Posted on 06/01/2025 5:48:14 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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Heat index is based on humidity and wind, with wind I think playing less of a role.
I remember being in Albuquerque visiting relatives in high school and it was something like 104F out and did not even come close to feeling like it because it was so dry.
And this current heat wave with high humidity and temperatures in the 90’s is a killer.
BLUEBERRY PUDDING CAKE
Serve with French Vanilla or Blueberry Ice Cream
or top with blueberry syrup, whipped cream.
Ing-—2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries, 1 tsp ea cinnamon, fresh l/juice 1 cup flour 3/4 cup sugar, 1 tsp b/powder, pinch salt 1/2 c whole milk 3 tbsp. butter, softened
Toss, berries, cinnamon; sprinkle with l/juice. Spread evenly in greased 8”
sq b/dish. Whisk flour, b/powder, sugar and salt. Stir in milk and softened butter. Spoon over blueberries.
Topping:
3/4 cup sugar
1 tbl cornstarch
1 cup boiling water
Mix sugar and cornstarch; sprinkle over top of batter. Slowly pour boiling water over all (DO NOT STIR!).
In an oven preheated to 350°F for at least 15 min, bake til cake tests done (about 45-50 min).
Homestead report.
Yep, cukes and beans like it warm according to every germination temperature chart I have.
6:20 am, Soil is 77 degrees at seed depth. Water in IBC tank has warmed up to 80 and is half empty. Water run sometime in the next couple of days. Will try and check at 1pm and/or 3pm watering to see how hot the water is that comes out the drip that’s exposed to the sun all day.
I don’t have a controller out there that will read a temp sensor so I nixed the idea of logging soil temp data for now. Some other time.
5 out of 6 squash sprouted.
One Straight 8 and zero Spring Burpless cucumber sprouted.
Three watermelon, 2 of one kind and 1 of another between Sugar Baby and Otome. Can’t tell because something pulled up the Otome marker. It was brittle and is broken up in pieces 2 foot away from the bed.
One Yellow/Cherokee Wax and one Dragon’s Tongue sprouted.
I sowed 3-4 of everything except for the squash.
German Johnson plant finally has several tiny maters forming and it looks like I’m going to be loaded with Rutger’s from the four pack of plants.
Single Shishito plant is loaded with flowers and tiny peppers.
Four Habanero plants are starting to flower.
Celery is not loving the heat of course but hanging in there. Was late to plant them but they had one four pack so I grabbed it to try.
On of my does had her first twins. Saw her laying under a truck by herself yesterday so I guess she was getting ready to birth. Less than a month ago, the other doe had her first successful twins. Twins are the norm for goats but neither of these does had managed to have twins up until now. Went from 6 goats to 10 real quick. Might as well clean out the rest of my automotive/shop stuff and make the shop an official goat shed.
50’ roll of 1/4” drip line with 6” spacing emitters came in — in a 6” coil. Will have to set it in the sun for an hour, uncoil it and string it up to the tunnel sides to straighten it. I also need to make a bunch of drip stakes out of high tensile fence wire.
Waterpump for the truck came in last Thurs afternoon which didn’t help since I work Fri-Mon so I’ll be working on getting that put in this morning. Makes my back ache even more than it already does just thinking about it.
The car still has electrical issues. Been better last couple of days but the truck has nice cold AC anyway and even if I could run AC in the car, it was never great, nor is the heat on a four door economy car.
Need to do laundry, shopping and dishes. All my work jeans have doubled in weight with all the dirt. New IBC tank for the wringer washer needs cleaning to get the original lethicin syrup out. That means putting it in the back of the truck, adding 10-15 gallons of strong purple cleaner or simple green mix and driving it for a few days to agitate and then rinse it out. I need laundry like now so it’s off to the laundromat tomorrow and do shopping while it runs.
Off to play mechanic.
I made Pioneer Woman’s Pineapple Upside-down Cake yesterday. It was a present for an elderly relative who did not get a birthday cake from her family on Saturday. It turned out that this is one of her favorite cakes so it was a “score”!!
I have made this PW cake before. The cake part is really, really good. My issue was getting the middle to set. I had to leave it in the oven 50 - 55 minutes rather than the 30- 40 given in the recipe.
All this to get to the issue of a ‘cake tester’. Mine is packed up somewhere & I haven’t found it yet. I don’t like using broom straw, but I did pull a clean one from the top of a broom yesterday. I came across this article while looking to maybe order a cake tester ... very interesting & I have the perfect knife!
https://food52.com/blog/22383-the-only-tool-i-use-to-test-cakes-is-not-a-toothpick
Now that was an interesting read about cake testers!
“Diana! Where is my Axe!”
Diana to Beau: “I’ve been selling your weaponry, piecemeal, for years now and funneling the cash into my offshore account.”
Beau to Diana: “What?”
