Friday, August 17, 2012

The pool is up, and almost ready!

      I know the season is almost over, but remember: we live in Alabama! It isn't fall yet! True, we've had some rainy and cooler than nineties weather on some days lately. But, it's still hot and very humid! If the season carries on like last year, we'll be swimming through October! We will see! The country has such varied weather conditions! I'm very thankful for the rain we had! It helped to fill the pool a little. The only thing is, mosquitoes! They will "Eat you up!" As the sun sets, or in a shady place. I usually don't notice them as much, but they have been bothering me! Another thing with the rain is, more mowing! We can't seem to keep ahead of the weed-eating! There are so many weeds! Or tall grass, to be correct. There seems to be a lot a Southerner has to deal with that others may not. Like I said before, got to love the South!

      I had Win again this week, for a few days. She is such a character! She keeps me on my toes! I got a few things done while she was here; but more after that. There will be many photos below, so you will see what we've been doing lately. Randy checked the beehive this week, but the honey isn't capped off yet. The frames are getting really heavy, so it shouldn't bee to much longer until we harvest our honey. I couldn't go out with him to take photos this time since Win was here. I'm really excited to see how much honey we get! I hope it will be enough that I'm reading how to use honey in recipes instead of sugar! We have been told that our hive is really strong! Most hives don't make enough to harvest honey the first year. I think it's because of the early Spring we had with all of the pollen. There are still bees getting pollen from our butterfly bushes! The honey will probably have an interesting flavor.

      Skylar starts back to school on Monday! I can hardly believe it's time already! He's been working hard all summer without much of a break! I made up some biscuits and froze the dough. That way, he'll have a nice hot biscuit and sausage every day if he wants one! They are not the best biscuits, though. I've been living in the South all of my life and still have yet to master the art of making biscuits! I will get it, hopefully! I'm already looking for another recipe to try. I can't believe it's the weekend already, either! Hope ya'll have a good one! Blessings from Bama!

Two eggplants harvested from the garden. I made the Parmesan with one and sliced and froze the other.

Some tomatoes and fennel seed from the garden.

Granola in the making!

I almost forgot to take a picture! I ground a chuck roast with the meat grinder attachment.

The meat after grinding. I added some carrots and onions for meatloaf.

This is the 'squash' plant that came up on its own. It is humongous!

Voluntary basil plants.

These are monarch caterpillars. They feed on the fennel plant.

The pumpkin vine didn't make it. Only the voluntary squash plant has survived, from those type plants.

Pear vinegar in the making! I have since replaced the napkin with a coffee filter and rubber band. It has white, moldy stuff on top. I need to read about that.

I got this much granola from the batch I made in the Crockpot.

It is delicious!

These small yellow tomatoes are from a voluntary plant. I did have these last year. They are delicious too!

Win putting her clothes on by 'herself'! Those are her shorts!

My shoes, Ran's socks!

The pool is almost filled.

Lovely Graham Thomas rose.

Close up.

I can't even begin to describe the intoxicating fragrance of this rose!

Close up.

This rose is almost equally intoxicating!

It's a climber. 

I believe this came from one of those caterpillars.

Isn't he lovely?

Bees are hard to photograph.

I have been growing fennel for several years. It just occurred to me that I could harvest my own fennel seed! 

Another lovely!

This one flutters his wings so fast, I could hardly get his picture!

Fennel seeds are not easily ground! I will use them in the sausage, whole!

Shredded and ready to be frozen!

My poor, thin biscuits! I will make them thicker next time!

The pool is filled! Now to attach the pump and add the chemicals!

10 comments:

  1. Hi Bama Girl, Glad you got your pool back up to enjoy for awhile yet. Be careful those skitoes tho with the Niles fever. Your granola looks so good and Win dressing herself is so cute! Nancy

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    1. Hi Nancy! Yes, one must be careful of the nasty viruses gotten from mosquitoes! The granola is delicious! Win's a character!

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  2. Ahhh,the mosquitos. It seems they have been non-existent this summer and now-wham! they are everywhere. I guess it is all the rain. Our summer garden is dying down, but our peas,rutabegas, and acorn squash are coming up. We'll see.

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    1. Hi MamaHen! Hope your garden does well this fall! Sure would like to get some of those rutabegas!

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  3. The mosquitoes are bad here this year too. Too much rain, though I guess we should be happy considering the rest of the country but it is raining again today and I just put a bunch of hay in the pigs pen yesterday!
    Love the butterflies. Phil mistakenly cut my new butterfly bush down :(
    Love the fennel seeds. I really need to grow some for sausage as they are a bit expensive.
    The pool looks great! I know you are going to enjoy that.

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    1. Hi Becky! Yes, I am glad we're getting rain, in spite of the mosquitoes! Sorry about the butterfly bush! You would love the fennel! It smells so good in the garden! I can hardly wait to get the pool ready! I hope we get to use it before closing it for the winter!

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  4. Hey Bama Girl! Love all the things you shared. I've not cooked/grown fennel seeds before and that might be something we need to try here next year. Love eggplant parmesan too, particularly with fresh-from-the-garden eggplant. Yours looks great. We've not seen monarchs here, nor seen their larvae, you are lucky! (I take that back, I think I've seen and been able to photograph maybe 'one') That is definitely monarch butterfly larva, but the yellow butterfly with black striping, might be an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, (SC's State Butterfly - we have LOTS of them here:)). The golden butterfly looks like it's a fritillary butterfly and they are so beautiful up-close-and-personal. We have those here and their wings have an almost metallic look. I could almost smell the loveliness of your roses! And still so envious of your pool! Ya'll are so going to enjoy your pool! Thanks so much for sharing all the wonderful things you are up to. P.S. I've lived in the South all my life.... and I've never learned how to make decent biscuits. :)

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    1. Hi Lisa! Thank you for correcting me on the butterflies! I wished I could identify them all and maybe one day I will! That is probably swallowtail larvae on the fennel. If we could dry out the sand, we could put it in the ladder to weigh it down. It only floats now, when placed into the pool! I am going to master the biscuit making!

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    2. You're doing great! I so struggle with larva and butterfly ids.... and ids of other nature things... that's why I want to be a Nature Detective when I grow up. :) You might want to check out this link for help with your butterfly/larva
      http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Papilio-glaucus
      http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Danaus-plexippus
      The first is the link to the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail larva and butterfly info and images, and the second is to the Monarch. Good luck!
      PS my biscuits look exactly like yours!
      Have a terrific day!

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    3. Hi Lisa! That was so thoughtful of you to return and give us links! I hope to check them out soon! Thanks and hugs!

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