And Ta Dah

We are back for our disclosure of the guts. Yes indeed the insides of my world famous first ever successful loofa. Like I said in the last post I did not wait the “prescribed” time and all, but I am very pleased with my jumping the gun.

I squeezed the plucked fruit and the skin felt loose so I squeezed some to loosen the rest and the skin split. That’s okay as you know I was very excited, like a kid having a birthday, so I plunged my thumbs in and wriggled them around then boo-ah, the leathery like skin peeled right off. Amazing, because this was nothing at all like I had read about online, where I read how it was “hard” to get the skin off the fiber. Oh well, chalk it up to beginners luck.

Of course the insides were wet, sorta slimy even, so I rinsed and rinsed, squeezing seeds out as I went. Thumping the loofa membrane on the side of the sink, till I finally got all the seeds out. I was very surprised to find that is was soft, like one of the store bought plastic doo-hickies.

Does it sound silly to be so excited about a loofa? I know, I know reminds some of y’all about my cotton. I can’t really explain it, this feeling of growing one of God’s plants and holding such really cool, nature-rific products in my own two hands.

And now, I’m sure, y’all are wondering what I’m gonna do with this luffa. Me too, but perhaps I’ll use it in the shower. I mean I can’t be sure how good a product I have unless I use it myself. Right?

How about it, my dear internets do y’all have any unique ideas I can steal use? I’d love to hear ‘em as I will have a few more of these awesome nature-rific loofahs sitting around.

How do ya spell it...

IT, yeah, yeah I know--thanks... So's anyway I'm talking about my loofah, luffa, loofa, What-ever. Have y'all, my dear internets, been following the progress of my loofah plants over on 365 Views by Me? They have done well this year, Finally. I have been trying to get these going a couple of years (I think) Last year they started growing and then bam-ah-lamb, they withered and died. And for those of y'all that want to know... in fancy a$$ed words they are called luffa cylindrica.


I don't have a photo of when the plants first came up and were growing, but fear not my dears I have a photo of one blooming.

Here is a photo of a "fingerling"; theoretically they can be eaten at this size. Cut them up into bite sized pieces and use in soups, stir frying or whatever way you like. I know, freaky that we can actually eat those tough scratchy bath thingies for food.

But of course if left on the vine they grow and grow, looking like this

And that is what I wanted so I let them be and watched for the tale tail signs they were ready to be tuned into bathing tools, pot scrubbers or even white wall tire scrubbies (cool). Okay so I didn't exactly wait the recommended time... which was to leave them on the vine till they turn brown, skin becomes leathery / hard, become light (not heavy) and the seeds rattle inside when ya shake 'em. Anyways I noticed that my biggest one had become pale and yellowish and not being able to wait I cut it from the vine. See here just before cutting it off

The skin had become leathery and I could feel that it had pulled away, slightly, from the fibrous meat inside, but my seeds did not rattle, it weighed only ounces almost like a balloon with regular oxygen in it. So I left it to sit on the dining table for a while. You know this was hard for me, and maybe the remaining fruit that hangs on the vines I'll do the "right way...blah, blah pretty much let the vine just wither away and die before I pluck 'em off, blah.

Okay that's it for this post, Jai has taught me well to leave y'all wanting more. Well do ya? Want more? Keep an eye out for the next time I post about my loofahs to see how this looked on the inside, etc. and junk.

Missing y'all but the learning is going oakie-dough-key.

So tell me

my dear internets, did y’all notice the change? Me, not so much. I did mark the day with yellow highlighter and thought I would dedicate a post specific for this day, but alas I didn’t do it…

Turn-Turn the Seasons Twirl

this is supposed to be a cooling off period

a time to unwind and let the sap slow

to a drip until it is frozen in the trunk

to lie next to evergreens with children’s gifts

dreaming of plum blossoms dancing

from a burgeoning beginning

of warm weather for which, we will long

to cool down from, come this time again

next year, where we will begin to fall

once more into the wonder of it all

Happy is the Autumn with it’s coming scents of nutmeg, cinnamon and hot chocolate. The sounds of crinkling leaves in red, brown, gold and even purple. The fuzzy feel of knitted sweaters and fur lined shoes. Arms, warm and winding tightly, kissing through into the new year.

Or did I?

It is official

My youngest is now 18, fully an adult by the numerical standard of age. She is in her senior year of high school and has doubled-up on the important classes so she can graduate next May. Bless her heart, school has always been difficult for her yet she tries and does as well as she can. Baby girl is a repetitive learner, meaning she has to do over and over etc. to get the hang of it and don’t vary the way or change the sequence. I love her so much and worry so much. She has done really well the last year and half in this small church school.

Why am I telling y’all this, cause my baby is E-I-G-H-T-E-E-N!

Need I really say anymore?

Yeah, I thought not.

About some Builders

Well bless my heart and shake out the wrinkles, Deanna says I’m a Literacy Builder, and to prove it she has gifted moi with this awesome beauty of an award. I am thrilled and honored to have it. Thank you.

