My tomatoes are cracking horizontally. Not too bad at the moment.

Dawn, I thought that I ought to wash my car, that's my own personal "rain dance" but just hung out inside the house all day (since there's nothing left to speak of in my garden ! ) I planted my last and only surviving tomato late in the season, wondering if it would "take" and it actually seems to be doing okay! I see a couple of fruits on it, I sprayed it with insecticidal soap to kill off any of the spider mites (as well as my first year morning glories which caught the bug, geez, I'm great at raising pests, perhaps I should switch hobbies!) I have several flowers on my bell pepper and poblano, now I'm just keeping my eye out for the peppers! As much as I dislike what the summers here do to my lawn and garden, I much prefer it over the ice, wind and bitter temps of the winter! I will welcome September and mourn its passing as I do every year, but am confident summer will show it's sharp teeth soon enough!

Oh, and about my sunflowers, they're quite tall, close to 7' now and the leaves are huge! I'm able to inspect every leaf, top and bottom on the 10 plants I have and I have not seen a single bug anywhere on any of them! I do know something is munching the leaves though, also, in the "crotch" of many of the leaves, there are blackish holes that must be some kind of borer perhaps?? Still, no bugs to be seen. And, the leaves are dying from the bottom up.

Wow. Lottawatta highway was pouring, from Wagoner to our house. We ran into town for Mexican dinner, and it was just starting. Then all of a sudden the outdoors disappeared from the windows in the restaurant and all was just GRAY (Not fog--rain.) . We got home 15 minutes ago and changed into dry clothes, and it's letting up now, enough for me to see the rain gauge, which measures at 1.2" at the moment, but rain is still coming down medium to light.

Looks like that vertical swath got some rain on a lot of you who haven't had enough? I certainly hope so!!

Amy, We had clouds momentarily but those Texsas storms hugged the western end of the county and brought hail (largest I've heard of so far was quarter-sized) so I'm okay that it missed us. We didn't need or want hail with all those tomatoes nearing maturity on the plants. Rain would have been nice, but I noticed it went towards Sulphur and Ada and that general area and they really needed it, so that's great for them.

Bon, I hope the cracks don't get too big or mold can start growing in them.

Hailey, Ha ha ha, washing our cars doesn't do us a bit of good in summertime, so we have to get hard-core and start painting the house or a shed or something, and maybe that will make it rain. Oh, or if we are going to be in a parade and the firefighters wash and wax and buff the fire engine and make it all gorgeous for the parade, that can almost guarantee rain too.

I've heard from a lot of of folks around the state that it seems like an especially bad pest year. I haven't really seen that here, except for stink bugs which are here in droves, but I'd rather have them than some other pests. Now that the spider mites have shown up, I guess I have to add them to the list of things plaguing us, though they really aren't present in large enough numbers to kill plants yet. That can change in a hurry, though, as heat speeds up their reproductive rate to a really high level in a very short time.

Hmmm. Maybe whatever is munching on your sunflowers is coming out at night since you're not seeing anything during the day. I'll check mine tomorrow to see if I see any damage similar to what you describe. There are sunflower borers, sunflower beetles and something else (I cannot remember what) that might do the sort of damage you're seeing, but generally they hit commercial fields harder than home gardens.

Nancy, I am not surprised at all that you got rain, or that we didn't. lol. That seems to be the story of the summer. The rain mostly keeps falling where it already has fallen, though I do think a few areas that had been short of rain and needed it did finally get some this afternoon/evening. July is often rain-starved, so any rain in July is a good thing.

Dawn

I know, Dawn. After I typed that, I went to Mesonet and was distressed to see that some of you I was doing rain dances for missed this one! CRAZY! And while I'm so happy we're getting some, unlike last summer, really, honest, and truly. I wish I could gift half of our last month's rain to some of you! and it's till raining . . .

It ain't over yet....a couple of Severe Thunderstorm Warnings later, we still have storms training after one another and coming into the NW corner of our county, moving E to SE. We're under a Severe TStorm Warning here at our house until 9:30 pm and either the storm that's headed our way or the one still behind it has produced hail up to 2" in diameter. So, instead of hoping for rain, we're hoping this thing stays north of us and drops any hail it is carrying someplace else! We did slip out and get the front and back yards mowed while the storms were approaching but before they could get close enough for lightning to be a threat.

Two little baby chicks, about half-grown, enjoyed their first day of freedom free-ranging today. The part they didn't understand is that they are supposed to go back into the chicken coop at night. Long after all the other poultry put themselves up, these two were running from us and hiding under the four o'clocks. We finally got them up just when it was about too dark to find them. I was worried about them being out in a storm should these storms come this far. Usually, young chicks who are new to free-ranging only take a couple of days to learn the ropes from the rest of the flock so hopefully this game of chicken tag won't become an after-dinner event every evening.

