I had hoped the weather would be cool enough for me to plant my fall garden last week, but with temperatures of 103ºF (39ºC), it was too hot to plant. Soil temperatures were still at 90º.
I did manage to put in a couple of hours in the garden last week and I’d like to do that again this week. I have another infestation of grape leaf skeletonizers. I made a lot of progress against them last week (or so I thought!) but they are destroying my vines some more. I am going to cut back infected vines on Monday and Thursday mornings before the trash man comes.
Unfortunately temperatures are predicted to be about the same for the first half of this week. I’ll plant some more warm weather seeds for now. Predictions for the next 15 days put us at 10º higher than average, so my fall garden might be delayed even more.
Last week had a pleasant change of plans, wherein I was finally able to talk to an old friend and his wife in France. I spent some extra time on French study before we spoke, and cast aside my other plans so that I would be able to communicate better. I think it was time well spent. Of course, that leaves most items still on my to-do list.
This week I’d like to finish adding the items we have purchased recently to our 72-hour kits. While they are not done, they will definitely be updated as much as possible at this point.
I’m also hoping to go olive picking this week. The place where I picked last year had the wind knock all the blossoms off the trees. Another place that was our (mine and my neighbors’) next choice for picking sprayed their trees so they wouldn’t fruit. I found a few trees in another place. They are already black; last year we picked green in September and even in mid-October. I’ll keep looking to see if there are other places to pick too.
Garden:
1. Spend at least 2 hours weeding and pruning in the garden
2. Plant beet seeds
3. Plant green onion seeds
3. Cut and dry basil
4. Cut and dry oregano
5. Cut and dry tarragon
6. Cut infected grape vines
7. Harvest cucumbers
8. Fertilize grass
Sewing:
1. Cut and sew cloth wipes for our 72-hour kits (to go with our portable bidets)
2. Finish sewing projects that I almost finished last week
3. Sew new apron for myself
Errands:
1. Trip to Target
2. Trip to library
3. Pick olives
Organization and Cleaning:
1. Put away outgrown children’s clothes
2. Finish organizing 72 hour kits
3. Iron and hang some hand-me down curtains for the living room
4. Clean piano with Murphy’s Oil Soap
Personal Goals:
1. Exercise 4 days this week (walking, bike riding, or exercise video each day)
2. Attend the temple
3. Watch General Conference this wekend
Blog Goals:
1. Finish and publish October’s grocery shopping plans post
This might be an ignorant question (I know nothing about olive trees!), but why would someone spray them so that they wouldn’t fruit? I would love to pick olives! They are one of my favorite treats.
I think it’s great that you were able to devote time to French so you could connect with other people. I think sometimes I tend to get so engrossed in checking items off of my list that I can neglect people time too easily.
Here is my goals list for the week: http://www.mediumsizedfamily.com/work-the-plan-goals-for-the-week-928/
Hope you have a wonderful week!
Hi Brandy & one and all, and sorry to hear about the olive tree situation and hope you find another source to pick from.
This weeks goals for my husband and myself are as follows –
Garden –
– Pick all ripe broad beans.
– Plant out coriander, German chamomile, feverfew seeds in the newly dug & now drip irrigated front garden beds.
– Create more layers of compost from vegetable scraps from blanched & frozen spinach on Friday.
– Dig in more home made compost & manure into finished rows in garden to enrich soil.
– Plant out some of the spare rows of vegetables that were harvested & finished last week.
– Cut and dry Italian parsley in the traditional way hanging upside down in paper bags on veranda.
In the kitchen
– Endeavour to make some parsley butter rolls to put in the freezer.
– Make your lovely turnip gratin from abundant crop of turnips in the garden.
– Make as many side dishes for tea using vegetables from the garden.
– Blanch, double shell and freeze all ripe broad beans.
– Keep turning the saved pumpkin seeds I have from a gifted pumpkin to dry & save for next seasons crop & some for sale.
– Take shells off saved Greenfeast peas from finished crops & let dry further to save for next seasons crops.
Grocery budget-
-Endeavour to spend only around $47 or less for the fortnight to make up for purchase of bulk manure, urea, lime & Seasol, and larger vegetable steamer purchased last fortnight. Having such a huge crop of silverbeet, spinach & broad beans to blanch and freeze we would have been there for days with the tiny vegetable steamer we had :(, another unexpected expense unfortunately.
Home making –
– Try & wash down walls & ceilings in either the lounge room or hallway with sugar soap to get rid of winter fire smoke film.
Online sewing hobby business –
-Endeavour to make 1 eye mask & 2 headbands that have sold and replace the listings online.
