A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Banter Hall Coffeehouse 2658....

That was a great idea. I remember my grandmother making rhubarb preserves, by itself but I think she added orange juice as well. It must have been a bad year for strawberries.

I made 15 bottles of strawberry jelly this week, with big garden berries. I haven't been picking wild strawberries in years....the bears are too bad.

Wow....15. Bottles..good for you ! Carey will be a happy man this winter, won't he ?

I just took my bath. Now it is time to rest. Watching a TV movie.

What else do people do with rhubarbs?

I stopped making strawberry jam when Ginger moved to MS. She loves it but doesn't come often enough to eat much of it.

I'm watching All Quiet on the Western Front. So sad. War is so stupid. Why can't people in power figure that out?

A Taste of Home has "58 Rhubarb Recipes [tasteofhome.com] and some of them look pretty yummy

I ate so much rhubarb raw as a child, not that I liked it but my grandmother would always give us a half cup of sugar to dip it into. 😂

Ah sugar !! My grandma would make home made bread, give us a thick slice coated with butter, and then topped with sugar. YUM ! I can still taste it !

Yup, it was toasted warm for us. Brings back nice memories.

Rainy day here today....I've got no energy at all with these thunderstorms.

Yea, we had a dry hot morning, after a 9/10 inch rainfall over night. Then this afternoon/,early evening we got near 2 more inches. Tonight
and then tomorrow afternoon there will be more rain & possible storms. Supposedly more of the same the rest of the week.

Thank you James.

Good Morning everyone !!!

Happy July 10th

Another hot day here, too hot to do anything....I have no energy at all.

Well take advantage of such a day and rest. We will all be too cold soon enough.

We could use some rain please. We're scorched and it's not even August yet.

Had lunch with high school friends yesterday. We are old

I'm sending you some rain Bestofour, I need three dry days in a row to make hay bales.

Does anyone have any fun plans for the weekend??

Well we are getting rain soon too. Around noon here. Since I need it so I don't have to water For once I am happy.

No fun plans here. I need to freeze berries, fold towels and then clean the sun porch. Exciting, huh ??? (No?)

Are you going to get to do anything fun, Sunny ???

Fun?? Me, never. I did the usual housework, followed by weeding flower beds. I have no mulch on half the flower beds so that equals 10 times the weeding.

Tomorrow will be hilling potatoes and deadheading perennials.

Junie, you mentioned Sevin the other day. My grandfather used to use it....now I know why I never see it in stores. It is banned in Canada.

Gracious..Banned, huh ?? I guess I had better try to buy myself some for extrà/backup, while it is still sold here, huh ??

My potatoes are already dying off. So I guess I will be harvesting them early this year.

I miss growing 4 long rows of potatoes at the farm.....I fed my family home grown potatoes until into January most years.

If I had a good, cold storage...I'd plant more. I put in 160 ft of potatoes this year. Two kinds of red, russet and Kennebec. I also put in half a row of blue potatoes, first time trying them so I only bought a few.

I'll be awaiting your potato results.

You need more planter boxes.😘

True about the storage. I still remember having all the bread carriers and boxes lined with newspaper in our cellar. Great place to store potatoes. Miss that really.
It should not be long. The greenery is quickly dying away.

I am taking the kids to swim lessons today.....in the heat...

We are under a severe thunderstorm watch, it is over 100*F out there, we are on the radar as the hottest temp in all of Canada. At least it's not for the most snow this time. 😉🙄

That is true, about the heat vs the snow. Here the meteorologist says " summer " is coming next week. ( Translate that means it will be "hotter"here in a few days.) SMH ..

We had rain move thru just now. Luckily the kids got their lesson in.

I am tired. I think I need a ñap.

Unless a person has a basement there's no way for us to keep potatoes or other crops all winter. It's too hot and humid. I know very few people have basements. Why do people have basements?

We've had a bit of rain the last week which has been nice. No bad wind so far. Ginger and her crew were at St. Simons Island last week and said the lightening was scary.

People have basements for many reasons, Sheri

1) extra rooms, space, & storage.
2) a safe place to go during bad weather such as storms, tornados, etc.
3) it is much cooler in a basement during the really hot weather.
( These are just a few reasons)

It has been raining at least part of every day here for several days. The good news about that is I have not had to water things in quite awhile. The bad news ? I have not gotten a very good blackberry crop this year

I would love to have a basement for storage but most people in our area have trouble with water seeping in, our temps are too extreme in Winter.

