It’s been awhile

We have just been so busy mainly with the apartment remodel and garden. But by Saturday, Pop’s knees gave out so I’ve tried to make him rest which has been almost a losing battle. He called the VA clinic today and girl he sees is on vacation and he is too stubborn to see anyone else. O well another week of his hobbling and complaining.  So you can say the remodel job is on standby.

We do plan to start painting the old sofa today. We will do the cushions first using the Annie Sloan chalk paint method. Saw it on youtube and ordered 2 quarts of the white paint. It is pretty expensive but you dilute it half with water.

The home place is looking so nice and with the rains we have been getting each week, it is still green around the place.

The garden is coming on nicely as well. The lettuce is over but we have green peas and green beans and new potatoes. There are baby squash and small green tomatoes and peppers. So todays lunch will feature greenbeans and new potatoes.

Since this photo was taken, the tomatoes and peppers and beans have doubled in size in less than a week.

Hope to get on here later this week. In the meantime as always…………

Apartment Remodel

 

Man we have been so busy this past week that I have not taken time to get online to post anything. We are in the middle of remodeling the apartment attached to our big shop. This will be my “she-shed” instead of building an entire new one. This one will allow me to have a kitchen and bath with a shower if we need and then also an extra bed for when company calls. We do plan to build the bed where it folds up to the wall like a murphy bed. I usually tell hubby what I want and then he builds it.

Anyway the walls and ceilings are now painted. This is before shot.

It was originally to be a workshop area for my ceramics so it was originally feather painted pink. Then the youngest son needed a place to live so we painted it dark green and added red carpet along wtih a wallpaper border at the top. We used whatever sheetrock walling we had on hand and was hurriedly put together. We bought the apartment size stove and refrigerator at that time. Well over the years the sunlight from the sliding glass door faded the red carpet so the place was awful looking.

I am taking photos as we redo it. Here are the walls after painting.

Since these photos were taken, we have put up cornish boards at the top and the striping along the ceiling and installed 3 new ceiling lights.

Our plans are to build doors in the bottom of the countertop in the kitchen area and also install the sink in the bathroom at an angle to a corner and build in a cabinet for it as well.

I will have more photos coming. Today Sonny is painting the baseboards and we will go Monday and pick up the flooring to install. Sundays are our days off to rest and to go to church so nothing more will be done until Monday.

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We have had such strange spring weather. Much cooler and cloudy and rainy alot. I hate to complain but we really need some warmer weather for the garden to grow. The asparagus is done as is the lettuce. We have eaten a few pea pods in stir fry lately but will let the peapods now make peas. We replanted butter beans twice and must have been bad seed so we got dried beans from the grocers and planted them and everyone we planted came up. The potatoes are blooming and won’t be long for eating new potatoes.

Just views from the top of our hill down towards the garden.

And as always………………

 

 

 

 

Brighter days

Well we made it through a week of glorious sunshine and now onto more rain. But it was nice to get into the garden and do work around in the yard.

The garden grew some with the heat but the cool cool mornings slowed it down a lot. We had temps as low as 43 for a few mornings but now back into the 60’s. The iris are almost spent and I’ve dead-headed blooms and removed stalks and next week plan to start weeding them again. I’m going to get some mulch to spread over to keep the weeds down. We also cut back the ivy out of the old washers. They grew down covering them so you didn’t know what they were. And then because of the way ivy clings it pulled paint from them so we have once again repainted them red. I’m only showing one here.

The clematis have begun blooming and are just gorgeous.

The garden is coming along and has grown more since I took this photo. We are still eating lettuce and green onions but the asparagus is over. The green peas are blooming so won’t be long before we have them to eat.

On Mother’s Day, 2 of the sons called to wish me Happy Mom’s day. Hubby took me out to eat at local Mexican café after church. While we were in town, one of the daughter-in-laws and her 3 girls snuck out and left me a surprise.

The card is HUGE and the plant gorgeous. Of course Sonny has the green thumb so he will be taking care of it for me.

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Alittle side note on the new diet. I’m on the downside and of course eating corn chips and a wheat tortilla on Sunday while eating out did not help. I gained almost 2 lbs just that day. My stomach also bloated so think gluten maybe the cause of some of my weight gain. I am looking at gluten free recipes now. I have arrowroot powder and coconut flour but will buy some almond flour soon and see what I can concoct. I have tried the coconut flatbread and coconut-sweetpotato crackers and I’m not too fond of the taste of either. Since I plan to eliminate red meats from my diet except occasionally…I decided to make a bean burger. I looked up recipes and found one for black beans. I think my mistake was putting everything into blender at one time. Next time I will chop them separately. They were a little mushy but tasty. Here is basically what I did.

I used some black beans we had frozen from our garden last year and I boiled them until tender. I then drained them well and put into my food processor with red roasted peppers and onion and added cumin, chili pepper blend and cayenne pepper, 1 egg and sea salt and gave it all a whirl. Then since it was kind of mushy, I sprayed some foil with Pam and put a big scoop in the center and kind of gathered the foil up around to form a patty but left the foil open at the top. Hubby put them on the grill along with his pork chops. They did have the look of a hamburger but they would not hold up on a bun. But we ate them like that and really they tasted pretty good. Today for lunch I’m making arrowroot crepes and then fill with smoked turkey from the deli along with some steamed veggies.

Breakfast has been the hardest for me. I never was much of a cereal eater but love my toast, jam, egg and sausage or ham. Since I’m off red meats, I’m trying to substitute the smoked turkey and mainly eating 2 scrambled eggs with green veggies and the turkey. But I miss my bread!!! I’m going to have to figure out how I can get my bread fix without gluten. I will keep experimenting.

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And as always…..