Garden is getting somewhere

I didn't know if I should keep watering my garden or not, but I kept doing it. And it is paying off.

The gypsy bell pepper has a couple new fruits growing on it.

This one seems to have a hole in it, so guess I won't be harvesting that one.

The jalepeño plant has three more peppers on it.

My roma tomatoes are finally starting to ripen.

I'm not sure if I'll get anything from my cucumber plants. They're still pretty small and some of them seem to be shriveling up.

I also have this rogue sunflower out front. It's almost as tall as my porch roof!

Hot & dry

It has been extremely hot and dry here for more than a week — temperatures 100+ and last night was the first rain we've had in a long time. Lawns are turning brown, and even the creek I live along is just a series of puddles, really.

So last week, I set up a watering station for the birds and other critters. It's pretty simple. Just a dish from a clay pot. I put a few rocks on one side so smaller birds can get in and out easier. Then I cleaned out a milk carton, filled it with water and poked a small hole near the bottom and hung it over the dish on a garden hook. It drips into the dish, helping keep it filled while I'm gone. The sound of the dripping water is also supposed to attract birds, plus some of them seem to enjoy standing under the drips for a bath.

This little family seemed to enjoy it. I think they're young starlings.

This grackle took a long drink and then a little bath under the drips.

And I got some neat splash and ripple pictures.

More produce!

I have more growing in my garden! I ended up picking the two bell peppers and the two jalepeños. I've put one of the bell peppers in a salad for lunch. Haven't had the jalepeños. I'll have to figure out the best thing for them.

Here's a look at the roma tomatoes. I took these yesterday after watering.

And then this morning, I noticed a third tomato getting started!

 And I also seem to have some cucumbers getting started, too! I counted seven tiny ones.

I have a tomato!

One little tomato.

Bell peppers are doing well

Jalapeños are still going on this plant.

Garden update

I have three of these little jalapeños, actually. Also a couple of bell peppers. No tomatoes or cucumbers yet, but they are flowering.

Actually, this picture is about a week old. Maybe later I'll head out for some fresh pictures. It's really hot, and considering I hit a deer on my way home last night, I don't feel like doing much today. I do need to mow when it cools down, so maybe I'll get some pix then.

ETA new photos:

Jalapeños

This jalapeño plant isn't doing so well.

Gypsy bell peppers

Cucumber flower

Finally giving it a go

I've been saying for a long time that I wanted to try veggie gardening, but never got around to it. And after I started working a second job, I wondered if I'd have enough time to keep up with the weeding and stuff a garden plot would need. Last year, I traded a wood pallet for some buckets from a friend. He'd used them for tomatoes and peppers previously. I didn't get around to doing anything with them last year, but last week, I just decided to go for it. A new greenhouse had opened up in my little town, so I went there. They have a pretty nice selection, and the woman who runs it told me she used to manage a hydroponic tomato plant in a nearby town. She had lots of great tips for me. So now I've got a container veggie garden. Today I set up a sprinkler system to make it easier to water.

After setting up the watering system, I took Mom & Dad into town for a Mother's Day lunch. Now I think it's time for a nap.

Cucumber No. 1

Cucumber No. 2

Roma Tomato 1

Roma Tomato 2

Jalapeno 1

Jalapeno 2

Cilantro. Mom got me this plant on a recent trip.

Gypsy bell pepper

Peppermint

Sweet potato patties & roasted broccoli

Made these dishes tonight, both found through Pinterest.

I didn't have hamburger buns, so I just had the maple sweet potato burgers as patties. When I made the patties, they seemed awful moist, so I baked them a little longer than the time says. I think I overcooked them just a little, but they were still really good. Love that they use kale — gotta keep those iron levels up!

I'm not a huge broccoli fan, mainly because other than steaming it, I don't really know what to do with it. But this roasted broccoli was amazing. Love the combination of the broccoli and lemon (I left off the basil, too, but will have to try that sometime).

Awesome steak fingers

This was dinner tonight. I followed the recipe from Something Edible. The breading was wonderfully crispy and seasoning the meat rather than the breading really makes them flavorful.

