All's quiet on the western front, (hopefully)

Well, good afternoon everyone, I still here, didn't get blown away.

We had a very rough evening, and finally around 8pm, it started quieting down and then this morning, the rain is coming down in buckets.  My back lot looks like Lake Mead, all I need now are fish, and I would have it made.

It is just going to be a quiet day here.  Amazing, from all of the things and little sleep , I was able to get 2 loaves of bread done, and its on the rise, and 2 and 1/2 qt of strawberry yogurt done. I amaze myself.   I am digging through the freezer and found some minute steaks, so that is what is on the menu for tonight.  Baked minute steaks, in beefy mushroom sauce, and fresh asparagus from the neighbor's garden and mashed potatoes. Not too sure about dessert, maybe an apple pie from the freezer too.

Thank you for your comments, it really helped last night.  I was on the computer watching the storms roll in, our weather warnings here aren't great, so it is easier for me to keep track of storms movements through the computer and our local weather bureau at the airport.  The last photo of the low cloud you see was the start of rotation of a tornado that was just 1 mile from me.  Though it did not look like the classic storm, it was wrapping really fast and moving at about 50 mph.  The tornadoes are an awesome and mesmerizing part of nature, but when you are in the middle of its fury, its not a beach party. The hail did a little damage in the garden, but I did manage to cover most of it, and so it will be fine.  West of me had hail from baseball to golf ball size hail.  We just had the smaller stuff I posted, but even that does damage.

I am getting some items ready, and I will soon do a post on dehydrating a veggie soup base.  I have been collecting leftover veggies and then I will dehydrate and then grind it up for a base.  I just need to order nutritional yeast and some lovage.  I am planning on growing lovage in my herb garden to have on hand, and I love its flavor.  I will see if I can pull this off.   I have all of the other ingredients I need to finish, except these two.

Well, I just thought I'd pop in and tell you I am still here, not in Toto land with Dorothy. I hope that my readers are and will be ok, because these storms were marching to the east like Sherman marching on Georgia. Please take care all.

Hugs

"Never Worked a Day in Her Life" and other BS

Good Morning Everyone,

Well to start off with here.  It is raining...yeah! It started thundering and lightening very early this morning, around 5 am. I WAS sleeping pretty good, the first time in about a week, with my back and allergies giving me insomnia really bad, and then the flashes of lightening and KA-BOOM,...rattle, rattle, the house until you think that its going to come off its frame. But we need the rain desperately, as its so dry here, as well as other areas of the country, we just didn't have winter like we normally do, and March was a total almost summer heat wave and really dried things out even worse and made pollen and allergies worse that normal also and has made our farm fields here very dry and the winter wheat, which needed snow cover to help it along, really dry it out.  I am not sure about yields this year, though our farm bureau is talking that it may be a good year, and one thing they were hoping for, was a decrease in grasshoppers, which I am not sure I am knowledgeable, but with the dry winter, and other variables, they did not think that hoppers would be a problem, but I was under the thought that heat and dryness triggered hoppers?  If someone knows, please inform me, its just for my brain bank.

Well, what I wanted to talk about is something that falls on all of us who read blogs, especially about slow living, frugal,  sustainable, low key, lifestyles, lifestyles not filled with consumerism, and the mentality of "buy, buy, buy" and then "buy some more", go into debt, work, work, work, yada, yada, yada....etc.
I also, before I go on this post, do not like to get real political, on both parties, and this post is not about the sides of politics, but it in a way,  includes politics. so I will begin with this....

I see that the Democratic Strategist, Hilary Rosen, made a very derogatory and degrading comment about Mrs. Romney that she, and I quote, "never worked a day in her life".  Well, what do you call it when you are a stay at home mom and raise 5 children?, Huh, Ms. Rosen?  I would like you to define the word and comment of "work".  I find this quite alarming and to be blunt, one of the  biggest gaffes I have ever heard.  If a woman chooses to stay at home and is able to, if her husband is able to work and give this gift to the wife, then this IS the family's choice in the matter, NOT YOURS.  Now, many women, HAVE to work to support families, either by choice or by necessity, but NOT YOURS, MS ROSEN.  Since when do you decide that staying home to handle the HOME. CHILDREN, BUDGET, TRANSPORTATION, ENERGY, FOOD PRODUCTION, and EVERY OTHER EMERGENCY that comes up in a home of someone YOU DO NOT EVEN KNOW!!!!!
How dare you state that home moms (and dads) DON"T WORK!!!! PLEASE EXPLAIN THIS TO ME.
I seem to recall that your present administration is UNABLE to handle the home, budget, transportation, energy, food production and emergencies that come up in YOUR HOUSE...need I say more.

