What a glorious day to awake and head for the garden with the love of your life and do battle with bugs, weeds, and varmints! We took our coffee with us and began bright and early at 7:00 am.
First things first, we placed some of the Independence Day bunting onto our front yard fence. All we have to do is the garage tomorrow, and the decorating for the 4th will be complete!
Bunting, in the context of decoration, refers to fabric or other materials used to create festive displays, such as flags or streamers.
On the way to the vegetable garden, I overheard Mary saying to herself…
We spent a couple of hours planting the new veggies and did a pretty good job. Then thunder hunger struck. Yes, it was time to tackle the two-and-a-half-pound Porterhouse.
Bringing it from the fridge using a small hand truck, I powdered its behind with a dose of salt and pepper and waited for it to come to room temperature. Using a nice bath towel, I gave it a rub-down and then applied a little more salt and pepper!
Into the very hot pan with olive oil it went! Poor Domilita, she will have to clean the stove on Wednesday!
The steak sizzled under the 450-degree pan for about four minutes per side. On the second side, I added two tablespoons of butter, making basting the steak easy!
Please listen below while the steak cooks! We had smoke in the house, so we turned on the whole-house fan, and the smoke cleared up within seconds. The roar in the background is our stove fan running at full speed!
The crust was perfectly done before I sent the steak to the preheated oven at 450 degrees for seven minutes to finish it off. Today I remembered that the pan, after being in the oven for seven minutes, was hot. The hot pads were ready.
At an internal temperature of 130 degrees, the steak came out and rested. (I didn’t know they got tired!)
While I was slaving away over the hot stove, Mary was making a salad, lemonade for me, and corn on the cob directly from our garden! It was a feast!!
Mary had the small piece of filet mignon, and I had the New York Strip. The steak was so big that we both cut ours in half and saved it for later.
After brunch, we decided it was too hot to work, so we watched a movie. I did sneak out and give the veggies a drink because the temperature was going to be over 80 degrees. The veggies were talkative today!
Later on in the afternoon, when the sun had begun to wane, we again returned to the garden and continued our work! I had a morning sweatshirt on, and my lovely wife brought me a t-shirt instead. She may have had a message.
Scout was smart and stayed on the patio!
We have had varmints, and based upon the new plants we got, they would be a prime target for a midnight raid. But I remembered I had a 100-foot roll of chicken wire hidden in the forest at the end of our lot. It was two feet tall and easy to work with. With the skill of a barrier craftsman, the chicken wire went up, and the varmints will go hungry!
Get through this, you pesky varmints!
We installed three barriers where the climbing vegetables were planted. The animals seem to like the climbing plants. The beans and peas now have a chance to produce.
The barriers were up, and it was 6:30 pm, time to hit the spa!
We finished a movie before heading into the swim spa to relieve our tired and sore muscles. I was stretched to the limit because my Santa Rosa plum tree is now in full bloom, and the fruit is ripening nicely. I wanted to get my plums before the darned birds, so I reached high into the tree and got some beautiful plums.
Santa Rosa plums are a popular Japanese plum variety developed by Luther Burbank in Santa Rosa, California, in 1906. They are known for their sweet, juicy, and slightly tart flavor, as well as their dark red skin and yellow flesh with red streaks. These plums are a favorite for fresh eating, cooking, and making jams.
After the three cycles in the spa, we were like two wet noodles, so we returned to the TV room and watched an old movie before going to bed.
Scout got his dinner with sliced turkey and steak. He wolfed dinner down in two bites.
At 11:00 pm, we finally went to bed. While Mary read, I went to the office and took the medical inhalation treatment.
