School Lunch Is Making Me Sick!

No, really...one of those tiny little darlings sprayed me with cootie virus and I'm sick as a dog!  But the school doesn't have a substitute substitute assistant cook; I'm stuck.  I have bundled myself up...dosed myself with everything I can find that says: Cold Remedy and put on a super-dooper surgical mask, double gloved after scrubbing my poor hands raw and applying hand sanitizer because I will continue onward and upward to feed the tummy's of the fresh young minds in trusted to me.  In the meantime I have not made it out to the garden since Friday...I put my husband in charge...I have a counter full of tomatoes, peppers, squash and basil...oh and lots of eggs.  I need to either cook or dehydrate his harvest, or I'm going to end up feeding everything to the chickens.  Now, I'm going to take a hot bath with eucalyptus bath salts and go to bed...I will get back to this blog when I feel like a human again...

Just This Week's Photos

I have been faithfully taking pictures since starting the new job...but having a hard time putting together posts.  I decided to go ahead and post the pics I have with captions.

I Have Peppers Coming Out of My Ears...All Kinds...Bells, Paprika, Tex Mex Chilies, Ancho, Pimentos

One Evenings Pick From The Garden

Farmers Market Goodies

Prepping For The Fall Garden

The Herb Garden...With A Bit Of Chard

Peanuts!

My Technicolor Zinnias

Big Daddy's Grandma Agnes's Peaches...YUMMY!

Eggs, Squash and Peppers

Added A Few Peaches

Making Hybrid Zucchini Squash Seed...Two Varieties...One Gets Harvested



One Variety



Both The Varieties

Bees and The Sunflower Fields

I only had a small bit of time in the garden this afternoon ...I was in a rush to add another small honey super to the bee hive.  The 300 acres of sunflowers are blooming and the bees are working their bee butts off.  I've had so many problems with my bees this season, I want to make sure they have plenty of room when the nectar flows.  It looks like I'll get at least a hundred pounds of honey from the hives that survived the herbicide spray, wax moth, unusually cold season and the swarming we've suffered.  I've been feeding pollen patties so they've been hatching brood like crazy.  Instead of splitting the hives I added a couple large supers on each hive in July and kept the bees fed hoping to strengthen the hives.  Today when I checked the 3 large supers on each hive were full of brood, pollen and honey.  The squash, melons and squash are also blooming along with the sunflowers...lots and lots of nectar: I'll most likely have to add several more small supers before the season ends.  The bees brought into the fields for pollination will be swarming, too...so I've set-up a half dozen nuc hives to see if I can capture any...I love free bees!  It's been hot so I've had to make sure all of the bees are watered.  The field bees come into my apiary and drink gallons of water.  I've added several areas for all the bees to get a drink.

Munching On My Melons!

While I've been busy and distracted by the new job some ornery animal has been munching on my Emerald Gem Melons!  These are the same melons that volunteered this year (one ending up growing in a cinder block hole).  I have about 4 melons and the nice big one has been chewed on!  I couldn't remember what melon this was so I had to look it up on the Baker Creek website...I planted it last year and it was delicious.  I'll be saving seed this year and I'll share...just let me know.  It's ripe when it's ugly warty skin/shell is green...I waited a bit too long.  You can actually smell their perfume up at the house...I just missed the short window of time to pick.  I'll be paying better attention when the others are ripe.

Thought you'd like to take a look at my volunteer pumpkins, too.  I have no idea where these came from.  This is not the variety we grow on the ranch and we have never planted pumpkins in my garden, nor thrown any seeds in the mushroom compost (other things yes...never pumpkins).  I'm wondering if one of my boys planted these seeds to rile me up!  It's certainly something they would do.  The vines look like they have some powdery mildew...so they should be pulled out soon...I'm waiting as long as I can.

My First Week Of The New Normal


I had a *Back To School* mixer for the returning and new employees of the Williams Unified School District at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday.  This was the first opportunity I've had to look at the 3 kitchens I'll be substituting in and meeting the staff I'll be working with.  The truth is the mixer was like *old home week*.  I knew almost everyone there.  I sold homes for or to most of the staff.  I think more than a handful of people were very surprised to see I was now cooking for the school.  Most folks know I don't need to work outside of the home.   People that have taken the time and energy (yep...takes lots of energy) to KNOW me, understand why I do enjoy working...and why I have had such a diverse collection of careers...I think I've shared before I'm a quick-study and very easily bored.  I'm also one of those rare people that get a bug up their butt and then jumps in feet first.  And speaking of feet: MINE ARE KILLING ME!!!!



The job is a challenge, no instruction, on my feet the entire time, very short on staff and I don't know the 2 women I'm working with: I know the staff at the other two kitchens. I'm substituting for 3 weeks out at the elementary school.  I'm working with kindergarten, first, second and third graders.   I was kinda' thrown in with a *sink or swim* attitude...and so far, I'm treading water, but haven't drown yet.  I have not made any screw-ups...there's really no cooking involved...it's open a big box of prepared-prepackaged food...put on a huge tray...heat in the ovens...take out...put on a styro (yuck) partitioned student tray...make sure the kiddies have milk (regular, chocolate or strawberry...icky)...rush them through like cattle and then rush them back out to class...go pee and hurry up cause here comes the next batch of kids...after everyone is fed...clean up the kitchen, sweep, then mop yourself out the door.  Time in:  7:30 a.m. time out: 1:00 p.m.  I have a mandatory 30 minute break at 9:00 a.m. We feed about 240 kids at breakfast and 480 kids at lunch.  Then we feed the teachers, janitors and 6 kids in a middle school continuation school program.

