Gwen's Blog

Apples and Corn
Sep 29, 2008 | 7:05 AM PST

We went apple picking and through the corn maze this weekend.  It took us 3 times in the maze to get all of the scavenger hunt clues and punches for the prize which turned out to be a jolly rancher.  The boys were a little dissapointed but got over it.  When we got back home we made 2 apple pies, had to run to the neighbors house to borrow a pie plate as each boy wanted a different crust.  One wanted to do the lattice and the other wanted to use the little cookie cutters.  So I had one rolling out there crust while the other was peeling, coring and slicing there apples.  They both were very excited that they made there own pie all by themselves.  I snuck a piece in there lunches today, they sure will be surprised.  Hee hee.  We also made 9 pints of applesauce.  Once it was on the stove the boys dissapeared which was fine because we left for the apple orchard at 10 and by then it was after 5pm so I got alot of kid time in.  Made more brownie points with them when I made fish sticks for dinner.  They love them, I think there smelly and don't like them so I had an 'adult grilled cheese'.  Sat in the sunroom with extreme makeover show on.  By the time we finished dinner and a piece of pie, I had a sliver of each as each boy was very excited about there own pie, they had to take showers and it was bed time.  I started watching TV in bed and allowed the dog on the bed for the first time.  My boyfriend was at the Bears game and spending the night in the city so I felt a little lonely.  He was loving it.  All spread out all night.  But now it's another work week so I better get to it.  Happy Monday everyone!

It's fall time
Sep 25, 2008 | 9:38 AM PST
Well as much as I don't like the summer ending I do enjoy some fall activities.  My first year growing pumpkins and they are starting to grow.  Only the small ones but at least we will have some.  I am surprised the bigger jack-o-lantern size didn't grow. There were tons of flowers not too long ago.  This weekend I am taking the boys to a corn maze and to pick apples.  I love doing those type of fall things, especially with kids.  Reed and I always do it but this year my boyfriends son is with us this weekend so I think he'll have fun too.  Then on Sunday we are making applesauce.  The boys love to use the apple, peeler, corer, slicer tool.  Fun fun.  But for now I will get through two more days of work for the weekend to come.  Hope everyone is enjoying there gardens.  Later.

September and cleaning out the garden
Sep 17, 2008 | 9:21 AM PST
Well half of September is gone.  Where does the time go??  We jumped from 80+ degree weeks to 70 and below.  I want to go back to 80 degrees to garden some more veggies.  My tomato plants took a dump.  I posted some pictures in the forum Vegetables but they are looking bad.  The whole bottom of the plants turned brown (before we got all the rain) and have dropped a ton of the tomatoes.  Bummer.  I was hoping to get another big pick to dehydrate them.  The jalapeno's are taking off though.  I made my first attempt at jelly from an old canning recipe I found on this site for Hot Pepper Jelly.  I hope it turns out.  We have green onions and radishes still but I am pretty sure I picked the last zucchini of the season.  Now its time to start cleaning it all up.  Not sure how to do that since its my first year.  If anyone has any tips or tricks or even a how to list would be great.  I think I just start picking everything out that's dead and leave it for the spring.  This year I really focused on the vegetable garden but now that I have a year under my belt I am going to focus more on flowers and plants next year around my sunroom. I'll be checking out the shade forum and hummingbird and butterfly forums.  Yea.  Tonight I am doing the last canning project and can some garlic/basil tomato sauce.  That'll be yummy in the middle of winter.  If my tomato plants come back I would love to try to can tomato soup.  For now I am at work taking a break but in 5 hours (UGH) I will be able to leave this little cubicle and start the night with Derek Party of Four.  My son who is 10 and my boyfriends son who is 9 have a playroom to clean up tonight but I know they will want the wrestling match Derek promised them last night.  Fun fun family time.  Enjoy your Wednesday everyone!

Flannels by 7
Sep 9, 2008 | 6:56 AM PST
Well I did just what I said I was going to do.  I went home last night and changed into my flannel pants and a sweatshirt.  It was 55 degrees when I got home so I was ready to get comfy!  We had the leftover snacks from the Bears game and of course Football was on again.  I was ok with it because it meant I could sit on the couch with my boyfriend and not feel guilty for not doing the dishes or anything else for that matter.  We didn't have his son over the weekend so when he got home and my son is there they dissapear for hours sometimes in the playroom.  We are so very fortunate that our two sons get along so well.  They are a year apart.  We were in bed by 9:30 last night and he was sound asleep by 9:35 so that meant I could change from Football to a chick flick.  I watched most of the Little Black Book but fell asleep at the end of it.  Before that I was watching 13 going on 30.  How relaxing.  Well now I'm at work so I should get to it.  Enjoy your Tuesday everyone.

