Town House Homestead Tuesday

My first thoughts today are for the victims and families suffering in "our country" from the results of natural disasters and to the "human beings" who have lost their lives because of it. I can not alone send everything they need and I can not seem to rally many to even think of helping. My heart aches for the families that suffered fatalities in Las Vegas. My heart aches over the number of our citizens who are suffering from hunger and homelessness. This is America. This is a disgrace. We are brothers and sisters in this world. "All one." Do what you can even if it's on a small local level. Enough said.

I am learning to save seeds. I started this past year with some vegetables, but this week I saved some zinnia seeds. 

I also treated myself to other flower seeds. A percentage of the sales go to fund hurricane victims. I am cleaning my hanging baskets and planning a little more beautification of Ms. Beldon next spring. 

I was gifted a bag of "end of season" peppers yesterday and I know I can make some meals from them. This morning I harvested two more of my own peppers and a meals worth of green beans. 

I harvested almost all of my basil. I got four cups from my five plants and made three and a half more cups of walnut pesto. I gave one cup away to a co-worker of my daughter, that sent me some of his home grown garlic. I made a pesto and tomato pizza for us and froze the rest.

I had a large zucchini given to me and it yielded six cups of grated goodness. I made a zucchini quiche and zucchini ricotta muffins. So savory, and tasted incredible with our home made soup. 

Over night lows went down into the thirties so I brought my herbs inside. I am making homes for them so I have fresh herbs to cook with all winter.

My parsley found a home on my early Christmas gift. It's a vintage pole, plant hanger. My daughter gave it to me. She's taught herself to make macrame hangers, and has made me two now to hang my over abundance of plants. Below the parsley is a vintage planter with fresh oregano growing. 

We had a good rain storm one day last week. When the sun came out we saw this beautiful rainbow that left a wonderful feeling in our hearts. We can see the grass disappearing to grow gardens in the future, but in the time we've been here, our little patch of earth has done a lot developing. 

Today is national black dog day. Who knew? I'll close today with a picture of our little black dog who was neutered and micro chipped last week. He was so sick and we felt so bad. He lived nine days in his cone and hated every minute of it, but he hung in there. He has recovered well. This is not a cone of shame as many people called it, but a cone of responsibility. As pet owners we must be responsible even if it hurts us as much as it hurts them. We promised day after day that he'd get his revenge on that cone, and it took him three days to destroy it, and he had fun doing it. That's what's been happening at the Town House Homestead. Thank you for stopping by, and if my comments make you upset, and you think that I don't see all sides to problems, than feel free not to read, but please be loving to all.

Town House Homestead Tuesday

One foot in front of the other and keep on going has always been our philososphy. I would love to be showing you more progress on the basement renovations, but they once again have stalled. Although we have unpacked a few boxes for my daughter's studio we have been trying to regroup from the newest dilema. The furnace needs to be replaced and when the company that flipped the house did renovations they installed a defective water heater and guage. In a couple of weeks they will both be replaced and we'll have a new slate to work with. It's really a great thing that we hadn't finished painting the floors. We also got some of the items relisted on her store so that we could continue in a forward motion. Still lots to get done there, but every day is a new day. Follow the progress of her store at poetcharms.etsy.com. 

She found this chair in the hallway at work and brought it home. This is the second such chair they have cleared out. The legs were bent inward on one side, but after she removed the seat she was able to stand on it and bend it back to where it should be. It got cleaned and painted and is now at her computer desk.

Our 85 year old neighbor came to the door the other day with this bag of apples. She was checking on us because she hadn't seen us out working on the gardens and thought we would like to make a pie and relax. I haven't gotten to the pie yet, but I have eaten a couple of the apples. They are fresh and crips.

My daughter was given a bag of jalapeno peppers by a co-worker. There was 1.5 pounds which was enough to make half a batch of candied jalapenos. I love hot peppers on sandwiches and there you have it more to put on the basement shelves.

I was given a few organic items to save the seeds from. Here is a chili pepper that was hot and awesome. I did say I liked it hot. The seeds are drying and to keep from wasting that lovely pepper I added it to honey to add to marinades. 

This is an organic tomato that tasted full on summer. Some of the last I suspect on his vines. The seeds are soaking in some water to separate and will be dried as soon as they do. I also saved some jalapeno seeds. Now that this process is under way I'm sure hoping to be able to get the garden in next year. In the meantime I will continue to use the local farm markets and building the food storage. So glad we did now that a new furnace and water heater have to be installed. That's what's been happening at the new Town House Homestead. Thank you for stopping by and have a great week.