I'm just sitting here perversely hoping these storms will stay away from us if they are going to drop hail while also hoping they reach us if they only are bringing rain and wind. It is sort of silly to half hope the storms come and half hope they stay away, but I'm doing it anyway. I'm sure I'm not the only one---I am sure farmer, ranchers, gardeners, homeowners, etc. are hoping for the same thing.

It is raining so hard in northern Love County that the deputies on the road cannot see well enough to drive. I am ridiculously jealous of whoever is getting the rain.

We got another .5 inch this evening.

We had one little storm after another roll through last night, each with strong winds and hail that was smaller than the storm before it. I think all but one of those storms completely missed our part of the county. When all was said and done, this was another of those evenings with a lot of wind, lightning and noise and not so much rain (at least at our location). Still, here it is only the morning of July 3rd, and we've now received 0.8" of rainfall this month, so I cannot complain. All the hail missed us too, so I really, really cannot complain. Folks to our north and northwest got quite a bit more, but also had wind damage and hail in places. Some counties near us had heavy rain, flooding and power outages.

Some people have had tons of rain, and some haven't.

Here's the rainfall map for the last 4 days, which I think captures all the rainfall since this latest round of storms began:

4-Day Rainfall Accumulation

Here's the map that shows how many days it has been since any given Mesonet station recorded at least 0.25" of rain in one 24-hour recording period:

Consecutive Days With Less Than 0.25"

Clearly some areas still have been without meaningful rainfall for quite a while, but there's more chances of rain on several days this week, including today.

Well, I was just sure all we'd get was a measly 1/3" that fell Friday, so I watered the area by our front porch for an hour that evening (it was reverting back to a sand bed.) Lo and behold, we got almost 2" yesterday. So thankful! Dawn, I'll wash my car and send rain vibes your way. I wouldn't complain if those of us who need it got some before tomorrow night. Fireworks are beautiful unless it's dry enough to start a grass fire.

Good for you, Sandplum!

I got a solid 3/4" of rain in the last 24 hours. Definitely needed.

What the! I just told Garry about four hours ago that if we got any rain today it wouldn't be until the wee hours during the night. That was 40 minutes and a half inch of rain ago. Daff headed under the deck with a big crack of lightning, Titan decided I was nuts and went in to watch baseball with Garry. And it is still coming down at a good clip. I ran out to check the rain gauge when it let up a little. . . and then it started up again.

Yay! Looks like a lot of you who haven't been getting rain are getting some. . . . So happy for ya, hope you don't get hail and wind, too!

It is raining and the wind is blowing and DirecTV is out. I'm so happy for the rain! Hoping for no damage and no power outage. Did I say I was happy for the rain? I am if you wondered.

I was doing a happy dance for ya!

Listening to an odd combination of (illegal) fireworks and thunder here.

Earlier this evening I was outside wrapping up tomatoes, listening to distant thunder and enjoying the cool breeze coming off the storms, when I looked up just as a HUGE clap of thunder happened right above my head. I finished up real quick after that, right before we got a shower.

Looks like those of us up here are getting ready for a gulleywasher...

I don't wanna look at the weather map, as the thunder is beginning to roll in. . . again, so thankful I cleaned out beds and staked many plants up! Isn't it crazy!! Some of you need rain so desperately and some of us are wishing with all our might you could get some of ours!

I think Dawn is getting rain!

I think so, too, and she said she was gonna be up watching!

We went to bed to storm sounds and rain. I got up to slight sprinkling rain. Still have to check rainfall levels. I'm being lazy this morning. Still have to get out there and do chores.

I took a number of garden pictures yesterday and decided to drink coffee, label and file pictures before going outside. My main garden, which sits on a gravel bed, is LOVING the raining spring/summer so far. I skipped the plastic mulch this year, as last year the drip system failed and nearly throttled the whole garden, as the plastic preventing what rain we had from soaking in around some of the plants. I'm glad I did.

We got another inch last night, so that brings our total to 4.5 inches since Friday. Wow! George, we bought a very sturdy porous weedmatting a few years ago and are still using it in our garden. We got it from Gardener's Supply catalog. So far we have put it down, covered it with leaves and taken it back up in the fall. We are considering installing it permanently and keeping it covered.

