Good bye 2015 garden....

Between the month of rain, the Japanese Beetle invasion, an apparent bunny infestation, and the 90+ temps in September...the garden was pretty disappointing this year.  My organic pest control worked when I did it well--insecticidal soap and cayenne pepper are just a couple of my methods--but I wasn't very good at keeping up.  I'm a lousy homesteader, what can I say.  We had a few tomatoes, some beans and peas (not enough for a meal), a few cucumbers (not enough to pickle, just enough for eating) and some peppers--oh and two okra.  We may still have a few more tomatoes and peppers, but it looks like everything else is done (as evidenced by the dying vines and plants).  Here's the final "big" harvest.

Notice that the oddly shaped carrots are as big as the butternut squash.  Sigh.  There are a few more carrots out there, too, I'm leaving them for now. There are a few onions and two sad little tomatoes there...  Mr. IM posted a slightly different view of the carrot on Facebook with a slightly obscene label.  Men.  The good news for the carrots and onions was that they became part of the yummy veggie gravy that went with our pot roast on Sunday.  (Now that's a recipe I should share--it is one of the Mister's specialties!)

Now here is the success story of the summer, ironically.  You may remember the previous "potatoes in a bucket" projects.  (See here, here,  and here).  Partially due to the rain, I didn't start the potatoes when I should have.  Sometime in June, I cleaned the refrigerator---like take out all the drawers and shelves and scrub every surface cleaned--and found...wait for it...two little potatoes growing legs.  So I chopped them up, threw them in a plate of water overnight and threw them in some dirt.  I did add more dirt a couple times., but nothing else. Over the weekend I realized all the potato stems were dead, so I dumped them out, expecting, well, nothing, like the past two years...but...surprise--from my two pieces of potato I harvested 4-6 reasonably sized potatoes and a bunch of little ones.  Hmm.  This is an idea for next summer perhaps.

Recipe of the weekend: Banana Muffins

One of my friends posted on facebook that they found a "green light lamp" to teach their two year old when it was ok to wake up mom and dad.  We could have used one of those when The Boy was younger.  These days we get a slow start on a lot of Saturdays.



We were all up fairly early this morning--The Girl had to "work" at a JV volleyball tourney--The Boy and I slept in until about 7, while Mr IM took The Girl to school.  I was drinking coffee and making a grocery list when The Boy appeared, with grand plans to cook breakfast.  He was slightly miffed when I told him that his "ingredient of the week" was the brown bananas on the counter (he wanted more apple cinnamon waffles, using last week's ingredient, the brown apples...)  We visited AllRecipes.com and again found something that would work.  Because I didn't want my phone or computer slimed by our cooking efforts, I copied the outline of the recipe onto a piece of scrap paper, shown here after we spilled on it...So without further ado...Banana Muffins...

1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (we used a little more, there were a lot of brown bananas...)2/3 cup sunflower seed oil (I didn't find any in the pantry, so I used plain old veggie oil.  I did consider using coconut, but in the end went with veggie) 1 egg, beaten

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 C flour

1/2 C sugar (we used a little less)

2T unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powderr 

1/2 tsp salt

1C semisweet chocolate chips (we used white chocolate chips)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Lightly grease a 12-cup muffin tin.
2. In a medium bowl blend the banana, oil, egg and vanilla together.
3. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Stir in the banana mixture until just blended. Fold in the chocolate chips. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin, filling 3/4 full.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove muffins to a wire rack to cool completely.  (We cooked the mini muffins for about 10 minutes and they were perfect)

And finally the finished product--they must have been good, because this is all that is left (original recipe made 24 mini muffins and 9 big muffins)


I intended these for snacks this week,  but it looks like we'll be having cheez-its again.....but these were yummy!

Old School Blogging --ABC's of Me!

One of my favorite blogs to read when I have time is About 100%--Andrea makes me smile!  She is doing an old-school blog along with Elaine from Misselaineouslife that actually gets me motivated enough to write a blog--well, at least gives me a framework.  You don't get photos like they did though, because, well, it is 9:45 on a school night (see "C")

A- Age: Umm 28?  No?  Ok, 44.

