Following the Rain in Mendota

We had a fast but BIG rain yesterday and everything starting growing again. Here’s some before and after pictures of things photographed last week compared to how they look today.

First, however, let’s start with the Five-Gallon Bucket Tomatoes..I took this picture about two weeks ago….

And here’s a photo taken today. The tomato on the left is the same as the one pictured above….they have filled out, and we’ve now staked them. They smell so good…”tomatoey!”

Susie Vines (Thumbergia) are one of my favorite plants. They grow easily from seed. This pot had four seedlings in it (started in the JSB Horticulture class) in May. This was taken on Sunday.

Susie Vines “After”…taken today…Thursday.

Impatiens on Sunday…(Before)

Impatiens on Thursday…(After)

I plant a lot of impatiens because they’ll grow together and crowd out the weeds. Lazy gardner!

This past weekend, I removed all of the potatoes from the raised bed garden. All of our Yukon Golds are safely tucked in the garage refrigerator or in my neighbor’s root cellar — about 120 pounds.

And here’s a small portion of the onions. Onions do not continue to grow after Summer’s Solstice, so I pulled a few up. I have a lot left in the garden. If you look to the right in the picture, you’ll see more potatoes, too!

And I’d better put my shoes on and get weeding…

Hope your garden is growing well!

Burlap and Red Trimmed Basket

I’m working on “refreshing” our guest bath. If I can ever get a decent picture, I’ll post it. The bathroom is small–tub, sink, potty and small linen closet and small window. There’s not room for a lot of decorative items, so anything in there is going to have to be decorative AND useful.

I thought this little Target basket would look nice holding wash cloths.

I’m using red in this room so I’m adding burlap ribbon trimmed in red-checked buttons to the basket. I like this ribbon as it already had the buttons on it.

I hot glued it on…it looks askew in this picture and that is because the basket is not symmetrical. I’m okay with that. I realized…after looking at this picture…that this looks more like a little man’s upside down hat with a bunch of washcloths in it!

Oh well! I still like it!!

Mendota Cemetery Quilt – What States Are Left??

Something that I’ve been working on here and there is selling tickets for “I’ll Fly Away” — the Mendota Cemetery Quilt. You can read about that here, and here’s a picture of her. She’s a beauty.

Have you heard the song the Carter Family made famous…Alison Krauss and others have kept it going…we sing it at church.

Some glad morning when this life is o’er,
I’ll fly away;
To a home on God’s celestial shore,
I’ll fly away (I’ll fly away).

Chorus
I’ll fly away, fly away, Oh Glory
I’ll fly away; (in the morning)
When I die, Hallelujah, by and by,
I’ll fly away (I’ll fly away).

Our goal is to sell a ticket to every state in the United States — this must be done by the 4th Sunday in August when we have the drawing. Here’s where we are….

A respectable start, don’t you think? But does anyone out there know anyone in Nevada….or Oregon??? And the countries? Who knew we’d sell tickets over the pond?

Want to help out? Email me!! The tickets are $1.00 each.

Now why would a group of women get together and make a quilt and get no monetary benefit from all this work? The answer to that question is rooted within rural life. We help each other out.

Numbers in the House

A few weeks ago, I made a sign that said Swinging Bridge Road and I thought I’d put it with the numbers “4457” which is my street address.

I still don’t know where the Swinging Bridge sign will go although I have a few ideas. I do know, however, that I’m not pairing it with the house numbers because they’ve headed down a different route. I found a board in Mike’s shop and spray painted it red. Actually, Mike, who is retired and has a habit of hijacking my projects yanked my spray paint from me and did it since I wasn’t doing it to his satisfaction. We then (okay, he did that, too!) attached the letters to the board. First thing this morning, before I went for a walk, ate, went to work, etc., I checked on this project to see how it looked. It took forever to dry. It wasn’t quite dry when I took this picture, but I ever-so-carefully took it out and sat it on the front porch so I could get a picture.