We did get rain, so now we up over 2" for this month. That's pretty awesome, and it was mostly slow, gentle rain so it got to soak in instead of runing off. There was thunder and lightning but not lots and no strong winds or hail here either. I'm so grateful for the rain. I don't know that it is enough to bust our drought, but I'll be happy if it just keeps the drought from progressing. Except for January, every single month in 2017 has had below average (often well below) rainfall, so now we need some above-average rainfall months just to make up that deficit. July is off to a good start for getting that done. Another 6 or 7" this month and we could wipe out the rainfall deficit from all the other months, although I doubt we'll be that lucky.

Up here in Garfield County, I enjoyed a good, hard windstorm accompanied by a nice amount of much needed rainfall! I just sat on my back patio taking it all in. So nice. It filled up my 5 rain barrels I have set up to collect from my back patio roof and one in my front yard! I can't tell you guys how much I love sitting out here listening to the rain, I suppose I'm not alone there. Had the afternoon off and got the majority of my yard work finished and am enjoying dinner and a drink out back now! It's so calm! Tomorrow, before work I'll finish up out here, I have a bird feeder and bath set up and love watching the birds enjoy the seeds! When I open my back door to go out, the mourning doves freak out and fly away in a frenzy, c'mon birds! I'm harmless!! Twice now a bird has flown into my asparagus bed to escape the perceived danger and found itself "trapped" by the wire fencing I installed to hold them up in the wind. Luckily they escaped both times but I would be just sick if one was injured in it's escape, so I will put up more fencing so they can't fly into there again! Still no signs of what's munching my sunflowers, I went out this morning with my flashlight before the sun came up, trying to catch the culprits in the act, but still no sign of a single bug. So far so good with my one remaining tomato plant, no signs of the spider mites. *Sigh* my summer garden is a pitiful sight. Crossing my fingers my peppers will produce! Oh brother. What a summer!

Hailey, I totally understand enjoying the rain. During one particularly hot, dry year we finally had a summer rainstorm drop a couple of inches of rain one afternoon. It probably was 2006, the second year of a miserable two-year drought. It wasn't enough rain to bust the drought, but it was the most incredibly welcome rain. During a lull in the thunderstorm we went outside and sat on the covered patio, where we spent the rest of the afternoon watching intermittent rain showers. Frogs of all kinds came out of nowhere (some from the lily pond we had then, which we were keeping filled with a water hose since rain had been scarce for so long) and hopped all over the yard, splashing in puddles, croaking, carrying on....just enjoying having moisture again. We sat and watched them and the rain for hours. Cheap entertainment! A few days later, while chatting with neighbors we learned that several of our neighbors were out on the porches and patios doing the same thing at the same time---watching the rains and the Frogpallooza. We joked about being so easily entertained out here in the sticks, but the fact remains to this day that we still appreciate a good rainfall, especially when it falls during drought. We so often go for so long without good rainfall that when it finally falls, nobody wants to miss it.

We feed the birds too and if I am late putting out food for them, they sit on the electric lines and sing their hearts out while waiting for me. We always have a ton of birds here, and I suspect it is at least partly because we feed them. I put out cracked corn for the mourning doves every morning, but crows also come and eat it. In the long run, feeding the crows pays off because they will vigorously chase away hawks and owls all day long as they protect "their" territory, and that helps keep our free-range chickens safer. My garden is full of birds every day. In fact, they sometimes seem annoyed when the cats and I are in the garden, as if we are invading their space.

When I went outside to let the chickens out to free-range and to feed them, the wild birds and, by extension, the bunnies and the deer (all of whom were standing there waiting for me), I was surprised to find big puddles of water everywhere. We got more rain overnight than expected.....there was a tiny smidgen under 0.90" in the rain gauge--probaby .88 or .89 so I'll just round it up to .90" and be thrilled that we got so much. It was a much quieter, gentler rain so must have fallen for quite a while to add up to that amount. We didn't have much thunder or lightning with this storm and the rain wasn't loud...so I knew it rained while we were sleeping but it wasn't a booming thunderstorm that woke us up either. I only remember thunder and lightning once, around the time Tim's alarm clock wakes him up, so I suspect it was the alarm clock that woke me up and not really the storm.

We'll take whatever rain we can get in the summertime, however and whenever it comes. Everything outside is just dripping wet and it is cloudy, cool and comfortable. I don't know if we'll get more rain today, but we have a 60% chance this morning so anything is possible.

So, here we are on July 5th, with rainfall this month that already exceeds our average July rainfall. Any further rain that falls this month will be helping knock back the rainfall deficit from February through June. Maybe we'll find ourselves back out of drought before summer ends.

