Texas Spring/Summer Thread

[farmgirl19]

FG19, Looks great, but the "pok"

I dont think it has stopped either raining or at least a drizzle here since 5am:thumbsup: It can do this all week for all I care!! Nice temps too a wonderful 69* and thats the wet temp:laughing: no dry heat today

Then use 1-2 TBS Olive Oil! Been mostly dry today, but has begun a light rain in the last half hour! 71.4 here, but still nice to have the house open. Definitely cooler than I keep the A/C!

 

[Bird]

We've had almost continuous (rain?) or barely sprinkles for the last 8 hours. So light, in fact, that we went to Walmart, Sam's Club, and Braum's and never opened the umbrella. I see that the NWS shows Denton to have received .32" of rain so far, and it looks like my gauge has that same amount in it. But the forecast is 100% chance for tonight, so this should do wonders for the yards even if doesn't raise the level of the lakes much.

 

[farmgirl19]

Had my rain early. Then got to do some outdoor work. Now it is sprinkling again. Looks good for our chance of rain tonight, and with these temps, I won't complain. After mowing before July 4, the pastures ought to be ready for this rain! Maybe I will get a little more hay too! Always nice to have "extra", since one never knows what the next year will bring.

 

[jinman]

I'm at a bit over 1-1/2" with light showers coming and going. If smilin' can be work, I'd be worn out about now. I had time this morning to make breakfast for my grandson and me while my wife slept in (she was up during the night). When my wife got up, she started making zucchini bread loaves and muffins. The muffins were made with chocolate chips instead of walnuts, both delicious. Not to be outdone, I cut and sliced my 1st ****** melon. Just after noon, I cooked up bacon and sliced that monster tomato to make BLTs. The rest of this post is braggin' pictures, so if you are sick of my braggin', just skip over it.

Here's a photo of the ****** melon before cutting.


Here it's cut. Notice the honey yellow color.


I sliced up the melon and peeled it. Notice how thin the peel is. If you could get a good grip, I think you could peel it like a banana.


I filled a 1-gal Ziploc completely full. I rinsed the seeds in a sieve and will keep them in a envelope with a little Sevin dust so bugs/weevils won't ruin them.


Here's a photo of my big tomato sliced. My wife says this photo makes it look small because of the knife handle looking big, but the slices look pretty big to me. . . pretty too.


The slice looks a bit bigger when it's put on a slice of toast.


I decided one sandwich wasn't enough. I needed twofor all the heavy work I was doing.:laughing:


So that's what I did while it rained. Well. . . that and watch the Rangers lose to the Tigers. I've got tickets for the 1st game after the All-Star break. Next Friday they play Baltimore and I'll be there cheering them with my grandson.:thumbsup:

 

[farmgirl19]

There you go again, jinman, hogging everyone's rain. I am at 0.5", so far. Of course, for this time of year, I am pretty happy anyway!

And while it rained, I did laundry, vacuumed, dusted, and even mopped the kitchen floor. Of course, I also had some fun doing in the kitchen with the garden goodies!

I was able to do some outdoor activities with the horses, and some dog training too!

Your tomato and melon look good, jinman! Looks like you use Chicago Cutlery. I have a few knives of that still, but still prefer the Henckel's of Germany. I got my CC collection in college. Been getting a piece of Henckel's, every chance that I could, ever since.

 

[Bird]

Good lookin' groceries, Jim. I haven't had an ****** melon since I moved back to town. But a week or so ago, at Sam's Club they had samples of Golden Kiss cantaloupes. Their sample was good enough I bought one, and today I bought another one. I believe they're as good as, if not better than, any store bought cantaloupe I ever bought.

 

[farmgirl19]

You ought to put some goldfish in your trough. Helped quite a bit in our 100 gallon cattle water trough.

I've had fish in mine, off an on, for years. Problem here, is with the drought, and low fish levels in stock tanks, the egrets/herons come in and clean out the troughs, as well as my garden ponds. Illegal to kill them, so just gave up keeping so many fish in troughs.

 

[bindian]

Jim,
As they say........the proof is in the pudding. How does your melons taste and smell. I did notice you did not comment on taste or smell? Dad and I raised melons for a couple of years and they all lacked that sweet melon taste and/or smell.
hugs, Brandi

 

[bindian]

No rain yet. We may get some storms up from the coast before the rain Y'all have had all day gets here.
hugs, Brandi

 

[pacerron]

Glad to hear you folks are beginning to get rain again.
Also glad the 18 days of rain have finally stopped up here.
At least we have a full pond/tank again and the deer are enjoying doing what they do best.:male::female:
Ron

 

[jinman]

Jim,
As they say........the proof is in the pudding. How does your melons taste and smell. I did notice you did not comment on taste or smell? Dad and I raised melons for a couple of years and they all lacked that sweet melon taste and/or smell.
hugs, Brandi

