We are tired...

We have been doing serious cleaning for the past few days. In a half finished farm house, it adds up to a lot of work. I love a clean house, I really do. But it is only clean for about 5 minutes. Truly. Bird seed gets thrown, dog hair blows by no matter how many times I sweep. The rabbits get shavings spread around, the Prairie dogs drop stuff. Ah, such is life. I clean really well, sit down and look around and enjoy it for the few minutes it lasts until I get hit in the head with a pile seed being flung at me from the bird cage. They do it for fun, they grab a handful and just toss it. I can almost hear them giggling when they do it.

My Jalapeno peppers are growing like crazy, so this afternoon after I made a test batch of tomato jam, I tried a recipe for Pickled Jalapenos I found a while ago. I also made a few grilled jalapeno poppers for dinner. 

I'd say if you like jalapenos and like pickles, and want something different for your tacos, this would be worth trying.

Pickled Jalapenos 

1 cup vinegar

1 cup water

1 bay leaf

2 tbs salt

2 tbs black peppercorns

2 tsp honey

6-7 Jalapeno peppers, sliced into 1/4" wheels (remove the seeds if you want them less spicy, I left them all in!) 

1 carrot, peeled and cut into 1/4" wheels

1 medium onion, peeled and cut into wedges

6 gloves of garlic peeled. 

Put all the ingredients into your stainless steel pot and bring to a boil over medium high heat. When the jalapenos change to an olive green color (took me about 1/2 hour) take them off the heat. Pour the mixture into your sanitized jars and keep in the fridge.

It was a hot humid day as is the norm right now, but this evening was one of the nicest we've had. It cooled off a lot and it was one of those August evenings that you dream about. The fireflies are still here but they are quieting down. The Whip-poo-wil came out to sing his song for us though.

Up at the barn, everyone was happy to go to bed as usual.

I could hardly get pictures of anyone...

Except for Bea, stuffing her face...

I tried for 15 minutes to get a picture of Sammy. This is all I could get...he was looking for that one special piece of hay that always seems to fall to the bottom...

Buckwheat flashed me a quick look...

A few of the turkeys glared at me from their perches...

The moon looked so peaceful on the way home from the barn...

Back at home, I settled on the couch with the dogs for a big glass of milk and a chance to read a good magazine before bed.

I have a terrible craving for poached eggs thanks to the Smitten kitchen..... I've made them before but always fumble with it and never take the time to bother, although they are my favorite way to eat an egg. I'm going to bed dreaming of poached eggs on toast, my first objective of the day tomorrow.

Second objective... go to the feedstore and get supplies.