Recently, I have not had as much time for blogging. I have been using my blogging time to work out. Yes, every day I have been going to the gym and trying to take care of this middle aged body that is showing signs of breaking down if I don't take drastic measures.

I've shared before that my blood pressure has been a problem. Well, recent lab work revealed some other potential problems with triglycerides and blood sugar. Nothing is at crisis level, just needs to be turned around now.

This is week three and I have lost six pounds, my blood pressure has responded nicely and I have much much more energy throughout the day. The added energy has led to more working in the garden, which looks pretty good if I do say so myself.

Two other very weird but great things happened (guys you might want to stop reading now). I started having hot flashes about two years ago. Not severe, but annoying as hell. I have not had a hot flash in three weeks. The only thing that has changed is the exercise. Also, I have really badly calloused feet. They split and crack looking awful and hurt terribly. My feet are now nice and smooth. It has to be wearing tennis shoes and socks every day.

I will get back to garden blogging soon. Maybe not as frequently as before, but I miss it and y'all.

Teach A Boy to Grow Garlic

My Middle Monkey has a good friend. I am very grateful for this good friend. He has a wonderful family. I have known his grandmother for years. She is a member of our local garden club and a lovely women.

They have a love of music in common. Last week they practiced their instruments (clarinet and saxophone) outside in the back yard. It caused the neighbor to believe that a cow was being murdered in our yard, but I digress.

These boys spend a lot of time together. Last weekend, my boy went on a Boy Scout camp out with his friend and his friend's parents. Tonight, the friend is spending the night with us.

This afternoon, I talked the two of them into planting my garlic for me. The friend said he had not seen garlic in cloves before. I let them pull the papers off and separate the cloves. I told them to plant the cloves pointy side up about five inches apart. Then, I set them loose in the garden.

They are teaching my son to survive in the woods. I am teaching their son to grow his own food.

Win Win

Smelly Monkeys

In the ongoing saga of "make these boys leave my stuff alone" I bought pink socks and some pomegranate body wash. Guess what the boys smell like tonight? Somebody help me.

Fog Flowers

The rain has slowed and everything is deep dark green. We have had only one sunny day this month. The roses have their faces turned down away from the wet fog. Me too.

The First Pair of Boots

I remember getting my first pair of boots. I’m not talking about cute boots to wear to school, I am talking about my first pair of work boots. They were thick leather and tough. Those boots could stand up to Mesquite tree thorns. I needed them to ride horses and work cattle. These were no girlie boots. If I had been a boy, I’d have gotten the same kind of boots. My Dad took me to get them on our way to my grandparents farm/ranch. This was during the spring, when we had to work calves. I love those boots, still have them and they still fit. I was 13 when we bought them so that makes them more than 30 years old. They have not been out of the closet in years. I think I need to get out some saddle soap and clean them up, just for old times sake.

Yesterday, I took Baby Monkey to Eden’s Garden, the CSA farm we joined as a work share. He has had boots, but not work boots. He did not need cowboy boots, he needed mud boots. We stopped on our way and bought him a pair so he could work with we me on the farm.

After a couple of weeks of heavy rains, everything was sopping wet. We worked together in the muck and the mud. We planted 80 cabbages. I hand picked cucumber beetles and he squished them for me. Finally, he picked some tomatoes while I planted some beets. He seemed to enjoy himself, and it was much less messy that working cattle. It was muddy, but at least it wasn’t muddy, bloody and smelly.

Pockets a Pet Story

 

Yesterday, Manly took me out to eat breakfast at the Cotton Gin. As the name would imply, the eatery is in an old cotton gin. We were driving on the service road of 175 and a tiny kitten was cowering right in the middle of the road. There are no houses anywhere near this spot. Someone, who has earned some seriously bad karma, had dumped this little black calico kitten. She was bound to get run over or die of thirst. When I say tiny, I mean about the size of a tennis ball tiny.