Have a frugal and productive week one and all :-).
I have to pack up the 18 months pjs and drag out the 2ts. Our daughter is much taller than her older brothers and is outgrowing things much more quickly. I am really surprised. Annnyhow, that is VIP because it’s going to get chilly any day now. I have to go to the store for milk and get a credit on something I was overcharged for. I have to make a dentist appointment and get blood work done.
Hi all
I’ve had to move some tasks forward to this week, but since I’ll have an alone 3 day weekend, I hope to catch up before real Fall sets in.
Goals for the week:
• Set-up field trip for art students
• Organize pie safe
• mend students’ clothes
• harvest spaghetti squash
• go through red potatoes for storage
• finish knitting hat
• start knitting Grace’s headband
• pack-up summer clothes
• search out fall clothes
• lots of above clothes to thrift shop
• keep collecting vines and branches (need enough for 10 projects)
• Inventory big pantry
• Inventory small pantry and make weeks menu with food that needs used ASAP
• Recycle plastic bags to make room for honey storage (we’re beekeepers)
It seems my goals for the week keep revolving around sewing more and more as Christmas gets closer and closer. I highlight a few of the things I made last week in this post as well as my goals for the week. I was quite proud of what I’ve gotten accomplished so far.
Past the list I put up I’ve got baking that I REALLY need to get done, but we have an allergist appointment for my son tomorrow and I am not sure how he is going to feel after prick testing and things so I’m trying to keep my schedule open for his sake. I was going to try and bake this afternoon, but due to a “Concern over a parent” at my son’s school the school was in semi-lockdown status. When I heard the troopers were at the school on the phone message and that the students weren’t allowed outside, that was it for me. I ran and got my kids early from their respective schools and came home. Glad I did it, but my kids don’t like me to bake on days like this, so my kitchen is still a mess and my baking isn’t done yet. Hopefully I can get it done within the next couple of days.
The rest of my list for the week can be found here…
http://makedohomemaker.blogspot.com/2015/09/monthly-goals-update-and-this-weeks_27.html
I successfully planted my fall garden two weeks ago. I live in Phoenix, zone 9a, and planted Silver Queen corn again. This time from seed that I found online at gurney’s. It is growing beautifully and the stalks are already 5 inches high. It has been really hot here for late September as well. I took a chance and ordered a dwarf fig tree online. At $9 I felt I had nothing to lose. It arrived looking like a stick but I planted it in a large pot and it is taking off and now has seven leaves. Might work out after all!
Have a wonderful week.
People who don’t want fruit don’t want to clean up the mess of fruit. A whole lot of trees were sprayed and they still have struggled–they lived, but the spray combined with our heat has them all looking unhealthy, sadly.
Technically, fruiting olives are illegal here! The county said people can only have fruitless olives. However, sometimes the olives fruit anyway. The house where I picked them last year has 6 trees. Four of their trees bear fruit. The man had to prove to his homeowner’s association that he had indeed bought Wilson’s olives (the legal variety for here).
I would love to have my own fruiting olive but if I buy a tree there is no guarantee that I will get fruit. However, I usually see a number of trees that fruit in town anyway. Not so much this year, unfortunately 🙁
It seems to be a warm fall this year. We’ve also had unseasonably warm weather in Ontario as well. I have a hunch that is will be one of those years that it will suddenly turn cold this year, instead of the gradual dip in temperatures we normally get. I hate when that happens…its harder to adjust to it. Anyways, here is my list of goals for this wee:
Kitchen:
*Make apple pies and apple crisp with the bushel of apples we bought over a week ago (apple marathon is happening today)
*Bake something with the bananas that went mushy (muffins and/or banana bread)
*Keep on top of making meals at home, and maybe try a new recipe or two to keep it interesting
Household:
*Gut, clean and reorganize baking cupboard and pantry (big job but needs to be done soon)
*Assemble the new shelving unit we bought and set up in daughter’s playroom/storage room
*Clean and organize playroom/storage room, getting boxes up onto new shelving unit (probably will be done next week, but I’m putting it on the list)
Errands:
*Attend eye appointment for myself one day and my mother’s eye appointment next day (drops in eyes make for a difficult drive, so we drive each other)
*Get a haircut (not had a proper one in months so it is overdue)
*Shop grocery sales to top up pantry items
Personal Goals:
*Try to remember to call a co-worker friend to give her my phone number (she retired and wanted to keep in touch)
*Keep encouraging my daughter to follow the rules at school and work hard in classroom setting (lots of Asperger meltdowns happening lately…*big sigh*)
*breath deeply and take care of self (I haven’t been feeling well lately…unusual # of headaches)
Dear Miss Brandy and readers,
Wonderful goals! Best wishes for success with them this week!
