JRmom - Garden is in!

[JRmom]

Cleared out the garden last weekend and about got heat stroke! Good grief, come on fall! I got up early to beat the heat, but it about beat me. I'm glad nobody else was around because I put on quite a show with my wet pajama top!

Have seed saved for next year: Amish Paste tomatoes, Ruby Wallace's Old Time White cucumber (really recommend these!), green beans, and blackeye peas.

Got about a quart of green tomatoes before I pulled the plants and didn't really know what to do with them. But yesterday, based on keljonma's recipe for Tomato Jam, I made Green Tomato/Jalapeno jam. Yummy! It made just over a pint, so I didn't water bath it, just put it in a jar and into the fridge for snacking.

Ordered my fall seeds from Baker Creek: turnips, buttercup squash, spinach, radishes, a lettuce blend, cabbage, and broccoli. I really don't have room for all of this in the garden... I think I'll grow some of it here at the town house.

Our county ag extension office is having a Vegetable Garden Expo on Sept. 10th - can't wait!! It's free and will have all sorts of veggie gardening stuff going on: "Everything you want to know about gardening and more! We'll have a variety of vegetable seeds and seedlings plants for sale, plant containers, melaleuca mulch, soil amendments, potting mix, compost bins, fruit trees, micro-irrigation kits, rain barrels and other related items. Take advantage of our indoor seminars on a variety of garden-related topics, as well as hands-on, in-garden demonstrations. Enjoy one of our instructor-lead tours of the beautiful on-site University of Florida IFAS demonstration gardens. In addition to the garden tours, Master Gardeners will also be available answer questions throughout the event." Hopefully I'll learn something.

Well, our vehicles (locked!!!!) got broken into again Monday night, along with our neighbor's. They only got a handful of change out of my center console, but my neighbor lost her iPod and her GPS system. The police were here for a couple of hours dusting for fingerprints. Unfortunately, the one night the thief comes back my husband forgot to set up the infrared cam!!!! Our neighbor threatened him with her cane. I CAN'T WAIT TO MOVE OUT OF HERE!!!!! Also, a few weeks ago, another neighbor at the other end of our road had their front door kicked open during the middle of the day! The thieves stole a bunch of RC cars and stereo equipment. They also took their puppy and locked it up in an outside shed. They didn't find the puppy for hours - it could have died from the heat! I CAN'T WAIT TO MOVE!!!!! This world is going to h*ll!

 

[Bimpnottin]

Seriously, I'm jealous of anyone who gets to plant a fall garden. I'm finally getting stuff from my regular garden. The only thing I'll be putting in this fall will be garlic cloves, so I have oodles (fingers crossed) of garlic next year.

 

[calendula]

So sorry to hear you got broken into. I agree, this world is going to h*ll! There was an event at our elementary school, and a bunch of cars in the parking lot got their windows smashed and stuff stolen out of them. Then, a couple weeks later, the same thing happened at a local baseball game. We live in a small city, where everyone knows everyone else, so this is just such a shock to us all. I took everything of value out of my car, even my change cup. I don't want to give anyone a reason to smash my window in. It doesn't seem like it matters where you move to any more, some loser is going to try and get their grubby paws on stuff that doesn't belong to them.

 

[i_am2bz]

Wow, sorry to hear that, JRMom. That sucks.

All I can say is, at least they didn't otherwise hurt the neighbor's puppy. That would be a huge fear of mine, that someone would break into our house & shoot our dogs to keep them from barking.

Yep, to heck in a handcart.

 

[framing fowl]

I CAN'T WAIT TO MOVE!!!!! This world is going to h*ll!

It stinks to be a victim and be violated in this way. The bad thing is both of your statements in the quote are true. You can move but the world will be pretty much the same wherever you go. It shouldn't be this way but police are overwhelmed and I'm amazed you could even get them out to dust for prints. Can you start a neighborhood watch group? Do you have security lights? Can you get one of those electric timers so your lights go off and on in the house at odd hours of the night?

Most importantly, do you have a plan in place in case they decide to do something more while you are home?

