September 26, 2020

 I'm calling it end of the season.  I gave up the beginning of the month since I was tired of processing garden sass.  All we have left is peppers, carrots, potatoes, carrots and squash.  We've eaten our two good spaghetti squash. I've started cooking, pureeing and freezing butternut squash. 

This is the first time we had a carrot bloom.  Jim pulled up, rather dug up, the culprit and we ate it for lunch.  This carrot is actually two entwined.  We don't thin our carrots, we just let them take their chance and we get some pretty strange configurations.  The really big carrots are very woody, and aren't as nice when cooked. 

Our okra thrived this hot dry year.  They were watered and grew taller than we've ever had okra grow before. Even Jim can't reach the top to harvest.  We have more than enough so we are letting them grow, they still are blooming, way up there 9ft. 9in. from the ground.  

September 4, 2020

The summer is winding down with cooler nights and a few cooler days mixed in with some very hot and windy ones.  I finally have enough tomatoes to can.  I've been putting some small amounts in the freezer right along.  I made a batch of tomato soup last week, some more pickles, and 6 qts of tomato juice.  This has been a strange year for some plants. Our tomatoes were late getting started and had black spots on them, they are better now, more fruit and fewer spots.  The okra is taller than it has ever been, over 6 ft. tall.  The cucumbers have been as prolific as ever, but I haven't been too enthused, I still have pickles leftover from last year.  

I pulled up the bean plants a week ago.  They've done well enough, though, thankfully not as well as usual.  We don't eat tons of green beans around here. 

The weeds have gotten away from us, to the point of letting most of them just go.  Jim has been cutting them off and feeding them to the cows in our pasture that belong to a friend.  The pasture is pretty dry, so they relish the tender parts of the leaves.  We could use some rain. 

Jim has started to harvest potatoes.  They seem to have something wrong with them, some are rotten where they met the stem.  

Water Hyacinth--August 8th.

Bumble Bee at the Farm 

Very Tall Okra 

Front door zinnas 

August 16, 2020

As much as I love to have home grown, home canned produce put away, it is starting to get the best of me.  This week I've made another 9 qts of pickles of the usual varieties; froze another gallon of beans, grated several qts of summer squash, zuke and yellow; put some tomatoes in the freezer for making soup this winter and forgotten about the okra still in the fridge that I will slice, cover with cornmeal and either eat or freeze.  If I wait another day, we can eat it tomorrow for supper. Over two days we've picked six 3-gallon buckets and two 5-gallon buckets of lovely red apples off our tree and frozen about 17 gallons of peeled and sliced apples, canned about 10 qts of applesauce, plus one small apple crisp. 

I also have a total of 36 qts of peaches in jars, 32 frozen peaches and some chunks from some rather beat up ones for smoothies in the future.  We picked two peaches off our own tree which has a total of 13 this year, because one was pecked and the other so closely attached it was both or none.  I think they are ripe, Jim doesn't. We'll see after a taste test.

August 11, 2020

We put 118 quarts of corn in the freezer in three evenings work.  When I was a kid and helping Mom with corn, I don't remember making and eating any supper.  We just ate corn.  I should see if Mom remembers, I'm not sure Dad would have been enthused about that.

Friday evening Jim and I picked garden and Saturday spent some time going around town to see if anyone sells a steam canner.  Mine has holes in the bottom and dripping all over, so it is out.  He went to Menards and the Farms stores and I went to Walmart and Ace.  No luck, so I ordered one online, I hope it comes since they aren't out to send until the month is almost over.  I still have my enamel water bath canner and after a refresher course, am using it.  I bought a jar lifter since I don't have all tall enough rack to pull all jars out at once.  Besides, that way is too heavy.  I also bought a 25# lug of California peaches. 

After that, I went to work on what we got out of the garden.  I got 3 qts of dill pickles, 6 qts of Caddie pickles, 5 qts of bread and butter pickles and put 1 qt of grated and 3 qts of sliced zucchini and yellow squash in the freezer.

Monday I put 2/3 of the peaches into 11 qts and bought 2 more lugs. 

Tuesday, I put up 6 more qts of peaches, 6 of Caddie pickles, 3 dills, 8 pints of zucchini relish and froze 2 qts grated yellow squash.  The zucchini looks better in the relish and we don't mind the yellow in bread.  For squash patties, it doesn't matter which kind.

July 31, 2020

Our sprinkler system controller got frizzled last week by lightening.  Our printer was taken out a couple weeks before.  This was just before we left for Indiana so our lawn and flower garden dried out while we were gone.  Parts of our state are in a drought and parts are getting more than enough rain.  I've been going out a little every day and weeding the flower gardens.  Jim is behind on the vegetable garden, and no wonder, we've been gone.

So far, I've put 4 qts of yellow squash/zucchini slices and 6 qts of grated in the freezer.  Jim picked all he's going to off the yellow summer apple tree and we put six very big gallon bags of slices in the freezer.  I've been picking up the windfalls for the chickens and to keep the bugs away for future years.  We have no rain, but wind and the rest of the apple are so ripe, they are falling.  