If people choose to stay at home, this isn't your call, Ms, Rosen, not even in the least bit.  I am personally shocked, and quite sure that this comment will come back to bite you in the ass, and when it does, it sure will leave a big chunk hanging out, which is what your tongue in doing now, hanging out and wagging.
I would like to know how YOU handle your home, Ms. Rosen,  Please, I am all ears.  How do you handle your home, children, budget, and all other things in between.  I take care of two elderly parents, and another disabled adult, handle budgets for two households, and all of the other in-between that come up, plus there's me too, and I am disabled also,  and I am sometimes in a whirl and a tail spin as to get it all done.  But if is isn't called work, I don't what it is.. playtime?, vacation? Please fill me in or did I miss something or did not get a memo on that at the last meeting....

I am just livid at this, people, this is not a comment directed at Republicans, it is directed at all who stay home, who work and come home and work at the home job, and everything in between.   It stabs at the very heart of family, home and life in general, our way of life.  This comment has taken the family to a new low, something between dirt and worms.  Need I say more.
Again, I do not want to get political, but please people, remember this comment when you get to the polls in November, and PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE.....VOTE, VOTE  VOTE!!!!!

I now will try to calm down and start some seeds for the garden.  Oh I forget, I don't work.....

Have a great rest of the week all. Hope some of you get some of this rain coming through.
Will try to post later in the week.

Hugs to All

Wet Monday

Good Morning or Afternoon, everyone,  whichever it may be.

Well,  its wet here,  we had some pretty nasty storms roll through last night, one was just 14 miles south of us with baseball sized hail which I was praying it would not move north to us, but it did go east and pounded everyone down that end of the state.  As of this morning, it was still making its way across Nebraska, pounding and dumping inches of rain, especially where they do not need it with the Missouri flooding.  We do not need pails of rain either, though we need rain, we are in bad flooding from the North Platte river and its pretty wet and full of mosquitoes, you don't spend too much rime outside unless you want to be carried off by biting bugs, or use tons of poison spray on you, or get West Nile virus.

Since its pretty wet out, I cannot get out in the garden to prune some tomatoes back.  So I am inside today running the dehydrator to dry some cilantro for my salsa later this year.  I buy cilantro from the grocery whenever they get it in, which is few and far between, so when the grocery gets it in, I grab what I can and wash it in baking soda and rinse and then cut the stems off, and place in my racks.  I save the stems and dry those and then run them through a coffee grinder to make a powder to put some in my salsa to add more flavor to the salsa or my homemade taco sauce or enchilada sauce.
I will try to set up a recipe section when I get closer for my sauce recipes, my sauces are not hot, but they do pack flavor from the garden salsa peppers I use and the cilantro.  You do not need too much cilantro in a quart of salsa, as it packs a punch in flavor.  I would grow cilantro myself, but with my garden reduced in size this year, I cannot use the south side, but next year, I hope that I can.  I will grow in containers and then cover them with netting to keep the caterpillars out of the dill and cilantro as they love to eat everything down to the roots.  Til then, I am forced to buy from the grocery.  Even the farmer's market vendors don't grow it.  Too much work.

Really other than that, not too much going on.  Pretty quiet, shocking, isn't it!  Especially in my neighborhood.
I am just working around the house, it seems pretty erratic,  I'm in one room and work for a little while, then I get bored and then move to another room and work there for about an hour, then go outside and work there for a while then come in and start back with the beginning room I was on.  I do get things done, but its pretty ADD.

Well,  I think that I will go and have some lunch,  I fixed colored pasta yesterday, and mixed salad shrimps and the fake crab into a seafood pasta salad, so that is on the menu then I have to run my mom around for a few errands this afternoon, so I will get all of this done, and then find something else to get into trouble with, lol.

Take care everyone and have a great week in what ever you are planning to do.
Hugs.

Row, Row, Row your boat, (or house)

Good Morning everyone,

Well, its raining....again.  We are so soaked here, where I live.  The whole lot area is not  leveled to code, and we have water everywhere.  My lot is somewhat drier, but not much.  Everyone else, is swimming, good, maybe they will move quicker, (evil thoughts).

My garden is suffering terribly.   I have had to re-start seeds, nothing is growing, even with lights, heat.  This garden season is very mysterious and ominous to me.  I am somewhat superstitious, like my grandmother, signs are everywhere and I do not like the signs I see.  I am going to try to restart some squash seeds, and cucumber, and a few other things, if it doesn't work, I think I will quit while I am ahead.  It is supposed to be warm and decent on the weekend, so I will put my greenhouse plastic up for my cucumbers, and try to get that ready and then see what happens. 

