July #6 - summer foods

Hello everyone 

Below is where I usually do my chopping and peeling, etc.  

I set everything up on the breakfast table and sit down to work because it does take me awhile.  

Sometimes I watch YouTube on an iPad while I work.  

Today- I made another batch of fresh salsa and cut up one cantaloupe.  

It was a bit green but it still tastes really good.  I will let the others ripen a couple days before I cut them.  

  All waiting in fridge until time to eat 

Supper was cornbread muffins,  canned pinto beans seasoned with onion, bell pepper and spicy tomato sauce, with fresh salsa to spoon on top.  It was really good! 

Below is what my husband harvested today - minus some onions he ate at lunch and jalapeños I put in the salsa.  

He planted potatoes in tubs to hopefully harvest this fall.  

A few replies 

 Terri- I know it’s a lot of melon but we will share it with family and it will all get eaten fresh.  

Angela, yes- we like our air fryer.  I can cube up potatoes, spray them with olive oil and in 10 minutes,  they are browned, delicious  and a very easy no fuss side dish.  

  Yesterday,  my 3 grands got school sack lunches and the entree was a chicken patty and bun.  I put the patties in the air fryer and they were ready to eat in 5 minutes.  

  I use the air fryer almost daily.  

❤️ Rhonda 

July #5 - cleaned out my purse

Hello everyone 

I took a few photos today so I’ll write a short post 

My husband bought some huge local melons off a trailer in a church parking lot this afternoon 

That’s a 24 ounce cottage cheese tub as a size reference.  I weighed one cantaloupe at 8.07 pounds. My husband thinks the watermelon is 30-40 pounds.  

My purse has been used very little during this virus stuff.  On the rare occasions I have used it while in a store,  I have just dropped the receipt and change in so as not to touch them unnecessarily.  After 3 months or so of neglect,  it did need cleaned out.  

So I dumped everything on the table 

Then I sorted it and threw away the trash 

And put everything back in 

I didn’t put all the change that was in the bottom of my purse back in,  I put it a jar where my husband saves change,  

I’ve heard we’re have a coin shortage in the US but I’m afraid I don’t want to handle coins until this health situation is better 

My purse did feel a lot lighter with all these coins out 

I don’t normally pay attention to fancy vehicles but I saw this ad today and I was so interested.  I have short legs and getting into tall vehicles can be a trick.  

Aren’t the steps on this new model amazing?  

I don’t need a new vehicle and I have zero plans to buy this fancy Lincoln but it sure looks nice.  The car engineers did a great job, I think.

The funny part of the ad is it’s described as affordable,  my guess is the price would be in the $60000 range,  sooo affordable, right? 

Supper was a smoked chicken sandwich, homemade salsa on cottage cheese and air-fried potatoes and carrots.  

❤️Rhonda 

July #4 - a new week

Hello everyone,  

I get so my comments on my to do lists so here is the one I just wrote for this week.  I’m sure I won’t get all of it done and I’m pretty  sure I’ll do some tasks that aren’t on the list.  But it’s a guideline and it does help keep me on track.  

We had 2 big but unexpected rainfalls Friday and Saturday.

The rain on Friday made it so dark outside.  You can’t really tell it’s dark In this photo at 10 in the morning but you can see lights burning inside the house across the street and the streetlight that runs on a sensor is also on.  

We got 4 inches of rain on Friday and 2+inches Saturday night - very needed and now everything growing outside is happier.  

Hope you all had a good weekend

❤️ Rhonda 

July #3- more plants, a new mask and a DIY scooter rack

Hello everyone 

This is our zinnia patch-the easiest, least amount of effort for a field of flowers that bloom all summer.  

They are grown from seeds that I save each year.  

 Ducky posing with the flowers 

New veil mask sewn this afternoon and I really like it.  

 

veil mask instructions from JenniferMaker.com

It fits closer at the bottom than it looks like but is cooler and more breathable than other masks I’ve sewn.  

I plan to sew some more and make them an inch longer so I can tuck the bottom of the mask into whatever shirt I am wearing.  

My husband tried it and he thinks it’s great too.  

I did not put nose wire in,  the tuck at the top makes the mask fit closely.  

I used elastic for the ears and didn’t add the optional filter pocket.  

The designer says this mask can be sewn by hand and I agree with her.  If you need a mask and don’t machine sew,  I think her free pattern and instructions could help you make one.  

I’m afraid we are going to be needing masks a long time.......

This would also look much better if this mask didn’t clash with my shirt .  

We keep scooters here for the grands to ride (not that they have been here much with all the shutdowns and such 😡)

None of our scooters have kickstands and they make a big mess pile without something to stand them up.   Believe it or not, we have even more scooters but they are in a shed.  

My husband built this nifty scooter stand from scraps of 2 by 4s.  

It works perfectly and keeps the scooters upright and out of the way. 

Below is another oddball plant called a Mules Ear.  It seems to reproduce new plants on the end of the leaves.  

When it makes a new plant,  the leaf gets heavy and it drops down and I’m assuming if this was planted in the ground,  then the new plant would just grow from there.  

I plan to cut some of the babies off and put them in small pots.  



There are tiny roots coming out of the underside.  

Hope you’re all well, staying as busy as you want to be and also finding some good things to enjoy during this hard time 

❤️ Rhonda 

July things #2- food and oddball plants

Hello everyone 

Below is the produce I prepped at the first of this week 

The square dish is fresh salsa made with many grape tomatoes from our garden and they are so good! 

The grandchildren all enjoy the fairy gardens but they haven’t been here much because of covid.  I enjoy these dish gardens,  they’re just fun to rearrange and play with when we’re sitting at the patio table.  

So,  I made a second one.  I used a big a Tupperware lid that was in our discard pile and this one mainly has a turtle theme as one grandson is very fond of “tuttles”. 

And the original one 

You can buy things for fairy gardens but a lot of the stuff in ours is doodads we already had,  seashells,  little found rocks,  a sign made by a granddaughter 

We have some odd plants this summer 

This pot started out with one small succulent on the left and a painted plant my husband bought last summer. 

Both have doubled, maybe tripled in size this spring/summer. 

The one on the right has a bloom starting, similar to how a hosta blooms.  

Leaves that fell off the left succulent and landed in the pot have started many new plants,  all on their own with no help from me.

Succulents do OK inside during cold months but they really thrive outdoors in warm weather.  

2 more odd plants are Mother of Millions and Mother of Thousands.  

They both reproduce by growing baby plants along the edge of their leaves.  Then the baby plants grow into big plants when they fall in the dirt. 

These 2 plants are considered invasion in really warm climates and should be kept in pots to prevent them from taking over. 

And it’s hot here and getting hotter- but we are enjoying being outside early mornings and late evenings.  

Hope you are all well

❤️ Rhonda