Parts of the garden are too hot and too dry, and spider mites generally dont just vanish once they arrive, but this rain surely will help everything. Of course, it exacerbates the disease issues on tomato plants, but I've got new plants for fall and they are in good shape. Knock on wood. We really don't need more rain this week or tomatoes and melons may start to burst.

Dawn

I'm glad you all got the rain. We have had quite a treat with rain coming through this summer, although last night's rain went north of us.

merrybookwyrm, With as many house fires as they had in the metroplex from late afternoon into the night, with many of them apparently being caused by lightning strikes (Southlake, Grapevine, Frisco, Plano, Allen....), maybe it was your lucky night that the rain missed you. Between the house fires, flash flooding and high water rescues, yesterday's rain down there caused all sorts of problems. I like it more when rain just falls as rain without the severe side effects.

Dawn

Oh my! I missed all that, indeed. You're quite right-- rain that just falls as rain without the severe side effects is best.

Well, I'm glad to see the rain over for a spell. I think I've got 42 inches so far this year and over 5 inches for july. And that was in 4 days. One of the late june storms got most of my shop roof and scattered most of it through the garden. Been busting my tail trying to get things back to normal.

Here's a little video of the damage

And here is the new roof that was fun putting up in the extreme heat afterwards.

Oh my: What a pretty place you have :)

Dawn, I wanted you to know that I planted about 10 County Fair cucumbers a couple of weeks ago. I grew them under lights until they had true leaves, and then I got out and put them and some Armenian cuke transplants under the trellis. It actually took me several days to do this: I took my new garden bench (almost like a walker with a seat, and very light-weight), and each morning, about 6 am, I would get out there with my hand weeder and trowel, and cleared every weed, pulled every bit of bermuda grass and their runners under the ground, and then then loosened the soil with a garden fork (the big kind) and added black kow and fertilizer. I had about 20-25 feet, so it took me a few days. So...then I finally got them all planted. I also planted some zinnias and some other flowers that I grew from seed in between all of them, along with a couple of melons and pumpkins that I grew from seed. After the last rain, they are climbing the trellis! They are looking so pretty! You had recommended County Fair, and although I probably can't can anything this year**, I will have plenty of refrigerator pickles...hopefully! I laid soaker hose on both sides of the trellis, so they won't have to ever go dry.

** I had to buy a new stove a couple months ago...and I bought one of those ceramic top things...it was 35% off, and had a huge oven with convection. Hard to pass it up at that price, but I'm afraid to try and can on it.

Robert, You've had such an awful lot of rain this year! I'd gladly trade my 16" of rain for your 45", but I suspect it is a trade (damage notwithstanding) that you wouldn't want to make. Sorry about the roof damage. Your place looks so green!

Mary, I hope County Fair does well for you. I know you probably won't be able to can as much as usual this summer, but some refrigerator pickles would be nice.

When we first bought our ceramic-top stove, I was hesitant about using it for canning. Finally, even though I knew it would void my warranty if the prolonged heat cracked the top of the stove, I used it for BWB canning anyway and it was fine. I never had any trouble with the stovetop or with any canning batch. I did watch the boiling carefully at first to make sure the temperature didn't drop and the boiling didn't stop in the middle of a batch (a common issue with the type of burners used on ceramic-top stove and why they often are not recommended for canning) and it never did. My burners seemed to maintain even heat all along. I had to replace that stove in the fall when our oven door abruptly fell off and shattered into 1 million pieces while I was baking pies the day before Thanksgiving. We got a new ceramic top stove but it doesn't have a convection oven. I kinda miss the convection oven, but I can dehydrate food, if desired, in a standard old countertop dehydrator if I want. So far, so good, with the new stove too. I kinda think all the concerns about ceramic top stoves apply more to pressure canning because most BWB canning is of relatively short duration, or maybe the ceramic top stoves provide more even heat now than they did when they were newer. I do have an electric turkey fryer I can use for BWB canning if desired, but all it does is sit on a shelf---I've never used it.

I am trying to taper off on canning so much. It just completely wears me out any more. Still, once I fill up the freezers, I'd have to do more canning, or risk losing some of the food we work so hard to grow. The harder I try to cut back on canning, the more Tim pushes me to can. He almost gets into a panic over it. He has that deer-in-headlights look in his eyes when I say, most emphatically, that I am going to can less this year than last year and less next year than this year. He doesn't want for anything to change. Well, if he likes it so much, I'll let him can the salsa. I think after chopping up everything for one batch and canning it himself, he'll have a new appreciation for all the work involved in canning over 200 pints of salsa per year. I simply want to free up more time and more jars for other stuff. I did notice today that the first Habanero peppers are orange, and I can harvest enough of them this weekend to can the first batch of Habanero Gold jelly next week. I'm excited about that. I didn't make Habanero Gold last year and we don't have any left in the pantry at all.

