Have been so busy..

 

This summer seems to have passed so fast.. in between my garden, Dr. appts, working on stuff in eBay and reorganizing my apartment I cant believe it has been a month already since I last added anything.. Things will be slowing down for me as I am going for surgery for a cochlear implant in early Sept.  I finally decided to stop putting stuff off and getting that done.. 

My garden has been producing some.. this rather hot summer has helped some veggies.. but others havent done quite as well. I managed to get tons of cucumbers so made some refrigerator pickles.. 

Cooked up some slices of eggplant to freeze.. I still have two more do do.. and then got to do the same for my summer squashes.. my peppers I have been freezing whole for stuffed peppers..  it doesnt look like I am going to get many tomatoes.. the darn deer like them too.. next year I will be getting a fence..  

Thats my latest thing.. will try to not let it go so long.. 

My garden is growing well..

Yes.. I planted a garden this year.. more than last year.. so far no one has eaten anything.. hopefully not.. I got peas, a cucumber, 4 tomato plants, 2 cherry tomato plants, 3 kinds of lettuce, 2 green peppers, one or two Italian sweet peppers, basil, and one yellow squash.. I need to start cutting my lettuce.. cos it is really growing.. 

One thing I miss is my garden.. this hopefully will give me fresh veggies into the fall..  

You can see in this picture how I really need to cut some lettuce!!

Still working on stuff in my house

I have so many ideas.. now to have the energy to do them all as you can imagine.. last week my week was focused on getting a planter together, and get the soil.. and get my plants.. I cant garden outside as we have too many deer, bunnies and squirrels.. lol.. so I decided to try indoors.. I have no idea if this is gonna work.. but I am trying it.. 

I still am deciding on whether or not to get a grow light.. mostly to keep the plants straight as this is too heavy to be moved.. will decide next month.. 

Below are some of the veggies I put in.. 

This is my cherry tomato. and bell pepper (red one).. 

This is an Italian sweet pepper and I regular tomato.. I couldnt find a patio one so hope this works.. 

This is my cucumber.. added a netting for it to climb up.. I also planted 3 bush green beans.. I will add photos weekly so you can see how this works out.. 

Am canning pickles today

I simply have way too many cucumbers.. so decided to make refrigerator pickles. I needed to find a recipe with NO sugar as I am diabetic. and found this one.. hopefully they will be as tasty as they sound.. I rather like both garlic and apple cider vinegar.. so this sounds like a good one..

http://www.thekitchn.com/small-batch-recipe-cucumber-pickles-urban-preserving-with-marisa-mcclellan-173303

Will let you know how they come.. in a couple of weeks.. best part they can stay in the fridge for a long time.. which is good cos made alot..

My Garden..

You are probably wondering why I havent talked about a garden.. for this year I had to not make a garden.. only thing I got growing is lettuce.. looks like I will be visiting the farmer's market alot this summer.. sigh..

Life got in the way and I just didnt have time or the money to get one ready this year.. as much as I hated to do that.. looks like it wont be happening..

An Accomplished Day

Busy day.. picked more of my crops.. got to get them all picked and froze since the weather has and is going to be freezing.. we got a ton of green tomatoes and some small peppers and eggplant.. luckily we like them fried.. made tuna macaroni salad for my boyfriend, and a great beef stew (been craving that).. got wash done.. got orders packed, and Listia stuff done, and finished two dishclothes.. now going to bed.. accomplished alot today.. Makes me feel like great -- days like this..

Hope to have some pictures soon..

One of my favorite blogs I follow is Old World Garden Farms.. they give tons of advice on gardening plus I love their recipes.. You can check them out on http://oldworldgardenfarms.com/

One of their recent blogs was for a peach barbecue sauce that sounds out of this world.. I plan on trying this one very soon.. bet I can even use it to grill indoors!!

This was for Peach Barbecue sauce.. Here is the link to the recipe..

http://oldworldgardenfarms.com/2015/06/30/peach-barbecue-sauce-recipe-a-summertime-favorite/

Too Darn Hot!!

Just got back in from fertilizing and watering my garden, and hanging a load of clothes outside.. it is unbelievably hot.. they say it is 90 degrees.. but that is at the airport.. which means it is probably at least another 5 -6 degrees hotter here.. I am not having a good time of it.. lol.. am sure alot of people are saying that.. thankfully we have air conditioners both up and down..

One thing this heat is doing.. is it is really making my crops grow like crazy.. my peppers, tomatoes are doing the best.. also got some eggplants growing and cucumbers.. picked a few zucchini today.. unfortunately also had to pull out 3 dying plants too.. sigh..