Diana to Beau; ‘Your axe is in your buckskin backpack, right where it always is. Good thing your HEAD is attached, or you’d lose that, too!” ;)
Beau's F-350 work truck has 400K miles on it, and since it's pretty old - 1999 - he can do most of the repairs himself, though parts are getting a little hard to find. And when he does find them, they're usually in a dusty box, way in the back of a warehouse somewhere...like that last scene from, 'Raiders of the Lost Ark.' ;)
LOL, too funny!
I have to admit, I’m the type that misplaces things a lot, too. Except for in my kitchen. I tend to have a very good grasp of where everything in there is located.
However, the sunglasses that were just in my head but aren’t there anymore? Why didn’t I stick them on the desk in the cubby where I keep them? Garden gloves? Oh, I took them off to answer a phone call, walked around, and I can only find one of them.
Like yesterday, today I am doing a good deep scrub cleaning on our deck. I hope I finish it all today. It’s too hot to work for more than about an hour at a time. Need water and AC breaks every so often.
Are your orioles still visiting? The ones around here don’t seem to come to the feeders very often. I’m keeping the oranges with grape jelly fresh, just in case.
P/W’s recipes are great. Will have to try that p/u/c.
My car is a CRV, and I love it. I also park far away from other cars, usually as far as I can get from a store entrance. It is a quick and easy way to get a few extra steps in, plus, fewer dings in the parking lots!
My Orioles are mad at me. After EIGHT jars of jelly, I said, ‘Enough!’ It took them about a day to stop coming to where the feeder had been. I also took in the suet and have cut WAY back on feeding them more than a scoop a day of mixed seeds and peanuts. I will feed the Hummers all summer and have planted Scarlet Runner Beans for them, too.
The two Oriole nests are still being used in the big Maple tree, so they haven’t picked up and moved, though I have not seen any young Orioles, yet. ;)
Yesterday I saw Papa Grossbeak bring, ‘Sonny’ to the feeder for the first time, so the next generation has begun and Life Rolls On. :)
PW uses a 12” cast iron skillet. I only have a 10”. I put one pineapple in the middle & 6 around the center one - perfect fit! There is a bit too much batter for a 10”, but if you use it all, it overflows the pan - I don’t use all the batter to avoid that problem. I don’t want to try to adjust the recipe .... the batter/cake is just so good.
One other thing - she just puts everything in the mixer. I mixed the sugar & butter & then added eggs & mixed, then mixed the rest of the liquids with dry ingredients (flour, baking powder & salt) added last. Just my preference to mix it that way, but I know all is well incorporated.
The Northstar Cherry trees (2) are ready to rock, so between rain showers I'll be picking. We got 3" of rain overnight with showers on and off all week. No bad wind, lots of thunder, not a lot of lightening - perfect to fall asleep to.
Currently out of stock, but they'll be available again come Spring.
https://www.jungseed.com/product/J30745/641
Your cherries look AMAZING!!
The heat index now is 101 degrees; 90 degrees real temp, but that humidity! I’ve been coming back inside about every half hour now. I’m trying to find work in the shade where I can. It’s coming along.
Just when I thought I was done putting out jelly I woke up a beautiful pair of orioles feeding. So I said, Ok one more tube.
Link is https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4320293/Have You Seen My -- or -- https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4320293/Have%20You%20Seen%20My
I need to do that because I seem to be hooked on growing them but can only eat so many with the standard recipe of blistered, salted poppers.
Awww, that’s so sweet! I’m glad they came to visit you!!
You’re so kind. :) I stockpile what I can from Dollar Tree and when it’s gone, it’s gone.
99 F350 -- https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/ford,1999,f-350+super+duty
They've got 1999 F150, F250, F350, F450, F550, F800 and F53(whatever that is). There's nothing Beau won't be able to find there and will have many choices for brand and price for common things. The database and sources for parts is mind boggling. Just gotta deal with that 3-5 day shipping time but their shipping rates are low too. Their website also has a feature where if you put a part in the cart, all other parts in the listing that ship from the same location will now have a shipping truck icon. Helps to keep shipping cost down if everything's coming from the same location.
I buy most of my parts from there unless I just can't wait for it to be shipped. Even with shipping it's cheaper than the chain stores. They have parts for cars I've never even heard of and also have a good selection of good brand names.
I had to return something once and they emailed me a return shipping label within an hour and I got the new part before I had even sent them the return.
Got the new waterpump put in the truck. Took about 3 hours and I was taking my time. Couldn't have gone any smoother - yay. All the bolts showed signs of having had anti-seize compound on them so I ran to town and got some. Now I can have AC on my hot afternoon drive home.
Almost 3pm so I'm going to go see if that drip irrigation water burns my hand when it comes out for the 3pm bean/melon seed watering. The brown line feels cooler than the black and what I just bought is black. I need to mulch over it all but am curious about exposed drip line temp.
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