Dawn

hehe Dawn I'm sorry that you're feeling so much pressure to put out all that work. As one who is totally exhausted just reading about your canning adventures (Let's not mention I am younger than you), I want to encourage you to stand firm on your decision! I think your 'gifts' are awesome, fabulous and most definitely unique in such they are irreplaceable. Yet, I can feel your tired with it all. Hate to see you so stressed out!

Kim - I did it. I have eggplants (2) growing fruit. What a fabulous creature this plant is!

I'm having a bumper crop of jalapenos and serrano peppers. We don't eat that much hot. Looking into all sorts of preparations. I'm going to have fun trying things out.

I was up all night blanching and freezing some super cheat grocery sugar snap and snow peas last night after blanching and freezer tons of corn on the cob. A new local grocer doesn't throw out ugly produce, but marks it down for those of us who will preserve. What a blessing!

I'm so tired, but a full freezer is such a beautiful site.

I think, Wow. All my hard work is paying off.

Beautiful black tomatoes are ripening and I drum my fingers on the counter while eyeing these and the peppers. Chili, my love. Chili. Soon.


Blissful Gardens to you All.

bon

Mary, I just purchased this rack, it fit's in my stock pot for small batches of things. I got this one, too. It's designed for small batches, one or two jars. Often I don't have enough to do large batches. But the point is, if you're uncomfortable with a big canner. A stock pot can be used (and they're lighter filled with water.)

Robert, I'm so sorry your roof was destroyed. Glad you were able to replace it and hope you didn't have too much water damage. I must say, though, your garden is fantastic! Hang in there and I hope you're only blessed with as much rain as you need and no more wind/storm damage.

We got an additional 2" last weekend and a few sprinkles this morning, with more forecasted today. I'm taking advantage of the cooler temps to weed and work in the yard.

Canners, my hat's off to you. I hope that someday (probably after retirement) I'll do some more canning. For now, I need to work. At least until DS finishes high school and college. I'm hoping for at least a couple years longer after that. For now, I'm living vicariously through y'all and gleaning information.

Carol

Amy, thank you for the links! I have a couple of stock pots that I thought I might be able to use, if I just had a rack that fit! You are awesome, because those look just like what I need. They are both add-on items, so I have to wait until I do another order (which never takes me long). But, those are just what I needed. I think it was last year... I did one batch in one of those, because at the last minute my old WBC sprung a leak...and I had to improvise. I just put a dishtowel on the bottom inside to pot to try to keep the jars off the bottom. I think I probably won't do any canning, but if I luck out with a good batch of cucumbers, I would probably put up a few pickles.

Amy, I went ahead and added the stainless steel rack to my cart, so I wouldn't forget. I had to find a tape measure to measure the pot, and it will fit perfectly.

Mary, she kinda is, isn't she. I just ordered a strawberry/tomato corer last night (it was an add-on, too, lol), but then I remembered I've been meaning to order a large electric skillet so problem solved)

So glad you signed your last post, Carol! I was going nuts trying to remember your name! LOL

Robert. . . thanks for the video. (You must have computer problems resolved?) The power of Mother Nature. . . I'm so glad you didn't have even more damage. And yes, sometimes those little ones ARE born at the most inconvenient times--memories of spring snowstorms in Wyoming and mamas giving birth in a gulley. Shouldn't say I "loved" seeing the video, because of the damage, but thank you for sharing. I'll be interested when you report back to see how much of the corn came back. And the onions, well, at least they look to be a pretty good size. . .

And Dawn--honestly! The oven door falling off the day before Thanksgiving! I can almost picture myself in that situation and my reaction to such an event.

Thanks, Bon, I keep hoping I'll regain some of my energy that seems to evaporate into thin air these last few years and also regain some of my zest and enthusiasm for canning, but so far it just isn't happening. I could have a perfect gardener's life if only I could afford to hire a gardener to do all the hard garden work and a housekeeper who specializes in canning. lol. Since I can't do that, I muddle around as well as I can and am trying to learn to pace myself better so that I'm not always exhausted.

I think it is just so awesome you're able to find some produce bargains and preserve some of that food. I think whoever is managing that grocery store is just incredible. It is so good to see all your hard work paying off in spades pun intended) because I've watched you work so hard for so long...and now you are reaping the rewards of all the hard work you've done and the knowledge you've gained while doing it. I'm glad you're having such a great garden year.