The heat is definitely affecting my cats.. one of my sick cats (he has kidney disease) really isnt doing well.. we had to go back to force feeding him.. he already is on two meds and fluids.. I am really hoping he bounces back..

I did get some crocheting done last night... finished off a birthday gift.. and working on an order of hanging towels.. I was suppose to go and mail orders today.. but they are going to have to wait another day.. cos I just cant convince myself to go back outside.. and especially get in the car..

I had strong hopes..

I had strong hopes.. to get a good blog entry done.. lol.. but I had too much sales stuff to do.. had a good book to talk about.. had new pictures of some items I made.. and even had some gardening updates to tell you.. well that I can do.. grin..

I actually picked my first 2 zucchini for the year.. I wont get many.. but I will get some.. smile.. some will be used in stir fry either Monday or Tuesday.. not sure which day..

I hope to get a good blog entry done tomorrow.. not sure cos I have a dental filling tomorrow.. ugh.. and now also may have to go and treat a sick cat.. sigh.. sorta always feels like my TO DO LIST gets longer and longer.. like I said.. never bored..

Gardening - Peppers

This year I got green peppers and yellow peppers.. I had also saved some seeds from last year.. a mix of either red, orange or green.. lol.. and have some of them too.. These were pictures of the yellow and green ones in late June..

And these were pictures of them in Mid July.. more coming soon.. you can see my first green pepper.

Gardening - Tomatoes

 This was one of my best tomato plants in late June.. this one is a heirloom version.. called Brandywine.. looking forward to tasting them..

The two pictures below is my first Brandywine Tomato growing.. and how the plant looks now..

This picture is of my beefsteak tomato plants.. these will be mostly used for fried green tomatoes.. I will have more up to date pictures next week..

Gardening - Zucchini

 They started off so well.. as you can see in the first two photos.. those were from late June.. but by now.. they are covered with little white spots.. I am almost sure it is due to the dead tree next door with the mold growing on the branches.. but nothing I can do about it.. since it isnt in my yarn.. maybe trim the the branches that at least our in our yard for next year.. we got zucchini growing.. but who knows how long before the mold kills them off.. Just keeping them fertilized.. and hoping for the best.. left the newest ones large so you can see the mold.. sigh..

Gardening.. Eggplant and Cucumbers

EGGPLANT:  Only have the recent photos.. just these two.. finally getting some flowers on them. I will update both of these at the end of the month.. 

CUCUMBERS: It was a slow start for these.. dont know if it was the weather or what.. here is how they looked in late June (left).. and here is how they are now (right).. dont know if you can see all the little yellow flowers... but they are finally there.. 

Being Self Sufficient! Part 5

#5 Learn To Fail 

This is probably one of the harder steps.. smile.. Nobody likes making mistakes, but the only way to learn is to make mistakes.. and keep doing it until you got it right.. I probably should have put the gardening one under here.. lol.. 

Not everything can come easy.. sometimes you just need to keep plowing thru things until you reach the other side.. and just consider it a learning experience.. and dont kick yourself for making a mistake.. sometimes we can be our own worse enemies.. 

I learned that years ago.. if things dont work out one way, try a different way, but if they dont work out trying a couple of different ways, the best thing to do is to just drop it.. and move on to something else.

Anyways.. that is all I wanted to say on this.. 

Being Self Sufficient! Part 4

#4 Raise Chickens

All the pictures here were taken at the Erie County Fair, when we went yesterday.. We go almost every year.. as I love it.. smile.. 

As much as I would like to have a chicken or two.. I can't... one, my neighbors are too close to me and two, my boyfriend isnt for the idea.. but if I could.. I would.. there are so many benefits to having chickens, even in the city..  They are a natural source of fertilizer for the garden, as well as a wonderful way to control insects!  Plus you get farm fresh eggs.. cant get better than that! 

This chicken above is the Rhode Island Red, which many consider one of the best breeds for the back yard.. You can read more about them HERE.

Here are some links for advice on starting this.. 

Why A Great Garden And Raising Chickens Go Hand In Hand - Old World Garden Farms

Raising Chickens in the City - Urban Farming Guys

How to Raise Backyard Chickens - Backyard Chickens

Raising Chickens for Dummies - Cheat Sheet - Kimberly Willis, Rob Ludlow

And there are alot more!! Just do a websearch.. 

Next, I am going to discuss some of the breeds I and pictures I took at the fair.. See you tomorrow!

