Veggies and Work - oh my!

My garden continues to give me a few tomatoes (some of them the cherry type) a day. The 3 tomato plants are more than enough to take care of my needs. The peppers are still ripening. After my attempts to air dry the parsley, basil, and catnip (I gave them quite a “haircut”, they are recovering nicely. The squash is still an unknown – blossoms but no apparent fruits are setting. The strawberries are done for the year but the leaves and plant appear quite healthy and I haven’t the heart to just ditch it. It’s so nice to have my own fresh produce.

I picked up my CSA share on the farm this past Wednesday night. The box had cabbage, a small watermelon, tomatoes (including 5 heirloom varieties), squash, zucchini, cucumbers, lettuce, leeks, onions, and several other items. There isn’t a lot of any of them but it’s nice.

Work was challenging. My boss was in on Tuesday so that was a long day. She never seems satisfied and always wants more. Even if we are at 100%, she’s pushing for more. It’s frustrating and sometimes I think that if she complimented us, I’d have a heart attack! Of course I’m being silly but you probably know the feeling – never being able to satisfy anyone. The majority of the week was spent taking care of customers.

This week at work will be stressful as the trainee is back in the office (he was in Sarasota, Florida last week for training – I expect he’ll have some stories about the hurricane). I did some work this weekend to prepare a training plan so hopefully I’m ready. On Tuesday, I have a manager’s meeting. We have to travel about 2 hours away so that’s a pain. The rest of that week will be customer work, loan work, and well just lots of other things.

It’s been a weekend of Harry Potter movies on the one TV channel. Since the TV versions put some of the deleted scenes back in, they are kind of interesting to watch. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to just sit and watch them – they’ve been on in the background and I try and catch bits and pieces as I do my work.

Well, that's not much but it's about all from here. :)

Best wishes and take care!

Another week has seemingly flown by…I can’t believe it’s already August and that it’s so cool right now. It feels more like fall. I hope this isn’t a sign of a long winter (I keep saying it and hoping that it won’t happen!).

I've heard that Swiss Colony has bought Montgomery Ward and a few other businesses. I didn’t even know Montgomery Ward was still doing business! That may make the Swiss Colony sale in Monroe more interesting next year.

I joined a Community Supported Agriculture Farm (CSA farm) this spring. That means that every other week I get about a milk crate full of fresh fruits and vegetables that are grown on that farm. The farm is located about a mile or so north of my place so it’s pretty convenient. I’ve gotten lots of everything including radishes, lettuce, onions, leeks, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, - well you get the picture. Lots of unique varieties and things that I’m trying to learn to cook with and use. It’s been an experience. We’re now about halfway through the CSA farm season and I’ll be picking up more this week. Since I never know what I’ll be getting it’s an interesting thing.

Right now I’ve got some pork chops, potatoes (from my CSA share the last time), and parsley (fresh from my small container garden) in the crock pot. I’m hoping that I’ll get several meals from that for this week. It’s just too busy lately and I really don’t feel like cooking when I get home at night.

I’ve had several tomatoes lately from my garden. I have bacon all cooked and ready in the refrigerator for BLT’s. The lettuce (leaf) is still growing in the garden so I have that at the ready too. The cherry tomatoes have been very prolific. I’ve found though that if I don’t get the ones on the bottom picked fast enough, my dog reaches up to eat them off! She loves her veggies! I’ve got some basil, parsley, and catnip drying now. The peppers are still ripening (both varieties are sweet ones). My squash is proving to be a bit of a pain – it blooms but doesn’t seem to set up anything edible. I think the strawberries are done for the year.

Well, I’d better get going.

Best wishes!

Hi,

I hope everything is going well there.

The big Land’s End warehouse sale has been going on since last Wednesday. Tomorrow is the last day. I’ve hit the right times (they have 15 minute specials where items are 50% or more off) for a few really good buys. Mostly I’ve been looking for blazers that I can wear for work. It’s kind of scary to see the original prices on them ($359 was the most expensive) and then I buy them for $10-$35 each. I haven’t found a lot of other things – a few flannel pillow cases, some shirts, a belt, and a few other items. It’s interesting to just see all the license plates in the parking lot at the sale. There are vehicles from Connecticut, California, Vermont, Wyoming, Florida, Texas, North Carolina, New York, Arizona, and other places. The quality is good but the items can still be priced quite expensively for the area.

My small garden seems to be doing well. I’ve had some cherry tomatoes off the one plant on a pretty regular basis. The pepper plants (both sweet and unique varieties) are still ripening. I’ve got some parsley, basil (which smells quite nice), and catnip (for my cat of course!) drying. I tied the summer and butternut squash vines up onto a trellis so hopefully they’ll be in better shape soon (they have been looking a bit scrawny). The strawberries are slow to produce – we get about 1 every 3-4 days now. I’ve still got some leaf lettuce growing (which I’m hoping will work well with my BLT’s).

Work has been very busy. I’ve had a new loan officer and a new loan officer trainee in our office starting last week. That made it hectic enough. On top of that I was out of the office on Tuesday and Wednesday for management training in Wausau (which I tried to get excused from but wasn’t allowed) and Thursday was emergency loan training. Friday was a day for farm visits and other customer appointments. The week just “flew” by. This week the trainee is off work (he’s on leave without pay). However, I found out last Thursday night that we will have a reviewer in the office. Sort of an “out of the frying pan and into the fire” period of time at work. Hopefully it’ll work out for the best.

Well, I’d better get going - lots to do yet. :)

Best wishes,
Take care!