I am sorry that you did not get any rain fall last night

Dawn, I would SOOOOOO send you some of my rain if only I could! It looks like we might have more coming in a few days, according to Mesonet.

I need to go out today and tie up some of the tomato plants that are spilling out of their cages. They are tall, but not tall enough yet to be caught up by the top edge of their PVC pipe cage. If I had my druthers, I'd cut that top section in half and make another horizontal section in the middle. But those PVC connections are so dang expensive. Must be lined with gold or something... Other than that I've been doing stuff in the house. I bought some strawberries and made some jam. Bought a brisket and have been working that up. I cook the daylights out of what's left after I get all the meat off it that's easy to get off. It makes really good beef broth for the freezer.

Oh, and my hollyhocks are starting to fall over now, so I guess I'll be tying them up too. The Mystic Merlin has already bloomed and it's really a short plant! Will it grow tall like the hollyhocks? If not, I've planted it in the wrong place for sure.

I guess rain comes so that gardeners have to cook and clean sometimes. Don't you hate missing a day outside, tho. Since I was "rained in" yesterday, I finished two sweatshirts and four size 8 dresses that I already had cut out. I have a lot of tee shirts cut out and ready to sew, but my humanitarian project usually gets worked on when it is either too hot or too cold to be outside. It was so cool last night that I turned off the air conditioner and have not turned it back on today. The temp says 81, but my house is still cool inside. I am just getting ready to go out and weedeat, so I may decide that it is hot after a little of that.

Ilene, I think it is funny how many meal ideas you can get from the web. I went into my kitchen to see if I had black beans so I could make your salad because I knew I had everything else. I didn't have any because I had used them to make black beans and rice. I probably have dry ones, but I am not going to be in the house the rest of the day. I will have to buy some and try the salad plus I probably need to keep a few cans on the shelf. That is not my favorite bean, but I do like them for salads and beans and rice sometimes. I grew up in Oklahoma so I am more of a pinto and lima girl.

I cooked a late lunch because my DH was leaving to go to Arkansas and will not be home until late tonight. I steamed broccoli and golden wax beans and some baby carrots. I probably have more broc but thought it might be a little too wet to get to it so I just steamed what I had. Then we had turkey burgers, with munster cheese and topped with sauteed onions, mushrooms, yellow, green, and red peppers all served on a homemade whole wheat bun. Yum, so good.

Although I grew the broc and beans, I was sure thinking about having fresh tomatoes and peppers while I was cutting those peppers. My bells are just starting to form on the oldest plants. I have several hot peppers that are ready to eat, but the sweet ones are a little slower. Some nice hot weather will probably help them along. I should have a lot of peppers, but they will ripen at different times because they are all sizes right now. I usually end up using all of my peppers green because I use them too fast. This year I think I planted about 40 plants so I should have enough to leave some on the vine to the really ripe stage........maybe.

Anyway, I wrote down your salad ingredients so I could try it later. I am always looking for make ahead dishes to eat on Sundays. I always come home from church starving.

I got that recipe off Allrecipes.com. I'm sending you the link. They have a feature called "Daily Recipes" that I like to look at every day. If I have time to kill, I'll choose other dates and see what the Daily Recipes were on that date. I don't know how they pick what they're going to list, as sometimes they will run a particular recipe every few months and other times you'll see one on the list and that's it. I like a lot of things about this website, but there's one thing I don't like and that's every now and then this box comes up on the screen and says a virus has been detected and it tries to force you to download a program supposedly to delete viruses. Well, this is just a hoax and it's a nuisance, too, because the only way you can get out of it is to ALT+CTRL+Delete and get your Windows Task Manager, then log off the Internet from there. Then you have to get back on the Internet and retrace your steps. I keep meaning to get the name of the program so I can e-mail the people at Allrecipes.com and tell them how annoying it is. Surely they don't want people not going to their site because they've allowed some advertiser to annoy them. (well, I guess that statement just doesn't make sense as most of the commercials on TV are annoying and they just keep running THEM, don't they?)

Anyway, this recipe is called "Black Bean Salad" and was submitted by Merle Shinpoch. It calls for avocado, cilantro, jalapenos and pimento but I didn't have any of those on hand, DH hates avocado and "hot" spices bother his stomach. I had bought a can of canned chopped tomatoes with cilantro added by mistake and I thought this would be a good way to use it. The recipe also calls for fresh tomatoes, but mine aren't ripe yet and I didn't want to trust the ones from the store. The canned chopped tomatoes held their shape remarkably well. Oh, and I thought 2 cans of corn was too much so I just used 1. I enjoy reading the reviews and sometimes the reviewers will just flat-out say that the recipe is nasty and don't make it! LOL Other times they'll "tinker" with it and say what they did.