Yesterday I made beet pickles out of half the small row of beets, and got 4 1/2 qts.  We also did our first batch of corn.  Jim picked 15 dozen, after eating 8 ears for supper, the rest made 31 qts.  Fifteen of which went to Lorene's family.  Lorene was here for a steak supper, and I made green bean casserole and funeral potatoes, and cucumber salad, and deviled eggs.  Zane cut the watermelon and filled the eggs and sprinkled paprika with a heavy hand.  They had planned to eat steak a couple of days ago, and other supper plans happened.  

July, 10, 2020

Water Hyacinth -- July 3

Ready to divide into two.

Now it's two, and spreading.

T

We are eating squash now, These are volunteer hybrids.

And, our pullets are laying eggs.  

Second time for Summer Scramble

I enjoy picking small, perfect, pretty squash, until we have too many.  With some extra I made a batch of zucchini bread and put some slices in the freezer.  The sliced work well when making scramble in the winter.

June 22, 2020

Water Hyacinth

Day 1

                                    Day 11 It's doubled in size

June 16, 2020

The garden is all planted.  The corn, especially those first two rows, aren't making a good stand.  Jim had to replant the okra, none came up.  He also replanted cucumbers, zucchini and yellow summer squash, because only half the hills came up.  The spinach did badly.  I only have one plant.  I have four heads of lettuce coming on.  I wish there was more.  Our beets are doing excellently well, having been eaten off by rabbits, the last two years.  Our potatoes and tomatoes are both doing well, as well as the beans, which will as usual, prove too many.  I still have two gallons of frozen beans left. I think the cold weather we had in the middle of April may have been the reason for non-productive seeds.

We've been having a spell of very windy weather.  This is really a more normal weather pattern for us. A few years ago, we had three summers without much wind.  It felt strange at first, but it was a very pleasant change.  We seem to be back the way we were, and are as aggravated as ever with so many days of 30 mph wind.  I think it's windier than usual.  I say that we don't consider it a windy day around here until the wind reaches 25 mph. 

Jim bought me a water hyacinth the other day.  I want to take pictures as it grows.  It grows fast and and enjoy watching it. It's that tiny plant in the smaller area in the pond.

April 25, 2020

We bought a yellow tomato plant, some red and white petunias, and some snapdragons.  I intended to plant them today, but after we spent all morning cleaning out the garage, I was too tired. 

Jim has to switch the tires on the tractor so the wheel track is wider when he plants sweet corn with his cute little 2-row planter.  He planted 2 short rows of sweet corn today, below the asparagus bed.

April 18,, 2020

We had our freeze and then a warm-up.

I worked in the flower garden and wore myself out.

My scillas looked pretty bad after the freeze, but they perked up a little after it warmed up.

More snow -- April 16

It snowed ALL day. Quite a bit melted as it came.

The morning after.

April 13, 2020

Saturday the 11th, was a beautiful, sunny, non-windy, almost hot day.  

Jim worked in the garden all day planting early vegetables, 

carrots, beets, peas, lettuce, spinach and potatoes. 

We need to remember it takes 5# of seed potatoes for one row.

We didn't get some of the varieties of seed we usually get, the seeds were well picked over by the time we bought ours. 

I spent my almost hour cleaning up and weeding my flower beds.  I work until I start getting tired and then take my cart full of vegetation to the compost pile. 

I also picked a lot of daffodils since a freezing cold snap was expected.

Today we woke up to a 17 degree morning.  

I haven't looked out to see what has survived.  

Here are some before photos.

My pile of daffys

And in pint jars.  My favorite flowers.

April 6, 2020

Today was a the first really nice day in April.  It was especially so, because of the lack of wind.  

It's the first time I was out cleaning the flower gardens in April.  I picked all the daffodils that were out.  They seem late, but we had a hard freeze that did the hyacinths in.  

My scillas are blooming as well as the creeping charlie and hen bit.  I'm hoping to be out early enough to curb some of those. (not the scillas)  I take boiling water and scald the ones in the brick garden walk.

Jim planted onions this weekend, and mowed for the first time today. He also extended our sidewalk with rock.  

April 3

March 24, 2020

Every year I know I need to get out and start cleaning my flower beds early in March, because we generally have some nice days then.  

But, I don't do it.  

This year March came in like a lamb with sunny days and temperatures in the 50s-70s.  

(We also had some really nice days in February, but I refuse to work outside in February.)

This winter wasn't as cold or snowy as the last two years.  We had our biggest snow in last December,

almost 11 inches.

Dec 29

This is still the same snow. 

January 25

Windy days and bag kites

March 5

March 9

March 13 

March 19  --- Hail

I got out March 21st and cleaned out flower beds to the tune of two garden cart loads and two more loads today.  

Jim is outside planting rhubarb, which we have never had any luck with since it needs acidic soil and we don't have any, and asparagus to add to our current patch.  

After that, he's building rafters for our new chicken house/garden shed.

This project will take awhile, because even though he got most of the wood free as leftovers from some of the Costco chicken house projects, (we put the gas in), there will be a lot of other expenses and we pay as we build. 

March 23, 2020

March 23 -- Sunny at last

These weeds have a pretty flower, but are annoying the rest of the year.