Here’s a close up…do you like it? I do!

This was going in my fancy garage that is all clean and organized (I’m so proud…read about this here!), but I like it so much I’m either going to put it in our home office or in the guest bathroom — right above the commode!! Really leaning toward hanging it above the commode. Just so whomever is doing his or her business knows exactly where that business is taking place.

Above the commode? Or in the home office?

I have to go out and pull weeds. Hope your week has started off well!!

Taterhead Update

Do you remember when I planted my Yukon Gold potatoes? Mike had his knee replaced on April 1, and I went out to the raised beds and just stuck the potatoes in the dirt about five days later. I posted about that here. I basically stuck 72 potatoes in the ground and left them alone.

I was so excited that they actually grew.

And got huge…

I worried that I’d have beautiful plants with no potatoes. I tested this theory a few weeks ago and found one potato. Whew! Was I relieved!

Friday I decided to get some of the potatoes out of the garden for some rosemary potatoes. I pulled up one plant, and look what I found…I’m not even sure I got all the potatoes off the plant!

They were so good…so sweet and buttery…but I could easily have 300 pounds of potatoes from those four raised beds! Yikes! What in the world will I do with all of these potatoes?? Taterhead!!

It is a good year for growing things here in Mendota, Virginia. I picked cherries last week and made some yummy cherry pie filling by mixing sugar, flour and cinnamon in with the cherries. I used part of it and froze part of it. I could have gotten more cherries but have you ever pitted cherries? That is were the term “it’s the pits” must come from.

And finally, look what happens when you are a lazy gardener…right in the corner of that potato patch sat a rotting pumpkin. I moved it after its insides fell out, but it left a little something behind.

Can’t wait to see what kind of pumpkin this is!! Hope you had a lovely Father’s Day!

Garage Cleaning and Organization – Finished!

We just finished with our Garage Reorganization Project. I so happy it is complete. Here’s our journey which started more than a week ago…

I used a system I learned at AGC (where I used to work) called “5S”. It includes Sorting, Straightening, Shining, Standardizing and Sustaining.

Starting with Sorting… I sorted in three piles…Keep, Throw Away, Sell in Garage Sale.

Straightening and Shining….Before putting things back (straightening), I cleaned windows, swept spider webs and cleaned the refrigerator inside and out. Lots of elbow grease and sweat (shining).

Standardizing. I made a place for everything. This involved a trip to Sam’s Club where I got all sorts of cool boxes, sprayed them with chalkboard paint and then marked them.

Labeled all the canning jar boxes…

Here’s the shelves on the first phase of the project…

There were some things (picture below) that didn’t belong on shelves…those misfits are propped up beside the shelves. In a garage, anything that is on the floor is twice as dirty as anything that is off the ground. Yuck.

Mike had to help me, and I really appreciate everything he did. He installed a unit to hold the mop, broom, etc. Then, he made me two pegboard stations to hang things on. Here he is and I know his knee is bothering him, so I really appreciate his help. Thanks buddy!!

Here’s one of the pegboards in its “virgin” state..before I put anything on it.

And here it is again. Everything now has a place. That is the sustaining part.

Here’s the other pegboard. I’m going to focus on recycling on this side of the garage and will post about that in the future.

Last, I love the chalkboard Mike and I made which I’ve already posted about. When he leaves, I always remind him about things and now the garage chalkboard will be a visual reminder, too!! Nagging!! I’ll be adding some more useful things on it. I think I started the garage reorganization project just so I could have this chalkboard!!

And I like the yardsticks that surround the chalkboard. See what they say..”Clean Up.” And that’s what we did!!

Thank you for reading RiverCliff Cottage.

Garage Cleaning and Organization – Plywood and Yardstick Chalkboard

I’m back working on our Garage Cleaning and Organization Project. Since starting a few days ago (see that post), I’ve done a lot of sweeping, reorganizing, throwing away, cleaning behind the frig and freezer, cleaning out the frig and freezer, and cleaning the windows and doors. I wish I could paint, but that’s a project for next year.

