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I have never seen anything like this!
Pic by Tammie Lee
A few minutes ago it was 53 degrees. Zeke barked to come in and there were a few sprinkles on the window. Almost immediately the rain and hail started. Very quickly Zeke’s comfy hole filled full of white. I watched the hail bounce on the sidewalk. I sat down and now it’s snowing REALLY HARD!!!!!
It snowed hard for maybe half an hour and the temp went down to 37. The wind came back, blew the snow away and now it is sunny and 39 degrees. Weird!!!!
The “good” news is that the forecast is for 29 tonight….not 24. Those 5 degrees make a huge difference in plant survival.
@ 6 PM…I went in to the bathroom when it was sunny….came out and it was dark with heavy hail. Started to put away the dishes and next thing I know, the sun is out and it’s raining hard! Now the temp has gone up to 43. What a day for the record books!
@7 PM…It is snowing harder now than it did most of the winter. The snow is sticking and the green field is now white 
Temp is 33 degrees.
@8 PM…I slogged through the snow and ice to put Reemay tunnels over the cabbage family and herb beds. The cabbagey seedlings were mulched with grass clippings. The snow was thick on the mulch. The watering can had a hefty coating of ice on the side facing up. It started snowing again while I was in the garden. At 9:45 PM temp is 35 degrees.
@11 PM….the plants might be safer than we first thought! The temp has gone up to 36 
My niece was out swimming. Here is her report about Cranberry Lake….
i thought they were picking on me for going swimming when they told me it was snowing, but it really was. and it was pretty hard, bad enough that they couldnt see shore at all coming across the lake. they were bringing all the students across the lake when the storm hit and it was snowing really hard and hailing and sheets then it rained like crazy and the waves were crashing over the top of the forester, which is huge boat they have that holds 30 something people. bet that was fun!
Who the heck is Lester Parish?
Of course I have no idea if I am spelling the name correctly, either. There was a message on my machine this morning telling me to call him, but he left no number or clue to what he wants or who he is. Do any of my friends or relatives know?
Gut distress
Ugh! What I haven’t said today is that I spent most of it napping or in the bathroom. My guts are very, very unhappy 
The Draino effect is not getting better. If anything, it’s worse! I wonder what germ I picked up in the ER? I cannot remember a time when my guts have gurgled so much for so long. It’s now mostly acid coming out.
I have always refused to take anti-diarrhea meds but am starting to reconsider! What sort of “bug” could I have gotten? What’s the best stuff to take?
The ER doc said the hospital was going to contact my assigned doc and get me an appointment. This will be week #3 I have tried to get one. Ideally, I should probably see a doc, huh? Sigh….
Oh!!! Crap!!!!!!
The latest look at the weather forecast is saying 24 to 25 for a low Sunday night. I wish I had a dozen thick quilts! Better yet….I wish I had not planted the herbs. I’m not so sure the cabbage will live through this even covered
When it got down to 24 last week, it killed off 95% of the lilac buds. Now the rest will be slime….
Check out this guy’s 3D art!
Edgar Mueller does some pretty incredible street art Go look at his website.
I was feeling better….
I have quite the love/hate relationship with my LOX Helios Marathon portable that I fill from a tank so I can go out in the garden. Liquid oxygen is about 300 degrees below zero and has lots of freezing up problems. The lever got stuck in the frozen open position and spewed all over again. Sigh….
I tried all sorts of things to get it to stop and then gave up, took it outside and hoped it would calm down and work later. I had looked on two sites for the long term weather forecast before loading up the wheelbarrow with three flats of herbs. I filled one 4 x 20 ft bed with transplanted herbs such as thyme, lovage, spearmint, lemon balm, catnip, savory, chives, etc… All the bending over finally made the o2 tank work ;-P
I came in and plopped in the chair to rest. My door and window are wide open. Along comes a wrinkly old guy with a heavy duty respirator on. He was spraying all around the windows, doors and foundation. I asked him what he was spraying and he said Tempo. I looked it up and it seems fairly safe as far as insecticides go. Instantly my nose and eyes burned Seems to be better now, though.
