Well Everyone,
Its snowing today. It started late Saturday afternoon, and will probably continue until Monday morning. The only thing I am so glad for is we do not have the winds that they were talking about on the weather, 30+mph with 50+ gusts. With that, you just plain have a blizzard. And it is cold, but we do not have the below zero temps that was mentioned either though it will get cold. I can put up with cold, but when the wind is blowing, and below zero, I have a major problem with it, like trying to keep the house warm so water pipes won't freeze, and when the wind blows from the northwest a certain way, my furnace's pilot light goes out, and it is a pain in the butt to try to keep lit. Ah, the joys of winter.
Got my potato chowder on. I like mine a little thick and have some ump to it. And with it, a grilled cheese sandwich and I think that we are set for the evening.
All I do is just cut up potatoes, and I shred carrots and this time, I cheated, I used a large can of cream of celery soup, and a little chicken broth, and some evaporated milk. That's it. I didn't feel like making a soup base from scratch. I am lazy today.
I am going to lay out my garden ideas out on the table after supper, and start getting ideas for new beds and layouts. I have a very major problem with space here, since my modular is 16' wide by 76' long, I have a strip of yard that is 5 ft wide from the south side of the trailer and the full 76 feet long. I need to lay it out where I can get more plantings out of this space, and I have a plan for building vertical planting space using stringers that you use for house steps and building a more vertical space. Now I am not a builder or carpenter, but I do have this idea. I also want to do this to save water, and make it easier for me since it is getting too hard for me to bend and dig anymore, but I do not want to give up my gardening or being outside. If I had to give gardening up, I think that I would just wilt away.
I get overload when I get all of these seed catalogs. There are so many seeds and flowers I would love to try. But I have to really put a bit in my mouth and hold and buy a few new seeds to try. If I like them, I will order more next year. I am trying to take the open pollinated varieties, and each year, I go more and more to them. I want to save seeds and I love old fashioned flowers also, so I work each year to add to my stash of seeds. I was so excited the other day. A wonderful blog I read from a lovely lady who lives in the Ozarks, mentioned a type of squash/pumpkin that is open pollinated and seems to take squash bugs well. I looked and looked and the other night, I found it in one of my new garden catalogs, Kitchen Garden Seeds, (http://www.kitchengardenseeds.com/) and they have it. It is called a Long Island Cheese Pumpkin, and I think that I will order a package and try them. This catalog is nice, but the seeds are expensive, but if it is open pollinated, you get more seeds and do not have to buy any more seeds.
Well, I had best get going and finish some work in the kitchen, and in the utility room, washing some clothes or I won't have any to wear Monday morning.
Take care my friends, and have a great week whatever you are planning.
I rec'd the Kitchen Garden Seeds catalog a few days ago and was looking it over on Friday while I sat with a mug of tea.
ReplyDeleteI thought the seeds were pricey, but during the Wyoming years I was out of touch with gardening. The prices are higher everywhere than I remember. [Surprise!] We had been counting on a good crop of winter squash--the vine borers got all the plants before the squash could mature.
We don't like to use a lot of chemicals, but there it is---if there was one that would anihilate the borers, I think I'd put it on.
The potato chowder looks so good I can almost smell it!
My hearty soup, made on Friday, was hamburger/tomato/macaroni soup.
We have beef raised at our son's home in WY and the tomatoes were home-canned.
We had a gas wall furnace that heated one part of our house in VT--I remember the slightest wind from the north would blow out the pilot--its hard to think of anything nice to do with very cold weather. Blizzards are a trial rather than an adventure.
Be warm!
I am worried about the room you have for growing L.I. Cheese squash. My vines were rampant with 18" leaves and the one hill covered about 20 square feet.
ReplyDeleteAll c. moschatas are considered to be more resistant to squash bugs. There will still be some bugs, trust me.
A variety that might be better for you would be the butternut types, like Waltham Butternut. Last year the vines grew up the garden fence and up some corn stalks and weren't too heavy to break off and did quite well. I think they make equally good pies as the LI ones does and actually have a darker, richer orange color. The store pretty well too.
I plan to check my seeds today so don't order anything quite yet! I may have some to share with you.
The soup sounds delicious. I cheat quite often with both a beef base and a chicken base! I hope my soup cookbook arrives today.