...And Then You Lose Some More

Seriously must have jinxed myself on Friday. I swear I didn't notice anything unusual about the zucchini plants on Friday when I was out in the garden, and then on Sunday when I was out there the plants looked like this:

Noticeable browning/yellowing along the stem near the soil line, lots of milky white spots along the stem, and some spots with buildup that is reminiscent of sawdust. And limp, droopy leaves (although that could be partially due to the heat). I'm at a loss; I suspect that in two or three days they'll look exactly like they did last year, with the stem essentially disintegrated at the base. We have one decent fruit left on one of the plants, otherwise the few others that are coming in are already starting to yellow. And one of the plants is totally barren at this point. We also haven't gotten anything larger than short pencil off our summer squash plants at all this summer. I immediately started some new seeds in our small pots and plan to transplant them if (and when) these plants die, but I have no idea what I should do differently with the new plants to make sure the same thing doesn't happen to them (provide they are even able to germinate and grow fruit this late in the season). My mom, who grew up on a farm and had a vegetable garden for years, doesn't know what it might be. My dad wondered if it was maybe something wrong with our soil, which might actually have some legitimacy to it, because our summer squash are planted where we had zucchini last year and the zucchini are in a new spot, which might explain why the zucchini started okay then turned bad and the summer squash never really did much.... But who knows.

I refuse to give up on growing zucchini, though--of all the things we plant it's the one we love the most, and nothing would make us happier than to have an over abundance of it in our house (as is we probably buy it from the store to eat twice a week and would gladly eat it more frequently). Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

You Win Some, You Lose Some

The zucchini pickings from my garden yesterday:

No, the beer bottle was not something that came from our garden. I'm using it to give a visual on size. And, you know, to shamelessly promote Granite City beers

Darrell and I can't figure it out. Some of those rotting, yellow zucchini came off the same plant as some of those deliciously healthy and plump zucchini. And I can't get any conclusive answers off the Internet--not really all that surprising, since every garden and situation is a little different. So far, I've determined that it could be blossom end rot (caused by a calcium deficiency), too much or too little water, or a problem with pollination. But, if any one of those issues were the problem, shouldn't it be affecting the whole plant and not just some of the fruit? Who knows. All I know is that so far it appears to be free from the pest issue that killed off our zucchini plants last year, so fingers crossed that continues to hold true. We've also gotten more zucchini off the plants than we had at this time last year, so that has to be a good sign, right? I'll count it as a win, especially in light of this super hot and dry weather we've been having. And we also have a slew of peas that are ready to be picked (a new addition to our garden this year!), but it's just so darn hot I don't want to go outside and deal with picking them. Maybe tomorrow when a "cool" front comes through and drops the temperatures into the eighties.

Happy Birthday America!

What's that you say? Independence Day was yesterday? Whatevs. I was too busy having fun at the lake to worry about getting a post in. And while we got some pretty sweet pics of the fireworks and fun holiday festivities, I've got to do a little catching up first before I get to those pictures. We took a trip out to Kimball last weekend to visit our good friends and their adorable little girl and had a blast hanging out down by the river.

(Please ignore all my ridiculous facial expressions. Apparently I don't take candid photos very well)

As has been the case for the past week or so, the weather was extremely hot and dry, so cooling off in the river felt fantastic. Plus it even cooled down enough to do a bonfire later that evening, which was just as fun (although--par for the course--I consumed waaay too many roasted marshmallows). We don't make it out to Kimball near as often as we would like, but always have a great time when we are there.

Hope everyone had a safe and wonderful 4th!

The Other Boleyn Girl

Set in 16th century England, The Other Boleyn Girl chonicles the life and role of Mary Boleyn, sister to Anne Boleyn, who was the second wife of King Henry VIII. Although historically she is largely forgotten in the wake of her more prominent sister, Mary Boleyn is shown in this book to be an equally capable temptress with dreams of her own. But throughout the book, the question lingers--how much of the girls' actions are dictated by their own desires, and how much are controlled by the girls' power-thirsty parents and uncle?