I wanted to do something with chalkboard paint in the garage. I first thought I’d paint a big square on the wall and that would be it. However, I started thinking when I finally DO paint the garage, how I might need to paint over my chalkboard masterpiece. I decided that making a chalkboard piece to hang or mount in the garage was the best method. When I paint, I’ll remove it, paint under it, and then remount.

And that’s when my Plywood and Yardstick Chalkboard popped in my head! We had the plywood, and I thought that framing out the plywood with yardsticks (67 cents per piece) would make it more “garagey.” Chalkboard paint and Lowes — does it get any better than that? (Nahh…Lowes doesn’t compensate me…my love is innocent and true.)

We’ll use the Plywood and Yardstick Chalkboard as a reminder board for auto maintenance, stuff we need from town, etc.

This is an easy project. Your materials will be:

36″ x 36″ piece of plywood — (plywood comes in 4′ x 8′ and we had some. However, most Lowe’s will cut your plywood for you)

4 36″ yardsticks (On my 36″ x 36″ board, I had to trim two of the yardsticks down by 1″. We could have mitered them but I was in a hurry.

Liquid chalkboard paint

Here’s when I first started toying with the idea..

I’m so happy with the the Plywood and Yardstock Chalkboard. (Notice I’m saying it in Initial Caps–as if it’s an event or a destination? Bahaha…)

I have one more organization project to do on the garage, and I’ll be through. I’ll finish and post that later this week!

And, because I want someone to brag on me, even if it’s myself, just look at this clean garage refrigerator….I’m loving it!!

Thank you for reading RiverCliff Cottage.

Planting Tomatoes In Five-Gallon Buckets

Hello! If you are coming over from Hometalk, thank you for visiting me! I’m a nobody blogger so your presence is appreciated so much!! I’d love for you to leave a comment and tell me something about yourself — like where you live! And now…back to the post on Five-Gallon-Bucket Tomatoes!!

We’ve never had great luck with tomatoes. We usually plant lots…like 40 plants…get the first group of tomatoes which we use like crazy–a sea of red in the kitchen while they’re being canned– and then we have blight. Blight means no more tomatoes.

This year, with Mike’s knee still having challenges, we decided not to plant tomatoes. Then, we reversed our thoughts and decided we could not imagine a summer in Mendota, Virginia without tomatoes. Just look at them…they are calling to me!!

This is where our Five-Gallon Bucket Tomatoes come in. We have a lot of five-gallon buckets. We get them to haul and store sugar when it’s donated to the Highlands Beekeepers. Mike had a brilliant idea (I hate it when it’s not mine, but oh well). We took about six five-gallon buckets to the City of Bristol to get some of their amazing compost. (Remember fellow citizens of Bristol…your garbage…my garden!!). This stuff is brown gold. It reminds me of Gilligan’s Island when the Professor grew radioactive carrots that were the size of Gilligan’s arm. Do you remember Gilligan’s Island? Every man I’ve known always liked Maryanne better than Ginger but never mind that. Back to buckets — and not the ones on Ginger’s chest!!

Here’s one happy tomato plant…we already had the wire cages and they fit perfectly.

Tomatoes like to grow deep, and they like to be dry. They are a berry. I can control how much water they get in these buckets, plus the amazing compost is very loamy and drains. I’m expecting great things from these Five-Gallon Bucket Tomatoes. I hope I’m not disappointed. Another thing about buckets is that they are cheaper than pots. At Lowe’s (my True Love), you can buy a bucket for $2.50.

Oh we’re lookin’ good. Here’s three in a row. There’s a fourth one but she’s camera shy. If this works out well, and I don’t see why it shouldn’t, I’m going to repeat this again next year and paint the buckets tomato red. I know…impressive!!

