some work done on the junk pile outside today, as well as some laundry and most of the dishes. I would have gotten more done except it was L's mother's 84th birthday and we had a surprise birthday party for her. All the people from Hospice showed up too. I think G was thrilled at all the attention! I didn't have a gift for her because I didn't know about the birthday until 2 days ago; there wasn't time for me to make something and I switched to autopilot when I was in town and forgot to shop for something. I made a nice card though.

Tomorrow is supposed to be another sunshiney day, so hopefully we will get more done in the garden.

 

[Britesea]

Nope, nothing done in the garden. I spent all day doing laundry, dishes, and vacuuming. I hate vacuuming. The puppy tore up her new bed during the night and I had little bits of fluff-stuff all over the house. Did I mention that I hate vacuuming?

I think some of our ducks are looking for places to start nests; I found several eggs scattered around the yard yesterday, including one in the same place that our broody duck used last year. I picked them up because I think it's still a bit too early for them to be nesting; we could still get snow.

One of the other mechanics at BTS had a funeral to go to, so DH has to fill in for him today at work. It sucks because it means he has to take a split weekend.

I forgot about the clothes sitting on the line outside and they sat out there all night. Normally not a big deal, but it started sprinking unexpectedly in the early morning hours, so they are all wet again. Three loads, plus the 2 loads I did after they went out- intended for drying today. So- I'll be making a run into town to use the dryers at a laundromat; I have too many wet clothes to hang them all up in the utlity room, and some will get funky-smelling by the time I can get them all hung up. Maybe I should just wash the remaining load too.

I ground some split peas in the grain mill yesterday; today I will mix up some Almost Instant Pea Soup and seal them up for quick meals. I did the same with some dried beans to make instant Refritos; although I think next time with them I will pre-cook the beans and dehydrate them before grinding them. Too many "snaps".