I loved this book. The plot and action were thoroughly engaging, which was a little impressive given the length of the book (nearly seven hundred pages!). There were so many sub-plots, so many coniving twists, that the action was constanly peaking, resolving slightly, then peaking again. Plus, as someone who has a sister, I could really relate to the sibling rivalry between Anne and Mary (although my sister and I would fight over toys, not kings). I also love the historical aspect of the novel--reading about a time period and lifestyle that is so drastically different from the one we live today is just fascinating to me. Granted, I realize the novel is not wholly historically accurate, but that tends to happen in historical fiction. That being said, though, the novel did inspire me to do some research on Tudor England because I was so captivated by the time period, so some of those inaccuracies were cleared right up.

Perhaps I was a little predisposed to enjoying this novel in the light of our recent trip to London (including the Tower of London, which is a setting for a few parts of the novel), but I think that even without that trip and some of the background knowledge it provided I still would have been thoroughly engaged by the novel. Regardless, I definitely plan to continue reading about this time period.

Blueberry Dessert Pizza

A few weeks ago, for Darrell's birthday, I finally tackled this recipe that I got from Darrell's mom five or so years ago. It wasn't so much that I was intimidated by the steps of the recipe (I can always count on Darrell's mom to give us quality recipes that are quick and easy to prepare), but rather the fact that Darrell had built this recipe up so much that I feared I would never be able to prepare it well enough to live up to his expectations. You see, throughout Darrell's childhood, Darrell's dad always requested this dessert for his birthday. But it's been at least ten years since Darrell has been home for his dad's birthday--and subsequently at least ten years since he has had this dessert. And in ten years, a person's mind can build a recipe up to unattainable levels of deliciousness. I was even more intimidated because I had tried preparing this a few times over the course of the past few years, but every time I suggested it Darrell proclaimed that the "timing wasn't right". It was either the wrong season, or the temperatures were too high, or the mood wasn't right. Not to mention the fact that I had never had this particular recipe, so as I was preparing it I wasn't quite sure if it was looking right or being cooked to the correct level of done-ness. So, as you can imagine, I felt quite a bit of pressure going into the actual preparation of this dessert.

But you know what? It was all for naught. Darrell came home from work that day, took one look at the dessert, and proclaimed that it looked just like it did when his mom fixed it--and tasted just as good, too. I should have known that his mom's recipe would be fool-proof.

Blueberry Dessert Pizza
(from Momma Shirley!)

1 pkg yellow cake mix
1 1/4 cup old-fashioned oats (not instant)
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 egg
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts; pecans would probably work just as well)
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 21 oz can blueberry pie filling

Preheat oven to 350*. Grease a 12-inch pizza pan or 9x13 pan. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, 1 cup of oats, and 6 tbsp margarine. Mix at low speed until crumbly. Remove 1 cup of crumbs to use for topping. To remaining crumbs, blend in the egg. Press in prepared pan and bake for 12 minutes. To reserved crumbs, add the remaining 2 tbsp margarine, 1/4 cup oats, nuts, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Beat until well blended. Spread the pie filling on the cooked crust. Sprinkle with crumb topping. Bake an additional 15-20 minutes or until crumbs are a light golden brown. Cool completely and serve with whipped topping.

For the record, the whipped topping is non-negotiable. I had the idea to make a powdered sugar glaze to drizzle across the pizza (like you see at a lot of restaurants), but was promptly informed by Darrell that such a revision was not allowed (something about the coolness and softness of the whipped topping pairing perfectly with the oat crust). However, I will be so bold as to say that I imagine this recipe would work just as well with any type of pie filling--or topped with a few fresh strawberries and/or raspberries to make it the perfect 4th of July dessert. Just don't tell Darrell.

Did That Really Just Happen?

