Thursday, June 19, 2014

holy moly! can you say embarrassed?!?!?!?!? and some tomatoes! (now if this catchy title doesn't grab you - there is something wrong with you! bahahahah!)

what a gorgeous few days! don't believe me? my goodness you people should learn that when i say a gorgeous day - i mean properly GOR-JUSH!



oh i love my bench and pond. and the sky. and clouds. and yes PioneerPreppy - i love those saved tires. tires that will be used to hill my beautiful potatoes!



okay. it's everyone's worst nightmare. you won't even believe these 2 stories that i am about to tell but let me tell you - they really happened! i am so embarrassed that i could cry! well, not really. but i am/was embarrassed!

first one - happened a few days ago. you all know that we garden naked. except in black-fly season. some of you might know them as chiggers or no-see-ums or something. the are awful. i am covered in so many bites that i could cry. even though i cover myself in deet and a whole pile of home-made recipes including smearing crushed garlic and onions all over my body! nothing stops those black flies!!!

so in black-fly season - we wear underwear. panties for me. and bandanas because you don't want those things in your hair. so, we wear underwear because  number one - you do not want to spray deet on your privates right? and number two - you don't want black fly bites on your privates. so a couple of days ago, i am in my panties all deeted up and jam is in his tighty-whities. we are out gardening. then it's noon so i come in the house to start frying hamburger because we are going to enjoy some delicious spaghetti for supper. so i am standing at the stove, in my panties and bandana, stirring hamburger and some guy comes to the door, sees me - screeches "oh god! i'm sorry" and runs back out of the porch and down the stairs. i screech and run to the bathroom, open the window and yell to jam that someone is at the front door. jam only hears me calling so he comes around the side of the house....get ready for it.....wearing knee-high gum boots, filthy tighty-whites and a bandana. you can imagine what that looked like.

buddy turned out to be a purolater courier and he had a package that had to be signed for. he was embarrassed to death. he kept his head down the whole time that jam was talking to him and signing for the package. and then i watched that guy run down our huge driveway faster than either jam and i can run....and we can run - trust me.

oh my goodness. in my panties and a bandana stirring hamburger. i would have felt a lot better if i had have been stirring some fresh greens from the garden, ya know? but no, stirring hamburger. who knows what kind of stories this guy is back at work telling. oh and when i said that jam's tighty-whities were filthy - i really mean it. he was out making dirt in the wheelbarrow which consists of mixing seaweed, compost, manure and dirt. oh dear me. that guys knows our names. ackckckckckckckkck!

anyway, here's a good breakfast to get you going first thing in the morning:


that's some steamed broccoli with olive oil and garlic sauce and some radish and carrot kimchi. i promise to put the recipe up for this kimchi on our recipe blog soon. it's very light and refreshing and so simple to make! and you want to eat fermented food at least once a day, or better yet with every meal!

ok - on to more embarrassment! the other night we are out in the hottub and didn't take our robes with us because we didn't need them. there we are enjoying ourselves when we hear "HELLO. HELLO. HELLO." i screech and jambaloney yells "hang on buddy". the person only came around to the front of our porch, our hottub is out back. jam grabbed a dirty towel off the back of the deck, wrapped himself in it and then went around the porch to see who it was. now remember, it was about 9:30pm. i am shrunk and hiding in the hottub when jam yells "babe, it's just J coming for a visit. he's got his head turned - run in and get dressed". J is a good buddy of ours so i jumped out of the hottub naked, ran into the porch and into the house and got my bathrobe - a bathrobe is fine for visiting in up here.

we spent a good hour and a half out on the deck with our friend J. he said that he knew that you had to toot the horn at the bottom of our driveway, but because he walked over, he didn't have a horn - bahahahah! but he knew to yell out Hello several times in case we were in the hottub. he's a real good buddy - but again, another embarrassing moment!