I have listed my ambitious goals on my blog so I won’t repeat them here.
One goal I do have is to start thinking about Christmas. I really want to make things for almost and already teenage girls. I am not sure what to make. That is a big goal this week. I go to the store and see things I can make and the girls might like but am uncertain. Teenagers are hard to buy for just because.
Best regards for a wonderful week and getting goals crossed off the list.
Anna
Have you ever gleaned from the purple leaf plums that are very common on the west side of the Valley, in the Summerlin area? We used to do that. They’re really wild cherries, with a tart(er), thicker skin. We would eat them raw, but of course jelly can be made – I don’t know about canning. We were the only ones I saw that ever picked them – we had a tree in our yard, and the neighborhood was lined with trees, as is Town Center Drive. It’s those trees with brilliant pink flowers around early Spring, and have dark purple foliage. Another place we would go was Gilcrease Orchard. A pick your own farm in North Las Vegas off Tenaya Way. Produce was a $1 a pound. They’d send you a list of what was available.
I’m not on the west side and I didn’t know about the plums. When do you pick them? Early June? I wish my flowering plums would fruit, but all of the ones marked for sale here are supposed to be sterile (of course, like the olives, they sometimes fruit after a few years. The ones we planted at my last house did, and I’m hoping the ones we planted here will in a couple of years).
I’ve been to Gilcrease, but $1 a pound is higher than I often pay at the grocery store, and I found that they rounded everything we picked up to a whole pound, even when it wasn’t. I was not pleased by that. Plus they are a lot further than the store, so I had gas costs to add in. I do get their emails and I know who is in charge of the growing of there (he’s a nice guy who landscaped our front yard at our old house). I use the emails to further my knowledge of the gardening calendar for this area.
I’ve picked pomegranates several times in the valley, but a lot of those houses have changed hands, and one year I found that the huge trees we picked from had died. I am hoping to find someone else who has pomegranates this year, as mine decided to split last month, and they shouldn’t be open until November.
I have 2 goals for this week, kinda sad.
I have to keep unpacking after our move last month!
and I am working on not eating out, and cooking all our meals this week.
It is sad because my kids are telling me I am all work and no play, but my house is full of boxes still and I have a pod in my driveway still have full, that has to make its way into the house!
I know I really should break that down into smaller more manageable goals instead of just saying I need to unpack, but I am feeling a little overwhelmed so that is how my mind is working this morning.
Seems like it was more around April/Easter to pick the cherry plums but I could be off. It was 4 years ago we lived there.
Goals for the week
Grocery shop. I have been extremely busy so we have been living from the pantry/freezer.
Get my house back in order. We are a family who runs well on a schedule and due to a new business we have been all over the place.
Make new bows for my daughters. Make extra to add to the gift box.
Continue on my walking. Started at 10,000 steps a day, now my goal is 15,000. I feel better and have more energy.
Continue to get up 30 minutes earlier to read devotional, pray, and have a HOT breakfast on the table. I fell into the habit of quick and easy. This simple act has made a difference in my whole day.
Paint 3 trays bought at goodwill with chalkboard paint and decorate for teacher christmas gifts.
Continue picking and processing grapes into juice.
tight right now and I have not noticed any decent sales lately on canned goods.
inting the trim to match the rest of the house and then putting it all back together in a way that makes it not only easier to use everything, but nice to actually look at and be in there. I am also adding in an area that will be dedicated to “household management” – a place to menu plan, coupon matching and bill paying – the kitchen table doesn’t work for me!
I work full time, so I like to organize my goals by day:
Work 45 minutes overtime every day Mon-Wed.
Exercise 45 minutes a day Mon-Fri.
It’s already Tuesday night! So Wed night – make a plum cake, sign up for Walmarts Saving Catcher, get ready for a mystery shopping assignment I have on Thursday night.
Thursday night after work – Complete my mystery shopping assignment, check IHeartPublix.com for coupon matchups.
Friday – Check Krazy Coupon Lady for Walgreens and CVS matchups that will start Sunday, figure out my Saturday schedule, pull out coupons for things my father buys.
Saturday – Visit my father, take him out for donuts, take him shopping and errands, pay his bills, clean up his house as needed. Errands I need to do after I drop off my father. Then yardwork in the late afternoon. Ebay and computer in the evening.
Sunday – Something fun (swimming?), plan out next week.