Nancy, Last autumn we had an appliance comedy of disasters. We were remodeling the kitchen (new cabinets, new countertops, and new floors) but our appliances all worked great and we intended to keep them. So, we slogged along tearing out all the new stuff, keeping the appliances, and putting in the new stuff. We were doing it ourselves and paying for it as we went along. We made a very deliberate decision to keep our appliances, all of which were black, because they still worked well and we weren't going to replace them with new stainless steel appliances just because we thought the stainless steel would blend nicely with the gray cabinets. We're thrifty that way. Ha! Life had other plans. One by one, the kitchen appliances up and died---the refrigerator stopped cooling well and, after months of tinkering with it and trying to make it cool consistently, we finally gave up and bought a new fridge. I didn't even care that we now had 1 stainless steel appliance while the rest were black. Then, the oven door fell off and exploded....and new doors, if you even can get them for an older stove, are quite costly---so we just bought a new stove. Then the dishwasher died. When I called Tim at work and told him the dishwasher was dead, I really think that he thought I was making it up. Nope. So we got a new dishwasher that (ahem!) did not work once it was installed. The retailer sent out the service guy who told us all the internal electronics were not working and he said we could return the old one and get a replacement or he could order all new electronic parts and repair our brand new/never used dishwasher. He also told us that the new electtronics literally cost just as much as we'd just spent to buy the new dishwasher in the first place. (Thank God for warranties.)

We opted to keep the dishwasher we had and get its innards replaced, so right around Christmas we were without a dishwasher for a couple of weeks waiting for the parts to come in. In the end, we got all new appliances and they do look nice with the gray cabinets, but I'd have been happier to not go through that whole appliance thing. Now, every time the washer or dryer makes a weird noise, I flinch and hope we aren't about to have to buy one more new appliance. Our ground floor remodeling plan, for which the new kitchen/laundry room was merely the first phase, then stalled because the money we'd intended to use on hardwood flooring for the breakfast room/living room went to appliances instead. Someday we'll get that new flooring, but it wouldn't surprise me if the washer and dryer blow up or something about the time we have enough money saved up again to buy new flooring. I know that I should be grateful we had enough money saved up to buy those appliances and I do love them---every time I look at them I think to myself "y'all are just so pretty"). BUT I'd rather have the new floors and the old appliances if I were given the choice.

I have learned that remodeling the house is just like gardening---well worth doing, but also painful and discouraging, and sometimes downright maddening, when things go wrong (as they inevitably will).

For all our appliance frustration (especially the failing 3-year-old refrigerator that we stupidly thought would last at least a decade when we bought it), we had friends who had it much worse. Tim apparently kept his coworkers entertained with all the tales of appliance woe, so when they ran into appliance trouble, they literally would text him or call him on their way to the store to buy a new appliance. One guy he worked with had to replace a refrigerator that was barely 1 year old (and, hence, its warranty expired about a week before it did). That made me think that at least ours lasted three years. Then, another friend had both his washer and dryer up and die one day, on the same day his parents and his brother's family arrived to spend a couple of weeks with them around Christmas. Well, with three families under one roof during the holiday season, they weren't going to attempt life without a new washer and drier that actually worked, so off the whole gang went to pick out new appliances. Their new washer and dryer work great, but that certainly wasn't a purchase that wanted to make right before Christmas either. They do not make appliances like they used to! That's the main thing I got out of the whole experience. I can laugh about our experience in Appliance Hell, but at the time, I was much closer to crying than to laughing. Oh, and the microwave hasn't died...but...ssshh....don't even tell it I said that. I am not in the mood to go buy another microwave and this one is only 2 or 3 years old.

I have one garden trowel that I'd probably had for 20 years. Why can't they make appliances like that which last and last and last. They used to be able to do that. Now, even fancy high-end appliances aren't even that sort of quality any more.

Dawn

Yeah, Dawn, I always thought you were superwoman, between the garden and the canning. Good to know you're human like the rest of us ;) Our stove died on Christmas Eve one year, while we were at church. We believe there was a power surge, but the electric company wouldn't take any responsibility. DH cooked Christmas dinner for the whole fam damily on the gas grill and charcoaler. I don't know if we had the electric turkey roaster then or not. Maybe that is why we bought it. I can tell you, if I was cooking, and the door fell off I would take it as a sign we should eat out. (Easier to do in a big town at Thanksgiving).

::polishing nails on shirt:: I'm awesome. ;) I actually don't understand the add on concept. I bought the extra screens for my Weston tomato machine, so I had a main item. I wonder if I'll get my tomato corer?

Robert, I'm so sorry about your storm damage.

Bon, if I stayed up all night to preserve stuff, heaven only knows what I would do wrong.

