My Tireless Retirement – Week 114

 

Summer has arrived here at my happy little home.  After work on Friday I stopped in at Trader Joes on my way to the bus station and picked up some grape tomatoes, a bunch of green onions and a couple bananas to add to the produce I already had at home.  That little bit of shopping should hold me quite well for at least a couple of weeks.

 

I enjoyed a very nice weekend.  Saturday I walked down and met a friend for lunch at my favorite neighborhood Mexican restaurant. M y friend had never been there and she loved it too.  After making pigs out of ourselves we came back to my house and continued our visit and she was able to see what I’d done out in the yard so far this year.  I truly cherish my time spent with my wonderful friends.

 

After my sweet friend left to go home I was able to get outside and plant the last of the perennials in my flowerbeds.  I planted another Shasta daisy, another English daisy, two more lavender plants and a new succulent next to my pond.  I am now officially done planting for this year.

 

The next day, on Sunday, I harvested my rhubarb.  It is my largest crop yet from my two plants.  I was able to make a delicious rhubarb crisp for dessert that night and put away two quart bags of sliced rhubarb in the freezer.  Because the rhubarb leaves contain oxalic acid I could not give them to the chickens so I placed the big pile into the compost bin where they will quickly break down.

 

Rhubarb Crisp

Monday it rained all day long and I appreciated every drop as it watered all of my raised garden beds and the flowerbeds.  They really got a good soaking and I think the rain did wonders settling all the pollen we’ve been plagued with lately.  I harvested some more cilantro and this bunch I decided to air dry and put away in my spice cupboard.  I checked on my garlic and it is just about ready to harvest.  It should be ready by the end of the month, I think.  I’m very excited for my first garlic harvest.

 

I replanted my zucchini as something got it and gobbled it up in my garden.  I only had one plant survive from my original planting.  I also noticed my green beans had been devoured as well.  I decided not to replant those.  I do believe my rogue squirrels may be the culprits, its hard to say.

 

"New" microwave

Things I Did To Save $$: 

My twenty plus year old microwave decided that the zero button was worn out and no longer wanted to work when you pressed it.  That is definitely the most used button on a microwave so when it stopped working it wasn’t entirely too surprising.  I’ve used it a lot over the years.  I removed the microwave and swapped it out with the much newer one in my motorhome for a no cost replacement.  I decided I will not be replacing the one in the motorhome as it was rarely ever used.

 

Blueberry scones

Meals I Prepared: 

I began the week by finishing up some leftovers from the week before and then on Sunday I got busy in the kitchen and did a little meal prep for the week ahead.  I made a small batch of crack chicken in my slow cooker to go over rice, a batch of scones (recipe coming) and a rhubarb crisp (recipe coming). 

I also made up a batch of my great-grandma’s macaroni salad (recipe coming) as it not only makes a great side dish, but also I could just eat it as my main course.  In the freezer it just so happened that I had two chicken patties that needed to be used up as they were starting to get a little frosty as well as two hamburger buns leftover in the refrigerator from Memorial Day.  I baked those chicken patties in my toaster oven and had a chicken sandwich with my macaroni salad for two of my meals.  Everything I made last week was so delicious and thoroughly enjoyable.

 

Macaroni Salad

One of you lovely readers had asked for my potato salad recipe last week.  Truth be told, I don’t really have a recipe, I just make it.  I have scaled it back a bit to a more manageable size so I’m not eating it for a month.  But, I just parboiled four small potatoes (the ones that make their way to the bottom of the bag) until I could just push a fork into them.  My tell that they are ready is I can remove the skin when I scrape them with the side of a fork.  I cut up the potatoes and combine them with three chopped hard boiled eggs, a big chopped dill pickle, about a heaping tablespoon of finely diced onion, some mayonnaise, a healthy squirt of yellow mustard, salt and pepper to taste.  It’s a pretty simple conglomeration, nothing fancy, but it is pretty tasty though.

 

My garlic bed

I hope you are all doing well and that you have a fantastic week ahead.  Take care my friends!  Let me know in the comments what has been keeping you busy lately. 

 

FYI - My retirement week runs from Friday through Thursday.