December 23, 2016

Last Friday we had an icy morning with a skift of snow and today we had an icier morning after a night of rain and a morning of slushy rain.  By afternoon the sun came out, the ice fell off the trees and the driveway and sidewalks were dry.
Last Sunday we had a low of -10 F, with wind.  Brrr!

November 26, 2016

These sound like they would do well is our sticky clay soil, but would they spread too quickly?

November 22, 2016

We had our first snow on the 18th.  It's been so warm there was only a skift of snow on the grass, none of the roads or walks. We are having chilly weather now, with night temperatures in the 30's and day temperatures in the 40s.
We had a sprinkling of rain all day today.

From the dictionary of American Regional English:

skift n

skift n2 [SND skift n.1 2, skiff n.1 2 “A slight or flying shower of rain or snow”, skiftin “A light fall or sprinkling of snow”]; a thin layer of snow or frost on the ground, or of ice on water

November 5, 2016

Gardening is over.  We had a killing frost, I'm guessing the 3rd week of October.  So the garden is finished and cleaned upish.  I just made all the tomatoes in the freezer into 48 pints of soup and about 12 quarts of juice.  I wish I had more juice.  I was tired of dealing with the peppers and tomatoes that I gave most of the rest away.  They were much appreciated.  I may wish I had them eventually, but I can only do so much!  I am baking butternut squash every few days, running it through the food mill and putting it in the freezer in 2 cup batches.  That is enough for pies, pumpkin bars and eating.
I cleaned up most of the flowers on the deck.  I plan to start completely over, and then I kept all the geraniums.  (roll eyes)
I had a tip I wanted to post so that it would remind me early in the season. I forgot what it was so I think I'll make something up.  

July 19, 2016

I've spent part of the morning hauling peaches downstairs from the 50# I canned yesterday. I didn't take any photos since I already have a photo on the blog.  I also put some of those peaches in the freezer chunked for smoothies, and some as sauce for cereal.

Pickles from last week. 

Those peaches were huge.  The one I'm holding is the big peach.

I picked more squash and cucumbers last night and gave some to Lynette.

July 19, 2016

I've spent part of the morning hauling peaches downstairs from the 50# I canned yesterday. I didn't take any photos since I already have a photo on the blog.  I also put some of those peaches in the freezer chunked for smoothies, and some as sauce for cereal.

Pickles from last week. 

Those peaches were huge.  The one I'm holding is the big peach.

I picked more squash and cucumbers last night and gave some to Lynette.

Week of July 11th, 2016

I picked nearly all of the beets.  A small section was hidden in weeds. The tops had been chewed off by rabbits and they were behind anyway. 

 

We've had three pickings of beans.  I put a quart in the freezer and we are eating them. 

I bought an 11# lug of cherries for 18.99. ($1.72 per pound)

The days are long gone to buy them for 99 cents a pound.

They canned up so easily, I canned another lug.  

I bought a bunch of peaches at HyVee, 1.49 a pound. 

The results of my labor. 

Our yellow summer apples were ready this week and my mom came to help.  We did two 5-gallons buckets of apples into sauce.  These are mine.  Mom took 5 pints. 

The tally:

I don't have photos of the pickles.

3 quarts Caddie pickles

1 quart and 1 pint dills (I forgot the garlic in the quart jar.)

16 quarts and 20 pints cherries

13 quarts peaches

4 quarts and 16 pints applesauce

I also put 4 pints of blueberries in the freezer and 3 pints of strawberries.  

Earlier this year I put a gallon of apple slices in the freezer and I haven't been counting the blueberries.  

I use the fruit for smoothies so extra fruit goes in the freezer in chunks for smoothies.  

I've put 5 pints of 'soup base' in the freezer.  That is cooked yellow squash blended and frozen.  Since I eat a lot of soup I use that instead of or for part of the water.  

June 21, 2016

And...we have our first beet.  

Blueberries are on sale and I'm putting them in the freezer.  They are my favorite fruit on my morning cereal.

I wash my fruit in 1 part vinegar, 10 parts water, per something I found on pinterest a while back.  It really does make a difference in how long they keep.  I have apples here draining after a wash.  

June 10, 2016

This is our second picking of peas.  

My Golden Showers rose is almost covered with the larkspur.  The larkspur has grown so much taller than usual because of the rains this spring.  I need a better place to put it.  It's too big for this place, and I'm running out of room to contain it. 

Yesterday the boys were here and we went flower picking. I tried without success to get some long stems.  Thus we have a bowl of blossoms.

May 31, 2016

I'm really falling down on the job keeping tabs on what we've done in the garden this year.
Most everything is planted and well up.  We have several rows of sweet corn, potatoes, peas, beets, spinach, tomatoes, peppers, okra, and summer and winter squash.

Jim rigged up a fence for the peas to grow on.  He's been wanting to do that for years.  He's doing a major weeding job out there today.

We have flowers in pots on the patio and on the front pillars. It's been raining nearly every day a little bit so they've been thriving.  I'm done with the first time through of the flower gardens that aren't undergoing a change this year. Yesterday Jim and Anthony widened one of the grass paths, which essentially makes one of the gardens smaller.  That makes less weeding for me, and easier mowing for Jim with the wider paths.  While they were working, I weeded, replanted displaced plants, and watered.  The guys killed two birds with one stone by removing sod that was threatening to meet in the middle of the back sidewalk and putting it in the wider paths.
Too bad I don't have a before and after photos.  We have more restructuring to do in those gardens and we want have it finished this summer.

April 23, 2016

Jim is pretty pleased with the way his two row planter works.  It takes more time to set up than it takes to plant two rows of sweet corn. 

I planted spinach and Jim planted the last of his blue spruce trees he got from the NRD.

April 2, 2016

Spring is coming.  After a warmish February and early March, we've had some colder weather with clouds predominating. Today was showing a little green and Jim planted the first of our garden.  He used some sort of machine to tear up the ground earlier and used his new little two row planter to plant two rows of sweet corn several weeks ago.  It's been too cold for it to come up of course.
Jim has planted beets, peas, 2 rows of potatoes using last years yukon golds that have sprouted all over the place in spite of trying to prevent this by putting a couple of apples in their storage bag, and onions.  I planted pepper seeds in the house.  I've got them in three egg cartons and I hope they will grow.  I started earlier last year I think, but I just let the peppers hang on until they turn color so it won't matter if they are late.

Jim's been wanting one of these for years.