Have you ever had one of those moments? Those moments where you are kicking yourself for not having your camera because you know that when you try to tell people the story they'll never believe that something that absurd could actually happen? Well, we had one of those moments last night--and, par for the course, didn't have a camera accessible to document the events as they were unfolding. To be fair, the "event" itself isn't that unfathomable, because let's be real, people are idiots all the time, but the sequence of events and culprit were sufficiently absurd, if not comical.

The long and the short of it--some idiot was driving down a 55 mph highway while carrying two tires in a trailer behind his pickup. But not a normal trailer--it was a flatbed trailer with no rear gate (read: nothing to keep the tires from falling out. And they weren't strapped down). As should not be surprising, the unevenness of the road jostled one of the tires to the edge and out it went, right in front of us. Thankfully, Darrell had realized that the tire was about to get loose and had slowed way down. Which was fortunate, because the tire bounced in the road quite a bit (maxing out at a solid fifteen feet in the air) before eventually rolling into the ditch (oh, I should also mention that this was a highway with traffic coming in both directions, so it was fortunate that the car in the other lane was also being attentive and able to slow down once he saw the tire start to bounce).

Now, the things that made this more comical (and surreal) than just an idiot who didn't strap his stuff down properly. For one, his truck was incredibly old school.

photo credit here

In addition to the questionable flatbed trailer with no gate (or even raised sides), this particular truck had a bed cover that was some sort of modified camping trailer (jerry-rigging at its finest), and it appeared that the whole contraption had gone years without a washing. So when the tire worked itself loose and bounced in to the air, it's doubtful the driver would have been able to see anything, even if he had been looking through his rearview mirror. Darrell even laid on his horn to try to get this guy's attention, but no dice. Once we were clear of the tire we sped to catch back up to him--flashers on, horn honking, arms waving him to the side of the road--but he was oblivious. We were finally able to pull up alongside him once he turned off the highway, and discovered the next great comical piece to our story: this driver looked like he was straight out of one of those (ridiculous) reality TV shows set in the Arkansas area, Duck Dynasty and/or Swamp People.

Cast of Duck Dynasty. He looked like the guy in the red--but less cameo and more American flag. Photo credit here

We were finally able to get his attention, and when we informed him that he had lost a tire, he promptly pulled a highly illegal U-turn (we're talking a road with three east-bound lanes and two west-bound, and he went from the outside most east-bound lane to the outside most west-bound lane, cutting us off in the process. Although to be fair, he probably couldn't have made a sharper turn than that). However, more mind-blowing than the illegal U-turn was the fact that at no time did he stop to check the status of the second tire, which was also working itself loose. Additionally, he didn't even ask us where he had lost the tire (we had followed him for at least two miles after he dropped the tire and had been behind him prior to that for at least five), just turned around and started heading back down the highway. Brilliant.

Now, before you run off and enjoy your Friday, I need your help to settle a debate that ensued between Darrell and I after this event. I'm convinced that if Darrell had been driving distracted and not noticed the loose tire, it could have very easily hit our car and--worst case scenario--come through our windshield, driving glass into us if not crushing one of us. Darrell thinks that even at the speeds we were going (probably would have been close to 60 mph if we hadn't slowed down), the impact of the tire on the windshield would not have been forceful enough for it to actually come through the windshield. The glass would break and bow at the impact spot (see image below), but the strength of the double-pane windshield would be enough to keep the tire from breaking through.

photo credit here

So, what do you think? Do you think the tire would have gone completely through the windshield if a collision had happened, or do you think tire would have more or less "bounced" off? I'd really love to test this situation somehow.... Maybe a scenario for Mythbusters? That'd be awesome.

Weekend at the Lake

Relaxing!

Quite possibly one of the best dinner locales ever

Enjoying the sunset...

and sunrise!

Love having this little oasis a mere forty miles from our house, even if the quality of the water is a little sketch (and the bottom is exceptionally gross and slimy in places). Looking forward to heading back there for the 4th!