My goals:
Today: I already pulled the rest of the onions and put on screens to dry down, picked and processed a lot of various peppers, cooked a strange dinner, had a logger out and heard his quote and plan for logging 4 acres of timber we have, made Italian tomato sauce (from
Ball Blue Book with a few tweaks), and did a lot of school with my daughter.
Wednesday: Work, cook dinner, plan meals for camping this weekend, load camper with food (today I loaded my clothes and youngest child’s–older child will do her clothes tomorrow while I am at work.If any time left (or energy), process more tomatoes. Gather all supplies for sewing projects to take camping load in camper. Check schoolwork–her plan is all laid out and Wednesdays she works independently while I work for $.
Thursday: Clean house in morning (specifically bathroom, kitchen, trash out, laundry), check schoolwork and help with any math problems that are problems from Wednesday and Thursday, pick and process garden items in morning/early afternoon(pick beans, more tomatoes-leave in garage, cucumbers and zucchini in fridge), take kids to dance class, drive to beach to join husband and his mother who will be all set up at the campground by the time we get there. They will go that morning and spend some time.
Friday-Sunday: Camp. Fish. Hike for exercise. Sew (they watch movies if it is wet, or at night and I sew–I get more done that way since no one wants anything from me and it’s fun for me). I also hope to embroider dishtowels for an upcoming wedding. This is our 2nd wedding this fall and so I’ve already given the ones I did on the last camping trip.
Sunday afternoon/evening: pick up daughter from work (1 hour round trip each time), put things away, make dinner and clean kitchen, organize my things for work Monday.
I’m sorry–a strange dinner? What I meant was I was canning and freezing and sauted some of the peppers with onion and some sausage, made rice and defrosted some refried beans. I just grabbed whatever I could to fill them up. I normally would have made salad or an additional vegetable, like green beans or broccoli.
i like your organization to the week. I try to work extra jobs to support my family. I am going to have to try your way of setting goals. Good luck!
Anna
It’s Wednesday – so I will start there.
Wednesday – Do two loads of laundry. Do business work from home. Put items on ebay. Figure out Birthday card for my son’s teacher. Get son working on project. Go to Young Women’s tonight. Read scriptures
Thur- Do shop for daycare. Work. Continue decluttering. Take children to music class. Read scriptures.
Fri. – Continue ebaying. Decluttering. Work.
Sat. – Music class in the morning. Hit yard sales for possible Christmas items. Watch conference and declutter. Ebay.
Sun. Watch conference. Trying to do better job of honoring the Sabbath.
That’s it folks! Now off the computer to get started 🙂
Melissa, would it be possible to purchase some of the fresh produce that are on sale right now, then blanch and freeze it? Fall is harvest season, so I find a lot of fresh produce go on sale right now, like carrots, potatoes, onions etc. I recently bought a 10lb bag of carrots for $1.97. That’s a lot of carrots for us to use before they go bad, so I blanched and froze a little over half of it to use later. Kept some fresh to use right now. I don’t have a pressure canner, so I can’t can them myself, which is why I freeze.
I haven’t had the pressure canner I inherited from my parents checked yet to see if it’s accurate (the extension office used to do it) so I can’t pressure can anything yet and I only have a very small freezer which I mainly use to keep meat – I buy a lot when I find a really good deal. Right now it is also loaded in tomatoes that I haven’t had time to process yet. We prefer canned veggies (well, carrots, peas and beans anyways) over frozen as well. I will be headed to the farm stand down the road from us to get my bushels of potatoes, applesauce apples and onions later this week or early next week no that the pantry area will stay cool enough that they won’t rot in a week – it’ll depend on where I am in the grape juice processing.
Note to anyone wanting grapes – Don’t plant them over a chicken pen that’s 8 feet tall – you need a ladder to pick them and running from yellow jackets is rather difficult to achieve when you are up that high LOL OH and don’t put netting over the pen to keep the hawks and owls out because the grape vines will do that very effectively and it’s a pain to pick the grapes thru them.
I think I may start a real arbor that will be easier on my getting older body to harvest grapes from.
Anna, how about sketch books and a variety of drawing implement…conti crayons, pencils, good erasers, fine line markers, NICE colored pencils…that kind of thing. They can sketch, they can do these zentangle things that seem so popular, they can watch youtube clips on drawing. Never hurts to be able to put something on paper, whether you actually want to call it art or just even draw out a legible map to give someone directions. Also, in science classes, like Biology and Physics, your lab book will have better looking diagrams:)
I knew exactly what you meant 🙂 We have strange dinners here, too.