So there went August

Yep there it went. August was a hard month. Lots of fun things happened too so I should focus on those.


Yesterday was a pretty lazy day. I'm discouraged in my garden so mostly i'm just watering it and picking tomatoes or other things for salsa. I should spray things and kill bugs but it doesn't seem to do much good so I'm kind of letting it go....



I've only got two of these little cantolopes still left on the vine.

Oh and I tried a little cow horn pepper. I took a tiny bite off the very end (the 'coolest' part of a pepper) and the thing lit my mouth up like the fourth of july. I had planted types that said they were mild, but someone must have a different idea of mild then I do. my anahiem, poblano and hole mole ones are pretty mild, the rio grande, and mucho nacho are medium spicy fyi.


So like I said, yesterday was a lazy day except I did make pickles. I went somewhat off of this recipe: http://postmodernfeeding.blogspot.com/2009/08/spicy-quick-dill-pickles.html but made changes cause thats what I do. All the cukes, dill, coriander, and peppers were from my garden. Mine aren't very spicy (cause I know my roommates won't eat em so I only used two anahiem peppers), or very pretty (odd shaped cucumbers) but they are very tasty. I made three jars full so if you are around you should come try them. It says they'll last for a month in the fridge. I think they are getting stronger as time goes by so if I make them again I will use less vinegar.



Can you tell that I've already been eating on them? They are funny shaped because thats the kind of cukes I grow!









I had tons of cucumbers but the problem is about 1/2-1/3 of them are extreemly bitter. So I peeled every one and tasted everyone. The non-bitter ones were made into pickles. Then I tried to get the bitter out of the bitter ones by soaking them in salt waters, but that didn't work so well. A couple soaked out but I would've had to taste every single piece again and it was nasty enough the first time!





Anyways I lost my phone a week ago. So I went to the store and got a new one yesterday. Mama found my old phone today. It was in the apron pocket that I cooked in last week. See this is why I have a rule that I don't worry about anything lost for at least a week. Oh well. The old phone is having trouble. The one thing is that there are still some pictures on it that I didn't send myself from my weekend in Idaho. i might take it in to see if they can turn it back on just long enough to get those off...

Last weekend was awesome. I think I need to get out and do things more often because it actually did help me have a much better attitude going into last week. I did a bunch of things with Cathy including checking out Utah Lake (yes I've lived her over 5 years and never made it to the lake thats just down the hill). Its not that bad, except for the massive amounts of bugs that come out at night. Its cause its way marshy and I'm used to man made lakes mostly that don't have a lot of marsh.

The next day we went fishing! I love fishing. However my fishing pole is still in New Mexico (Angela and Mom please bring me my fishing pole if you can!). Cathy had an extra fly rod (its Malinda's) and so I fly fished. Thats way fun! I stood in the river which automatically makes things funner. I don't quite have the hang of it, but I sure hope to practice in the future. I think I'll price out Walmart and Cabellas and get some polarized sun glasses I don't know that Cathy will want to go with me again because she actually likes to catch things.... somehow fish know that I don't really want to catch them and they've obliged so far. Thanks fish! Thanks Cathy (and Malinda)!

After fishing and our picnic lunch on the middle provo (between jordanelle and deer creek) we went swimming at deer creek. holy cow I'd forgotten how much I love swimming in lakes. it is so relaxing and fun. The weather was perfect, even if that meant the lake was more crowded then I've ever seen it. That was fun though because more boats equals more waves. I like waves. I've got to get up there a bunch more to make up for all the waisted summer.

Earlier this month I went up to Idaho for the Owyhee County Fair. Thats always fun and usually crazy hot calling for lots and lots of $2 snowcones. This time i was prepared with shorts and sandles and t-shirts and cash. It ended up being rainy and cold, but I still used the money! I like the chill better to be honest. Other then almost dying on my way there it was great. I know some of the kids didn't show as well as they hoped, but considering they almost didn't have pigs to show, and they sold them for more then last year, I think they should be proud of what they did. i love that the Idaho Helms have so many entries in the different catagories and get so many ribbons! Way to go guys!