#myeriecountyfair

Being Self Sufficient! Part 3

#3 Learn to Can and Preserve

Picture used from Scrapgirls.com

I used to can years ago.. both with my grandmother, my mother.. and myself.. only thing we really canned were tomatoes.. and I also remember doing peaches with my grandmother.. now.. I just freeze.. I specifically got a small chest freezer to store my produce in.. it iis so nice to not have to pay high prices for my veggies in mid winter!
One of these days I do want to try canning and making jelly again.. but usually I dont have the time.. with my orders and stuff.. 

Being Self Sufficient! Part 2

#2 Grow Some of Your Own Food – Plant a Garden

One of steps I like and have been doing now for 4 - 5 years is gardening.. the prices for food seems to go up every year.. especially for healthy, fresh veggies! I started just with tomatoes and peppers (yes, I am Italian.. so use those alot).. then every year I tried one or two new items.. This year I didnt try anything new.. the planting season started late.. plus it has been a cool, rainy season.. 

First having a backyard that is tree covered and with a bad clay soil with tons of weeds.. I didnt want to spend the energy gardening in it.. so I decided to do patio gardening.. my first attempt was to check out pots. um... large pots were way too expensive.. so thought about it and said.. why not recycle those plastic cat litter containers.. we get our cat litter in 40 lbs or larger and at the time was using Tidy Cat (yep.. those plastic containers).. so just took those. and punched holes in bottom for drainage.. I first tried using gardening soil.. discovered it was too heavy.. now I use potting soil.. If you look closely, you often can see the cat litter containers.. lol.. 

What I do is every year I take out half the old soil.. (saving it).. and mixing the old soil with new potting soil, coffee grinds, eggshells crushed really fine, and compost.  Then I transplant my seedlings (I dont often grow my seedings from seeds.. get them ready grown) in the pots with some fertilizer and more coffee grinds and egg shells.. You need to use eggshells in things like tomatoes to prevent with Blossom End Rot.. One of the things I discovered this year is you need to soak your crushed egg shells in vinegar before putting it in the soil and it really helped my tomatoes this year.. 

Anyways.. I discovered that these items seems to grow really well in pots: all kinds of tomatoes, peppers (both green peppers and Italian sweet peppers), eggplant, lettuces of all types, cucumbers, green beans, carrots, and the summer squashes.. I tried regular squash and broccoli.. no luck with those.. They just didnt produce enough for it to make it worth my while..The pictures here are recent.  took them a couple of days ago.. 

More Gardening Photos

We been getting a lot of rain this summer so far.. probably every 3 days.. so I havent had to water them.. unfortunately my squashes are showing signs of fungus.. sigh.. at least they are growing squash.. not like last year.. and it also looks like I will have a bumper crop of cucumbers.. based on the flowers.. also much better than last year..

Well.. just wanted to put the last bunch of photos up.. These are of the tomatoes and squash.. You can see the baby squashes and tomatoes.

Cant believe it has been 2 weeks..

Just got so busy with life.. orders... gardening.. etc.. I havent been this long in a long time. anyways.. hope your 4th of July was nice.. not too nice here since I spent most of it in the emergency room with my boyfriend.. long story.. he is ok.. but has a broken finger..

I also have been busy with finishing this huge dishcloth order.. I will have pictures hopefully tomorrow of the last design of my dishclothes.. then off to the next order.. lol.. of more dishclothes.. Hope to take a break then and get some towels done.. maybe some kid stuff too.. we will see..
Anyways.. here are some pictures of my garden! First my cucumbers. they are enjoying the rainfall we have been getting.. I already have some small ones on the vines.

This is my eggplants.. you can see some flowers.. then the bottom row is pictures of my peppers.. you can see the flowers on these too.. more pictures tomorrow.

Michelle's Crazy Update

Our car completely broke down.. sigh.. not a good time for it (not that is ever a good time). We paid to see if it was fixable.. but not worth it.. thanks to a neighbor.. we managed to at least get it running to get around locally.. it overheats if we drive it more than 5 or 6 blocks.. sigh.. So that limited me to depend on rides for anything I needed, which I did get some.. thankfully.. so now we are looking for a different car.. more time consuming stuff that I really dont have time for.. with all the orders I have gotten lately.. hence why you all havent gotten an update.. plus now I am also trying to get my garden planted.. lol.. I got the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and lettuce in.. still have cucumbers, yellow squash and zucchini and green beans to do.. hope to get the cucumbers in tonight.. needed to get thru my emails on Google and get myself updated on the computer.. as well as get my orders organized.. I am hoping that I can get all this done thru the weekend.. expect updates by Sunday.. if not before..