Brandi, I don't know why I didn't mention that. The reason I went ahead and cut that melon today is that my wife commented that she could smell how sweet it was way across the room. The ****** melons have a sweet light smell and taste that I can compare only to a light honey flavor. This melon did not disappoint. I let it stay on the vine until it turned yellow and then a couple of days in the house. It has such a light sweet taste that my grandson took one bite and then inhaled the rest of two slices. It's all in limiting the watering to minimum (near harvest time) and letting the melons ripen fully. The ****** melon is a great tasting melon and that's why I grow them. If you want to try some next year, I'll happily send you some of my seeds from this melon that I'm saving. If you plant them around cantaloupes, the next year's crop will be a hybrid because the bees will cross-pollinate, but I've grown these exclusively, so my seeds are not hybrids.

 

[robbyr]

Stayed inside better part of the day making picante sauce. The wife got us the Magic Bullet yesterday and I used it to chop the garlic, jalapeno, tomato. Didn't like the way it did onion so I diced (using Cutco artillery) it myself. Made seven plus jars. Note the bottle of enhancer by the jars.

By the time got outside late this afternoon the ground was wet but since I took my dust and spider web collector down when built new fence I'm not sure how much we got. Infitesimal probably.

 

[bindian]

Brandi, I don't know why I didn't mention that. The reason I went ahead and cut that melon today is that my wife commented that she could smell how sweet it was way across the room. The ****** melons have a sweet light smell and taste that I can compare only to a light honey flavor. This melon did not disappoint. I let it stay on the vine until it turned yellow and then a couple of days in the house. It has such a light sweet taste that my grandson took one bite and then inhaled the rest of two slices. It's all in limiting the watering to minimum (near harvest time) and letting the melons ripen fully. The ****** melon is a great tasting melon and that's why I grow them. If you want to try some next year, I'll happily send you some of my seeds from this melon that I'm saving. If you plant them around cantaloupes, the next year's crop will be a hybrid because the bees will cross-pollinate, but I've grown these exclusively, so my seeds are not hybrids.

Thanks Jim. I would like some seeds to try. I'll PM you my address.

On the rain front, it seems the rain to the north has stalled, along with the stalled rain to the south. Punch in zip code 77378 and you can see the north/south standoff.
hugs, Brandi

 

[robbyr]

The rain just hit. Amen

 

[bindian]

The rain just hit. Amen

Looks like you got a big storm parked over you.
hugs, Brandi

 

[Lou66]

I got no rain.. but I did watches a nice movie on the TV.. It was about somebody killing someone and somebody else discovered who it was.. I told my wife it's got to be that person with the bad eye.. She said shut up and watch the show.. I said it not a show but a movie.. I wish she hadn't sent me to my room I sure would like to know done it.. :laughing:Lou

 

[NativeSon]

Charlie, do you put the tomato on the sandwich while you grill the cheese?:confused3: I don't see how you get the cheese to melt properly.

Jim- I cook it in a skillet, butter one side of both pieces of bread. Then build the sandwich in the hot skillet-- Bread. Cheese, sliced tomatoes(the more the better), Cheese, & bread. Let cook till the bread is golden brown then turn and cook till the other side is done. You can use any of your favorite cheeses, but my favorites are Cheddar or Jalapeno Jack. Another favorite is Swiss and Rye Bread, but as we know it's the tomato that makes this a great meal.

If you don't want to use Butter or Margarine you can spread a thin coat of Mayonnaise on the bread and then grill it, that works just as well.

Great Rain! Started yesterday evening and seems to have rained softly all night long. Will check the rain gauge when it get's light out.

Charlie

 

[farmgirl19]

I got no rain.. but I did watches a nice movie on the TV.. It was about somebody killing someone and somebody else discovered who it was.. I told my wife it's got to be that person with the bad eye.. She said shut up and watch the show.. I said it not a show but a movie.. I wish she hadn't sent me to my room I sure would like to know done it.. :laughing:Lou

Thanks for my morning laugh, Lou! I hope your wife at least tells you, "Who dunnit"!

I have an inch in the rain gauge, this morning! That is from yesterday and last night. No rain falling currently, so walked out with the flashlight to check the gauge. Radar looks like a little more light stuff could drift this way with the Pressure system. Forecast is for more rain likely! And the temp is 68*! For the middle of July, I'LL TAKE IT! :cool2:

 

[blueriver]

I am so pleased for my Texas Neighbors and the rain some of you are getting !!! The radar over Texas looks impressive. I hope looks are not deceiving and everyone in that area is experiencing rain.

We didn't get a drop yesterday ... however this morning we are experiencing a nice steady light rain ... looks like the next couple days are going to be cool and possibly more rain.

 

[Bird]

Looks like I got a total of about .57" of rain yesterday and last night. And such a slow, soaking rain that it was wonderful.