B- Biggest Fear: Can I say spiders?  Heights?  Maybe spiders while at a height--why I cannot change the lightbulb at the top of the stairs.

 C- Current Time: 9:51

D- Drink you last had: Water.  Really.  I was grading US History assignments...and realized I hadn't water all day.  Blech.

E- Easiest Person To Talk to: My friend, J, who although she moved far, far, away still understands exactly what I'm talking about when I text...

F- Favorite Song: Right now--Wiz Khalifa's "See You Again".  I may have an obsession with Fast and Furious

G- Grossest Memory: I was taking our cat to the vet for some minor health issue and let her sit on my lap on the way home because she was traumatized.  She peed on my lap.  We were both traumatized.  Luckily I had leather seats....I wished I had leather pants.

H- Hometown: Flora, Indiana.  

 I- In love with: Caramel anything at the moment--very fall-ish

 J- Jealous Of: People who sleep in

K- Killed Someone? With kindness?  Ummm...no.

L- Longest Relationship: Other than family--my friend, P.  She'll tell you we weren't really friends until high school (maybe middle school?), but it says relationship, not friendship, so I'm going with it.

M- Middle Name: Elizabeth, same as my grandma and my daughter

N- Number of Siblings: 1 brother 

O- One Wish: That I get to sleep in until daylight on Saturday

P- Person who you last called:  Someone at school--I can't remember who--another teacher to check on a student perhaps

Q- Question you’re always asked: Did you have to work today?  (Ummmm...yeah.  Public School teacher, it's September...ummm, huh?)

R- Reason to smile:   Kittens

S- Song you last sang:  Blessed Be the Name in the car, alone, during that longish drive to work.

T- Time you woke up: 4:50 am.  There's an episode of Downton Abbey where Anna says she dreams of sleeping as long as she wants.  I'm with you Anna...

U- Underwear Color: purple cotton, exciting

V- Vacation Destination:  Dream or reality?  Reality next summer includes Alaska, hopefully South Dakota, and hopefully Michianna....Dream?  St. Thomas again....Middle of the road?  A quiet B and B

W- Worst Habit: Chewing on my fingernails and cuticles. 

X- X-rays you’ve had: Mouth, foot, hip, arm

Y- Your favorite food: Caramel currently (what kind of a deficiency creates a caramel craving?) 

 Z- Zodiac Sign: Capricorn--stubborn...yep.

So if you just found me through the link, nice to meet you!  And "hello" to the rest of you who've I've neglected....

I would starve as a real homesteader

I feel like I've said this before and it's undoubtedly true.  This has been a rough year for the garden so far--I didn't do a good job of planting and then the beetles came.  The photo here isn't mine, it came from an exterminator's website, but the leaves look just like all of mine.  Yuck.  I haven't seen too many beetles, but their damage is evident.  I've invested in insecticidal soap, and had some limited success, but it also appears that there are slugs/grubs/something blechy eating the plant roots as well. Ugh.  Oh ,well, it's just a hobby, right?

Recently the topic of chickens has come up again. On the plus side, if they survived the dog and the coyotes, (and the bears, and the cougars, and the cold), they might eat the beetles (score!)....but on the negative side, well, they're chickens.  I think I'd rather get another dog and buy eggs at the store like always.  I kind of like the idea of chickens, but I really don't like actual chickens much...they are prickly and require attention and care.

We harvested the sunflower heads tonight--because of the ongoing bug and mouse and bird infestations, the sunflower heads are in paper bags on the patio covered in cheesecloth for a few days--hopefully by the time you read this they will be ready to detach the seeds!

Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll see if there are any carrots and potatoes...I'm waiting for it to get cold!

Books I read in August

Only 5...what can I say, school started....

