the little wild kingdom

[The Porch]

new washer and dryer unit should be delivered and installed today. hope it works better than this POC that has been a PITA since we got it.

can't quite celebrate until it is out the door and gone, but i'm happy just thinking about it happening at last...

A last, I do HATE the auto-locking lid on all of the new washers

 

[flowerbug]

A last, I do HATE the auto-locking lid on all of the new washers

same here along with many other "features" which are useless to us. i want a simple thing that works. all these switches break and Mom is not gentle with what she does with them.

i did spring for the 5 year extended warranty and they do their own service calls from the place i bought it so i hope this one will at least last longer than 2yrs and 9months or whatever it is since we bought this other one...

doing the last load now and it's already been a PITA again so can't wait for the delivery truck to get here but that is supposed to be after 12:30...

i'm taking today completely off other than dealing with this delivery. reading and resting up and enjoying the day. not pulling a single weed. nada...

 

[Mini Horses]

Mine has auto lock, not that new and I dislike that feature. However, I REALLY don't like their leaving the agitator post out of them now. Hope mine lasts another 20 yrs for me!

 

[flowerbug]

Mine has auto lock, not that new and I dislike that feature. However, I REALLY don't like their leaving the agitator post out of them now. Hope mine lasts another 20 yrs for me!

you can still get them with an agitator. the new one will have an agitator. the machine that is going out the door today would shred and wad up things as it washed. we'd have items coming out of the wash looking like they'd been tie dyed.

with how much laundry Mom does for her quilting and all the stuff (bleach, vinegar, etc to remove smells) she uses we get our money's worth out of machines but they don't last long. also we have some rust and calcium in our water so that also decreases how long things last.

 

[flowerbug]

Mom survived first load of laundry. one hiccup in that we need one of those balls to release stuff into rinse water. it is quiet, it works...

 

[flowerbug]

the rains came along and i had the garage full of flats from picking. yesterday i brought all the flats into my room here so i can sort through them and get them ready for shelling or further drying but the pods that are not ready yet need to be separated from the already dried pods so i can put the dry pods in paper bags for storage until i can get around to shelling them out. all the not ready pods have to finish up drying before they can also be put into paper bags for storage. it looks like a bit of a war zone here in my room and also out i the gardens. that's what harvest season can be like...

i need to get the sweet onions out of the North Garden so the can be eaten or finish curing (whichever happens first ). we've been eating some of the smaller ones that have already died back all the way. the larger ones with green leaves are still growing and are three times the size of the smaller ones we've been eating.

the squash and melons are all being mostly razed by powdery mildew. all this hot weather and ample moisture... same for the tomatoes. not many green leaves left on the tomato plants but tons of tiny green fruits. probably will not be edible if the samples i tried the other day are what the rest of them will be like. bland. blah. etc... we'll see what happens... we do have enough canned in jars now that it would be ok for it to be done now if that is how it goes...

a lot of dry beans still will need to be picked as they finish up. that's why i need to get all these flats gone through and sorted so i have more flats and room for flats here.

 

[flowerbug]

i was going to break the recent tomato harvest into two batches and do one each day but this morning partway through the first batch i'd discarded some and enough weren't quite ready so they got set aside which meant i wasn't going to really have enough in the first batch to really make it worth running the oven or such. so i just brought them all in to process and now we have about 26 quarts that will be ready to put into jars. that's about two quarts more than i can do in a single batch in the oven. i can put them in jars anyways and we can use them for something else... they won't be wasted or spoil...

i have 28 quart jars left so this run will almost clear those out and then i'll be into the 2 quart jars which i've held in reserve. i'm not sure we're going to be doing any more tomato canning.

 

[flowerbug]

the notice for the electric bill for the past month was $139ish. not bad considering it was canning and Mom's baking for several days. i'm pretty sure that my new method of canning has helped a great deal since it's using 1/10th the hot water. also with the electric summer rates it is well worth trying to get the canning done in the morning or in the evening, but running the oven for just one full batch is also better than running it for several batches. and then having the washer replaced and mostly out of commission for a week or two probably also knocked the bill down $20 or more. i've been trying to encourage Mom to wash more of her sheets in one load instead of just a few because the washer does have the capacity for it so why waste all that soap and hot water (and time!)? i'm not sure she's going to change her ways... we'll see...

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Lower electric bill this time of year is awesome!

 

[flowerbug]

third day of dry bean picking. it's going ok. i got about half of what i picked from day 1 and 2 sorted through right at the time when the sun was going down last night. not too many mosquitoes out there since i moved a chair around to the front to be in more light/sun while it was still warm enough.

today i should be able to get the rest of the bean gardens checked out and picked through. we'll see. only one major part left of one of the bigger gardens. it was the last part that was planted with Purple Doves so it makes sense that it would also be the last garden to finish and i won't pick that today as i checked it yesterday and it looks like another week or two yet depending upon what the weather does. rains forecast for tonight and tomorrow so i get a break.

as i've been picking beans i also am weeding the gardens to prevent weed seeds from falling if i can head them off. soon it will be time to start burying garden debris and to get the gardens put up for the winter and also garlic planting season. time is really going by rather quickly...