The black bean and corn salad is just as good hot as it is cold. Right after I made it, I served it hot with bean and cheese burritos. The next day for lunch I had it cold. Yeah, I grew up with pintos and lima beans -- or, as my mother referred to them, butterbeans. Fried potatoes and sweet southern cornbread on the side. Yum, yum! For my husband, it was Great Northerns, which I find kind of flavorless, and she didn't put sugar in her cornbread. Ack!

Here is a link that might be useful: All Recipes Daily Recipes

Kirts--Did y'all get rain? I know the storms went east of us, but don't know if they made it to you.

Ilene--we have rain in the forecast, I think, 5 of the next 7 days, but it tends to be only a 20% or 30% chance, so I doubt rain will fall. Soon I will be whining about the ever-widening cracks in that old yucky red clay. (Not too close to the house, but increasingly close to the garage.)

My Mystic Merlin in compost-improved clay gets 3' to 4' tall and almost as wide. I like to put them in front of the tall hollyhocks, but they tend to reseed wherever they want. I hate to pull them up and thin them out, but they get so huge that I can't leave many. I cut off the dried seedpods when they turn brown and then the plants come and go in and out of bloom throughout the summer if I keep them watered.

If you can't be in the garden, you might as well be in the kitchen!

Carol, On the days I can tear myself from the yard and garden to stay inside and cook, clean and do laundry, I find it REALLY hard to stay focused and on task. I keep wanting to run inside and do just one thing! LOL If it rains, I don't have that problem. I can stay inside and focus on the house stuff just fine. : )

It amazes me how you find time for all the stuff you do, especially the sewing. You make me look like a slacker!

Lunch sounds yummy. Our lunch today was Taco Bell because Kristine's summer job keeps her away all week, so today we were out shopping for Father's Day gifts and ate in Ardmore. (I eat better when she is gone all week!)

The fresh tomatoes are ripening regularly now, and soon it will be a case of too many ripe all at once.....such a problem! My peppers are pitiful because the deer simply devoured them, stems, foliage, half-sized peppers and all. I am starting to see tiny new leaves coming out on the stubs of the stems, so maybe I'll have some to harvest in August or September. I have a lot of pepper plants too. It is interesting to note that the deer ate virtually every sweet and hot pepper but not the ornamental ones. To the naked eye, they all look the same, but apparently the deer can tell the difference.

It IS hard to leave the sweet peppers on long enough to color up! I planted orange, red, yellow and purple ones this year, but it is hard to wait for them to progress from green to their ripe color.

And, y'all, we have 20 new babies....they are keats (baby guineas) and most are 2 to 3 days old, although a couple seem barely a day old. DS picked them up for us at Orschlein's in Ardmore this morning while he was running his errands. Ten are lavender-colored and ten are purple. I am not sure if they will be the Violet ones or the Royal Purple ones, but we'll be happy with them either way.

They are in a brooder cage made of 1/4" hardware cloth and the cage is in the guinea house. The hardest part is keeping the chicken snakes and rat snakes from eating them. I'm going to keep them in the brooder until they are half-grown, because in the past, the snakes have gotten them if we took them out of the brooder when they were only 1/4 of their adult size.

Our original bunch of 24 birds (and descendants) is down to 3, but that's not surprising. We lose a couple a year to predators, and every now and then one runs out in front of a car....if they are chasing a grasshoppper, they don't pay attention to anything except that grasshopper. Our three surviving old guineas are all males, so we weren't going to have any babies born here. I hope we can successfully raise these 20 to adulthood. Keats are notoriously fragile and you lose some along the way.

That's all that is new here.

Dawn

The Keats sound so cute! They must be like chicken nuggets to the local wildlife.

Dawn - I doubt that anyone has ever called you a slacker in your entire life (unless it was a teenage brother maybe).

I think you will do what you want to do. At least I know I can make time for those things that interest me. I am sure I have told you this, but my son in Africa says that there are children 5-6 years old, on the street, with no clothing. I don't know where my clothing goes, but everytime I finish one and hold it up, I picture a little African child, or Mexican child, or maybe even a little American child that is in a shelter somewhere with a parent that has run away from a bad situation or been forced away by a disaster. I don't care where they go, I just want to know that I have done my part.

