Before I Pop Into Bed . . .

Just a quick post before I jump into bed to try to catch up on some much needed sleep.

Didn't get the pantry floor tile finished today. Wait. We didn't even get one tile down. But the floor is all prepped and ready for it to happen tomorrow.

First thing in the morning, we have to make a trip to our carpenter friend B's house and workshop to pick up the cabinet frames she has gone. I'm really hoping for a sunny, breezy, not-too-hot day tomorrow so I can start putting the poly on them and the pantry door. I know they will need two coats and possibly three so I want to get started on them asap.

Today wasn't too hot but it was incredibly humid. Yuck. Like walking through water until late afternoon when a delightful breeze came along and made it easier to breathe.

I picked the whole strawberry patch today which was two days overdue. I knew there were a lot of berries out there but would you believe 22 pounds and 9 ounces? Seems like we might have another banner harvest year for strawberries. I'm not spending the time out there like I usually do and it makes me cranky to see all the weeds starting to take hold. Oh well, as long as the plants keep bearing, I'll have to settle for "not perfect" this year.

Tried a new strawberry pie recipe but wasn't too pleased with it. Although Papa Pea did have two slices and seemed to like it well enough. Chicken Mama stopped by tonight just in time for a piece with us. She and I thought it was like eating a dish of thickened strawberries. The filling didn't "gel" enough (it was a cold pie) and there wasn't enough crust (substance?) to balance the berry mixture. Could have used some whipped cream on top, too, but I didn't have any. My bad.

Okay, I'm toddling off to beddie-bye. Five-thirty tomorrow morning will be here before I know it!

Shopping Day

We went to the big city today to load up on more supplies. We never did see a thermometer so don't know how hot it was but we suspect it must have been around 120 degrees. (Okay, a slight exaggeration, but not much. When we got home a little after 6 p.m., our thermometer in the shade still read 83.7. And we're 125 miles farther north --- and usually cooler --- than the big city south of us.)

Add the high temps and the fact that the air conditioning isn't working in our Suburban and, well, I might have to take a shower tonight to deodorize. (TMI?) 'Nuf said.

But the trip was a success. As we were loading the back of the truck at the lumber yard, a very nice gentleman who must have been 10 years older than we are, stopped to ask if we needed any help. I don't think it was that we looked so incapable of doing the job but rather the magnitude of the load.

Tomorrow we will hopefully work on the floor tile in the pantry. It's such a small room that if all goes well, I'm going to go out on a limb and say we can finish it in one day. Maybe. We'll see.

Doesn't the pink on the walls bring out the pink in the floor tile just perfectly? I didn't even know there waaaas any pink in the tiles. Ooooh, what am I going to do?? I haaate pink!

I didn't have the oompf left to go out into the strawberry patch as I should have when we got home and unloaded. It was still so hot out there. (I'm sorry, Erin, I don't really know what hot is, do I?) So I will have to get those berries picked tomorrow along with processing them. If we don't have a heavy dew, I'll go out as soon in the morning as I can. Depending on how much of a harvest I get, in the name of simplicity (and the need to keep going on the construction work), I may give them away and only keep enough for our fresh eating. That will save me the time of processing them. So bring your containers and line up at the door around 10 tomorrow morning, 'kay? And if you want to stay and help lay tile, that will be fine, too.

Painting's Done!

Got the color on the pantry walls today. It looks a little too "pinky" for my taste (so hard to choose a wall color from a paint chip!), but since very little of the walls will show when the cabinets are in, the shelves are up and filled and the two freezers are in the room, I'm not upset about it.

We also took the time today to finalize our needs for the tracks and brackets to mount the shelves on. Good thing this is a one-time expenditure as we may have to stop at the Credit Union for a small home loan before purchasing all of them.

Happy to report that neither of us suffered any pulled muscles or achy body parts from the painting yesterday (which was about twice as much as we did today) but we sure did feel pooped when we finished doing the walls this afternoon.

I ran out to the garden early this morning and picked a pound and a half of strawberries that we ate fresh during the day. There are lots more out there that I'll have to get tomorrow.

Wonky on Paint Fumes

We worked in the pantry today painting. Not the greatest day for painting with windows open for ventilation because it rained hard for the first two-thirds of the day and our high temp was 63. (Not great for strawberry picking either. I'm gonna have a bunch out there next time it's dry enough for me to get into the patch.) Our rain gauge showed a healthy inch more of rain today.

