Crikey! Tomorrow is August already. Time for some of you to go start thinking of shopping for school supplies. And back-to-school means that, for the rest of us, there’s still some decent travel weather and fewer people!

I went to Walmart yesterday to get a few things for cooking and I saw fresh pineapples for $6.12 each! Six bucks for a pineapple?!?! Really?! WTF? Needless to say they had a full bin.

I made some snacks up this morning. First I made some roasted chickpeas. I had some canned Tuscan-seasoned ones that were packed in seasonings and a tomato/olive oil sauce. I drained them, put ‘em on a baking sheet, and baked until just getting a little crunch. Then I tossed them in a bowl with a little olive oil and some Kinder salt-free garlic & herb seasoning (first time buying this and it is really good). I then put them back in the oven and finished crisping them up. They turned out delicious and are a very satisfying, healthy snack.

After that I made some raspberry crumble bars and they turned out pretty good but I probably could have baked them a few minutes longer. Oh well, they aren’t as portable but they are still good even using a fork.

Then I made up a pint of some salsa using one of my habaneros I grew. I have one more pepper on the plant but it’s not quite ripe yet so I just used the ripe one and fire-roasted roasted it on the grill while my salmon burger cooked. I put it in the food chopper with some canned fire-roasted tomatoes, some chopped onion, cilantro, a pinch of salt, some fresh-ground black pepper and a squeeze of lemon (didn’t have lime). It turned out pretty decent and for a pepper the size of a grape the salsa actually had a little spice to it. I prefer a pico de gallo-type of salsa but this turned out like more of a salsa.

I got my “garden” in kind of late so I’m still waiting for the plants to have fruit on them. Tomatoes are starting to flower as are my bell peppers. The plants are all looking very healthy so when they start producing it oughta be a decent crop. When I bought the plants they were kind of stunted from lack of water so I think they are a little behind where they should be.

Dinner was cottage pie and brown bread with Kerrygold butter (THE best butter) with a nice glass of red wine. Kinda nice that I still have three more meals’ worth of my cottage pie. I found some of those long loaf brown bread sticks (The Cheesecake Factory ones) and they are pretty good. It’ll go great with my pie, and now that I think of it, it’s how it was served to us in Dublin, Ireland.

Lately I’ve been having a glass of wine with dinner every night and am really enjoying it and I can actually limit myself to one glass (which is probably 2-3 of those tiny glasses). Tonight is no exception, but instead of table wine I splurged on a bottle of better wine. Still a red, which is my go to, but this one is not as sweet (or inexpensive, hahaha). It’s a decent wine for the money. It’s a 2019 Ozark Hellbender red blend from Stone Hill Winery. Again, it’s nothing fancy but is pretty good for the price. A welcome change from the sweet wines.

I discovered some termites in a stump left from one of the bushes that I cut down right in front of the house. I was wondering about it since I saw a hole inside one of the trunks I cut off. There were no outward signs of any issues with the bush so it was sheer luck I discovered them.

Today I saw a “tunnel” they made out of sawdust and it wasn’t there yesterday. I got out the poison and committed “insecticide” then poured saltwater into the hole as well. I saw many natural pesticides online and one was saltwater. Another is vinegar so I’m gonna buy a few gallons and try that to get me by for now before I call an exterminator.

I also found a spot on the house near this stump where there’s some gaps in the brick that need to be sealed up to help keep the termites out. I’ll be getting this stuff taken care of pretty soon as it’s definitely a priority. There’s several other gaps that need sealed so I’m gonna be busy fixing those too.

One bigger tree in front of the house has some issues and I’m thinking it’s probably termites in there too. At least it’s farther away from the house. I may have to cut it down as well since it may be infested. It has some dead areas and wounds that are wet so it probably should come down. Another reason I want to wait for an exterminator.

I also have to “quarantine” the firewood I cut from the bush to keep from spreading those little pests around. I grabbed the pieces and put them in a black construction trash bag. I tied it shut and it’s sitting in the hot sun and will stay until I can put it right into a fire. The heat in the bag oughta take care of them but fire is a definite death sentence.

So it was a busy day today. I was gonna go for a drive today and have some travels to post about but some things came up I needed to deal with and have to put off a road trip for now. That’s okay since the gas prices keep on dropping! I’ll be taking advantage of that soon!

That’s it for this post. Thanks for stopping by!