Can you build on cement slabs there Bestofour? We can't do that either. Most of us have a dirt bottom covered with heavy plastic then a 4 ft cement foundation on a cement footing where I live.

Severe storm warnings for us this evening.

Sorry about the blackberry situation Junie.

Yes, people around here sometimes build on cement slabs. I like a house with a bit of a foundation and crawl space though. I think it looks better aesthetically . In MS, where Ginger lives, because of the soft soil, a lot of stuff is built on a slab. The older section of her house is on a bit of a foundation but her added bedroom is on a slab.

I supposed I could put potatoes in my crawl space, which is much cooler, but I don't eat enough potatoes to do that.

I think blackberries around here did well although the deer ate most of mine. I don't care though.

Yes, in the town next to the one where I used to live in in Illinois had a very high water table and as a result few people had a basement. That is often the trouble.

Here, I keep my home grown potatoes on a table I have
in our foyer between the garage door and the kitchen. I only get around 20 pounds give or take, so it works out.

Talking of potatoes, this is the worst year I have ever seen with potato bugs. I'd be scared to see what my garden would look like if I wasn't checking it multiple times a day.

Yes about the bugs...Personally I think it was the constant rains that brought the bugs. When I dig up my potatoes I will let you know how well I did..or didn't do.

We got bad storms last night, it was hard to sleep with all the lightning. There were quite a few basements flooded this morning we heard.

Thankfully it has been quite awhile since we have gotten bad storms. Rain, a lot of the time, some mild storms, plenty of thunder, and a little lightening. This sure has been a strange year. Usually by July one usually just grass once every few weeks and is constantly watering. But not this year. SMH

Good morning

I've felt horrible for a couple of weeks, can't actually put my finger on one specific thing, but just feel terrible SO I went to the doctor Monday who put me on 40mg of prednisone a day for 5 days (even though he didn't know why I felt so bad either) and since I started it I've had a terrible cough. That is backwards but I didn't take it yesterday and the cough is gone this morning. Still feel horrible but without the cough. Had labs drawn yesterday, got results today, everything is fine but as I just said, I feel horrible. I'm supposed to work tomorrow and Monday and at this point I'm not sure how I'm gonna do it. There's no one to replace me if I don't show up so not sure how that will work out.

I think you should look into Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I have heard it is extremely hard to diagnose.

I am back home. I had a most wonderful day !! I was with about 95,%of my close family. It was wonderful.
I am one lucky lady.

Sorry that you feel unwell Bestofour, you might need a good rest....not medication.

Yay for a fun celebration Junie, I hope another one follows soon.

A family reunion? Wow 95% showed up. That's got to be a record.

I slept good last night but still feel bad today. It's not a tired feeling it's just a don't feel good feeling. I can't explain it. I take the sleeping good as a sign of improvement.

We're supposed to get some rain today. I sure hope so.

Did I tell you my sister did a dumb thing and got scammed for $20,000.00 on a credit card (the card company will cover it thank goodness). Do NOT talk to people about any accounts. If you get a text or call, hang up and immediately call your bank or the number of the back of your credit card. Remember when dodge got scammed on her computer. It's just plain evil.

Do you guys have Dollar General stores? They no longer carry chalk. How sad is that.

Ah no chalk. So that is why I could not find any, huh ?? And yes we have them here..and thank goodness as we have no close grocery stores.
We are lucky in that in the town 15 minutes away there is what they call DG Market. (Dollar General Market)
That one is in the same town with what I will loosely call a close grocery. The fruits and veggies do not last long from there though. I guess they do not move fast enough. I have to go to Cape Giaradeau for groceries. Plenty of grocery stores there..

Good gosh, 20,000??? I would never give anyone any info...I also do not buy anything online with my credit card nor do I use online banking. I'm old school. I still go into the bank once a month to pay my bills.

We do not have dollar general, we have Dollarama. I know they carry kids chalk.

Besides Dollar General (where things cost various prices) we have Dollar Tree and a few other "dollar stores" even if the dollar stores are now charging $1.25 to $3.00 per item. And yes, over the years in my travels I have even seen a Dollarama or 2.

My CC is only linked to Amazon..otherwise I use Pay Pal Credit for online purchases.
With PPC I buy something, PayPal pays for it and at the end of every month, I receive a bill in the mail, which I then pay with a check. I do think eventually I will be forced to get a Pay Pal Credit Card, but if so I will only use it as I do PP credit now.

So that's how PayPal works. I just buy gift cards at my pharmacy to use online...I only order things a few times a year.