One great thing is I have worked a deal with the janitor to take home as many of the leftovers as I want to feed the chickens...yeah!  Twice the two gals I work with have asked me if I want something to eat (I think they thought I was taking the leftovers to feed to my family)...I had to tell them yesterday that I don't eat processed-plastic bagged food.  I told them about my garden, the chickens, the grass fed beef and pastured pork...I don't think they cared.  I'm hoping I didn't come off as pompous...the two ladies I'm working with here at the elementary school work very hard at their job...their families depend on them for a paycheck and they are nice ladies.  I did tell them I do sneak a Quarter Pounder with Cheese and McDonald's fries every once in a while and that my husband and I go out to dinner about once a month.  This Monday I will bring them both some eggs, tomatoes, zucchini and maybe a jar of canned peaches.

The End Of Day One: Foot Soak, Foot Gel Inserts, Ace Knee Brace and Support Knee Highs!!

 And A Nice Cool Bubble Bath Then Beddy-Bye!
 (don't you love my tub...those slate tiles have fossils imbedded in them)

A Year's Worth of Sweet Corn

Last year I canned three or four cases of sweet corn. This year I'll be canning, freezing and dehydrating my corn. I plan on processing twice as much as last year.  I don't grow the sweet corn, it takes a lot of garden space and this year's weather was so bad, I never did get it planted.  My husband used to plant sweet corn around his fields separating one crop from another, but *the help* cleaned us out the last year he grew it and he said *never again*.  We have a friend that has a really nice produce stand just outside of town on one of the main highways.  His little corn stand of 10 years ago is now a BIG FANCY building with a.c., soft drinks and all sorts of produce.  When I backed my truck up yesterday, you could hear the girls inside: "It's Mrs. Reynolds, she must be here for her corn!"  Not many folks around here still can...and certainly not the young high school/college age girls that take care of the produce stand...so I am an oddity.  I picked up three cases for this weekend,  that's about all I can process before I'm exhausted!  I'll  be putting more up later this week. Our corn season lasts until the end of October. I really don't know if we'll eat all of this corn...but, the financial columnist I follow stated Friday to not invest in precious metals, to take that money instead and buy FOOD.  I'm not kidding...I've been following this guy for about 25 years and that's the very first time he's ever said that...seriously.  My stomach did a flip-flop...like when you're on a roller coaster.  When he told people to invest in real estate: I did (successfully) when he said sell your real estate: I did (successfully) when he said buy precious metals: I did, when he said buy xyz stock: I did, when he said dump xyz stock: I did.  You don't have to tell me twice: I'm investing in Food...oh wait..that's something I already do.   What we don't eat or share, the chickens and pigs will love...no waste here.

My Set-Up...After I Clean The Ears, I Blanch, Ice Down And Then Cut The Kernels Off

Bi-Colored: Not My Favorite

A Case of Frozen Corn...1/2 Three to a Package and 1/2 Two to a Package

A Case of Canned Pints

1/2 A Case of Dehydrated...the Other 1/2 Tomorrow

More Sooner Than Later...

I had planned a nice two week vacation the end of August.  I figured with the *on call* substitute position at the school I would need to be close to home once September rolled around.  School starts August 10th.  Well, no vacation for me...I got the call to come to work on the first day of school until the first of September.  It seems one of the new hires won't be able to start for several weeks.  How does that work?  I have never applied for a job and then when I got told the employer I can't work.  Oh well, not my problem.  I'm looking forward to learning some new things and making some money to go towards weather-proofing the plumbing at the cabin and off-grid solar here at the ranch. 

The Cabin: Needs Winterized Plumbing

Yesterday I finally canned Monday's Farmers Market beets.  I canned them in a sweet pickle syrup with cinnamon and cloves...my favorite.  For the first time ever I had the bottom break out of a jar...maybe this is the second time.  What a mess...I had beets and glass everywhere.  Oh well, I went a head and cleaned out the canner and processed the jars that were fine.  While the beets were processing I threw together a couple meat loaves and some German soft pretzels.  The kitchen smelled wonderful.  The pretzels are a new thing.  They're really delicious and if I can get the twisting part down so they look more *professional*, we're going to start selling them at the Farmers Market.

Big Beets From Farmers Market

Chunked in Pints and 1/2 Pints

Bottom Blow-Out

German Soft Pretzels

The garden is keeping us in tomatoes, cucumbers, crook neck squash, zucchini, basil, sage, oregano, thyme, French tarragon, potatoes, shallots and peppers.  We had a friend bring some cod he caught over at the coast, so I'm deep frying cod and zucchini fritters and onion rings, fried French fingerling potatoes, sliced tomatoes, with basil, cucumbers, olive oil and balsamic (crushed garlic) and homemade mozzarella...ice cream and homemade butterscotch topping.  Can't get much better than that! Sorry about all the fried stuff...normally I don't fix us much fried food...but when I do, I fry everything!

Weekend and Monday Garden Booty: Watermelon, Cukes, Crooks, Tomatoes, Peppers and Eggs

Wednesday Harvest and Eggs

Friday Harvest

Cod

Zucchini

Zucchini Fritters

Today I went to gather eggs and found one of my 10 pullets had laid her first egg!  My little girls' are growing up!

The Ladies Feasting on Kettle Corn...A Once A Week Snack

One of My Ten Pullets is Laying!