I have lots of blessings, a good home, the best of sewing equipment, a generous husband, and the fabric just keeps coming in. Some I find at good prices, but other times it is donated to me. Sometimes quilters decide they are not going to use a piece they have bought and donate it to us. We save it until we have a piece of knit that matches it and make a dress from it. Others buy things that they will never make and just clean out their closets. I just got word that a lady in Ardmore has fabric to donate to our project. One of the ladies received a money donation from Marietta. When people learn what we are doing they are eager to help because it is for children. When I started the project, I never believed it would last so long or involve so many people. I probably told you this before, but I have a friend that is a terrific seamstress and very creative. She is not a member of my church but has been making dresses for us. I think she has made 36 now. I have been doing mostly tee-shirts lately and will continue until I have finished all that I have cut out. I have a big box of fabric that was a donation from a lady in another state that has given up sewing due to age. Her sister-in-law paid for the shipping and she sent it to us. It is lovely and I will be making larger size tee-shirts from it since the current greatest need is for size 10-16.

And don't ever think that I stay busy all of the time. I did when I was younger, because I didn't have time to stop, but that has changed. I take time to relax and I also have learned to leave those things undone that I don't want to do. In fact, my husband says that all I really want to do is sleep and stay outside. Sadly that is almost true this time of year. I just wish my yard and garden showed it.

The garments we make are simple and I can make them very quickly. I have two sergers and I just keep black thread on one and white on the other and move to the one that more closely matches the fabric. Then I hem them on my sewing machine. That way I only have to change thread to match the fabric on my sewing machine, not the serger. One of my sergers actually makes a heming stitch, but then I would constantly be changing thread. It's not that we are making great expensive clothing, but we are making modest, clean covering for a child who needs it.

Ilene,

Our worst predators for the young keats and chicks are chicken snakes and rat snakes. They are persistent and will work and work and work to get into the guinea house and/or brooder. In previous years, we have lost most of a year's "crop" of keats to snakes or even all of them. This year they are in a cage made of 1/4 inch hardware cloth, and I still am not sure the doors cannot be breached, but we'll work on that today. Sometimes a persistent snake puts itself across the door to the guinea coop like a "bar" across the door so I cannot open the door without letting the snake in. (I don't open the door, but it takes a while to get the snake to go away.)

DH and I am in constant (gentle) conflict over the rat snakes and chicken snakes. I want him to shoot every one that gets into the guinea house or hen house while we have keats or chicks. He doesn't want to. I have to convince him that the darned things are going to keep coming back until they have eaten every baby bird we have. Who is right? Of course I am. If you don't kill those predator snakes they will eat every single baby, and have done it over and over again, so he might as well be ready for them.

I am thinking about buying a bag of sulphur and putting a band of it around the guinea coop to help repel the snakes. A lot of people swear by it, but I am not sure it helps. Still, it might be worth a try.

I checked on the keats every couple of hours today. One died. It was very small and I couldn't get it to eat or drink. (You have to dip their beak in water to "teach" them to drink, and most drink water as soon as you do it. This one wouldn't.) I knew it probably wouldn't make it. So, from 20 to 19 in the first day. It makes me wish we'd bought 25 or 30.

Guineas are the best garden helpers, so it is worth the effort to raise a new batch. My three adult males are baffled by the sudden appearance of babies. LOL

Carol, I so admire the charity work you do. It sounds like such a wonderful project, making clothing for the needy. We live with such abundance in the country, and how often does one of us complain "I have nothing to wear!" when we have closets and dresser drawers full of clothing? It is humbling to think of people who truly have nothing to wear.

Now that the heat is cranking up, I find it harder and harder to spend a lot of time outside. I like to go out as early in the day as possible--often just at sunrise, and then come in during the worst of the heat, and then...back out to the garden after 3 or 4 p.m. or so....I can work in the somewhat shady northeast corner of the garden in shade from about 3 p.m. on. I often stay out until dark. I start putting up tools, etc. while it is still daylight, but by the time I put all the birds in their coops, feed them, let the dogs out of the "dog yard" to run and play before they go into the garage for the night, put cats inside so the coyotes and bobcats won't get them, etc.......well, it is usually after 9 or 9:30 p.m. before I get inside. I often skip dinner because I am too tired to cook. Then (like tonight/this morning) I wake up when DH gets in from work between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m., and then I get up an eat a bowl of cereal or something else simple. On DH's days off, I keep to a more regular schedule and either he or I or both of us make dinner on those nights and I am usually in before dinner. He also helps with the evening animal chores.

