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

Tornadoes

We are in tornado warnings as I post this.  I ran out to cover my garden and got pelted with hail.  We have had several sightings and tornadoes on the ground in different parts of town.
I just ran out to take these photos.  They are not too good.
Its going to be one of those nights, no sleep.
I will post after all of this simmers down. 

Update: We had another 3 more storms come through. Tornadoes were on the ground, but they are as I post, dissipating.  We may have more storms bloom up later tonight, but for now,  it has quieted down.  I have not be out to the garden, but I covered what I could.  All I can do is hope for the best.
Hugs

I am not flying with ToTo this Morning

Good Morning Everyone,

Well, we made the national news.  We had some very wild weather that developed VERY quickly last night.  I was watching the weather on the computer, which I do, and these super cells developed  in a matter of minuites and made their way right to our door literally.  The wind came up, had small hail, and the light show of lightening.
And along with that, we had a tornado that touched down just a block from us here.  It made its way from the lake south of us and then hit Bailey Yards, which is the Union Pacific RailRoad main lines. My home is one block from Bailey Yards.   It tossed about 15 cars around, hit some homes and did it general destruction.  I went out and seen the clouds start to dip and swirl, and start forming.  But, we have no place to go, so we just stood by to get into the heavy pickup and pray that if it did hit, we would bounce around,  but  my animals would be in the path and die,  and the house destroyed.
We did not get any damage here at my house, the winds were fierce.  And debris was flying around, the only solace was the fact this storm was moving at over 60 miles an hour right straight north and it was outside the city limits within minuites, but that is all it takes...a minuite or so to destroy everything.
So, this morning, I am giving blessings that everything was spared.  There was some damage to some homes that were in the path , and the weather service wil be out this morning to access the damage and the rating that this storm had. Ratings are the EF ratings, from 1-5 measuring the wind speeds inside these power houses of nature.  We will know more in a few days what EF rating this one had.

In my last post, I mentioned that I was "working".  Well, technichnally, not "working" a job, but handling mounds of paperwork on my parents affairs and D's.  It feels like I am working back at the bank and insurance companies I used to work for many years ago.  It has been mind boggling.  I do know, that I could not handle a job anyway, too many to run after, and there isn't work here anyway, especially for disabled morons like me. But anyway, I just wanted to clarify that I'm not working outside the house.

I have got some seedling up, some tomatoes, and leeks, and a few peppers.  I have been so pleased with the cheap heat mats and covered greenhouses that I got.  These really help with the tomatoes and peppers and other heat loving seeds.  So, currently, I am pleased.  I have never been able to keep tomatoes going until after it warms up totally, usually in June, and by then, its almost too late to get tomatoes going because of the weather and the growing seasons.

I have some photos and some more for posts, so I will post these later.
Right now, I need to get going this morning.  I have a doctor's appointment later and some errands and I will touch base with everyone later.
Everyone, please have a wonderful Monday, I know I am thankful.

Hugs

stormy weather and canning

Good Evening Everyone,

I hope that all of you are doing well.  Its the beginning of the week and hopefully a productive and safe week for all of you.

I am sorry for the delays in posting but I have been canning, and freezing some produce.  With great anticipation, we finally got our corn people in from a community about 80 miles east of us.  They produce some of the best corn around, and what I like about their corn is:  ITS AWESOME. and not too many WORMS!  I have been freezing this corn, I blanch first, then I use my vacuum sealer and bag it.  I wanted to can some, but personally, I am starting to get POOPED.  I have been doing tomatoes, and cucumbers, and freezing some peppers, and canning a  few, but I am starting the old, "I tired of the garden routine",  which I shouldn't be like that, I enjoy the produce and the harvest, but damn, my back is sure screaming, especially this year.  So I have just been doing small batches, getting things together, and then I get another batch, and get it canned.  I won't be able to get it all, and if I have leftovers, or the neighbors have leftovers, I will donate this to the food pantries and the homeless shelter. I would like to do some sweet pepper spread, and a few things that I have never tried before, and then I think that I will slow down.

We had a nasty storm yesterday evening, and it rolled through and made a lot of noise, and of course, it had some hail in it, but it was small hail, and not a bad wind behind it to drive the hail through the garden.  We had another a few hours ago tonight,  a tiny one, it made a lot a noise also, but it blew just south of us and is being naughty down the way.  During the night, we had a nasty cloud go over, the clouds were very ominous looking, and the lightning was terrible, but no thunder, just a few piddles of rain drops.  We had a storm last week and we got about 3/4 inch of rain, but that was about it.

Well, other than that, that is just about it in a nutshell.  I will post photos of canned stuff and corn.  Right now, I am totally pooped and am seriously thinking of bed and read a little and then ZZZZZZZZZ.

Good Night Everyone
Hugs

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.