Life in Lakeside

War of the Tomatoes: Fortifications of ‘17

Submitted by tamara.harpster on Wed, 07/19/2017 - 20:50

After the loss of tomatoes in the summer of 2016, I brooded over the squirrel’s victory and plotted for my revenge. I was determined to have a garden and the fruit of my labors, keeping them out of my foes paws. How to proceed, that was the challenge.

As the summer of 2016 changed to fall, we started getting rain, lots and lots of rain. The drought finally broke in our area, and I felt some despair as I saw all of the new growth. I knew that my garden would need to stand against an onslaught of new squirrels, hungrily looking for fresh food for their conquests.

Upcoming Articles and Tomato Plants! Happy Fourth of July!

Submitted by admin_shell on Tue, 07/04/2017 - 19:14
Happy Fourth of July to everyone, I hope everyone in the USA is having a good day. I will be posting on Thursday the next chapter of the book I am working on, the "Year 2038 Bug" I will also post another "Notes On Writing", this time about the characters I am developing. My notes are meant to provide information for other writers in order to spark ideas and perhaps help me in improving my writing. Still lots of areas for improvement, especially after reading over the draft chapter in preparation for posting.

Next Step in Workouts

Submitted by tamara.harpster on Wed, 04/26/2017 - 21:22

I have been busy the last couple of weeks but lots of ideas for my blog and posts running through my head. One quick post this evening, I am taking a new step in my workouts, I will be running in a 5K on May 6th. My goal is to run the entire distance, I am pretty sure I can do it but I'm glad I have a couple of weeks to continue working my distance. I have not run in a race since grade school so this is a milestone for myself. I won't be the fastest or most elegant runner but I do plan to finish, one way or another.

Ignoring Signs

Submitted by tamara.harpster on Thu, 03/30/2017 - 18:28

My family is interested in photography and I taking pictures when out on walks. On one of these walks, I saw two signs next to each other that caused me to pause at the odd message. The top sign read “CLOSED” while the lower sign displayed in large letters “JOIN US!”. They caught my eye because of the implied contradiction. I wondered about times when I have said something, then contradicted myself. I suspect it has happened at least once or twice. :-)

After the Rain, Lots of Life

Submitted by tamara.harpster on Thu, 02/23/2017 - 20:27
Flowers after the rain

Late night thoughts, we made it through the stormy weather last weekend, with no damage. The flowers out front were flattened, but they have recovered. More importantly, all of our trees stayed up, including the big ones next to the power lines. The area is certainly green this year after all of this rain. And more rain forecast for this weekend! I'm starting to think about gardening but first we are going to have to come up with some rodent proofing for the beds. All of the critters have more than enough food this year, they don't need veggies from my garden.

Rainy Day, Again

Submitted by tamara.harpster on Fri, 02/17/2017 - 09:44

There is something about rainy weather that inspires me to post. Another storm is moving in, the rain has just started in our area. There are predictions of high wind, I hope our home is protected from some of that, especially our trees. Amazing how much information I can get about this storm, I can see the radar images, with intense activity, read tweets from the local news station with pictures of fallen trees and the rain and get feedback from people in our neighborhood about rainfall and flooding.

Finishing Up 2016

Submitted by tamara.harpster on Sun, 01/01/2017 - 18:09

For the last few days we have had rain, which is different. We’ve also had cold weather, although I don’t think it is as chilly as it was last year. At least that’s what my hips think since they don’t ache quite as much this year as last. I was able to take time off from work and I caught up on baking. I finished off with a batch of bread and lefsa, see pictures below for my lefsa making.

Lessons Learned During Christmas Baking

Submitted by tamara.harpster on Sat, 12/24/2016 - 19:09

Things I learned today while baking for Christmas:

  • The family pie dough recipe could be used to make two thick pie crusts instead of 4 thin ones
  • Thick pie crusts are a lot harder to get into the pie pan after they are rolled out
  • Parchment paper makes it possible to get the pie dough into the pan mostly intact
  • Pie dough is not very forgiving when it is rolled out twice

Cooking Lunches

Submitted by tamara.harpster on Wed, 12/14/2016 - 16:00

I am cooking, again, this time my lunches for the next month. Now that we have a big freezer I make big batches and freeze most of it. I am also mixing up a big batch of cookies once a month, then freezing three weeks worth. While I like to cook, it is nice that I've reduce how many times a month I do my cooking.

Thanksgiving 2016

Submitted by tamara.harpster on Wed, 11/23/2016 - 16:00

It is the evening of Thanksgiving, the food has been cooked, served and eaten, the good dishes cleaned, used and then cleaned again before being put away. I've already had my first plate of leftovers, enjoying the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans along with some gravy for extra flavor. And a home made roll, of course, with real butter, just to make sure I get enough carbs for the day. Since it was my husbands birthday today, we had cupcakes for our dessert instead of pie.

War of the Tomatoes: Siege of ‘16

Submitted by tamara.harpster on Mon, 07/25/2016 - 18:46

The seeds of the war were planted back in the summer of ’13. We had moved to a new year, with a larger yard in 2012 and had lots of space. There was plenty of room for a vegetable garden,  so we set up a raised bed garden space in our back yard. I planted tomato plants, peppers and herbs that did very well that first year. With that small success, I expanded our garden space and by the winter of ’15 we had three areas for vegetables.

Life in Lakeside - Fall Gardening

Submitted by tamara.harpster on Sun, 01/25/2015 - 20:11

Since I live in San Diego, the weather is mild which means that it is possible to have a garden growing year round. Back in October 2014 I decided I’d like to try growing a garden so I found some vegetables that should do well in cooler, wetter weather. I drafted my husband and son to help in getting lumber for a raised garden bed and to build it for me. Fortunately, they kindly agreed to help out and about two weeks later I had a new garden bed.

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