Fancy Pants cutter
Sep 8, 2008 | 12:59 PM PST

The subject Fancy Pance cutter is for my boyfriend who cut the end of his finger pretty bad yesterday while cutting jalapeno's in a fancy way.  I think he thought he was on The Food Network show Top Chef.  It stung more than anything because he was cutting jalapeno's but he sucked it up and held a towel on it until it stopped bleeding.  We bandaged it up pretty good but it throbbed later that night.  Needless to say friends who were over for the Bears game wanted to know which salsa had part of Derek in it.  I'll look at it tonight as he changed the bandages at work.  I don't think it needed stiches. 

So on a more positive note I picked jalapenos and tomatoes for the salsa that everyone loved.  The Bears won!!  Whoo Hoo.  We had some friends over for the game which was fun.  Fun Sunday's are back.  We all tend to get together for the games.  Tonight is leftover snacks from the game.  Yummy!  I made these fried sweet potatoes chips that were so good.  With a friends help we cut and fried 8 sweet potatoes cut into slices.  I had made a jalapeno dip to go with them and needless to say they were a big hit.  They went perfect with the beef sandwiches.  I can't wait to get home and have some.  Today's weather is one of those you would be curled up on the couch with an afgan watching movie.  Rainy and chilly.  2 weeks ago we were in the 80's and today's high is only 57 so far.  What difference.  I think tonight will be one of those that I go home, put my flannel's on and just chill.  Sound good to anyone else?  Hee hee.  At least we will have sun tomorrow.  The sun really affects my moods.  Well happy Monday to everyone.  Later.

Bored!!
Sep 3, 2008 | 9:48 AM PST
Well here I am sitting at work and bored to tears!  I have no jobs coming in so there pretty much isn't a whole lot for me to do today.  So that leaves me purusing the net and seeing what information I can get off of this site for my garden.  I wanted to pick tomatoes last night but out of no where we got this huge storm that rained cats and dogs for a while.  I did go check and see how much water was in the garden and in my marigolds I found a great big brown grasshopper.  Snaged a picture of him with my manual camera so we'll see how it turns out.  Tomorrow night I will make salsa for the first time!  It should be fun and hopefully yummy.  For the Bears first game we are having a few friends over and having Fajita's for dinner.  Perfect timing to make some Salsa.  Of course will have the family try it first.  Last night I made this awesome spinach and garlic pizza.  No red sauce, just olive oil mixed with the spinach.  We practically ate the entire pizza.  I'll put that recipe in the recipe book to keep for another time.  I don't know why but lately I have been totally into making different kinds of pizza, especially ones without red sauce.  Last night I wanted to try grilling the pizza but my boyfriend had to do change his breaks on the car after it stopped raining.  We'll try it another day.  Maybe after I sun dry tomatoes and put those on the pizza.  Well back to work for me.  All of you that are at home, enjoy your gardening today.  For those of us at work, just think two days till the weekend!!

Tomato's finally turning
Aug 20, 2008 | 6:57 AM PST
Tags: Roma tomatoes , Ketchup

Finally, the tomato's are a turning!!  I'm relieved because they have been big and green for a while now.  I picked 23 last night and so many more to come in the next couple of days.  So I'm going to try my hand at making ketchup.  If anyone has any tips, please feel free to share as this will be my first time.  I don't think it will be that hard to do, just time consuming.  Depending on how many tomatoes are ripe by the weekend I might make some salsa too.  Last night we had chicken and zucchini on the grill and tonight I made a cucumber salad.  I don't think I ate so many veggies in one week in all my life.  I guess its different when it comes out of your own garden.  Well back to work for me.  I hate being inside the office when I know there is lots to do in my garden. 

Weekend
Aug 18, 2008 | 6:56 AM PST
Thank you for all the b-day wishes to my son.  We had his birthday party this weekend and he had a blast.  We did a campout with a total of 8 boys.  Whew!  They had a blast cooking there hot dogs over the open fire, playing flashlight tag at the school and telling stories about bloody mary around the campfire.  After a good nights rest they all got up and piled there plates with pancakes, syrup, whipped cream, chocolate chips and strawberries.  Yum......for a 10 year old.

