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Month: July 2014

garden woes

garden woes

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so black walnut trees – never again. i’m going to have to move my garden beds next spring and be ultra vigilant about keeping the green walnuts out of my beds.
so far i’ve had two tomato plants die on me. they were both cherry tomato plants, and my others seem to be doing well, so here’s hoping the rest of my plants are walnut hardy. (i’m really hoping i don’t jinx myself by saying this.) the tomato plants that ARE doing well have some big tomatoes on them, and my hot pepper plant is just going nutso. i’ve got to buy stock in avocados just so i can keep up with the hot peppers (and my cilantro). 
another hot day tomorrow, but after that it should cool off. hot weather does my tomatoes and peppers great, my brussels sprouts not so much. cest la vie.
off to my book.

excerpt from devil's syrup writings!

excerpt from devil's syrup writings!

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i just wrote these couple paragraphs for the last chapter of my DS book!
This part of the state is a contrast in land studies. On the one hand, there are flat expanses that open the sky up to a driver with few trees dotting the horizon. Sunsets are vast and pastel. Fields are large, but there are more owners than west central; farmhouses crop up often and are easy to spot with the small cluster of trees close to the roadside. There are far fewer trees in this part of the state, and once you’ve gotten used to trees, it’s hard to go back.
When a person heads in a more southeasterly fashion toward the Wisconsin/Iowa/Minnesota intersection, the river valley rears its head, and valleys dip in and out of existence. One minute you’re driving across a flat expanse of corn-riddled farms and the next you’ve pushed on the brakes as you head into a rolling valley filled with trees with a river at the bottom. Nate and took a drive to a valley town during July, and as we drove along the ridge of the valley, we could see the rolling hills and trees – over the tops of corn fields.
“This would be a whole lot prettier if there weren’t so much effing corn,” he observed. Truer words and all that.

so…soapmaking

so…soapmaking

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already kinda gross.
already kinda gross.

i tried to make soap with milk, and i think i burned the milk, which in turn probably made the soap not great. but on top of that, i burned the soap. so round one of soap making was really gross. unfortunately, i used my good scents on it. 🙁
so i did round two without milk, and i turned out pretty well, considering it was my first go at hot-process soap. one of the fats i’m using is pretty stinky though. i have a feeling it’s the crappy hydrogenated lard i had in my cupboard from a while ago. 
but, the good thing about hot-process soap is that it’s done a lot quicker. it should be ready to unmold tomorrow and ready to use a couple days after that (my cold-process soap is still curing). 
i used eucalyptus scent in the second batch along with green coloring. hope it turns out well and doesn’t stink like fat too much when i use it!
 

soap-making take 2 (and other stuff)

soap-making take 2 (and other stuff)

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tomorrow i’m going to try the hot-process soap-making process. it involves cooking the soap in a crockpot for a while, and since i got a crockpot at a garage sale for $1.50, i think i’ll give it a go.
i went for a walk tonight, and it was just the right time to catch the fireflies blinking in the woods and then along the edge of the cornfield. i took everything in me to just look at them and not run around like a goofball and catch a couple. 
i made a couple galettes tonight, one for me and one for my dad. unfortunately, galettes are messy business, and the juice from the berries spilled off the cookie sheet and onto the bottom of the oven. i’m cleaning the oven right now and it’s certainly stinky. also, the blackberries in the galettes are kind of gross. 😛 (otherwise, they’re delicious.)
tomorrow i’m going to do my best to get to the farmers’ market in rochester. i say do my best only because if my body wants to sleep until 11:30, i will let it. i am so short on sleep lately it’s not even funny. however, if i do wake up at a reasonable time, i’m looking forward to some market time!

what i will miss not going to my family reunion

what i will miss not going to my family reunion

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10399456_629275669911_7225291_nno family reunion this year! no leech lake! no boat rides! no beer and bonfires! grrrrrrr!!!!! dangit, i should be making a long list of things not to forget to pack this weekend! 
what i will miss:
1. the lake
2. the lake smell
1929699_550616119281_947_n3. going fast in a boat
4. fires every night
5. s’mores
6. beer 
7. drunken sandwiches
8. bad jokes
9. swimminglis
10. hanging with my family!!! :(((

rough

rough

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i don’t know what’s been going on with my body lately, but my runs have been really rough lately. i’ve been trying to eat earlier so i don’t have to worry about having a full stomach on my runs, and i’ve even taken aspirin before heading out in hopes that it would at least dull the overall pounding my body does on the pavement.
so, i figure it’s one of two things:
a. i need more sleep. this is highly likely. i’ve been sleeping like crap lately, and i really need to catch up on lost sleep from the last month, which i just haven’t been able to get around to doing. i try to get to sleep around 11 each night, but for some reason my brain doesn’t want me to go to sleep until midnight. thanks, brain. idiot.
b. i need new shoes. new shoes make everything better usually, but i know my current ones still have some life left in them. but, i will need some fairly quickly, and my knees haven’t been giving me too much grief lately. 
or it could be a combination of the two, which is probably right. i’ve been avoiding the hills lately by driving down to the school and taking off either on the track or running around town. town is more exciting, but the track sure is nice on the feets and knees.
anyway, that’s my running update.

read double-time

read double-time

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i just finished “insomnia” by stephen king, and i’ve got to catch up on rereading the first two books in a trilogy for the third that’s released this week. on top of that, i have a couple books on reserve at the library, one of which i should be getting relatively soon. 
so i’ve got to punch up my reading skillz, yo. time to speed-read.

car sold

car sold

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nate sold his car. i had sent a note through carsoup to the nissan dealer in rochester, and not even two hours later nate got a call from them.  went in on saturday and they bought it for $13,800. not as much as we’d’ve liked, but nothing to sneeze at. we’ll get rid of a car payment and lose a car’s worth of insurance. the only thing left is to pay off some bills with some cash leftover. hopefully that’ll give us some breathing room.
RIP red nissan coupe! 🙁 you were fast.

ATK: tiramisu update

ATK: tiramisu update

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yum! ciatti’s is more puddingy than this. it’s like they used twice as much whipped cream in their mascarpone mix to loosen it up a little. but this is yummy!
tiramisu