OK, i know that PioneerPreppy and Matt are all - "what about the freakin tomatoes". keep your pants on, guys, i'm getting to them!

ok - so here are the ugly tires with holes dug in them, 2 handfulls of 5yr old manure put on top of stinky, decaying seaweed. next up, some powdered milk - tomatoes love calcium.


next up is the stakes that jam made from an old trampoline and lawn chair - both of which he found in the garbage. re-purpose and re-use is our motto!


the red bucket was filled with a gallon of water and a cup of epsom salt. tomatoes love epsom salt! as we took each tomatoe out of it's pot, i soaked the roots in the epsom salt water before planting them in their holes. then we planted, each tomatoe, 3 to a tire, filled the tire and hilled the tomatoes with the beautiful dirt that jambaloney made, dropped cages on them and wrapped them in plastic. like this:


and here are the actual planted tomatoes in their mini-greenhouses.


the reason for wrapping them in plastic is because we get such bad winds here. plus the fact that the plastic creates mini- greenhouses for the tomatoes. sorry for the blurry picture.

and here's all 12 tires, filled with tomatoes and wrapped in plastic. people have told us that our yard is junky and that we don't take pride in our land (i am not referring to PioneerPreppy here. he hates our tires and we understand! i am referring to other people.)



but to the people who say that our yard is junky - go jump off a cliff. or better yet, continue on in your stupid ways because you'll be the first to be eaten by the zombies! bahahahahahahah! that's a good one!

here's the jungle cat. i mean tiger. he's out doing tiger things and such. my friend W is always asking for updates on all of our babies. this pic is also for our favourite Marine - i hope that he enjoys seeing a true and proper jungle cat in action!



allrighty - so you are out all morning transplanting tomatoes and building weird cages for them - you need some dinner. how about some gorgeous new brunswick sardines in oil, some home-made pickles (recipe coming soon), some in-season apricots from the mainland and some delicious home-made carrot and radish kimchi - now that's a meal that will keep you working another several hours!


then you have to go out and harvest some chamomile flowers. these will produce flowers all summer long if you clip them when the flowers are fully grown.


here's today's harvest which we will enjoy every morning and evening for the next 3 days.



soon they will be coming in like gangbusters and then we will dry them to have chamomile tea all during the winter. for anyone interested in knowing more about the health benefits of chamomile tea - go here, or here or you can just google "health benefits of chamomile tea". chamomile is very easy to grow, indoors or outdoors, in a pot or anywhere. and it has so many beneficial qualities - please - if you don't grow anything - grow chamomile.

here's our ornamental apple trees in almost full-blossom. we didn't plant them, the previous owner did - but we enjoy their beauty! we still haven't produced a fruit on one so thank goodness that our brother has an orchard! we get tons of fresh, delicious apples from him!


well - my man is snoring in his computer chair - bahahahahah! i took a pic of him so i can show it to him later. he's had a long day today and that's after putting in a full day of work at LobstersRUs yesterday. he's tired, won't admit it, he's sun-stroked, won't admit it, and he's hungry. we took out some steaks that he got a steal price so he bought a bunch of them. they are ready for the grill and i will make his favourite side dish - veggie shish-kebabs. he loves shish-kebabs with his steak.

anyway, this is the last pic i took today.


it's hard to believe that we can look at such a beautiful sky pretty much every day for the rest of our lives. i send my best wishes to all of you and hope that you have had a wonder-filled week.

27 comments:

  1. Funny story, I have heard similar ones from around here so it must be somewhat common to get surprised. There is only a short time in the spring and fall when it isn't too cold or too bug infested and then we can talk about briers.
    I did not know about epsom salt and tomatoes I will have to investigate that.

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    1. Sunnybrook - everyone here knows to toot the horn at the bottom of the driveway which we have a chain on. that way he hear them, put on clothes and then go open the gate. we need a sign for the odd purolator courier or whomever, so they will know to toot. but can you imagine that poor guy coming all the way up our driveway and seeing us? oh i feel for the poor guy!

      as for epsom salt, i mix 1 cup to a gallon of water and then give them a nice drink of it every 2 weeks. on the off-weeks i feed them with powdered milk mixed in the water. i am not sure where i first heard of that, but i have been doing it for years and we never get blossom-end rot or have any trouble with bugs. plus i do know that tomatoes love salt and calcium.

      another thing - i plant borage around the base of each tire. some people use marigolds. but i have found that borage keeps away the hornworms best and they produce those beautiful, blue edible flowers - i love borage flowers in a salad!