Meanwhile, back in the pantry . . .

The ceiling is completely done. Hooray! Painting with your arms over your head is not fun, as some of you may already know. But, as I say, it's done now. That's a skylight that you see to the left of the picture. This room was originally planned as a back porch and we had the skylight in the roof, so there it stayed.

The inside measurements of the room are about 7' x 15' which is gonna make a really nice sized pantry for me. (Although you'll be amazed at how chuck full I have it planned already.)

This is looking straight into the pantry from the doorway. The window opposite looks north, out onto our back driveway area.

This is to the left inside the room. We used leftover, salvaged fireproof-cement board on the walls. (You just never know when some of my canned dill pickles might spontaneously combust!) It's not fancy, but the walls will be virtually covered with cabinets and shelves, plus the two freezers that will go in the room.

And looking to the right. The white color you see is the primer coat. The color coat still needs to be put on. The cabinets and shelves are going to be pine so I'm painting the walls a warm beige.

More real progress made today and if you'll all cross your fingers for us, we'll get the walls done tomorrow.

Don't Throw Those Garden Seeds Away! and Miffy Miffy Tu Tu

A couple of weeks ago when I finished planting out a second (well, I didn't want to chance running out of salad greens) raised bed of radishes, scallions, lettuce and a couple other things (no comments from you hecklers in the Peanut Gallery), I had a little room left at one end. Just room for two 4' rows of something.

I went digging in my seed stash and came up with a package of turnip seeds. So on a whim I planted them at the vacant end of the bed.

Lo and behold, I have some turnips coming up that I can slice fresh into salads this summer and maybe have a couple/few left for soups this fall.

Now the amazing part. Guess how old these turnip seeds were that I planted. Twelve years old. The packet is from 1999! Just shows to go ya . . . no reason to toss out "old" seeds.

* * * * * *

On a completely different subject, today Chicken Mama wrote (or tried to write . . . see her post for explanation of difficulties) a blog post about her birthday which was this past Tuesday. In the post she asked me to refresh her memory as to why my mom called birthdays "miffy miffy tu tu."

Seems that's one of those silly family words or phrases that comes to be after a particular incident and seems to stick for generations to come. Here's the story behind it.

One of my mom's sisters, my aunt, had four kids. Two boys first, then a gap of time and then two little girls. Once upon a time the oldest of the girls had a birthday along with family celebration, cake, candles, presents, the whole shebang.

The day after the party little C, the youngest of the girls who was just learning how to talk and express herself verbally, came up to her mom and said she wanted a miffy miffy tu tu. Obviously, my aunt didn't understand what she had said and asked her to repeat what it was she wanted. C repeated her request over and over again but her mom had no idea what this little one was asking for.

C's request continued for about three days with my aunt going nearly crazy offering her anything and everything she could think of that she could possible be asking for. It was super-frustrating for both mother and child because C was increasingly becoming more and more upset often ending up in tears.

Then one day C came running to her mom beaming while holding a magazine open to a page showing a birthday cake with candles. She exclaimed, "Miffy miffy tu tu! I wanna miffy miffy tu tu!"

Somehow at her sister's birthday party, little C had "heard" the singing of "Happy Birthday to You" as "miffy miffy tu tu," and that was what she associated with the whole party celebration and wanted for herself. A miffy miffy tu tu!

End of a silly story and a silly phrase that refers to birthdays in our family.

My Mess

Yesterday Erin over at Garden Now - Think Later did a post on some of the canning she's been doing of her garden produce. She commented that we all show pictures of the colorful jars of salsa or pickles or jams lined up but seldom do we take pictures to show the mess that we've made while creating these gems in jars that so attractively line our pantry shelves.

Erin wrote, "Post what's not in the photo! Yep, I want to see your garbage bowls, arms covered in pulp, goggles and gloves when peeling those hot peppers, juice spattered on the dog, walls, sink full of unwashed dishes, you know the drill!"

Well, since my efforts are currently being centered on our house finishing and remodeling this summer and the veggie gardens are being given a long overdue rest, I have nothing to show you of my canning or preserving messes.

But . . . I can show you what our to-be living room looks like right now in all of its (un)elegant glory.

So, Erin, how's that for qualifying as a mess worthy of not posting??