Picked the Pumpkin Today

Today was the day. I picked the pumpkin. In a little bit, I will go out into my garden and remove all of the wild pumpkin vines. This should do a lot to tidy things up. I saw some pumpkin costumes in a magazine the other day. So I will begin sewing pumpkin costumes soon. I think a cat mask would look quite handsome. Anyway, this pumpkin is going to be around a while as a decoration for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and just fall in general. Since it will be part of the family for a while before we eat it, I think we should give it a name. Any suggestions?

Red Noodle Beans

Our Friend Ben at Poor Richard's Almanac wanted to see the red noodle beans. Well, here are a few pitiful examples. It is late summer here in north Texas and everything coming out of the garden is a little stunted. Everything but the okra and peppers. Okra and peppers love dry heat.

I have grown yard long beans for years. This year I found the red variety from Territorial Seed Company. I love territorial Seed Company. They have all the cool heirloom seeds.

The green yard long beans produced a little better for me. The red beans were just too much fun though. I have not had enough to cook because the Monkeys keep eating the straight off of the vines.

Other heirloom veggies I have grown this year include yellow pear tomatoes, green zebra tomatoes, Cherokee purple tomatoes, Ronde de Nice zucchini, and a couple of varieties of popcorn and sweet corn.

Scarf Initiative

Kathryn at Plant What Ever Brings You Joy has had a wonderful idea. She is organizing a blogging knit in of sorts calling it the Scarf Initiative. Some of us are volunteering to make scarves for girls living in Pakistan and attending one of Greg Mortenson's Girls Refugee Schools. Others are real knitters. Me not so much. I cheat and use a Kifty Kitter loom. Some little girl will receive a scarf made by me. Hopefully, it will help her stay warm during the cold Pakistani winter.

I wonder if lime green and pink are as appealing to these little girls as they are to my American nieces. Above is a picture of my yarn drawer. I have a bit of detangling to do, don't cha think?

If you would like to join in, please visit Kathryn's blog and let her know. She will email you the p.o. box number to send the scarfs to.

If you are one of my sisters, you can make one and I will mail it for you.

Who Has Been Digging in My Garden?

Last week I planted two more tomatoes. I hope these little plants will grow fast and give me a good fall crop. This may be another year where I am dealing with green tomatoes in November. That’s okay we will make pickled green tomatoes and fried green tomatoes. When I planted these I really amended the soil with a ton of compost, blood meal, and bone meal. After the plants were in the ground, I watered them with compost/bunny poo tea. The tomatoes were planted sideways, so roots can grow along the buried stem. They turned their little crowns up nicely and seem to be growing about half an inch a day. So far so good.

This morning I went out to give them some water and discovered that something had dug a hole about six inches deep beside the biggest of the tomatoes. It was too big a hole for one of the cats to have dug. The gate was closed, so I don’t think a dog could have gotten in. Hmmmm. I am going to go out and heavily mulch them this afternoon and hopefully the hole digging critter will be deterred.

The mystery digger reminds me of another digging situation we had a few years ago. We have a tiny St. Augustine lawn. It is usually in pretty good shape, but we don’t baby it with tons of water or fertilizer. During the year in question all sorts of little cone-shaped holes were being dug in this little green lawn. I accused the Monkeys and they denied involvement. I threatened exotic punishments if they did not quit digging up the lawn. They pled their innocence. This went on for about two weeks. Everyday there were more little cone-shaped holes in the lawn. My husband came home one morning after working a nightshift and called me out into the front yard. There was an armadillo digging up the lawn. That was the only time I have ever seen one alive rather than dead on the side of the road. Stupid armadillo.

Stupid Weed Cloth

One of my customers insists on leaving weed cloth in her flower beds. These beds are huge and they never killed the Bermuda grass roots before putting down the weed cloth, cutting through it, planting, and mulching. So guess what happened - Bermuda grass growing right up through the weed cloth. I can not get it out. This is very frustrating to me as the bed never ever looks like it should. Before she has company or parties, I dump a bunch of mulch on everything to hide the mess. If she would let me pull it out, ninety percent of the weeds would come out with it and then we would have a nice, easy to clean planting area. She insists that the weed cloth stay.

Since she hired me over a year ago, I have added flowerbeds all around the backside of her house. They were so well amended and cleaned out, that she actually enjoys caring for them herself. The beds I made, do not have weed cloth.