I am going later in the week, to see if I can find some cheap flowers to put in pots around the place.  Since this is going to be a weird year, with weird neighbors and everything else weird, I would like some color around the place, to help my mood deal with all of the bad stuff going on.    I usually have tons of flowers, but since the weirdo's next door are, well, weird, I have had to change my ways a little but yet have my colors around.   I am placing color around the north side where I have my patio area, I dug out my cheap dollar store canopy, will be getting my patio furniture out probably this weekend, and am cleaning off the front porch, so I least I have privacy from all of the idiots around here. Oh, and by the way, I have been told that all of the new people who moved in here during the winter, are mad because I have a 10X10 porch on my place and they don't.  So the idiots have been complaining to the owner that they want porches too. Go figure. No wonder the owner is pissed at me, ha, ha.  I have had the porch since the summer of 2006.  I bought it used and had it fitted in and its been here ever since.  I guess the owner has told all of the idiots that I own so I can have a porch if I want, which shocked me, but still doesn't stop the yapping.  I feel I am back in Junior high school.  I have never seen such juvenile behavior except from juveniles, and these are 20' somethings which have no brains that God gave a goose.  Personally I think that it is funny.  Only I can get into trouble having a porch.

It just dawned on me it is Memorial Day weekend coming up.  I don't do too much.  I may grill over the weekend.  I generally do dinners for the folks, D, the ex will stop by, so I will drag the big smoker grill I have, and clean that up, and get it ready for the season.. I have a big smoker that I do quite a bit of outdoor cooking on.  It is just like my gas oven, and works wonderful, but I have not done everything on it.  I have done pizza on a stone on it, that was fun.  I would like to try to do a brisket and smoke that.  I need to get hickory or mesquite wood to smoke, and just make a weekend of it, as you have to keep checking the wood and temps for a long time to smoke.  But I am going to try this this summer.  I love to cook outside, as my trailer gets way too hot to cook inside,  I have enough problems when I can during the summer.  I just hope I do not have all of the idiot neighbors over for food and mooching.

I do however, want to say something, and say thank you again to all of you who read my very boring blog.
First, I do not want to make anyone mad here.  So I will try to just make my words plain, simple and make my statement.
When I started my blog, I mentioned I am a new blogger.  I am tech challenged, and do my best.  Second,  I mentioned I live a boring and very uneventful life.  It is a life of being a poor slob, and as I state on the header of the blog, I live and make the best of what I got where I live at.  Third,  The last month has been, challenging, and stressful, so I have been unable to blog, and since the garden is not being cooperative, that even makes it worse, as I have had nothing to show, and I have had to move gardening areas around, so I do not have a beautiful gardening area anyway because of problem people that just want to make life miserable for everyone else around them because they are miserable themselves.

Well, why I am saying something about this is the issue of a few comments from anonymous commenter's.  I have received comments from people who are sandbagging around, and like my idiot neighbors, making problems and just being a plain pain in the butt, period.   The comments left where hurtful, and I would say, from someone, like the 20's somethings that live around me, they have no idea about life in general, or even what kind of a goal or plan in mind they want in life.   They are to me, bullies who use the blogging world as  their personal playground where they can bully and make comments, that I will not even post, they were deleted, so you cannot get the word out to promote your brand of life you seem to want to push on to others.  I am glad I have in place the ability to see comments before I post them, so you can't get past that, my dears.
The comments left were about how boring my blog is, well, if you don't like it my dears, go elsewhere.  I live a boring life.  I have very little to contribute to you or others like you.  I do not have time to you and your ideology you want to place upon everyone you come across that doesn't fit your blog ideals.  I know some of the blogs that are wonderful, and full of information that is passed on to others.  These blogs on on my readers list, so they are available to all.
I have had a very stressful month or so, and with only one of me being able to do everything that needs to be done, I cannot sit at the computer and pound out all sorts of suggestions, recipes, gardening and other sorts of stuff, that I personally would love to do.  But I cannot, its only me here and I have too many commitments to too many things.

So,  I am sorry that I do not have a ton of followers, I am sorry that I do not have tons of information for you, I am sorry that you feel that I am a fly spec on the blogging world that does not need to be on the map.  I am sorry that you are a small minded person that gets their jollies off of commenting on others blogs to make them feel small.  Personally, I really shouldn't comment period about your blogging comments, as it gives you power to continue your infantile mindset, but I will tell you, to me, you are a small, very narrow minded individual who doesn't get anything in life.  I do feel very sorry for you, as you are no better than the low life you are.  Take it however you want.

I want to thank all of you who follow my blog.  I am hoping that as things calm down here as summer gets going, I will be able to bring things to you that may be of interest.  I live by the saying, that best laid plans of mice and men.  I cannot see into the future to see what it coming down the pike.  I like to try to see, to be ready, but sometimes, it just hits and you have to deal with it.
I want to thank all of you who follow, of your friendship, fellowship and comforting words that you leave and make.  I love all of you, and give prayers to all, and blessings to protect you.  Your words and blogs give me comfort, support and just general good neighbor feelings even though we are so very far apart. 

Well,  I think that I have moaned enough, PO's is more a better word, but I will not cuss any more that I have to.  I think that I had better get dressed and get going.  I have work to do outside before it rains more this afternoon, and see if I can get my porch set up and cleaned up.
Take care all, please have a great week, and a very safe upcoming Memorial Day weekend. Hugs to all.  I will try to post photos of what I am up to.

Hugs