Sally's GF3 thread

[Sally PB]

My package from OOOOOPS is "out for delivery." My day is held hostage until it arrives, or there is another "exception." I don't dare go anywhere out of site of the house.

Positive spin, Sally, positive spin...

I'm going to get so much housecleaning done!

 

[Sally PB]

Well, this brightens my day... I won 4th place in the story writing contest.

And this brightens my house: I washed a bunch of windows. The ones in the mudroom definitely should be washed more than every other... uh... decade. I opened them up at least half a stop!

 

[Sally PB]

My sweet potato slips arrived! This driver had never been to my house, but he did find it. So, yeah, it IS possible. He also had no issues driving up my driveway, turning around, or finding the package on his truck.

The slips look a bit the worse for wear, understandably. They're sitting in a glass of water. I think I might treat them with some rooting compound and put them in little pots so that I can monitor them more closely. I no longer have 90 days (dependably) for growing them. We'll see. Maybe I'm just not destined to have sweet potatoes.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Fingers crossed, potatoes are pretty resilient. At least, until drown them, then all bets are off.

 

[Sally PB]

Fingers crossed, potatoes are pretty resilient. At least, until drown them, then all bets are off.

Thanks. Yeah, I know they're resilient. I just need them to get off to a fast start, if possible. My first average is mid/late-September, though it can be "late" and be early October. I can't count on the 143 day growing season (!) that the Farmer's Almanac online said Grand Rapids has.

They're in my downhill garden, and it can get frost before other places. I tried them in my uphill garden, but I think the heavy soil was more than they could handle. Zero tubers.

 

[Sally PB]

These two are the best looking of the sweet potato slips. I potted them each in their own little cup, the better to keep an eye on them for a few days.


I was thinking to plant them in the garden on Monday. But I might wait a few more days, as we are going to have much cooler weather next week, with highs in the low 70s.

 

[Sally PB]

Ramble ramble...

A few years ago, we bought an old house on 5 acres that adjoins our property. It went into foreclosure, so it was cheap. We had ideas of fixing it up for a rental or an air B&B.

The owner was an old man, a hoarder, and when he left, he didn't shut the door. We couldn't access it (legally) for a year. So... raccoons and other critters moved in. But mostly raccoons. Have I said how much I hate raccoons? Wow, can they make a mess. And they smell. And they poop everywhere, and that smells.

DH repaired the bad spot in the roof, and we took 3 or 4 dumpsters of trash out of it. Other projects came along, as other projects will. This spring, DH said he was going to fix the other part of the roof.

Weeell..... it was in a lot worse shape than he had thought. All the rain of The Great Washout of '23 (5 inches of rain in about 2 hours) along with the snow we had last winter had brought down some of the ceiling. The roof itself was in much worse shape than it appeared.

Yeah, we should have torn off the roof and re-roofed it as soon as we had clear ownership. But though the property was cheap, it wasn't free, and this was back when we worked 50+ hour weeks and made about $65K/year between the two of us.

DH was upset with what he found; he has a big soft spot in his heart for old farmhouses, having grown up in one. I feel much less sentimental about this place, but it is a shame. It seemed to have "good bones," but the amount of money and work it would take to make it some place someone would pay to stay in...

Soooo... what to do with it? It will become more and more of an eyesore, as the roof caves in and raccoons (and who know what else) take over. I called a couple of demolition places, and it would be $20K to have it torn down.

Or... call the local fire department. They need to practice, don't they? Yup, they do. At some point this summer, we will have a bonfire of epic proportions out there.

 

[Sally PB]

Not a lot, but there are a few more scapes to pick in the garden.

 

[Sally PB]

"Wide spread accumulating rain on Sunday" is music to my ears! Sunday, and possibly Monday and Tuesday.

Right now, I'm cooking some rhubarb jam. I've never made anything with rhubarb before. We'll see how it goes.

Funny how we treat rhubarb as a fruit, but it's a vegetable. And we treat tomatoes as vegetables, though they're a fruit.

Speaking of 'maters, I have half a dozen plants with flowers. Some are cherry tomatoes, and there are at least 3 plants of Italian Heirloom with flowers. That was one of my biggest producers last summer. The seeds were saved from my plants.

 

[Sally PB]

Jam is done, and I like it. Hubby hasn't tried it yet. I didn't process it, so it's just in jars that will go in the fridge when they cool off.

I got the gist of the recipe off the internet, but changed/added some things.

6+ cups rhubarb, cut into small pieces
2 cups sugar
Juice of 1 lemon (1/4 cup-ish)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Put the rhubarb and sugar in a bowl and mix well. Cover and let rest in the fridge for 8 hours or overnight. The sugar will draw liquid out of the rhubarb.

Pour the rhubarb/sugar mix into a large stainless steel or enamel pan. Add the lemon juice and cinnamon. (Don't use an aluminum pan, as it will react with the lemon juice.)

Bring to a boil, lower heat, and boil 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn heat down to low, and continue cooking until thickened. Stir often to keep mixture from scorching.

When it's a jam-like consistency, pour into clean, sterile, half-pint jars and process in boiling water for 10 minutes. If you want to do pint jars, process for 15 minutes.

Next time, I think I might use more cinnamon, or maybe add some ground cloves. I always go light on cloves; a little goes a long way.

I might also cut back on the sugar a bit, maybe to 1-3/4 cups. This doesn't have any pectin, so it needs the sugar to gel. It certainly is plenty sweet as it is.