Thursday 2 July 2015

Pickled Onions, Driveway Progress and Fattening Up the Pug


I had to pull up all the onions, some yesterday and then the rest this morning.  The bl**dy rabbits had eaten the stems right down to ground level on most of them.  Another couple of weeks and a bit more rain and we would have been harvesting enough onions to see us through a good few months,  instead I will be lucky to get a couple of jars of pickled onions.  Or I might just blitz the lot in the food processor and see if they will freeze as chopped onions.

Today these three trays and one more slightly fuller one containing the onions harvested today, have been sat in the sun drying out.

This is where it gets tough growing your own, all the work I have put into these, planting the sets, weeding and the occasional watering and they have barely had a chance to grow.  It's very disheartening.

Asda sell one kilo bags of red and white onions for £1.  Sometimes I ask myself is it all worth it. 


Meanwhile the driveway is starting to take shape ....


... levels have been worked out and the noise of rollers and diggers has been incessant all day, I was feeling pleased with real, visible progress.  

Then I caught the builders feeding Suky titbits from their dinners ... bread crusts and pastry edges, to say I was annoyed would be the biggest understatement of the year up to now.

I have been carefully weighing out her food for weeks now, giving her exact quantities to help with her weight loss, ignoring those pleading brown eyes whenever I have been eating, and feeling like a mean Mum, and all the time they have been thwarting my efforts and slowing down her weight loss journey.  No wonder her weight has been going down so slowly!

All in all it's been a very infuriating day.

Sue xx 

22 comments:

  1. Oh Sue, as you say how annoying on all counts. Home grown onions do taste better than shop ones but at least it won't break the bank when you have to buy some. and oh dear on Suky, tho I thought she was looking trimmer in your recent photo. Very hard to resist that face tho if she was begging.....

    Cathy

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  2. Vera has been having an week of it as well, it was my turn last week, I am glad we dont have rabbits around here there has been 1 I have seen in the past year, my big disappointment has been the third planting of broccoli after the hot spell cold spell hot spell it has gone to seed, the parsnips havent shown face at all.
    I hope the builders take note of what you said I wouldnt have been amused

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  3. Rabbits are here, but the real problem here are with beetles in the beans.
    Such a lot of work sometimes, sigh.
    Perhaps you can hide her away near lunch time from the fellows.

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    1. This was at 10.30 in the morning .... I always make sure she's in at lunch time. THEY should do as they are told and NOT feed an animal that is on a restricted diet :-(

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  4. I need to pop down the coast
    I have your green bag
    X

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    1. We're out until well after lunchtime, taking the truck for it's MOT.

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  5. Growing your own is frustrating . I have possums attacking my garden . Very frustrating with Suky but I am sure she is a charming little girl who might use her charms to beguil the builders into sharing . Very frustrating though if you had asked the builders not to give her food . Perhaps a nice cold beverage might help ?

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  6. I mean a nice cold beverage to help ease your frustration....

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  7. Like Leisha, I have the possum problem. Our yard is so small that I
    don't bother with things like onions which are grown near us and
    always cheap. I'm sure homegrown is better but I'd rather use the
    space for something else. Re. Suky, I recently discovered that one
    of our cats has been sneaking next door and begging for food - no
    wonder he was getting a bit tubby!

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  8. Onions are one of those where I know it probably costs more to grow than to buy but I love seeing them grow so much!
    Your dog would be safe around my dinner - nothing wasted from my plate!

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  9. I bet Suky was loving the attention ! x

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  10. My elderly neighbours kept trying to feed our dogs. One of our dogs is on a grain free diet as she gets mega itchy and licks her fur out if she eats any grains. I told my neighbours very firmly that she is on a special diet and if she eats anything else she will become ill. They do ask me from time to time if it would be ok to give them something and the answer is always a firm thank you but NO! Difficult when you're not with the dogs all the time though.

    I can also sympathise with growing the vegetables. I gave up trying to grow stuff. The dogs ate the carrots, the sparrows ate the peas, and despite covering the strawberries with netting, I still found blackbirds under it eating the strawbs! It was cheaper and less stressful to go to Aldi. Take care xx

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  12. I've been told that freezing onions alters their taste, but I always freeze some of ours and they're fine for cooking.
    I'm with you re the builders feeding Suky, I hope you gave them a very stern talking to!
    Why are rabbits so cute to watch, but such evil little thieves?

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  13. Grrrr, builders, you can't eat them & you can't shoot them - well at least not until they've finished their work. Then who knows. Lol.
    That was something my dad used to say when people infuriated him, which was often.
    Having met Suky though, I can see how they found her hard to resist.

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  15. I had the same problem as SusanM - a neighbour walking down the road every day wanting to give Daisy biscuits through the fence. I solved it the same way - told him there was a food intolerance and thankfully he's stopped.

    Unfortunately it's rather 'stable door when horse is three fields away' for you and the builders. I guess you'll just have to keep her away from them until they've gone.

    You have my sympathies with the veg growing problems.

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  16. Oh no I can sympathise on both accounts. This spring up here in north of Scotland has been one of the coldest and wettest for many years and veggie growing has been a real struggle we have lots of things not even planted yet and wondering if it's worth it as our growing session is so short think we'll run out of "year" this year. On the doggie front we have a rescue lab who has the most sensitive stomach he's on medication for arthritis as well so to keep his tummy ok we're very strict with what he gets to eat. So imagine my horror when I caught one of our posties feeding him cheese straws I was very polite but very firm in telling her never to feed him anything! She got all huffy and didn't speak properly for months haha

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  17. Poor you, at least you can see the progress on your drive and it does look lovely. A little story . . . Once upon a time we had next door neighbours who were very mean. They were even mean with each other always accusing the other one of pinching cigs, cups of tea etc., Anyway they had two large dogs, lovely dogs, but thin and always scratching. In those days I cooked a lot more and often asked if the dogs could have any left overs, I always asked and they always said yes. Until the day I heard them talking and suddenly realised that they were not letting the dogs have anything but were eating it themselves!!!!! I mean - could you? Love Andie xxx ps Sukie does look a lot slimmer.

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  18. I'm not sure why people think they need to give dogs nibbles, but it happens a lot. My dogs don't need that either, and the little one will throw up during the night on people food.

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  19. Ah well, better sneaky treats than sly kicks. I'd just be glad they like dogs. Yes, vegie gardening can be so hard at times and then when you do finally get your crop, the local shop has it in scads and cheap because it is in season elsewhere. Remember though that the store onions are probably treated with sprays and who knows what else, so there is always that benefit ofrom home grown.

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  20. I walk a dog who is grossly over weight. He is only 5 and his owner is a huge woman who never walks him and lives in a tiny house with tiny garden. It makes me soooo mad as she just will not stop feeding him. I'm at the end of my tether. He loves going out and I try to keep him at my house, away from her as long as possible. What is it with people?

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