Wild and Crazy night

We had a huge storm last night with 80 mph winds.  We lost power for almost 12 hours.  The only real damage to our property was our tree in our front yard (which was already dead and needed to come down) fell over.  Poor Tree.  :(

RIP to our already dead tree....

 Looks like the gnomes aren't to happy.  Now their shade is gone.  We need to either dig up the stump or clean it up.  I'd like to put a little door on the stump for the gnomes.  We'll see.

UPDATE:  I just found out the storm that came through here last night is officially called a derecho.  A derecho can produce destruction similar to that of a Tornado.  The damage typically is directed along a relatively straight swath.


My brother borrowed my dads pick-up truck and came over and helped Nate load the truck.  I helped too, with the little branches and twigs.

I moved the gnomes closer to the stump.  :)

Pork Loin Salad

Nate is on a salad kick all week to get to his 100 pound weight loss goal.  He's so close....so I told him tonight I was making a pork loin (I didn't want it to spoil) for the protein in his salad.  He thought it was a marvelous idea.  I figured I would have a salad tonight too since I had a huge sandwich for lunch today.

I first baked my pork loin in the oven at 350 degrees for about an hour.  After your pork loin has cooked let the meat rest for a bit before cutting.  Then cut up.

Gather all your salad ingredients you want......

Mix together and eat.  I've packed mine up in a tupperware bowl to eat at work.

The Sunken Well Tavern

Today, I met with my friend Jessica (*waves at Jessica*) for lunch.  We went to The Sunken Well Tavern.  We'd never been there before but Jessica heard that they had great food.

It's in downtown Fredericksburg near Sunken Road.

When we got there there was 2 or 3 other people in there.  Then by the time we left, the place was booming with locals having lunch.

I got the classic club (without ham) on toasted sourdough bread with fries.  The fries look like potato chips.  They were really good.  I think instead of regular salt they had sea salt on them.  Yum!

 Jessica got the Panini lunch special which was a boneless buffalo chicken Panini.  She got hers with a side of chips.  We both enjoyed our sandwiches eating just about every crumb on the plate.  Jessica treated me to lunch.  Thanks Jess!!!  :)

Spotsylvania Farmers Market

I'd been planning to get to the newest Farmers Market in town since it opened back in May.  Today, I got a lot of errands done and it wasn't storming out so I thought today was the day to go.  I got one of the last parking places.  The place was packed!!  I don't think I've ever seen so many people at a Farmers market before.  It was a 'buy fresh, buy local day'.  :)

The first place I saw was a baked goods tent.

Lots of yummy breads....

 The next booth had a huge pile of green beans and tomatoes.

Lots of delicious sweet corn...

Tons of pretty sunflowers....

Look at those tomatoes....

Onions

Aloe plants among others...

Calla Lillies!!  :)  Love these!!

Tomatoes

Eggplants....

Blueberries....

Blackberries....

Peppers and onions.....Look at the purple peppers!  :)

These green bell peppers were in another booth.  They were soooooo big.  You can't really tell from the picture but they were jumbo.  I saw a sign that said $1.00 each.  That's an awesome price considering other another booth was selling jumbos for $2.50.

Small tomatoes....

A sign that tells you what's in season....

More blackberries and blueberries.  This was in the Westmoreland Berry Farm booth.

I love Nectarines.....

Green Tomatoes for frying and cucumbers.  :)

I was there for about 20 minutes walking around, enjoying the fresh air and checking out all the fresh produce.  It was awesome!  At one booth, I did try some pepper jack cheese that was really good.  It was very soft and creamy and it had a little bit of a kick to it.  I didn't buy anything on this trip.  Today, was just to snoop around and check it out.  I will be back though.  I want to get some fresh onions, bell peppers (when I run out....I used up my stock pile of peppers  but I just bought some more the other day that I will freeze again b/c I loved grabbing the pepper bag I needed for dinner and it already being prepped for me).  I also want to get some fresh nectarines or peaches.  :)  Other things I saw while there were tons of plants, farm fresh eggs, ice cream and I saw another tent with fresh baked goods.  I can't wait to visit again and fill up my tote bag with fresh and local goods.  :)

Milk Jug Watering Can

This past weekend was fun.  On Saturday, Nathan and I went to a cookout with some old friends from rehab department at Woodmont.  It was so nice to see and catch up with Anita, Cindy, Holly, Jennifer, Hannah, Patti and Colleen.  (Plus their spouses)  I hadn't seen them in years and we picked up in conversation right where we left off.  I've missed them all so it was nice to finally get together.

On Sunday, Nate and I went to Sharon and Joe's and after a few storms getting in the way we finally made it over to their community pool to swim for a bit.  Agnes (Sharon and Joe's daughter) was a little fishy in the pool.  She loved the water.  It was so cute taking/passing her around the pool.  I didn't get any pictures this time.  :(

I also made a milk jug watering can.  I got the idea from Pinterest from this blog.  It so easy to make.  All you need is a clean milk jug, and a needle.  

Poke holes in the top of the lid, making sure the needle goes all the way through the lid.  The blogger says to heat the needle but I didn't need to do that.  My needle when in and out pretty easily.

I find it pours better with a full jug of water than if it's almost empty.  I've been keeping the jug outside next to the plants too so I just easily pick it up and give them some water.  And if the jug gets old just wash out a new one and put your lid on it.  :)

New Things Monday

I picked up a 6 pack of V8 Fusion Light the other day.  I got the Strawberry & Banana.  There's 1 serving each of vegetables and fruit in each can.  I like them chilled.  It's very good and refreshing.  If I don't drink one for lunch then I've been taking one to work to have after dinner.  Nate tried one the other day and he liked it too.  :)

Garden Progress- Day 64

Well I'm sad to say but my little red pepper didn't make it.  :(

Yesterday morning I went out and saw that it had rotted so I pulled him off. 

He was a strong little pepper.  He started to turn red but he just didn't make it.

Poor thing.....I was so excited.....but at least I tried.

I decided I would go ahead and dump the dead pepper plants (red and green) and my dead rotted pepper.
From the heavy rains we got the other day this green pepper pot is too full of water for me to dump.  I have to wait for it to dry out a bit then I can dump it.

I cleaned up my patio/deck garden and watered everything.  Boy is it hot outside.  The plants were screaming at me for some water.  Since I took the rotted red pepper plant out of the red pot I added the newer green pepper plant I got a few weeks ago when I got the flowers.  My basil is still doing pretty good.  And I pulled off my first tomato!!  :)

Flowers on the green pepper plant.  Maybe I will have better luck with this one?

Here's a close-up of my first homegrown tomato.  :)  YEY!!  I did it!!  :)

 I have a ton more tomatoes on the plant but they are all still green.

Close-up of the tomatoes....

Tomatoes on the other side of the plant.  :)  I also wiped out all the cobwebs from the pesky spiders that I killed the other day.