Rules, yes there are a few

1. Give a thank you and link back to the person who gave you this award. *See above

2. Display the award logo on your blog site. *See above

3. Tell us five of your favorite words and why you like them, (add as many as you like). **See below

4. Pass the award on to three bloggers you feel are excellent literacy builders, and link to their sites . **See below

5. Contact the bloggers you’ve chosen and let them know about the award ***Maybe they should read me more often, after all I AM a Literacy Builder!

So 5 of my favorite words these days are

Peace

Love

Harmony

Joy

Faith

Because they are so good to have, experience and share with everyone!

Brain Droppings

Windspirit

Susan Cross Writes

Wooden Stake anyone?

You will never believe the following, but trust me it’s true. So there I was sweeping the floor getting ready to mop. No smarty panties that is not the unbelievable part. I scooted out one of the dining chairs so I could sweep and mop around the table and this happened

Incredible! I pulled the chair away from the table and part of the leg just sorta went ~~ plop. What ta heck? We have only had the set since March of this year. No I didn’t bother calling the store we got it from, I already know how that would have been…bring it in, well you must have abused it. Nope only been sit in like 3 times, maybe. Well then that was the problem, dry rot. (no they would never have said such a thing, it just makes me giggle when I say they would have said that) Sorry lady. We can’t replace it, color / style etc. is impossible to match. We can glue it back together. Yeah you know that’s the way it would have been, if I had called.

So being the handy dandy person that I am, I fixed it myself. Now once I started I could see that the leg was cracked when it was stained, due to the knot hole, I’m sure. See, can you see where the stain leached into the crack?

I got some trusty wood glue and some rubber bands. Painted glue on both pieces of the break put them together and wrapped the heck outta the leg with rubber bands. I didn’t have clamps, hence the use of rubber bands.

No, not my trick I saw it on TV this one time and put it in my memory banks for possible use latter. See y’all just thought all those weird pieces of left over memory cells were useless.

Beloved wants to put some screws in the leg to insure it won’t break again and I don’t want screws uglying it up. You can hardly tell it was broke, see

But the screws, surely anyone could and would see them. I know wood glue is pretty strong…but I want to know what you think. Yes you , all of my dear internets…What say you?

Screw OR NOT to screw?

Labor Day

Gosh I been working so hard I almost missed it. The day not the labor. Dooh! So what have I been doing you may ask? Or not ask, matters not so much as I’m gonna tell ya right cheer and now:


Mopping, well steam mopping and before that I

Swept, well the broom did I just pushed it and before that

Dusted, well my nose didn’t like that so before it started to run I

Brushed my hair, well ran my fingers through it and before that

Got a cup of coffee, well Beloved got my coffee but before that I

Did a little paper work, well someone had to do it and before that

Peed, well doesn’t everybody and before that I

Rolled outta bed, well fell out, but so what because before that


Worked on the railroad, well that part was dreamed and before that I

Okay I’ll leave it at the railroad cause really I just took the day off.

So what kind of labor have y’all, my dear internets, been doing? Cooking hot dogs, pulling an all nighter, cleaning up after others... Just what have y’all been doing?

The Neighbor

Everyone has one unless you live out in the far away country in which case you may be lonely and should go have lunch with someone. I just wanted to take a few / couple minutes of your blogging time to share all too familiar complaining rant.


Okay so it’s a little hard to rant when Adele is playing on my Ipod, but none the less I don’t want to disappoint you so rant on shall I go…

We have this neighbor, as the title suggests. When they first moved in a few years ago the guy was a Houston cop and in the Army Reserves, for which we are grateful that he chose to serve not only the city (where we don’t live) and the country in which we do. So after living there for about a year he was called to duty overseas. That year we mowed his yard as his wife didn’t seem able. We don’t know why she wasn’t, as we never saw her, she worked at night. Then the following year (he was still over there) she pulled in the drive way just as my son finished mowing HER front yard…

Are you ready for this? She just walked in the house, didn’t smile, didn’t wave H E double hockey sticks she didn’t even look at us! Ya know that was back when gas had went up to like $3 a gallon. So I was pissed, wouldn’t you had been. Yes I think so. Just agree with me okay remember this is a complaint post.

I promptly announced to my family, that’s was IT NO more mowing of her yard! PERIOD! Hum, she didn’t seem to notice or care or whatever. After about a month she mowed it. And now about this time we were seeing her more often coming and going and such. Still not a smile or wave-nothing. Okay so she only seemed to be able to mow when the grass, now weeds got knee high. Beloved was all it looks bad and stuff like that. Nope if she can’t even manage a wave we will not manage to cut her yard. Picture if you dare me almost stomping my foot for emphasis.

PS: remember when we had to have our tree cutters trim her tree off our roof? Speaking of her back yard have you seen that?

No wonder we get snakes. And now four years latter it’s the same ol’ thing. She won’t cut her grass and neither will we! Humph! That my dear internets is the reason what you sometimes see yards like this.

So do you have good neighbors or what?