And just for your enjoyment…we had a little parade on Swinging Bridge Road. Got rained on but holding up pretty well! Lined up sweetly…”single file girls.” Do you recall hearing statements like that from elementary school? I do.

And the very best one…

Honeybees Are Really Back!

I’m taking you with me to feed the bees. Shhh…it’s early in the morning. The world seems new and clean. Does it seem that way everywhere or only here?

I added Honey B Healthy to the 1:1 sugar water I’m feeding my two bee hives. Beekeeping is not cheap. This little bottle of Honey B Healthy is $24.95, and I am lucky enough to live near Poor Valley Bees so I don’t have to pay shipping.

Just takes a teaspoon per quart jar of sugar water…they love it. Lemon oil, spearmint oil…all things bees like and need.

At the hive, which is blissfully near the house, I look in and see an empty jar. They are drinking one quart every 24-36 hours. This means they are alive so this is a good thing for me.

So I swapped them out. It was so easy since the bees were in the hive due to the early hour. This afternoon I visited the hive again…it was reassuring as I could see the bees coming in and taking off. The ones that were coming in had their little hind leg baskets filled with pollen. Not much of the sugar water is gone — maybe they are all foraging and just using it as a “bar” where they go for a drink at night???

They are working hard. I’m going to work hard, too — I’m going to go outside and work on my garage organization and plant some tomatoes!! But before I go, I was a little concerned that my super duper potatoes might be all potato vine and no potato…so while walking back from my little apiary, I reached down in the raised bed and felt around and pulled out this! Taterhead rules!!

Playing With the Cricut

I’ve been off for a few days because both of our laptops have been just dying. We got his fixed and mine is currently being fixed. Someone downloads a lot of stuff and picks up Malware Yikes. I love free software but I guess it really isn’t free. We’ve also been really busy around here as Mike’s knee replacement which went so well at first seems to have went south in terms of the flexibility of his leg. This has resulted in a minor procedure last Wednesday at Holston Valley Medical Center, and now we’re involved in intensive physical therapy. I say “we” because there are parts of this that occur at home, and I help.

Today, however, I just had to get away to myself. I started messing with the Cricut.

We had a young man get married who lives just up the road from us, and I bought he and his wife a gift card from Lowe’s. I then lost the gift card. They’ve been married a month, so I decided the only way to find the gift card is to buy another gift card. You know how that works. I finally bought the new gift card last week. I still haven’t found the original one, but I’m feeling more confident.

Then, since I’d also lost the card that I got to go with the gift card, I decided to go in a different direction than buying another card to put the gift card in. (Whew..did you get that? I’m not sure I did.) I found a painted wooden block and then added the letter “K” (for Kiser). (I guess I ought to clarify here that I’m talking about a gift card I lost followed by a wedding card congratulating the couple that I also lost. My hope is that they are somewhere together, probably a couple by now, and I’ll find them and be so excited because I’ll then have a Lowe’s gift card that is All.Mine.) Meanwhile, here’s that “K” I was talking about.

This is no masterpiece, but I know they are using yellow in their house, so I took some yellow scrapbook paper and placed it on the wooden block Mike made ages ago — made a letter K on the Cricut and added some Mod Podge to hold this all together. I attached the gift card to the back and tied a white ribbon around the whole affair.

Here ya go! Isn’t this better than wrapping paper or a gift bag? I’m loving this. Should I put a tracker on it in case I lose this, too?

So, while I had the the Cricut out…I made the letters for “Swinging Bridge” for a board I found in Mike’s shop. I laid the letters out and thought, “where the heck is the “E”…I have an extra “G” but no “E” (which I knew I’d made). Look closely. at the last “G” in Swinging. Duh. It’s my “E” I could not find.

Admit it…they do look a bit alike…

I’m not sure exactly how I’m going to use this “Swinging Bridge”…I may put numbers with it and do it as a wall piece in our home office. I’m still working on that project.

Write more later…now that I’ve got one healthy computer!!