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  2. You two are absolutely nuts. ;)

    Great post!

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  3. I agree w/Matt on the nutty bit. But, I am so jealous that you get to do what you want to do when you want to do it & to heck w/anyone else! What a life! Hope you let Jam sleep (wondering if he is only in his tighty whities as he works?). As usual, the food looks great!

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    1. DFW - yep, we're nutty but because of where we live and the fact that we hate clothes means we can just wander around naked all the time without too embarrassing incidents - bahahha! i let jam sleep until he finally woke up by himself. i was going to wake him and move him to the couch or bed but he was in a really deep sleep and i didn't want to disturb him. and yes, during blackfly season he wears his tighty-whities while he works, but as soon as mid-july comes, the black flies are gone and then we are totally undressed in the garden - we love it! xoxox

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  4. Time for an air horn at the drive way to announce oneself, or a sign that says "Wild Naked Jungle Couple Ahead" "Blow Horn Now" Friends should all carry whistles and blow loudly as they walk over the property line, with another said sign posted like "No Hunting" signs.

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    1. Rob, buddy - thanks for those great signs over on your blog. now have them printed up and mail them to me - bahhahahah! much love buddy! xoxox

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  5. Love it!!! You had me laughing from the beginning. And side note, that kitty has one determined look on his face. He is a cat with a mission!!

    OH, and please, your property is GORGEOUS!

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    1. 1st Man - it was pretty embarrassing but it is a good story to tell because it was funny too! that little tiger is our cranky little noodie-noo - we call him that because he doesn't wear pants. we don't remember or know when we came up with that but it stuck so that's what we call him.

      thank you for thinking our property is gorgeous. it takes time to get everything in it's place and it takes time to get to a point where you can spend your time on pretty-ifying. we're getting there. much love to you and 2nd Man! xoxoxo

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  6. Well I hafta admit the tires look much better wrapped in that plastic :)

    Almost acceptable.

    Soooo I have to ask though. You said "I jumped out of the hot tub naked" now did we really need that sentence? I mean wasn't that a given? :)

    If I ever come to visit I am walking around the corner seeing you naked and just saying HOnk Honk :)

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    1. well buddy - thanks for that. and because of that, i am not going to call you wiener in this comment. and for the love of all that is holy will you please stop making me have to agree with you over on Harry's blog?!?!?!? it's doing my head in!

      yes, you are correct - i guess i didn't have to include that sentence. *sigh* (my goodness yer a wiener!)

      if you ever came around the corner saying honk honk, i'd grab the .22 and blow your head off. just sayin'.

      anyway, even though you bug me, i still love you. xoxoxo

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  7. Maybe you need a motion detector on your access road. Then if you have inconvenient visitors at least you will know before hand.

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    1. Harry - we were thinking of getting a proper electronic gate thingy with an intercomm - but we just can't waste that much money on something that is needed so rarely. like i say, all of our friends here know to toot the horn. but i think we are going to invest in a sign like Rob suggested. much love always to you and yours! xoxox

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  8. And you use the expression "keep your pants on?" For shame! lol

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    1. bahahahahahaha! oh THAT was a good one Mr. Smythe - a really good one! much love to you! xox

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  9. Sweet Kymber,
    ~HA~....................
    Caught twice NAKED!!!! If you start seeing several delivery people hanging out, you'll know that delivery guy talked!!!!

    I love your idea with the mini greenhouse (plastic surrounding) to protect your tomatoes. We used plywood as wind breaks.

    This picture of the clouds, and sun looks like a cross trying to shine through the clouds and over to your place.