There was an inch and a half in my rain gauge before this morning. I dumped 3 1/4 inch out a little while ago. So an inch and a quarter today. A lot of that was gentle rain, so hopefully it soaked in. I am NOT looking forward to the heat next week.

The tomato corer came today :)

Amy---do you like your tomato machine? I was just checking them out.

Yes, I like the tomato machine. You know I got it because Superwoman uses one, right? LOL. I like that the seeds and peels are ejected. Which means, all you have to do is cut the big tomatoes enough for them to go down the chute. It takes me a while to get it put together right. I sat my bowls an a cookie sheet (with sides) this last time and the inevitable drips were better contained. You run the waste product through a couple of times to get all the pulp and juice out. It's similar to an old fashioned food mill, which I used before, but it does a better job and I think it's easier. I have done it with roasted or cooked tomatoes and I have done it with raw fresh ones. Works both ways. But it makes sauce. After I got it DH decided he wanted chunks. Sigh. So I got the salsa screen. I don't know if it will make big enough chunks or not. I suspect it won't screen out seeds. Dawn, do you have to peel tomatoes with the salsa screen? There is also a berry screen (and I have 2 of these if any body wants to buy one) and a pumpkin screen. I am not sure what the differences are.

I am trying to decide If I should get the machine out tonight or just freeze toms whole. I need to harvest, but everything is still wet.

I'm not sure about the corer. I tried it at dinner. I think my [tomato knife[(https://www.houzz.com/products/rada-cutlery-r126-tomato-slicer-prvw-vr~57453263) is as quick. Maybe this was an especially tough stem end.

Amy, Thanksgiving usually is in Texas, as it was last year, because all my sister's kids and grandkids live down there and have to try to visit two (or more) families on Thanksgiving, so we go down there instead of all of them coming up here. In our early years here, we hosted all the holidays here, but then when my nieces and nephews started having kids, it became more convenient for us to travel down there instead of all of them traveling up here. I'm okay with that. I don't mind not doing all the tons of work involved in hosting a holiday.

I'm glad you like the machine. I love, love, love mine. There is no way on this earth I would make all the salsa and other tomato products that I do if I didn't have it. When I made tomato sauce this week, I used it for that, taking great care to use the apple/sauce screen because I didn't want the sauce chunky like salsa, and I'm so used to using the salsa screen that my hand automatically brings it out of the cabinet and hooks it up....and then I stare at it and think "that's wrong, I'm making sauce". lol.

I'm glad your latest gadget arrived. (grin) I purged so many gadgety things last year when we redid the kitchen and I do not want for them to come back. Every single thing I kept has one specific place it belongs, and nobody puts it in the wrong place or they face the wrath of She Who Must Be Obeyed. : ) Once you're used to putting things where they belong, they are always there when you need them. The hard part was training Tim and Chris to put things back in the right place, but once they understood the organizational system, they became better at using it and now they like it. I also love not having a drawer (or a cabinet) full of gadgets that I do not remember buying, do not remember using, and often....don't even know what they are supposed to do. I especially adore having one cabinet and one drawer for nothing but canning supplies. This is the first time I've ever had that and it is nice to not have to go from cabinet to cabinet pulling out canning supplies that were tucked away in all spots wherever I could cram them in.

Both screens remove the peel. You just get bigger chunks with the salsa screen (which is important for safety reasons as it keeps the ingredients in the right density needed for proper heat penetration) and you get seeds with the salsa screen. With the sauce screen, the seeds are screened out along with the peel and a lot of the flesh. I run the 'waste' through several times when using the sauce screen in order to minimize waste. If I want a chunkier tomato sauce for fresh cooking for dinner I just use the salsa screen. Since I don't like seeds in spaghetti sauce, what I'll do is cut open the tomatoes and scoop out as much of the seeds/gel as I can into a bowl of waste destined for the compost pile. That will remove most but not all seeds. It also means you generally end up wearing some of those seeds. The kitchen and I are a wreck after an afternoon of tomato processing. I do the same scooping out of seeds/gel when making salsa. Some seeds remain, but I get most of them out, and this produces a slightly less runny salsa.