I I wonder how much trouble I would get into if I just took out about ten feet of it and showed her how much better it looks after a few weeks. She wouldn't be able to tell until I showed her. Hmmm, the worst she can do is fire me.

I have never ever seen weed cloth work like it is supposed to. Even in well prepared beds, seeds get blown in on top of it, and grow right through the cloth. I believe weed cloth, like pantyhose, are an invention of the devil and should be destroyed. What kind of evil invention would you like eradicated?

Pink Pickles

Richard Saunders and the crew over at Poor Richard’s Almanac took a trip to the 13th Chili Pepper Festival in Bowers, PA yesterday. I like to think my “After Burner” sauce would fit right in with the hot sauces he described.

Richard’s blog report on the trip got me to thinking, I need to cook. I also need to do a little canning as red noodle beans, cucumbers, and such are coming in slowly. As I do not have enough produce for a large batch of pickles, the canning method will have to be refrigerator pickling. This is basically the same as regular pickle making except there is no water bath, the jars are not sealed, and the pickles need to be consumed in a couple of weeks instead of lasting for months.

The brine for the pickles I made today is equal parts vinegar to water, 2 tablespoons sea salt to each cup of brine, one tablespoon of dill seed to each cup or brine, and a couple of chili pequino chilies and garlic cloves per jar of pickles. Heat up the brine for a few minutes in the microwave and poor over sliced cucumbers and/or green beans (I use the red noodle or yard long beans). If you want to have a little more fun with this, add the sliced up stalk of a red Swiss chard to the brine. This will tint the brine pink making pink pickles.

For dinner we are having dirty rice. This is simply browned ground beef and rice with peppers, onion, garlic, celery, rice, and Cajun spice. I don’t measure anything. Everything is to taste.

I had to brown one of those giant batches of ground beef. Somebody, who will remain nameless, forgot to cut it up into meal sized portions before freezing it. So I will also make sloppy Joes and spaghetti sauce and put them in the fridge for meals for the next two days. Yippee, I don’t have to cook dinner on Sunday or Monday. What ever will I do with my time?

I Had to Wash Her Mouth Out

No, I am not a mean mom who makes my kids go get me switches or washes their mouths out soap when they say dirty words.

Tisha brought me a grasshopper this afternoon. Cat owners will be familiar with the low rrrwwwrrrwwwrrr growl that means "I, The Hunter, have caught you this prized wild game. Let me in." Cat owner opens the door and domestic cat lets loose an injured yet still living mouse, or in this case grasshopper. One time, another of our little killers brought in a live dove, which promptly molted all over my kitchen. Good times.

This time, she had caught the grasshopper on a plant. Her mouth was full of leaves as well as grasshopper. I waited until she dropped it and let her in. Of course the grasshopper jumped through the door into the house. Yikes, begin chasing grasshopper around the kitchen. This was one of those great big grasshoppers that can jump about twelve feet. After about four leaps, I caught it on the kitchen table.

When I opened the back door to let the hopper go, I noticed the leaves. The foliage was poison ivy. The cat had just spit out a mouthful of poison ivy leaves! Great.

My dad is our vet and I had to make yet another crazy phone call. My questions to my dad have included, but are not limited to; confusion regarding the anatomy of a male bunny, what to do if the dog eats chocolate cake, and what to do with the dove the other cat caught and let go in the kitchen.

So here goes. "Hi it's Deb. I have a weird question. What do I do if the cat had a mouthful of poison ivy?"

Dad, choking back laughter, "Can I call you back?"

Me, "Okay."

Wait a few minutes for my dad to compose himself and call me back. The advise was to wash out her mouth with plain water and come pick up some oral steroids.

Now comes the fun part. Catch the cat, take her to the sink, turn on the water. Cat jumps three feet in the air and disappears under the couch. Retrieve the cat and hold her really tight. She is now growling like something possessed. Pry open her mouth and splash water in. Get injured and cuss a little. Retrieve cat from the dryer. Cat is now howling like a banshee. Take the cat back to the sink, pry open her mouth and put in more water. Let the cat go and tell her, "I am sorry."

This cat can delay the gratification of revenge for a long time. My ankles are toast. I don't know when it is going to happen, but it will when I least expect it. Revenge of the Tisha is swift and painful. Pray for me.