 

[sunsaver]

JRmom, do you live near a big city? My neighborhood is mostly young couples with small children, and there is virtually no crime out here. I sleep with the widows and front door wide open. It's such a shame that you can't feel safe in your own home. There are better places to live where everybody knows their neighbors. You need to get out of that crime infested area.

 

[JRmom]

JRmom, do you live near a big city? My neighborhood is mostly young couples with small children, and there is virtually no crime out here. I sleep with the widows and front door wide open. It's such a shame that you can't feel safe in your own home. There are better places to live where everybody knows their neighbors. You need to get out of that crime infested area.

Nope, our population is about 60,000, not small, but definitely no Tampa or Orlando. Our problem is this is an older neighborhood that has slowly become surrounded by government subsidized housing complexes. I'm not saying that all the tenants are thieves, but you gotta wonder why burglaries have skyrocketed in this area lately. I'm sure the thieves aren't commuting from across town.

framing fowl, if someone decides to do something while I'm home during the day, I guess they'll be talking to my 357.

 

[framing fowl]

Just making sure!

 

[JRmom]

A detective stopped by one day last week. They were finally able to get a good fingerprint from a car down the road and are pretty sure who has been doing all the thieving around here (same MO on all the cars). The police know his name, know what he's driving, and are pretty sure his girlfriend is helping him. But they don't have an address for him or her so it's a matter of waiting and hoping that he is picked up before he strikes again. We looked him up online and he's got quite a rap sheet for burglary and drug related crimes (and he's only 27). Geesh. At least we know what he is driving. The detective said to call ASAP if we see the vehicle. The game cam is set up every night... have got some really cool pix of the cat!

A funny story... a fews years ago we had friends over for dinner. We were eating outside on the porch and it had just got dark when we heard "pop, pop, pop". My girlfriend thought is was weird that firecrackers were going off when it wasn't a holiday. We informed her it wasn't firecrackers... it was gunshots. Well, maybe that's not such a funny story. Have I mentioned that I can't wait to move out to the woods?????

Yesterday was hubby's birthday. Made him a carrot cake (his favorite). He loves cream cheese icing but I hate it, it's too darn sweet. So I found a recipe for a cream cheese/butter cream icing that tastes just like cheesecake. Yummy! It has just enough powdered sugar in it to make it fluffy and spreadable but not overpowering sweet. The cake was kinda good too.

We stayed home last weekend instead of going to the cabin. It's just too darn hot and I hate staying inside in the a/c when we are there. It's even too hot to bother putting the boat in the water. So we stayed home and just puttered around the house, with much napping during the hot part of the day. I finally got some herb seeds started in my kitchen window... spearmint, cilantro, oregano, garlic chives, parsley, and sweet basil. Almost everything has already sprouted. I still have thyme and rosemary to plant, but will wait until it cooler and plant those outdoors. Have never had any luck with rosemary but I'll give it another try. Two more weeks and I can get some of my seeds started for the fall garden! Can't wait. I'm planning on getting everything planted the end of September.

Hubby has agreed to build me a small raised bed here at the house, which I'll use for lettuce, spinach, carrots and radishes this fall. Our neighborhood is built on an old, old landfill so I don't feel safe planting directly into the ground. It's amazing what washes up after a really hard rain! We've found quite a collection of really old bottles and cast iron toys. I wish a stash of canning jars would wash up. Our neighborhood is about a mile from the historic downtown area. I guess back in the day having the landfill just a mile away was good enough.

My youngest dog Dixie, a Parson Russell who just turned 2, has luxating patella (basically a trick knee). She went through a short phase when she was just a puppy of doing a 3-legged hop, which can be common in small dogs, but it lasted only a few weeks and then she was fine. But over the past couple of weeks I've had to work her kneecap back into place 3 times. Ugh! Time to get her started on a joint supplement, plus a visit to the vet.

That's about it. Dog days of summer.... whew! I am more than ready for fall.

 

[calendula]

I hope they catch your thief!

...And I would love your frosting recipe.