Rambling

Hubby's truck is fixed. One of the mechanics offered to come in early to diagnose it, and another stayed over late to get it fixed. Tow truck guy told them we hauled for the Amish and 5 families were scrambling to cover things since our truck was down. He's been working ever since even yesterday on the 4th. He even has a job tonight if he gets back from the other job in time, if not then he has it to do on Monday. He is hoping to make up the loss income and the cost of repairs as it wasn't covered under the warranty (busted hose and plugged filter) by the end of the month.

 The family that was out of state he was suppose to go get was given bus tickets for free to get home.

I harvested a yellow crook neck squash, a green onion and some leaf lettuce. I also harvest 1/10th of the gourmet potatoes that I planted in grow bags. I got enough for 4-5 meals . Hubby did some weeding and realized I was serious when I said the veggies were not growing. Compost and fertilizer did not help enough. SO we need to decide if we are going to haul garden dirt in (a friend had to do this 3 yrs in a row) and fine compost (not course as we have in the gardens now) or go back to square foot gardens like we have been. I am voting on the square foots as they are easier to weed and don't kill my back as much.Even in the one square foot I just planted with store bought soil, germination of green beans is very slow and low. We got almost 3 inches of rain in 24 hrs this week. And the heat just pours in to steam what is planted.

E and M asked about planting garden peas this fall, E's mom had asked me the same thing. Guess it's not common in this area and they weren't sure it could be done or what to plant or when. M planted 5 lbs of seeds of garden peas this spring. She harvested enough to make one meal  for her family of 10. Nothing to can. E was plowing another area up to plant for the gardens as it is an area that hasn't flooded. Their one garden has been under water 3 times so far. They are worried A LOT. Peas, corn, green beans, kraut and potatoes are their main veggies that they can to eat during the off season (late fall, winter, early spring). She is hoping the winter squash does well to help ease that lack.E asked me if they had to buy peas or green beans at the store how to buy them . I told him #10 cans as 1 can would provide 2 meals for them.Just let me know what and how much and we would go get it for him as it can't be bought here in town.  M sent over raspberry cream cheese strudel YUM. We thanked her but not thinking I asked why she was baking on a hot day... DUH, she was washing whites and needed hot water so while the stove (they burn wood) was heating water for the laundry she baked bread, strudel, coffee cake , 4 pies and made noodles(they dry them on top of the stove) and was done by 9:30 our time . She had gotten up at 2 am (our time as they don't do daylight saving time) with E when he went to the fields to get the corn in , easier on the horses to do it then. And started her daily work  so by time the kids got up at 6 our time, she was down to finishing the bread and strudels. She is now requiring ALL the kids that are home (1 or 2 of the boys goes daily to work with E, they changes which one goes at lunch time so they aren't out in this heat all day) to lay down and rest after lunch for a couple hours, says it's her way of keeping them from getting to hot during the day. E brought the kids over last night and had them sit on our old trailer behind the garden shed to watch the fireworks. Their woods behind their house blocks the view.

We have been closing the curtains to keep the heat out...the curtains I was going to make for summer is going to be too thin to keep the heat out. SO I am thinking of making curtains that are double sided , one side lighter colored for warm weather, darker colors for winter... I will be working on these while house sitting for Son 2. Still waiting for the results of the energy audit. I called Monday and he said he had forgot to drop them off the Wednesday before as they have been sitting in his back seat of his car for a week.

I paid the bills, checked to see what we are charging on our credit cards (I pay in full each month). Fuel is up on Hubby's but down on mine. Part of mine is the medical for neighbor's baby, clothes that needed replaced that was on sale for the two of us and some medical for us.The only "extra" was the cost of the book I ordered that wasn't paid in full with my swagbucks and Pinecone payments, I spent $6 which came out of my spending money. I ordered the propane, 2000 gals. at $1.649/gal. If the price is lower, they lower my cost. We ended up with 200 gals extra last year due to the price dropping. BUT it won't go up even if it costs them more. That was a big chunk of $ and I will start putting it back next month. I have a dentist appt on Monday that is cash out of hand as we don't have dental or eye coverage.I will need to stop and get furnace filter also as Hubby thought he had one back and didn't.  I need to rebuild my savings, took a hit when I bought the new frig. Hubby is holding on his.Garden not growing is a hit. I am looking hard at the pantry and deciding what is needed to get us through  instead of what we want.

I fixed stuffed pasta shells for Wed night, AND a lasagna for today, yesterday was spare ribs and potato salad... I knew I was taking my biologic Wed night and usually I'm dragging butt for 3 days...just fall asleep off and on the day after. This time I wasn't as bad so at least with this heat 10 am and already 85 in the house *we only use AC at night if Hubby has to work the next day in the morning so he can rest well* supper is already done and can be reheated in the microwave.

How is your week going?