1.  The Astronaut Wives Club (Lily Koppel)--Interesting book. I've loved the tv mini-series and still need to watch the final episode. Much more detail than the series could have, entertaining, fairly realistic I think.  There were a lot of things I wanted to know about, but they probably were more about the astronauts, so they weren't in these books. I also would have liked more photos and more "where are they now".  Or rather, what happened after the time period the book is set in, most of the wives have passed away (except of course, Annie Glenn and Betty Grissom...)

2.  Plum Lucky (Janet Evanovich)--Realized I missed this one somehow during July.  It was entertaining and pretty mindless.

3.  Some Luck (Jane Smiley)-My book club read this and I missed the meeting we discussed it. I would have liked to know what other people thought.  It was interesting, I suppose I would say it is good. There is a sequel though, and it ended in a way that made me not really care about the sequel. The story follows a family for 30 years--nothing terribly exciting happens, just normal family marriages, births, deaths.  None of them were particularly likable or dislikeable either, so that probably affected my view of the book.

4.  The Dressmaker of Khair Khana (Gayle Tzemach Lemmon)--Another book recommended by a member of my book club.  Again, it was ok.  About a young woman in Afghanistan who starts her own business under the nose of the Taliban.  I loved the story but wasn't impressed with the writing.  I don't know if that is due to the actual writing or if I somehow got ahold of an abridged version.  There were just some odd portions.  Great story, though.

5.  A Fall of Marigolds (Susan Meissner)--Mr IM always says that I complain too much about the endings of books when they aren't perfect.  This one is a perfect example (no pun intended?).  I really liked the book--it is a history buff's dream--partially set in 1911 Ellis Island and partially set in 2011 New York it follows two women who both lost someone---the 1911 character to the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and the 2011 character to the 9/11 disasters.  The weird part (at the end) was that throughout the whole book the author wove the two characters together and at the end (spoiler?) they weren't really tied together at all.  Which, I guess says something about coincidence and not having a neat ending, but was a little odd.  Still might make my top 10--it was really engaging and interesting, as well as entertaining.

So far this month (September)  I've already finished a couple books, including Go Set a Watchman, which might get its own post.  Or might not...depends on how much I neglect my grading...

Back to school ramblings

In case you hadn't figured it out, school started.  If you follow me over on Facebook, I'm sure you saw the first day pictures (sorry, none of me...just the kids).  No pictures for this edition--I'll fill you in quick and get back to The Pile (of papers to grade, IEPs to check, lesson plans to write, dishes to wash, clothes to fold....)

Since the Girl and I went back to school on August 10 and 7 respectively, The Boy spent almost 3 weeks Home Alone.  Yes, the capitals are intentional...you've all seen the movies, right?  I called him one day at about 3 and said something like "ok, I'm headed home and then we need to leave for x...have you had lunch yet?"  His answer?  (and there was evidence to support it)  "Well, I've only had two cans of soup, a box of crackers, three apples, and two individual servings of mac and cheese....what's for dinner?"

School is going well for all of us--I have two teamed classes (half students with an IEP, half without an IEP, two teachers), two foundations classes (all students have an IEP and struggle with reading and writing), a freshman orientation class, and an advisory class. Oh, and 28 ish kids on my caseload (seems to change daily, as they float in and out...Stand Still!  Eesh!)

The Girl loves her classes--all the usual (Algebra, English 9, Earth Science, World Geography, Spanish 1), plus Athletic Training and Theatre.  A boy from theatre class asked her to go to homecoming with him and she agreed to meet him there.  We're in uncharted territory here, folks.  Volleyball is all consuming--practices, study hall, and tomorrow their first real game (scrimmage last weekend went well).

The Boy seems to be adjusting to 5th grade.  I'm sure we'll hear more at back to school night next week, but there seems to have been a slight philosophical switch, 5th grade is even more like Middle School than it was when The Girl went through.  They switch for all their classes and get to participate in sports (hello, cross country...we have missed you?).  It seems to be a good switch (for us)--last night both kids sat in the dining room for several minutes without punching each other.

We are all looking forward to the long weekend--I see some housecleaning and napping in my future!

I also "owe" you'all a "What I read in August" post...although I'm not sure I finished anything...eek...I'll have to look later!