I'm missing a bunch of photos I took with the kids and their pigs. So sad, but hopefully they'll post some on their blog soon.

Here are photos from the crazy storm that kicked up (hence bringing the cold weather to the fair) and caused me to almost die.,.. ok not really, but it was scary.

Here is a picture of the sun, the smoke from the fires caused it to look like this way through northern utah. Then just past the Idaho border the wind kicked up and blew tons of dust into the air. So that visability was reduced to very short. Pictures don't work real well, but if you look you can only see like 2-3 white stripes ahead.

I had slowed down since a truck going the other way had flashed me.

All of a sudden there was a semi stopped in front of me. I stopped in time. Then I realized that the next guy might not and I'd get squished so I sort of pulled of the side of the road to the left, In this picture you can see the semi, the red truck I was following and the white car that almost hit me and then ended up being in front of me.

There was another mini van that almost got me too, so I moved further off the road. There was cars off on both sides of the road making the two lanes of north bound traffic into 4 stopped lanes of trafic. The ambulance had a tough time getting through. This was scary when I thought I was going to get squished. I called dad to make sure that pulling to the side of the semi was the right thing to do.

Here is where I stayed parked for the next half hour or so.

This milk truck was not too far in front of me. I kept wondering why the guy was getting out in that crazy dust and wind. Its cause a purple semi just ahead of the one I almost ran into side swiped him. I figure if we had gotten stuck there for much longer at least we would have something to drink :)

Some emergency workers trying to get to the actual accident. They had masks on and bright colors but it was still probably difficult to breathe and it was hard to see them.

We finally started to move 30-40 minutes after just sitting there. Wind was still blowing and dust was still limiting visability, but I saw what I thought caused the problem.... Two semi's one jack knifed. But no, they didn't cause the problem. There was a couple of cars piled up and the semi jackknifed to avoid them.

Didn't look too bad so hopefully everyone was ok. Not too far from here the dust cleared somewhat and we picked up speed. Then I passed where they had closed the road heading south. Felt bad for those people, but also a good idea since I'm sure there would've been more accidents.

Fortunately coming back to Utah was much quicker and less scary.

Wish I had time to document lots of the other happenings, but I don't want to bore everyone, and this post is long enough.

flower lady

i was moving the hoses to water one of the gardens and was remembering what fun we had making holly hock dolls back in the day. So I made one. I'm a bit out of practice, but it was still fun. I always liked seeing the different designs people come up with so it wasn't quite as fun playing by myself. I tried to make it look like she was holdinga parasol but instead it looks more like a torch, also her bow is a bit big :)

I made really good zuchinni pizza for dinner (only used up 1/2 of the smaller of the two giant zucchinni's so i'll need to make some chocolate zuchinni cake for desert tonight or tomorrow). And cut up some fresh veggies for a salad (its all from the garden except the olives). I picked a cabbage and was suprised that it wasn't too bitter.

Not too many tomatoes yet, but they are tasty, can't wait to make salsa!

Look at this crazy carrot!

Yesterday I worked out in the yard most of the day. I had to come in after a bit to cool down. It was soooo hot! I got sunburned too which doesn't normally happen. I'm still pretty tired and probably a bit dehydrated today. I went up to the canyon with Cathy and Nate where I went last week with Melanie and Angela. It was fun to stick my tired hot feet in that icy water. I was the only one who did but I feel like its a requirement if there is water around!

After we headed back down the trail a biker asked if we had seen the bear. He was by the beaver pond where we had just been. It was getting dark so we headed back to the park. It was amazing the temperature difference between there and down in the valley. wish i could just pipe that air down here!

could sure use some rain for my garden things are not doing as well as I would like. Squash bugs brought dusty mildew to my pumpkin and something else to the butternut squash. grrrr. some of the pole beans are loosing leaves too. maybe rust? i just feel so helpless when the things are dying