    To get rid of those flies try making a fly trap by using a jar of large size and place sugar, soda, and any other sweet item capable of attracting flies in it. Place the lid and make holes large enough to let the flies enter and keep it in a corner. Flies will get attracted towards the sweet food, enter into the jar and get entrapped.
    http://www.buzzle.com/articles/home-remedies-to-get-rid-of-black-flies.html

    Also planting marigolds help deter these flies which become nuisances.

    Enjoy your beautiful weather. Sending love and hugs to you both.
    Your Friend,
    Sandy

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    1. bahahahahaah! oh Sweet Sandy - that is too funny! i sure hope we don't start seeing a bunch of delivery trucks at the bottom of the driveway - that means the word got out!

      that pic of the sky is something we see regularly here. and that's how it always looks - like a cross trying to shine. i love it when the sky looks like that!

      thanks for the tips on getting rid of the black-flies, but our problem is we don't like killing things and we are swarmed with because of our house being surrounded by woods. not to mention the fact that these particular flies are born in running water and there is a creek right next to us. arghghghghgh - the darn things drive us crazy! but they are gone in mid-july - thank goodness. we are having a fantastic weekend as i hope that you are too! we send our hugs and love back to you and BDMan, Tank and Beans! xoxoxxoxoxoxoxo

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  10. Lucky you :) The properties here are so exposed you would never get away with walking around nude lol

    Yeah - as I learned last year - tomatoes short of calcium = blossom end rot...

    Reading about deet I missed reading about the sunscreen. It's very important guys, so please invest in a bottle!?

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    1. Dani - we are really lucky! our last home in the city was very private so we could spend all our time walking around naked, and here is even more private - we love it!

      yep - you got it - not enough calcium = blossom-end rot.

      Dani - we use sunscreen when we have to but otherwise we choose not to use it. the reason being that i have read contradicting articles about whether or not sunscreen prevents making natural vitamin d. i'll take my natural vitamin d as often as i can. jam is the "burner" so i always keep my eyes on when he's turning a little too bronze and get the sunscreen on him. thanks for the reminder tho. much love, Dani, to you and yours! xoxox

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  11. I used the Search Box looking to see if you have any fruit trees on your property. Looks like you don't. Are you planning an orchard or is it to cold to grow fruit trees where you're at?
    Lucky you your brother gives you apples, buying them today is expensive.
    Enjoy the weather, winter for you guys is right around the corner! :-) :-)

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    1. Mike - nope. no fruit trees except for those ornamental aplle trees. several of our friends have apple orchards, so yes, we are intending to put in an orchard. we will do pears, plums and peaches too. we just aren't in a position financially, or time-ly to do so yet. however, on our land we have wild blueberries, wild strawberries, wild blackberries, cranberries and i just planted arctic strawberries. so we are not hurting in the berry department. and yes, our brother/friend gave us enough apples last year to get us through the winter and his apples are the best!!! he also has a blueberry orchard and we help him pick the berries that he sells commercially and we get paid in blueberries - he's got the best blueberries in the world! we still have a few pounds worth in the freezer that will take us through until we get to this blueberry harvesting time. and then we'll get paid in blueberries again. to us, a week's worth of picking is well worth getting 25lbs of gorgeous blueberries.

      and winter is not right around the corner ya nutbar - bahahahah! much love buddy! xoxox

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  12. Replies
    1. lw - it's funny now but it was certainly embarrassing when it happened! bahahahahahah! xoxox

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  13. I absolutely can't relate in terms of doing that here because with the snakes, the bears, the chiggers, the briars, the spiders, the hornets, the rabid animals, the hot sun and everyone around us getting melanoma, it doesn't make sense. However, if our place in NS weren't so completely open, the weather and conditions make it more possible, and probably quite pleasant there.......Well other than periodic embarrassment ! LOL.

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    1. Jane - you got it! i would never recommend you wander around your property naked - in fact - you need to be fully suited up with all of the potential things that could get you! and being in a private environment and running around in your birthday suits all the time, with only the occasional embarrassment is well worth it to us - bahahahah! much love to you and yours, sweet Jane! xoxoxox

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