Once again, I’m dusting off the computer and visiting blog land. Believe it or not, it’s almost been another whole week since I was here.
Most of my days have consisted of early morning visits to the garden, followed by long days of canning or trying to find homes for the extra vegetables we’ve been blessed with–and blessed we have definitely been, this year!
Last Wednesday, Ed and I spent the majority of the day delivering fresh vegetables and visiting with their recipients. It was a nice change of pace for us, and I think the folks really appreciated the home-grown vegetables. In turn, we enjoyed visiting with the folks, as well.
Ed and I are continuing to try our hands at making jelly. We’ve made four batches of blackberry jelly, so far. All four batches have jelled, and most of the jars sealed. I don’t know what causes some jars not to seal properly, but we’re trying to figure that out. In the meantime, we’re enjoying eating the mistakes 🙂 It’s hard to beat a jar of homemade jelly.
Things are winding down in “Part A” of our garden. We’ve pulled up most of the bushes, and already cleared off the area. We’re now waiting for “Part B” to finish maturing so we can harvest what’s growing there, too. In other words, we’re waiting for the peas, beans, corn and tomatoes to get ready.
As usual, I planted a row of zinnias in the garden,this year, as well as a row of sunflowers. My flowers are blooming and I’m already enjoying my second bouquet in the house. As I mentioned before, I got this old tradition from my maternal grandmother, who planted zinnias in her vegetable garden. I always take pictures of my bouquets, but don’t have time to get the pictures off my camera today. (More jelly is waiting to be made)
Last week the heat here was almost unbearable! One day the heat index reached 107. Now we’re being pounded by rain. It rained all day yesterday! A little rain is good, I just hope it doesn’t hang around too long. We got 2 1/4 inches of rain yesterday, alone! I won’t even think about the high humidity once the rain moves on!
Ed and I are still enjoying attending our new-found church, but, unfortunately, some church strife has occurred since we began attending two months ago. We know that things like this happen in all churches, at some time or another, I just wish it hadn’t happened there, at this particular time. I’m praying for a timely resolution to the problem, because I really like this little church, and its pastor, who’s threatening to leave. Our oldest son continues to speak, on the first Sunday evening of each month, at the aforementioned church.
In other news, lately, Ed and I have been the recipients of several phone scam attempts. We keep getting messages supposedly from the IRS. A person will leave a message saying “The IRS is filing a law suit against you, and you need to call this number. One message even said the IRS was issuing a warrant for us. If anyone needs to be filing anything against anyone it probably should be us! We’ve been trying to get our state income tax refund for nearly four months!!! It’s ridiculous.
Speaking of waiting, we’ve been waiting for two weeks, for someone to come and give us an estimate to re-roof the front section of our house. Ed’s called the man twice, and he’s been a “no-show” each day he promised to come. Things like this drive me crazy! Meanwhile it’s been raining on our leaky roof.
Our youngest son and his wife just bought their second home. They closed on the house yesterday, and plan to begin moving this weekend. Ed went over and helped them paint a little bit yesterday. It was raining, and not the ideal day for painting, but there’s a little bit of a time crunch going on. They’re ready to move in, and I can’t blame them for that!
Lately, my new obsession has become The Statler Brothers. I was young when the group first became popular, and back then, I only listened to pop music. Now that I’m older, and enjoy country/ gospel music more, I’ve come to love The Statler Brothers’ music. (I really love their four-part harmony.) I’m currently reading the book, Random Memories, co-written by the two brothers of the group. Their book has been quite enjoyable, so far, as has my new set of Statler Brothers’ cd’s. Just picture this in your mind: me making jelly while listening to Counting Flowers On the Wall or You Can’t Have Your Kate and Edith, Too. Makes you kind of smile, doesn’t it???
On a different, and totally unrelated note, did you know that chickens don’t like green beans? Well, they don’t! Every time I feed the chickens our table scraps, they eat everything in the pan except the green beans. There isn’t much a chicken doesn’t like, but green beans is one of those things. Who knew?
That’s about all I can think of to share today, so I will end this post. I’ll be back tomorrow for The Wednesday Hodgepodge. Until then…
Reflections...by Kathy 
Wow! First the drought, now the deluge, and I’m not talking about the weather. You certainly imparted a lot of information to us in this catch-up blog. So many possible comments flew through my head as I was reading and now they’re gone!
Oh yes, I remember one – I’m glad you found your “mistakes” in the blackberry jam batch while they were still edible. For two years in California, I labored at canning the pineapple guava that grew in the backyard and brought them home to NY as Christmas gifts. But the second (and last) year, I opened one of the jars I had kept for us, and found it had gone moldy. I don’t kn ow if any of the recipients had the same experience since no one every mentioned it. Hope not!
That is so wonderful that you can give veggies away to people. I know they must be greatly appreciated. Happy to hear that you are loving your new church. Sounds like you have been busy. Yes those phone scams are terrible. I seldom answer the phone anymore unless it is family who are listed in my directory on my phone!