I'm glad you got rain. We had a nice rain shower tantalizingly close to us....it missed us by about a quarter-mile. There are big puddles where and it looks like at last a half-inch fell, until you turn onto our road and there's just nothing. When I looked at the radar-indicated rainfall map, you'd think the blue blob was right on top of us, but it isn't/wasn't. There's the blue blob where the rain fell in our neighborhood on the map, then a tiny white area about the width of a human hair where no rain fell and then the river. We are in the tiny white area...literally our house, a handful of maybe 3 or 4 of our nearest neighbors, and no one else. Maybe 100-200 acres missed the rain. We are within that tiny 100-200 acres that was passed over. Everyone else got rain. If we hadn't had 3" of rain in the last week, being missed today would have left me wanting to cry.....but, we know that big girls don't cry and also there's no crying in gardening. So, I laughed at the way the rain fell on everyone but us. Laughing is better than crying. Tim says we are cursed. Some other areas that got rain (not our neighborhood or the area next to it where rain fell) also got fires probably caused by lightning but we didn't, so at least there's that.

Something in the air has made me sneeze all day. Maybe some sort of grass pollen. I'm allergic to everything. I need a nap so I can stay awake later tonight and sleep in tomorrow since Tim's alarm clock won't be going off, but if I take a nap now, I won't be able to fall sleep later.

I fed the deer squash last night. I should feed them more right now. Every squash I slice up and feed them is one less I have to cook or freeze. Hmmm. I believe I'll get off the computer, slice up some squash and throw it on the compost pile for the deer.

Dawn

Loved your appliance saga, Dawn! We have a black electric stove--the bane of my existence in the kitchen. Who would produce a black stove! Shows every speck of grease or debris! We have the stainless steel fridge and dishwasher. I will confess--HERESY--I hate them, too. Special stainless steel cleaner, show every fingerprint. I want my plain old white back! (Plus our house is SO dark, maybe white would brighten things up a bit.) . On the other hand, our finicky persnickety appliances make me clean more often and better, I guess. Mixed feeling. LOL

Nancy, my new electric stove is a black ceramic top with the rest of it stainless steel. So, a mix of the two. I polish it every day, sometimes more, because I have a cat that likes to walk across the top of it a couple of times a day. She leaves behind little paw prints that trigger my OCD :/ My refrigerator is also gloss black (I use carnuba car wax on it occasionally), and so is my dishwasher. Black is really pretty, but boy is it a pain.

Haha, Mary. Yes, black IS pretty, I agree. And I just walked into the house. We must have twin stoves. Ours stove TOP is black, too. Like yours, the rest of it is stainless. Oops, I forgot that part1!

Nancy, Black appliances do show every speck of everything, don't they? I liked our black appliances (we'd always had white previously) when we had them, but now that we have stainless, I don't really miss them. We bought brushed stainless and I feel like the smudges do not show as much on them as they do on the shiny stainless. I do not think I'd like stainless at all if we had small children (especially toddlers) around---I cannot even imagine how much time a person with small toddlers spends wiping fingerprints, handprints and such off the stainless steel. Since we have gray kitchen cabinets I did want the stainless to coordinate with them once it became apparent our black applicances were dying one by one. I think if we'd had white cabinets, I would have gone with white appliances though.

Our stove sounds like yours and Mary's---part black, part stainless and I actually was happy to find one that wasn't all stainless. Remember, at the time we replaced the stove, we still had other black appliances so the part black/part stainless stove seemed like the perfect way to add stainless while also still coordinating with the existing black appliances, though it was clear the rerigerator was failing by then too. I still thought the dishwasher would last a few more years, until suddenly it didn't. They sure don't make appliances like they used to. Our first washer and dryer, which were white Kenmores bought in 1984, lasted us 27 or 28 years. I'm not even sure our newer appliances will last 7 or 8 years. Or maybe not even 5 years. Remember when some USA appliance companies were known for their quality and you could buy their stuff and it would last forever? Yeah, well, those days are dead and gone.

We have cats too and even if they are sleeping on the sofa when I go upstairs at night, we will wake up with pawprints on the stovetop in the morning. I have no idea what they do. Do they wake up during the night and prowl the kitchen counter looking for a midnight snack? I leave dry food in a cat food dish on the floor---not on the counter, not on the stovetop.....and our youngest cat, Pumpkin, likes to sleep on top of the fridge. I understand why---the A/C vent is close to it so he is likely very cool and comfortable. I start out every morning feeding the cats, putting them out, and then wiping down the appliances before I head outdoors to feed the chickens and work in the garden.

Dawn

Dawn, I have to laugh about the cats. I'm one cat shy of being a crazy cat lady. I have three cats, but only one climbs. She will climb anything, but it is so funny to watch her try to get into the canned catfood on top of the fridge. I keep dry food and water available all day, in two different places because they are spoiled. But....precisely at 6 p.m., they get canned Friskies Pate as a treat. I didn't know cats could tell time, but mine know EXACTLY when it's 6 p.m., and they are so funny sitting by their food dishes waiting. lol