Without even looking at me, my man pulled over. I jumped out and scooped the poor little thing up. She did not run away, that's right, this kitten is not wild (how bad should that karma be?).

When I tried to feed she choked because she was trying to wolf it down too fast. We got her a little wet food, which I usually don't feed, but she is just too little for the hard stuff. I put a tiny litter box made from the lid of a Tupperware container. She immediately used it. That's right people, this kitten is litter trained(evil dark karma?). Did I mention, she is about as big as a tennis ball.

I posted our situation on Facebook, and had a home for her within an hour. She will be living with my best friend. Sometime this weekend, she will go to her new home. We are just trying not to get too attached to the little thing. The picture above is her hanging out in the pocket of Teenage Monkey's hoodie. We are calling her pockets now, but I am sure Meme will come up with a better name.

This Time Somebody Has Gone Too Far

I have to share a bathroom with the Monkeys. I do have my own vanity and sink, but it is only sacred ground to me. To them, it is a science experiment. My makeup, perfume and moisturizers are the chemicals. One time, they put my makeup and perfume on the dog. That’s right, eye shadow, blush and Chanel #5 on a German shepherd.

Last week one of them Baby Monkey who will remain unnamed put the baby powder in the bathtub while he was taking a bath. He also used all of my fancy spa bath gel. He smelled really good, but he looked a little ashy.

There has been tooth paste on the toilet lid. The shower curtain and a towel were once caught on fire. There is always a layer of water, dirty clothes and the smelliest sneakers I have ever smelled in my life on the floor in there.

Once a week I have a fit and fall in it. Then, and only then, they clean it up.

They have gone to far this time. Baby Monkey Someone is messing with my hair stuff. The reason this is important is because you should not mess with a woman’s hair stuff just on principle. However, when a woman has curly hair, the hair stuff takes on a whole new level of importance. Curly haired women need products, lots of products. On a mildly humid day just a little mousse might work just fine. On a rainy windy day gel, smoothing serum and a cream detangler may be necessary. Every once in a while a ponytail and pomade will make for the perfect hair day. This happens about three times a year. Those are very special days. Most days, I am just trying to keep it from looking like a bushy tailed squirrel is living on my head.

I am considering running away to an all female convent where all the nuns have curly hair and take a vow of leaving each others stuff alone.

Mole Sauce

The peppers, they were labeled wrong. I was supposed to get Serrano, habanero, and jalapeno. I got habanero, jalapeno, and cayenne. So my After Burner sauce will be missing the Serranos this year. I also had to figure out what to do with the cayenne peppers. I concocted a hot season salt with them that has yet to get a decent name. Trish suggested George. Silly.

I am finally harvesting the jalapeno peppers. I usually just preserve them in a little white vinegar, but there is always way too much left over every year. I hate wasting them. So I did a little searching and found Mole (Mo Lay) sauce. This sounded good. For my version I roasted five jalapenos on our grill and then dehydrated them. Then I placed them in our food dehydrator over night. I was planning on storing them or I would have skipped that step.

This morning I decided to try a mole sauce. I put the peppers in our mini crock pot and added about a cup of water and 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar. After a couple of hours I added 1/3 cup of brown sugar, fresh ground black pepper, 1/4 teaspoon each nutmeg, paprika, cinnamon, and, for lack of a better name, George salt. I let this simmer for another couple of hours and then used my wand blender to blend in the peppers. Then I added about 1/2 a cup of ketchup. That's right ketchup. I baked some chicken with this sauce and it was lovely.

Don't be hatin on the ketchup. My mama makes the best barbaque sauce ever with ketchup as the base.

Beautiful Storm

A beautiful storm blew in this evening. First the wind brought the black and gray clouds, which layered over a pink and gold sunset. As it turned dark, the full moon floated over the high clouds. Lightening reflected green off of the black clouds and white off of the gray clouds. This is the most beautiful storm I have ever seen.