Once the big harvest of tomatoes, onions, potatoes, beans, corn, etc. kicks in, I like to harvest early in the day. Then, during the heat of the day I can be processing the veggies and freezing, canning or drying as desired.

Storms to our west tonight, but they all stayed west of us and missed us again. When the weather radio went off tonight, it was for the county to our west--Jefferson County. It stayed clear, dry and warm here--is currently 79 degrees outside with a heat index of 85 at 2 a.m. No wonder it feels like it never cools off!

Dawn

There is a place here in OKC that working women can donate clothes, like business suits, etc., so that women who are just now entering the market can receive clothing free to start them out in their careers. These are generally women who have been on state benefits, received education, and then are looking for jobs. I think it is a wonderful idea, and I love it that you are creating clothing for needy folks.

Susan

Susan,

There's a program like that in Dallas, too, and I think they give their clients a makeover...with a professional-looking haircut, make-up, manicure, etc. so these women can go into a job interview feeling confident. It is a great program!

Dawn

Carol, I did not know about your project before. That's so wonderful. We have so much bounty in this country. It concerns me how shopping has become recreation for some, and a hobby for others! It bothers me a lot to think how much we waste. I'm guilty of having a closet full of clothes I never wear. But it's because most of them are too small! I've been as small as a size 8 and as big as a size 20. Will I ever be an 8 again? probably not. Of course I need to lose weight, and I was thinking the other day how wasteful being overweight is. Really! Food prices are sky-rocketing. I'm seriously considering keeping track, somewhat, of how much "money" I eat in the course of a day and maybe that will bring it home for me. Being overweight opens the door for medical problems that are also expensive. Yet a large percentage of Americans are obese. They say now that obesity is America's #1 killer, with smoking being #2. We are so self indulgent, and then to think that somewhere there are children without food and clothing is just shameful.

Susan, there are several programs like you mentioned around here. Employers say you should dress like you already have the job that you want. I guess they expect people to pull those expensive suits out of a hat or something.... But what do you expect from employers who never had to choose between buying a new shirt or a case of formula for the baby?

Dawn, my goodness you are certainly working hard! Sorry to hear about the guinea not making it. LOL, I bet those male guineas really ARE puzzled about where all those babies came from!! Can you just imagine what they must be thinking? I don't like snakes so my vote's with you on killing the predators. If they're coming up to the house that's a clear sign they're not finding enough prey out in the fields, and THAT'S a clear sign there are too many of them. Tell DH it's population control, like the hunters say it is for the deer.

Attention Gardeners - There is no gardening in this message and it is very much off topic so if you are bothered by that, you can skip this one.

Ilene - I thought you knew. For a long time we didn't talk about it, then we learned that people were interested and they frequently had fabric they would like to donate. LOL I probably have as much as I can get made this year unless I really get moving. Last year we did 12 infant gowns, 50 tee-shirts, 100 tee-shirt dresses, and misc other things. That was after we had made enough knitted baby hats for the local hospital to put one on every newborn.

We have some general guidelines because they don't want the item to be useless if it losses a button or a zipper is broken. We can use zippers but they really like these little dresses that have a knit top and a ribbed neckline that just pulls over the head. In some countries girls don't wear pants or shorts.

Since I do all of the work on the serger except for hems, I can serge them very quickly (about 11 minutes for most little shirts). How do I know that? Because my DH decided to time me one night. I usually cut out a dozen or so, then serge them all at once. Then I can take a few minutes to hem them as I can work in a few minutes here and there.

Sometimes I make the knit top and give it to someone else to buy a skirt fabric and finish the garment. Sometimes I make the top and the bottom and let someone sew them together since this is the most time consuming part. I have mostly been making tee shirts this year, but did make four dresses last week. The two size 8 pink ones in the picture and two others. The skirts were from a quilter that donated fabric to us and I had kept for several months because I couldn't find knit to match. The lady that made the two smaller dresses likes to make that size and I think she has made 36 now. She lives 3 hours away from me but every few months she comes over and brings what she has made and picks up more fabric. She is a great seamstress and has been a great help. She never had children of her own and experienced a childhood that left much to be desired. She has a kind heart.

I would like to ship 100 dresses and 100 shirts this year and I think we are almost halfway there. We tend to do better in the winter months. Besides donations, my husband helps me and we look for bargains. Some of those tee-shirts in the picture took 50 cents worth of fabric. The most expensive is less than $2, and it is really nice heavy fabric.

It takes a little time, but I would probably waste it anyway, and it makes me feel good to do it.

Sorry for taking up the gardening space.

Here is a link that might be useful: