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Thursday, November 4, 2021

My Week -- Mostly Good

Hi friends,
How has your week been? It's been a mostly good week, here. Wet and windy and all that brings to our area.

I was in the mood for chocolate chip cookies last week but didn't want all of the sugar and fat that cookies typically contain. So, I made chocolate chip mini muffins. The batch made as many mini muffins as the same amount of chocolate chips would make cookies. Only, I used more flour, less sugar, and less fat (and I used oil instead of butter). These were very tasty. I added a full tablespoon of vanilla extract and some molasses to boost the flavor of the batter, and whole wheat flour for part of the flour for added nutrients.

As it turns out, both of my green pumpkins are showing signs that they will turn orange. That's exciting for me. In total, we got 12 pumpkins and winter squash.


I thought I'd share an update on my indoor radishes. They really put on growth this past week. I think I'll start harvesting them for use in a toasted salad on Friday, where I'll use both the leaves and roots.


Believe it or not, I'm still harvesting fresh raspberries every few days. These are overbearing raspberry plants. They produce medium size crops in mid-summer and larger crops in fall if kept watered through summer. The small bowl above was harvested early on Thursday (Nov. 4). There are still more berries forming on the canes, which I expect I'll be picking in a few days. Depending on when cold weather sets in, I may or may not get 2 more pickings. (Or maybe not, keep reading.) We began this one patch with a single cane and will be moving some of the escaped canes to a new bed next spring to double our output of overbearing raspberries.

I'm still harvesting from the garden every day. I have Brussel sprouts, beets, turnips, kale, Swiss chard, green onions, cauliflower (that never flowered but I'm using the leaves), parsley, spinach, lettuce, and nasturtium leaves that I can pick, at least in small amounts. Planting several items in troughs and containers on the deck for a fall garden has worked out very well for us. The deck veggies seem to be doing better than those down below in the garden.

Late Thursday afternoon, a large tree came down onto our house, taking out the back part of the vegetable and raspberry garden. We've had some heavy rains and then Thursday had some gusty winds. The soggy soil loosened the roots enough that a big gust of wind was able to topple the tree. My husband and I spent an hour cutting away what we could and will work more on it Friday before hiring someone to finish the job. We're not even sure yet if there's significant damage to the roof as it came down onto attic space. One of us will go up to the attic to check for openings in the roof later today. While this was definitely not a good thing, our garden will receive more sun in spring and summer as a result of this tree coming down. Looking for the silver lining to this cloud. We've lived in this house for 26 years and have now had 8 trees come down unplanned, hitting the house on 3 of those occasions. You'd think we'd want to move to a treeless lot, wouldn't you?

I had another curbside grocery pick-up this week, again at Fred Meyer. This bag charge thing seems to be fluid. This week, no charge for the bags, and they were using plastic bags that were printed "Pick-up". I don't know if they were using up their old supply of plastic "Pick-up" bags so didn't charge me for them, or if the bag charge on pick-up orders only has been rescinded. I'll find out next time. Anyway, back to my order, I found eggs on sale for 85 cents/dozen in 18-ct cartons (with coupon, limit 5 cartons). I bought the limit, which came to 7 1/2 dozen eggs. This should last us a while. I also noticed that Fred Meyer's 5-dozen box of eggs was less expensive (and not on sale) than a few weeks ago, leaving me to wonder if egg prices are moderating a bit. 

A mostly good week. What were the highlights (or lowlights, as the case may be) of your week? Any interesting weather in your area? 


2 extra posts:

Getting More Servings of Fruits and Vegetables Into Each Day

Cheap & Cheerful Meals This Past Week


10 comments:

  1. Trees..they seem to be a problem. I had a neighbor tell me that there was a tree way in the back that was old and about to fall and that in his words "if you know that a tree is old and could fall, you have a responsibility to have it taken down or you could be liable for damage if it falls on someone else's dwelling". Turns out is was on his property after all. So I never walk around the property bordering someone else's to look because then I can always say I didn't know about it. I will however watch trees close to my home because I wouldn't want them to fall on my house.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We have had several trees come down over the years during a storm, but never on our house. Here's hoping there you have minimal roof damage. Were you home when it happened? That sounds scary.

      Delete
    2. Hi Alice,
      Trees can definitely be a problem. It's expensive to have trees taken out, so we've been working at taking out smaller trees ourselves before they get too big. This particular tree caught us by surprise.

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    3. Hi Live and Learn,
      All four of us were home and it was loud when it hit. No warning, like a crack sound we sometimes have heard when a tree snaps off. This one just hit with a super loud thud. I think the roof damage will be something we can get repaired quickly and not too costly.

      Delete
  2. Oh my, sorry about your tree. I hope it fell nice and gently and didn’t damage your house. My family all lives in Cedar Rapids, and most had trees come down on their houses during that derecho they had last summer. No one was hurt, but all had damage. We had a little thunderstorm last night. So strange for Montana in November. My dd was out walking her dogs and she got caught in some hail I guess, but we didn’t have hail out here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Diane,
      we won't know for sure the roof damage until the trunk is taken off the roof. It's a leafy tree so the damage on top of the roof is hidden by leaves. It wasn't quite a gentle fall, but a loud thud. There were things that kept it from crashing through the roof and for that we're grateful.
      That derecho must've been scary for your family. I'm glad no one was injured. That's what I've been grateful for, the tree came down over attic space and not where anyone might have been.

      Delete
  3. Any updates on your roof? We have taken out 4 trees since moving to our home. Two were smaller and we did it ourselves. A third tree was right outside a bedroom window and we removed that early on--it was too close to the house for comfort, plus, with the branches over the house, it was making problems for our roof. A couple of years ago we had to remove a spruce on the border of our property. You would think we live on a huge piece of property, but that isn't true--but we are in an older neighborhood with lots of mature trees. I know they can be work, but I love the look of mature trees.

    Hmmm, muffins. I haven't made muffins in awhile and, like you, I'm trying to be more health conscious. That may be part of the plan for tonight! Also, I'm salivating from looking at your raspberries. I splurged on a a small package this past week. We no longer have any in our garden and I miss them.

    The highlight of my week is that when I took my cat for a repeat visit to the vet yesterday, the lump she felt in his abdomen is gone, so she thinks it was some sort of intestinal bunching rather than a tumor. Whew! She wanted to do a full blood workup so we went ahead with that. He is showing borderline anemia and borderline high thyroid, so we are keeping an eye on that--but at least everything seems to be treatable. It's been a year of a lot of changes for me and the thought of losing our beloved cat was hard, so I'm relieved that he's just having some typical age-related issues and nothing drastic.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Great news about your cat’s scary lump disappearing! I’m in a similar situation with our family dog. The initial visit’s outcome (antibiotics) didn’t help, now the lump is larger. Back to the vet tomorrow afternoon. Paws crossed!

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    2. Hi Kris,
      I'm glad your cat's issues are treatable and the lump has disappeared. I'm sure you're all quite relieved.
      We have someone looking at the tree right now. He came recommended by a neighbor, so we're hopeful he can do this and soon. We'll know later this afternoon when he provides a quote.

      Delete
    3. Hi Vanessa,
      I'm sorry to hear about your dog and hope that his situation improves very soon.
      Sending hugs. I know how our pets are part of our families.

      Delete

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