Thursday, June 23, 2011

An Inside Day

We ended up getting just a hair under 2" of rain in this last deluge. We truly did need the moisture, but it can stop now. Some mist has been falling on and off all day, the skies have been very heavy and gray and our high temp reading was somewhere in the upper 50s. Not exactly tomato growing weather. ( Not that I'm growing tomatoes this year.)

It was an inside day on this little homestead because everything outside is so very, very wet. A little after noon I gave up and made a small fire in the wood stove. It was feeling so cool and damp in the house that I figured why fight it.

It's coming up on dinner time right now and I have the oven lit with a meat pie baking. Oh, right. I also started stewing a goose and an old rooster today.

I managed to fit both of them in my biggest pot. (The pot that is just about impossible to wash in my kitchen sink. Where's a nice, big utility sink in the garage when you need one? Coming in the remodel, I just have to be patient.) This will give me cooked chicken/goose meat to use for a good part of the rest of the summer. Plus I'll end up with a vat of good, rich chicken broth besides.

In the one step forward, two steps back category, we decided to tear the covering on two walls of the pantry off. The way the pantry room was added on to the existing house, two inside walls ended up being lapped house siding.

At first we were going to leave it and work with it, but today we made the decision to tear it off for an easier time building shelves and cabinets on those walls. I guess you have to do some deconstruction in your construction efforts.

The weather forecast is for 40% chance of showers again tonight, but then mostly clear for Friday and Saturday. If we get the chance, we're gonna have to jump on the parts of the lawn that remain uncut and also get the weed whipping done. Hope we can still get the lawn mower through the tall, thick grass out there.

I have a feeling if we get some sunshine and half way warm weather, my strawberries are gonna be a'poppin'!

13 comments:

Jane @ Hard Work Homestead said...

Isnt it funny how one project always leads to 10 different projects to get back to the one project. I wonder if you will be having a very warm winter this year since nothing is what it should be. Thank goodness for your wood stove.

Erin said...

I'm laughing at the "whipping"... must be a far north thing, we "whacked" weeds LOL! I sure wish we could get some of that rain. It was 100 again today, the rain clouds and heat lightning just "tease" us!

Carolyn said...

Cranked up the woodstove, hugh? Stayed indoors because of the rain, eh?

We stay indoors now because it's Africa HOT!
We cranked up the sprinkler (and hose) to keep the garden from drying up & becoming crunchy.

Amazing how different the weather is around the country, hugh?


Your goose / chicken pot looks very inviting.....mmmmmm, chicken soup!

The Apple Pie Gal said...

Oh I hope you don't keep getting all the rain we have been. Somewhere it has to be just right and if I find it...I'm moving there. It's been raining here of and on for days on this stretch. The garden is calling to me but I am just not into mud wrestling.

I think there is a rule book in construction that you must make a huger ;) mess before you can get it done right. Kinda like organizing your drawers. You make it worse before better.

By the way, we say "whacking" too.

Mama Pea said...

Jane - I so want to send some of this moisture your way! And I'll bet you wouldn't even mind a couple of days of cool weather either. Why can't it all just even out? Sorta like remodeling/construction . . . it's all really torn apart and unusable or finally done! (I'm ready for the finally done part.)

Erin - Wonder why nobody calls it "weed cutting?" Don't know how you keep your garden alive in that heat of yours. Whew!!!!

Carolyn Renee - I know! It's like we live in different countries rather than different parts of the same country.

APG - I haven't heard of ANYBODY that's had good, normal, average weather this year. What's up with all this?

Those huge messes get kinda scary sometimes. :o(

Heck with "whacking" the weeds. I'm into "whipping" 'em! ;o}

Sparkless said...

Oh how I hate remodeling. You never know what your are going to find until you find it and then you've got no choice but to fix it. UG!

I call our weed eater/whipper/whacker a whipper snipper so I guess technically we snip our weeds.

judy said...

Your big pot is similar to mine-doesn't fit in the sink to wash-but it has lots of history-its from my dad's restaurant,in the olden-golden days.The rain also wrecked the kids vac. They where up to Deer River in a rented cabin.On there way home- a little early,my son john and the boys just missed a wrong way driver at about midnight wed. night.rainy dark road,on a curve.my son swerved to not get hit. he called 911 only to be told he was the 3rd caller-they where out looking for this lunatic.yesterday morning we found out that a woman was killed in a rollover caused by a drunk driver at about the same place,at the right time. coincidence-I don;t think so ,we did not call the newspaper to find out all the details but we are pretty sure it was the same driver that almost took out most of my family[thank god they got home safe-Everyone .please drive safely out there.

Sue said...

You did NOT just say anything good about your strawberry harvest. Please take it back!! You'll be cursed by the Rain Gods!!!!

Nice summer like temps, aren't they? Like I've said before, I don't mind wearing my flannel shirts and jeans all summer, but the tomatoes---oh, the tomatoes!!

Mama Pea said...

Sparkless - Even though I desperately want a finished house, I'm not a person who deals well with mess and disorganization. So you can imagine how hard I'm working at keeping my sanity lately. :o\

judy - Summertime traffic on the roads gives me the bejeebers! Ugh.

Sue - Well, this last rainy period has, I know, been good for our strawberries because I know the formation of the berries would have suffered without it. But, enough is enough for right now!

Akannie said...

Lovely pot, Mama Pea...made me want to jump in the truck and go straight down to the restraunt supply store and get one. lol

We had 2 days of cool (for here) mid 60's weather. It felt downright cold. However, yesterday NO WATER FELL FROM THE SKY !!!!! and I managed to get most of the mowing caught up. The yard looks a little better, but still retains that wild rugged country yard look I adore. :)

Today is nice enough to hang clothes on the line and supposed to get to 80, so I suppose I'd better get on that labor of love right away.

mtnchild said...

Jane - you wouldn't like my place either; we had frost warnings this morning and again tomorrow am. I have a very fine coat of frost on my hearty strawberry plants! (all 10 of them) LOL

We've been up in the 80's (yeah!!) and will be again this weekend, but I like the mid to upper 70's just fine - beats snow!
Mid next week our night time temp will be around 50 or so - good open window type sleeping.
I hope your weather stabilizes soon, and that the de/construction is moving faster than you think!
Hugs
Yvette

Leigh said...

Seems like deconstruction before reconstruction is a norm for those of us with old houses. You are absolutely going to love your new pantry. Great indoor project.

Mama Pea said...

Akannie - It's amazing how much I use that big ol' pot. Then curse every time I have to wash it in my too-small-for-it sink!

Yvette - From your mouth to the constructions gods ears regarding the remodeling!!

Leigh - Almost makes one very afraid to tear something old off and/or down. Too many unpleasant surprises hiding! ;o}