June 18th Patio Improvements Finished!

Okay, rice and greeen bean came out very well after one hour and 15 minutes in midday sun in June. it's gong to be 115 today but it's not quite that hot midday. anyway rice just needs less water and more time in oven than it got yesterday afternoon. I could smell the broccoli as I went outside to check on the oven! Picture of oven is above. A success!

New gate and new door to outside shed and painting on the wood on the backside of the house is done! Picture above of the two together.

There are more things to go but at least the list is halved from what it was almost a year ago.
There is one rather small thing that needs to be done but S. will come back next week and fix it and then paint it. It looks so nice, now I have to clean up the rest of it and see what I can do to make it a place you really want to go out and spend time in—of course that might wait until it’s cooler.

I’ve left the small wasps nest alone that’s in the dead pyrancantha next to the gate. It is a very small nest and they don’t bother me or the cats or anyone so I think I’ll leave it alone. I think wasps are pollinators—I’ll trim the dead bush back a little from the gate and leave the part next to the back wall where the nest is alone. The wasps have been there a couple of years and I’m not anxious to do away with them or their nest.

Cheers,

shamba

Jume 17th

Hearing about corn rationing—just more high prices and hunger to come in this world and probably here in the US. Thought I read somewhere about the US Red Cross disaster fund being exhausted. It wouldn’t surprise me the amount of disasters we’ve had in the past year or so but another “shortage” another empty cupboard. We’re—as a nation and world—are running out of cupboards that have anything in them—food stores, emergency money, money to pay mortages, money to pay debts or all kinds … sheesh!
The guys also came to put in the new gate. Certainly that looks much better and is easier to open and close than the old one—the old one was probably 30 plus years old, too.
And my solar oven came today! I unpacked it and everything inside it, looked it all over and read the instructional CD. Also, copied the instruction manual and recipes to hard disk.
Then I took it outside after cleaning it up a big, washing out two of the pots and now have just some rice and some green vegetables cooking. I started pretty late today so I hope the sun angle is adjusted right.
I’ll find out in about another 30 minutes.
Fun!
IT WORKED! I got pictures of the oven but forgot about pictures of the food! I had a little too much water in with the rice since I wanted to make sure I had enough—I do that with rice on the stovetop anyway. Threw it in a salad with the sun cooked celery—that was the easiest green veggie to throw in the oven tonight.. Cooked from abou 4:40-6:15 and I think it came out pretty well considering it’s my first attempt. Of course, I kept checking on it every 15 -30 min. It had to be realigned for the sun that time of day. I need to learn to put the pots in and leave it alone!

Cheers,
Shamba