Posted on 06/01/2026 6:10:43 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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I sure hope things even out for you. You’re having all the rain I had last year. The radar doesn’t look good for any of us these days. :(
More rain for me this afternoon. I really need to fertilize my tomatoes, as they’re blooming right now, but I like to use a liquid fertilizer and they’ve wet enough as it is.
We are back from our retirement celebration with family! It was WONDERFUL! I am tan and tired, but very happy. The retirement party was everything we had hoped it would be. 19 adults, 8 children, all had a great time. The house that we rented was across the street from a Tampa Bay beach (think small pockets of sand with lots of vegetation around), and a mile to the Gulf side beach, which had white sand and beautiful turquoise water. We did go to Bean Point one afternoon, but that was a LONG walk in deep, hot beach sand, so we went to the Gulf beach the next days.
Now that we are back, it felt almost like Father’s Day WEEK! Every day was very busy with young children around. The children ranged in age from 6 months to 9 years. My sisters and their families only stayed until Tuesday afternoon, which gave us time with our kids and grandkids by ourselves for a few days.
We went on a dolphin watching tour, and got to see LOTS of them, maybe 30-40 in all. Also saw 5 manatees.
Between our pet sitter and God, the garden looks pretty good! My tiny little shishito peppers (from seed) are growing in their little pots, so I will be working on getting those into bigger pots this week. The coolapeño has two tiny peppers growing on it. The cherry tomatoes I planted all have little flowers on them. I had fertilized them before we left, so I will do that again this week.
My milkweed is blooming prolifically, so the monarchs should be very happy this year when they get here. There should be plenty of food for all of them who make it through their lifecycle. I see lots of work to do outside, but after a long travel day yesterday (13 hours on planes, trains, and automobiles), I am taking most of the day off, save a little bit of weeding when I went to check on plants.
While it was a terrific vacation with our family, and at a beautiful location, it is also GREAT to be HOME!!
The I-70 corridor east of St. Louis is getting dumped on again, now, too. I wish we could get 1/3 of that, at 1/3 the intensity. Among other things, the storms on the 18th destroyed a corvette museum in Effingham, IL:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ch4bh3SVaAU
:-(
Welcome Home! We missed you! :)
What a shame - all those pretty cars!
We lost our Salt Shed at the Town Hall where we vote and Beau holds all of his Important Town Meetings. Turns out we had an F-1 Tornado north of us last week when it was so nasty.
Free road salt if you want to shovel and haul it yourself, LOL!
15 Popular ‘80s Recipes Worth Bringing Back
I still eat some of these!
Chicken Marbella
Loaded Baked Potato Skins
Homemade Sushi (Versus Gas Station Sushi?)
Lava Cake
Blackened Chicken
Broccoli Casserole with Rice
Maple, Apple & Pecan Baked Brie
Baby Back Ribs
Gourmet Microwave Popcorn
Loaded Beef Nachos
Chicken Stir-Fry with Ramen
Chili Dogs
Pasta Primavera
Pudding Pops (Mom made these for us all summer long)
https://www.allrecipes.com/most-popular-1980s-recipes-11991721?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
That choked me up!
Today is the longest day of the year. Tomorrow they will get shorter! 😱
Ritz-Carlton Irish Coffee
Melds smooth Irish whiskey, rich brown sugar, fresh-
brewed coffee, topped w/ chilled, lightly whipt h/cream.
Ing---1 1/2 oz Irish Whiskey (Jameson or Bushmills) 1-2 tsp
Br/Sugar 3-4 oz fresh-brewed coffee, chilled, lightly whipt h/cream.
METHOD---Set heatproof, footed coffee mug filled w/ boiling water a min, then discard water. Add brown sugar to hot, empty glass. Pour in hot, freshly brewed coffee 3/4 full. Stir well to dissolve sugar. Pour in Irish whiskey then a gentle, brief stir. Lightly whip chilled heavy cream thick but still pourable (soft-peaks). Place back of warm spoon just above surface of coffee; slowly pour cream over spoon (to float cream perfectly on top).
TIPS--Do not stir cream into coffee; authentic Irish Coffee custom is
to sip hot, boozy coffee directly thru chilled layer of soft-whipt cream.
First Day of SUMMER in SW Wisconsin - it’s been raining since 3pm. It is currently 57 degrees!
After barn chores I took a shower and then put on leggings and a sweatshirt.
I’m TRYING to grow tomatoes here; they are not in the LEAST bit happy. :(
Global Warming my Aunt Fanny! ;)
I’ll be honest. I’m not sure if my tomatoes are happy or not. All I can tell is that they weren’t shriveled and dry when I got home. Everything DID get bigger!
I’m feeling similarly after our camping trip, with a little bit of recovery mode added. :-)
Alway regret missing something because its cloudy or foggy or something. The advantage of living in an age with cameras is that someone managed to record the event. Check YouTube and I bet its there. (It will probably be posted on the APOD thread in the future. )
It was 78 or 79, at 2:00, sorta cool...... Now, 9:52....67F Astronomical Twilight, its actually chilly. (Beets are happy and have not dried out. Still have peas! Potatos have not died from the heat! (I grew them for the challenge and for practice.) Bags with sweet potatoes are not happy. Tomatoes are pretty happy and have set fruit. Basil is very happy! Melons and Butternut Squash are getting ready to start running. Not a typical KS summer.
Note re Japanese Beetles. They supposedly do not like red Cedar. I cut back my Plum trees and mulched around them with red cedar and so Far have only seen 2 Japanese Beetles. Might be something to try. If it works let people know! (I intend to spray them with a dilute Red Cedar oil soulution at some point anyway.)
BLUEBERRY BUCKLE
Gild the lily w/ lavish garnish of blueberry pie filling.
Ing: 1/2 c butter 3/4 c sugar 1 egg 1/2 c milk 2 tsp b/powder 1/2 tsp salt 2 c flour 2 1/2 c blueberries
Method: Cream butter/sugar. Add egg, milk, b/powder, salt, mix well. Stir in flour, cup at a time. Fold in berries. Bake in greased 9" square, Topping sprinkled over evenly 375 deg 40-50 min.
TOPPING: 1 c ea dk brown sugar, flour 1/2 c butter 1 tsp cinnamon. Mix crumbly w/ pastry cutter.
Oh, I forgot to mention “our” fireflies. We apparently have thousands of them in the trees around our property. Going out and seeing them @ twilight or shortly after is always kind of magical. :-)
One could almost say fireflies led me to getting married and a few years later becoming a Father, but that’s a whole ‘nother story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezoXQaRl5uE
Happy Belated Father’s Day to any Dad’s reading this!
Speaking of dry, NWS had us forecast for around 2” of rain over the weekend, and we received (per NWS) 0.05”. That’s usually been the pattern this Spring and Summer.
I’ll be going out to give the well pump another workout, in a bit...
I note that at least one of the descriptions includes: “Much Larger Open Door for Easier Catching”.
Practical translation: “That sneaky/quick black hen will be past you and in the yard faster than you can say “DANGIT!!”
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