Today has turned out to be a beautiful day. The sun is trying to peak out amongst the clouds. We had some rain, not much though. My husband surprised me for my birthday with a Kindle Fire, my son, a beautiful necklace and this afternoon the door bell rang and there was a special delivery of roses from my sister and parents. I told everyone not to do anything. I am however, looking forward to going out to eat tonight, we are planning on getting BBQ. It’s been a while since we’ve had good old fashioned brisket, corn, Cole slaw……………and it just sounds good. Especially, when I don’t have to cook ….hehehehehe!!!!
Garden/Property Updates:
The corn has really taken off since we had that bad storm. Remember when the storm and winds caused our corn to lay flat down on the ground, requiring Bulldog Man and I to create support? Well lookie ….lookie, we have several red-headed women (I mean corn) standing up and looking prettyJ .
The celery planted in pots has bolted and gone to seed. Time to pull the seeds and dry them for next year’s planting.
The ginger that came home with my son (you know the one; the company he works for was going to toss out). Well it apparently likes its new home. It has produced flowers and now new leafs and branches.
The avocado was transplanted into its own bucket and apparently it loves its new home too. The leaves just look so strong and hearty, almost like a maple/oak tree.
My Roma tomatoes have taken off, and started producing tomatoes. Hopefully the little green fruit will turn into large vibrant red tomatoes.
Bulldog Man saved a part of a tree trunk we cut down weeks ago. I figured I would borrow the bird bath idea from one of my Sweet Blogger Friends, Kymber. When I went into town, I purchased a deep plate for $1.00 from The Dollar Tree store. This weekend sometime, I will be putting the entire contraption together and moving my old bird feeder relatively close to the homemade bird bath.
I picked up a 1/2 bushel of peaches from the local Farmers Market the other day and made peach jam. I used Cindy Burke’s recipe from the Culinate.com website. The jam came out very tasty and really good. http://www.culinate.com/recipes/collections/Contributors/cindy_burke/peach_preserves
Guar Gum (is created from the guar bean. It’s husked, milled and screened) used specifically as a thickener (8 times better than actual corn starch) and considered a hot commodity. The price of the Guar Gum has and will continue to go up in price dramatically. This product is typically used to thicken food products like ice cream, cheese, and baked goods (which will increase the dough size) in commercial food products. Guar Gum is also found in many medications and cosmetics. Here’s the kicker, prices for this product are rising. The reason, companies like Halliburton have found a way to use Guar Gum to help process hydraulic fracturing. Because of the high demand for Guar Gum by Halliburton and other drilling companies, the price of Guar Gum has gone up, depleting availability of the product, which in turn changes the price of the product. Halliburton stated; “they experienced a loss in their profits for the second quarter because of the price increase of purchasing Guar Gum”. Yep, and this is where the old terms “supply” and “demand” come into factor. Not enough of the product produced for everyone’s needs naturally causes a rise in the prices!!!! What did I do? I went out and bought enough Guar Gum to last me a lifetime, lol…….nah, really…I bought enough to last a long time.
You, my dear energizer bunny, are priceless and tireless.
ReplyDeleteLotta Joy,
DeleteThanks :-) LMAO!!!!
Thinking to myself........I need to change my batteries, starting to slow down.
in my best and horribly, screechy-sounding voice:
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday to You!
Happy Birthday to You!
Happy Birthday dear, new friend, Sandy whose blog i enjoy visiting very much!
Happy Birthday to you!
Sandy - i sure do hope that your bbq dinner was superb. everything in your garden is looking great - i am jealous as heck! i love the colour of the bowl for your birdbath! lastly - where did you get your Guar Gum?
your friend,
kymber
Sweet Kymber,
DeleteYou didn't screech to much while singing, lol
Thank you so much for the Birthday Wish :-)
BBQ was very enjoyable!
My garden and garden pots are really going to town. Your garden and pots will too, were just on a different weather cycle.
I picked up Guar Gum at a store called Natural Grocer in the aisle for grains. I was going to say if you can't find it, let me know I can try to get you some. I don't know if it will be a problem to ship it to Canada though (you know how the post office is about food type products).
Your Friend,
Sandy
Happy Birthday! I hope it is enjoyable for you. About the guar gum, what do you use it in, how do you use it and where do you buy it?
ReplyDeleteRose, Thank you for the Birthday Wish :-)
DeleteI buy the guar gum at the Natural Grocer, you can get it at most health food stores. I use the guar gum to help thicken my homemade hair conditioner. I also use it to help extend the dough (make it fuller) when making pastries.
It's a natural thickener, kind of like corn starch but better.
Love that celery :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you! Celery is so easy to grow :-)
DeleteInteresting post. Now you can use this exporters directory to promote water features products import & export business.
ReplyDelete