Friday, July 06, 2012

Dog Days

100 degrees outside.  Iris hugs the vent to take full advantage of the air conditioning.  


Clothes line-dry in about two hours, even the overalls.  The only thing I use my dryer for these days is to air-fluff the jeans and overalls.  


 There are loads of tomatoes waiting in the wings.


 Lots of red ones, too.  I should have enough to can in a day or two.  


 They literally grow in bunches.


 The ones facing south are getting sun-scald.  Did you know that tomatoes and peppers won't set fruit when the daytime high temperatures are over 90 degrees?   


 All the grass and pasture is parched and dry.


 The people who bought the house next door are making big progress.  The new roof will probably be finished tomorrow.  As I understand it, they are going to do away with the swimming pool that takes up the whole back yard.  They paid $25,000 for the place, and the man expects he will put about that amount into fixing it up.  


 I have put many pints and quarts of peaches in the freezer, and look how many are still left.  I slightly sweeten the pint batches for us to use on our cereal; I do not sweeten the quarts, because I will use them for cobbler; I'll add the sugar when I make the cobbler. 


 My daughter's mother-in-law is visiting them, and she plans to take some home to Carthage with her.  I'll send her some tomatoes, too, and potatoes if she wants them.  


In spite of the heat, Cliff still spends most of his day in the shop.  He doesn't do much that requires exertion, though.  His cardiologist told him six years ago that he was to stay inside anytime the temperature was over 85, but did you ever know a man to listen to a doctor?  
So that's how things go around here.  
We're living on stuffed peppers and stir-fried zucchini and eggplant in any form.  Free food!  
I have had people tell me, "It isn't free:  you paid for the seeds and you worked hard for it."  
Those people are wrong.  The garden is my hobby.  When it quits being fun, I won't be gardening.  Any expense incurred is spent on my hobby, and if I reap some food as a result, it's free, just a by-product of my enjoyable hobby.  You won't hear me complaining about how hard I worked.  It isn't work to me, it's play.  

7 comments:

  1. Everything looked great. At least the vent is open! bandit covers the vent.

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  2. I love your pictures, I am growing veggies vicariously through you! I tried to start something here at Mom's place but it's too hot to be outside and she doesn't get enough sun thru the windows to grow mold! This is the first year I have not have something planted I hate not doing it. Your peaches look so yummy I had a peach tree up in NY that produced the best tasting peaches every year. Too hot down here for peaches...I think lizards & frogs grow well in Florida lol. My sister Charlene has a gorgeous garden in Washington State the soil is so rich, things grow like crazy...we just got a box of homemade rasberry jam and also hand picked grape leaves (in brine) that she did. It was fun to visit your blog...it gave me a little country infusion....:)

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  3. Glad you have a hobby you enjoy. Cliff has one so you might as well have one too. Both of your hobbies involve a lot of work though it seems. I canned peaches when the kids were little and we loved them. Haven't done anything like that in a long time. Right now I don't even want to turn the stove on for anything it's just too hot. No cooking or baking going on here. Sandwiches and salads are fine in the heat. Take good care and keep cool.

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  4. CLIFF be careful out in that heat. We had to cut our daytrips short because of the heat (102 today) playing havoc with my hubby's COPD. Hope to go someplace this weekend. Your stuffed peppers, zucchini, eggplant and peaches are a bountiful harvest. I would love such a luxury. Because that it is. Take care.

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  5. I'm with Iris!!

    Your peaches look beautiful and delicious. My clothes are all line-dried right now as well. And it takes very little time for them to dry. That's good because we're dirtying up more clothes than usual, what with taking two showers a day in this weather!!

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  6. I love your attitude toward your garden; I would imagine though that you have a great sense of accomplishment at the delicious food you reap from it. Our tomatoes are no where NEAR ripe. We're finally getting some sun here and a "heat wave" of nearly 80. ;)

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  7. I used to take frozen peaches, pour milk over them, separate them and add a tad of sugar and you have peach ice cream.

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