Then I looked up the weather again to see if we are getting more rain this afternoon. Guess what? The forecast has now changed! Tomorrow night is predicted to be 27 on one page and 29 on the other. Grrrrrrrrrrrr…… The good thing is that all the other nights now have warmer forecasts than they did earlier today. It’s a good thing Doug brought his Reemay, wire hoops and earth staples!!!!!!! I will be needing to cover the herbs.
The first lady who planted out a tomato and squashes before Memorial Day had hers freeze to death. Now I see someone has put out greenhouse starts of basil and tomatoes in another plot. All I could do was shake my head. I bet a lot of the greenhouses make their money when people keep freezing their tender plants and coming back for more. I’m not putting out tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc. until after the full moon on the 7th. I just read a study that says frosts and full moons don’t statistically go together, but my experience says otherwise. Some idiot also did a study that says weather does not make arthritis hurt more. Hah!
Old Deseret Bread Mixes
The folks at Old Deseret wanted me to put up a link to their products. I said OK….send me a bread mix and I will write about it. They are probably going to be sorry they asked me because I am going to be honest and objective.
The mix arrived Friday in a priority mail envelope. Inside was a heavy duty brown paper sack labeled Aunt Kate’s Unbleached Wheat Bread Mix. Ingredients are: unbleached wheat flour, sugar, vegetable shortening, potato flour, dried egg powder and salt. The mix weighed 15 oz. The cost online is $3.55 plus $3.00 shipping. The inside of the envelope and outside of the package were covered in flour. I think there probably needs to be some protective padding around the mix. The envelope was pretty beat up.
Directions on the package are as follows: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixer with a dough hook (or in a bowl if mixing by hand), combine contents with 2 tsp instant yeast. Mix for 30 seconds. Turn off mixer and add 3/4 cup hot tap water. Mix for 3 to 5 minutes.
Cover and let rise until double in size. Turn onto a floured surface and knead. Do not add flour to the dough. Shape dough into loaf shape. Place into a greased loaf pan. Cover and let rise just until dough reaches the top of the pan.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. When baked, brush loaf with butter.
*This recipe can be done by hand kneading.
*This recipe can be done in a bread machine.
Since I have a bread machine, that’s what I used. I put the water, mix and yeast in the machine, turned it to basic loaf and went to sit down. My normally very quiet machine was squeaking and making funny noises. I opened the lid to find a VERY solid lump of dough that resembled tough PlayDough. I turned off the machine, took the dough out and put it to rise in an oiled bowl. Definitely not enough liquid! I considered tweaking the recipe, but realized that would not tell the story of this mix. I let it rise quite a while because the dough was so dry and solid that it needed the extra time.
Next I kneaded it by hand. Tough stuff! There was no way in heck I was going to shape it into a loaf. The darn thing was too dense. Instead, I cut the dough into 8ths, formed the hard little lumps into rolls and put in a 9 x 9″ greased glass pan. I let them rise a really long time, hoping to get them less dense. Then I baked until golden brown and done. They are edible, but nothing to get excited about.
I suggest that Old Deseret include bread machine directions and re-evaluate if the bread could use more liquids. The directions should not say to preheat the oven at the very beginning….unless you like wasting energy. Size of the bread pan should be given.
Honestly,I am probably one of the worst people to critique a mix. I LOVE my homemade oatmeal honey bread. It probably takes two minutes longer to add the ingredients to a bread machine or bowl, is waaaaaaaaaaaaay cheaper and tastes a heck of a lot better. I’m not a plain white bread person and I am pretty darn frugal.
If you feel more secure buying a mix than making your own bread, well, what can I say? You are crazy 
The mix is expensive, not as tasty as my usual bread and actually was way more work.
Feeling green
A couple of days ago my strategy was to move little to be able to breathe. Today it’s to sit or lie down very, very still to keep from puking. I truly think going to the hospital made me waaaaaaaay sicker than staying home would have. Sigh…..