Happy Birthday to my son
Aug 14, 2008 | 2:03 PM PST
Today is my son's 10th birthday!!  I can not believe how time flies as he roles into the double digits.  He was so cute this morning when he climbed in my bed as I sat and sang the 'Today is your birthday' tune.  He just grinned and said I'm finally 10!  For his birthday dinner we are having a nacho bar and a sundae bar.  How easy!  He wants the jalapeno's from the garden.

Passing time
Aug 12, 2008 | 12:14 PM PST
I'm just passing time while I sit here in a cubicle at work wishing that I could be at home enjoying the beautiful weather we have been having in my garden.  So much to do, so little time.  I sit here thinking of all the weeding, picking vegetable, repotting some plants, watering and ferilizing the garden, housework and so much more than sitting here in a cube where all I see are fabric walls.  I really should think about sprucing up my cube with some outdoor pictures to get me through the days!  I do really enjoy yardwork and see it almost as therapy and a way to let all the work stress out.  I really need to miracle grow my garden tonight as the cucumbers are all of a sudden wilting down and the lettuce has taken a toll with the bad storm we had and sunflowers fell on them.  Hope to get the one pepper on my bell pepper plant as the others have either been eaten by rabbits or not produced any peppers.  Jalapeno's on the other hand have taken off and we have picked 10 so far.  Boyfriend grilled them up last night with some cream cheese in them. Yummy.  Hopefully tomorrow night we will be able to do the zucchini on the grill before it goes bad.  Well back to the old grindstone.  Enjoy your day!!

Time consuming
Aug 4, 2008 | 12:37 PM PST
I have fogotten how time consuming it is to can. I spent last night until after 11pm canning cucumbers.  Ended up doing 29 pint jars of dill pickles.  Some with onions and some with jalapeno peppers.  That was a first for me so hopefully they turn out.  On Saturday we had a family and friend birthday party for our boys and I got a kick on showing off our garden especially our enormous sunflowers.  Everyone enjoyed the cucumber salad we made and the tortellini caesar salad we made from our garden.  I love to share our home grown fruit of labor!!  Even picked lettuce for the hamburgers.  If only my tomatoes would turn colors!  They have been the right size for what seems forever and still nothing.  But my neighbor down the street said hers hasn't turned either yet so we play the waiting game.  Fun fun!

Cucumbers
Jul 30, 2008 | 10:17 AM PST
Well I am excited to say the least.  I hand picked the most out of the garden last night.  25 glorious cucumbers!  There will be more to pick by the weekend so canning pickles here I come.  The sunflowers have grown so tall that part of the garden is lacking in sun so not sure we will get any more zukes this year.  But the tomatoes look yummy and we will have more than a handful of jalapeno peppers.  Not much to say about the bell peppers that I planted. Not one has produced yet and a co-worker has already brought some to work.  Oh well there is always next year.

Bugs, bugs, bugs
Jul 28, 2008 | 2:02 PM PST

Better dog news is Rodeo got to hang with a neighboring dog and loved running around the yard at what looked to be 100 mph.  Kiana entertained Rodeo for hours which was great since he hasn't played that much since loosing his sister.  On a garden note I have found beetles, bugs and lots of mosquitos!  Ugh.  Since this is my first garden in years I was not thinking about all the bugs out there.  The beetles are very shiny and they are eating my sunflower plants which look like trees now.  I have to update some pictures and show everyone how large they are.  I have grown sunflowers where ever I have lived but they have never gotten this big.  I can't wait until they start opening up and see how large the flowers will be.  The squirrels are going to love me soon.  They were all over them last year.  Hanging upside down even to reach the specific one they wanted to nibble on.  Picking cucumbers this week and making pickles over the weekend.  I can't wait.

So Sad
Jul 25, 2008 | 9:38 AM PST
So this is my first blog on this site and unfortunately its a sad one.  On Tuesday my boyfriend got home from work early and one of our puppies was dead.  It made us so sad especially her brother.  We got the puppies for the kids as a Christmas present.  One girl, Daisy and one boy, Rodeo.  We have no idea why at 9 months she died but my sister said she most likely had an aneurism.  Poor thing.  The kids took it hard but I think Rodeo is most upset and very lonely.  They did everything together!  Sleep, eat, play, get into things, and more.  She was our lazy daisy that soaked up as much attention as she could and was the most affectionit one. Now Rodeo is next to our sides the entire time.  He doesn't like to go outside by himself for any period of time which before they would spend hours out there.  I bet he misses playing and looking for critters with her.  I guess people do have just one dog but its a wierd feeling not to have two dogs all of a sudden.