Monthy Goals Update and This Week's Goals

Sorry I didn't post this yesterday, but I've been super busy with the garden and the house, all the while battling the heat that continues to bake us.  Today isn't as bad because it's at least cloudy outside, but yesterday was terribly hot.  So, a lot of my canning goals from last week are getting transferred onto this week.

I actually got a lot accomplished off of my list last week.  I started to clean out the camper of blankets and things to wash them as we found that the mouse problem was worse than my husband at first thought.  Anything pretty much that wasn't elevated and out of reach of little paws has mouse droppings on it, blankets and foam mattress pads were nested in...it's a mess.  So, this week is going to be seeing me going out either after my husband gets home from work or before the kids wake up (so really early) and vacuuming, shampooing and setting up mouse traps (Our cats are woosies.  I tried putting them out in the camper and our older cat just refused to do anything and our younger cat freaked out, found a corner to shove herself into and mewed like she was dying for 45 minutes until I bodily dragged her out of the camper.  Ugh).  Then my husband is going to move the camper to the end of the driveway instead of where it's parked against a bank, to see if we can dislodge and/or just get rid of the buggers.

I got some rat tailed radishes canned last week (seen above, again.  I have a lack of photos the last couple of days *laugh*) and have harvested a ton more radishes.  I finally took stock of what I had for pickles, how many radishes we've eaten in salad and such and I finally decided I need the space in the garden more than I need more radishes at this point.  I've let a few radishes go to seed so I have the seeds to replenish what I used (which actually I ended up ahead since I only planted two seeds) and I'll be ripping the radish plant out this week, amending the soil and preparing to seed some turnips and beets in that bed.  The red lettuce is bolting.  I let a couple of plants go to see if they'd seed for me but they didn't so I'm thinking that it is a hybrid plant that doesn't go to seed, which is fine.  I'll rip out the remaining plants and once again get it ready for fall/winter planting.

I'll be watching the chard and the potatoes carefully over the next bit as the potato plant has gone to flower and died off, so I need to start watching for signs that it might be ready to harvest.  The garlic will also need to be watched as it should be getting close to harvest time sometime soon as well.  So, when it comes to garlic goals for this week it's just going to revolve around harvesting peas (which are going insane now), harvest lettuce as needed (which I also have lettuce coming out my ears right now), digging my one potato planter up on my deck (two of three offshoots of the plant are dying off.  It's time) and just keeping my eye on everything after I plant seeds.

I got the upstairs about 80% shampooed yesterday.  Today I'm hoping to get my son's room shampooed, but he also has speech today, so I'm not sure if I'm going to get a chance to do it.  If not it's on the list for tomorrow along with cleaning the downstairs as today ripping everything out of the freezer downstairs and reorganizing takes precedence so I can get things put away properly.

I did get the den about 80% detail cleaned and am hoping to get more of that done this week.  I got the spots on the carpet cleaned that needed it due to the cat and I've been checking hidey holes daily.

I got one Christmas gift made, another one in the works (that one is going to take a while) and some plans in the works as well, so I feel like I'm trucking right along with that.

Thrift store donations were dropped off last week as well.  It's amazing how getting rid of things that you're tripping over will make you feel good.

By the way menu plans the last two weeks have haven't happened.  I've just been too busy, distracted and the weather too volatile to get them done.  This week with the heat I'm just keeping an open mind and figuring that worse comes to worse I might be grilling dinner a lot (we went and grabbed a tank of propane yesterday with how hot it was, knowing grilling was our only option for a hot dinner and we were all kind of tired of just eating salad for dinner.  Cost 12.00 to fill it, which my husband and I were both impressed with how cheap it was as the last time we got propane it was when gas was REALLY expensive and it cost us close to 40.00 to fill a tank.  So, we're looking at MAYBE getting the back up propane tank filled in the next little bit so we know we have it in case we need it for things).

So, onto this week's goals!

Garden/Yard Goals

• Harvest ripe rose hips (I'm about 80% done with that one, at least the hips that are ripe now...there are still green ones I'm keeping my eye on.  I still need to hack my way up the bank to get to ones that are a bit buried.  Actually opened up a bit of the yard while getting to the rose hips too, so double bonus there!).
• Get rid of dead fish in the middle of the back yard (I have no idea.  It was just there this morning.  Freaked me out when I found it as it was KIND of odd you know?  We need to dig a hole and bury it out in the wooded part of the yard this afternoon to avoid attracting unwanted animals to the area.  Of all the dead animals to just find in your yard that one just blew my mind.  Just a whole dead fish, not even any tooth marks from an animal on it...nothing.  My husband is figuring it was dropped by an Eagle.  I'm wondering if it just dropped out of the sky for the sake of funny *laugh*).
• Rip out plants in garden.  Amend soil.  Plant beet and turnip seeds and maybe more Chinese cabbage seeds.
• Continue to pick small amounts of raspberries from around the yard as they ripen.  Same with the rose hips.  Harvest other garden produce as needed.

Canning/Food Preservation Goals:

• Can rat tailed radish relish (this is a definitely needs to happen thing, hopefully when the colder weather moves in a little later in the week, otherwise I'm going to have to get up early and do it).
• Get husband to install new dial on pressure canner (I've had it for a while and keep forgetting to have him do it).
• Blanch and freeze first batch of peas.
• Dehydrate more herbs (finished that up this morning.  Crushed them up and put them in containers).
• Can rhubarb and cherries if weather and time permits.

Cleaning Goals:

• Shampoo rest of the carpets
• Clean ceiling fans.
• Wash walls in son's room to see if it helps allergies(his face is swelling again the last three days and he's welting unless I keep him on high amounts of Zyrtec and Atorax every eight hours.  I'm praying that allergy med gets approved because if this is happening WHILE on the amount of meds he's on now, he's just plain not going to make it through allergy shots.  Depressing for sure).
•  Continue to work on cleaning up motor home.

General Goals:

• Clean out and rearrange freezer(s)
• Put things that got stuck into the front of the pantry, but belong in other areas where they need to be.
• Work on cleaning out and scrubbing out fridge.

And yeah, I'm sure there are other things on my "lists" that I'm spacing, but that's a good start.  How about you?  Up to anything this week?