I added some country gravy (from a packet; sorry, Something Edible), but I added some honey to it to give it just a little sweetness. Why? Because when I was a kid, there was a restaurant in my hometown (Oriental American for those of you familiar with P-burg) whose steak fingers I loved (I wasn't into Chinese food as a kid). But really, it was the gravy they served with the steak fingers that made it so good. I think I got pretty close. The restaurant also served them with mashed potatoes, which would be great, but I went with french fries tonight since I had them and they were quick and easy.

Spring!

Look what I saw in one of my flowerbeds today! Whoo-hoo!

Turn toward the fire

Currently reading "Fire Monks: Zen Mind Meets Wildfire at the Gates of Tassajara," by Colleen Morton Busch, and this passage resonated:

But hope can be held too tightly. Zen cultivates a mind that doesn't tether itself to any fixed view or perspective —the belief that the buildings at Tassajara must be saved or, by contrast, that physical structures aren't important and worth saving. Hope is fine, as long as it doesn't lead to inflexibility. "When you're living in the present moment, you're not so invovled in hope or invested in a particular outcome," said the abbot. You do what needs to be done simply because it needs to be done, accepting that your actions may not bear the fruit you intend—and that this does not render the actions themselves fruitless.

A clever Zen teacher might say that standing back and letting the monastery burn belies a kind of attachment to the idea of nonatachment, that trying to save it when it could all burn anyway is true nonattachment. In trying to save Tassajara—or your own life from disaster—you can't be sure you will. In fact, you can lose everything you love in a moment. And that's not a reason to give up. If anything, it's a reason to turn toward the fire, recognizing it as a force of both creation and destruction, and to take care of what's right in front of you, because that's all you actually have.

Pigs have wings

Well, not really, so don't worry about doing all those things you said you'd do when pigs fly.

Rather, I winged it with some pork chops this evening.

I really had no idea what I would do with the pork chops when I bought them on a whim at the local grocery store recently. Today, for some reason I had a craving for pork chops with apples. Not the Peter Brady "porkchops and applesauce," but something a bit more.

But I couldn't really find any recipes online that sounded like what I want. So I just kind of put something together based on the recipes I did find. So here's what I did:

3 thick cut boneless pork chops
1 apple, diced
1/2 onion, diced
1 cup apple juice
2 Tablespoons flour

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Brown pork chops in a little oil in dutch oven, about 3 minutes on each side. Remove pork chops to a plate.

Put onions and apple in dutch oven and saute, until onions turn translucent. Add apple juice and flour, stir until it starts to thicken.

Put pork chops back in dutch oven with the onion/apple sauce. Place in oven until meat is done, about 20 minutes.

Pretty simple, and it turned out pretty good. I think if I do this again, I'd add a little spice of some kind. Maybe some cinnamon, to go with the apple? Suggestions?

Served it with some buttery-garlic brown rice and some broccoli with a little Parmesan cheese. Not a bad meal. I've been eating kinda crappy the last week, so hopefully this will start off a better week.

And even more progress

More decluttering and cleaning today. I decided my work areas needed some organizing.

Here's the before of my office area

And here's how it looks now. I'm actually kind of thinking this corner might be a better area for some pantry shelves. Maybe some open, industrial-look shelving. Hmmm.... (ETA: Maybe something like this. It'd be awesome if they had a corner piece).

I also cleared off my mail sorting table in the living room. No before picture, but trust me, it looked a lot worse than this.
And while I was at it in the breakfast nook area, I kept on going. Remember this corner?

Here's how it looks now. I should've given the floors a good scrubbing, but that can happen another day. Buster will probably be surprised when he comes back inside (now that the scary vacuum cleaner isn't growling).
And this?

Well, it still looks the same. Maybe next weekend I'll tackle that.

Progress!

Earlier this month, I wrote about signing up for the Clutterfat Challenge.

Confession: I haven't done that well.

But today, I did make some headway. While doing the usual catch-up cleaning in the kitchen, I grabbed a clean, empty box from the garage and another left over from Christmas and started going through my utensil drawer. There were probably a couple dozen steak knives in there. That's in addition to the six steak knives I have in my knife block on the counter next to the stove.

I also cleaned out the drawer of all the crumbs and stuff!

I also went through the utensil crock next to stove and dumped a few things in there. Why do I need four spatulas?
I also started weeding out the mugs and a few other things. I have no idea what that lid goes to, because it fits none of the pots I have. So it's going, too.
I even cleaned out the storage area under the stove! Yay, me!