July 17, 2015

It has turned hot, very hot, and the fan motor on our air conditioner locked up two days ago and had to be replaced.  Luckily, the one cool day we had these last two weeks was that day and I was able to cool down the house with the whole house fan and open windows.  The next morning I cooled the house down using the same method and when the temps were the same inside as outside, I shut up the house and by mid-afternoon our a/c was back in business.  Yay!

Harvest is gearing up.  Our apple harvest is in, a little early since these fell off while Jim was pruning it.  They are not ripe and were nibbled on by little bugs called grandchildren.  

This is it folks, three unripe apples.  After last years beyond bumper crop, I'm rather thankful.

Our first onions must love us.

Our onions seem to be ready early. We're only getting a few peas.  The warmer weather is affecting them and we only got half a dozen seeds to sprout. 

First big squash picking.  We ate the first ones all up on the weekend. I made soup base out of what I didn't use for relish.

First beans.

5 pints relish.  

This was yesterday.  Today I made the rest of the beets into 6 quarts and 1 pints of pickles. 

July 7, 2015

 July 1

We have been waiting to see the effects of the Canada wildfires in our area.  This moon was rather pinky, but the photo doesn't show it. 

Yesterday, it was hazy all day, and those with good noses got a faint smell of smoke.  It wasn't surprising with the strong north wind we all day.  The week is supposed to be cooler, as well, in the 70s and low 80's instead of high 80s and 90s we've been having. 

I canned beets on the 4th.  We celebrated "make a loud noise with a bunch of kids" day, twice already.

Half my beet crop.

Washed and ready to boil.

All done.  I'm going to let the ones we left grow a little bigger so I can get a little more. 

June 24, 2015

I haven't been keeping up this spring.  It has been a chilly wet one, and planting has been late.

Our garden is all in, corn, tomatoes, peppers (started from seed), beans, peas, beets, onions, potatoes (reds and Yukon gold), okra, cucumbers, and zucchini, yellow, and butternut squashes.  

Everything is up and doing well. 

Since this blog is primarily about the outside of the house I've included some "outside the house" photos as well.

Sunset in April

A nice selection of blooming plants on May 24th.

I have wanted for years to go put flowers on Jim's folks graves for Memorial Day, but if with didn't already have plans, it was raining.  It was cloudy this year, but we didn't get rained on. 

I planted these in April.  Too bad I only remember where I planted one of them.  

I do a lot of that these days.

First garden harvest.  We had three batches about this size this year.  Finally!!, these plants have been there for 20 years.   

Mother's Day.  

Three kids, three gifts. 

We had a rather bold rabbit come up on the porch. When he wanted a nibble of our pepper plants, we shooed him off.  

Seeds from Lynette planted in May.  They aren't doing very well.  Only one batch is coming up.

They are in the top terrace garden. 

We planted these in a barrel.

June 

Jim's favorite 

Foggy Morning in June 

We allow visitors to our garden. 

Our first beets. 

I've been trying to put in at least 15 minutes a day weeding in our flower garden.  It's gotten out of control the last few years, and even though we cleaned it up for the graduation, some of that was a "cover-up".  This wet, cool spring cam my desire to get out for a long tme.

Blue Flax 

A lovely pre-made set is doing well, thanks to a friend who thought of me after my ear surgery. 

This is how the rest of our deck flowers are looking right now. 

And while this is not on the deck, it is a very impressive mushroom specimen.

The thing is over 8" across.

It's huge!!

There was one there last year.

What is also huge is this hollyhock.  

I've never had one grow this tall. 

April 16, 2015

A few weeks ago I bought two new succulents for my table top garden.  I took out one that was too tall and added the two in the front of this photo.

Jim tilled up the garden with our own tiller instead of renting one because we got a drizzle that softened the dirt up enough to work up really well.  That garden dirt is finally starting to look dark with the years of manure and grass clippings he's worked into it, instead of the yellow clay we had when we moved here.

He planted potatoes (our leftover red ones), and Yukon Gold ones from the store (the ones we saved got fed to the chickens by mistake.  We had such a good potato year last year, we ate our own potatoes until two weeks ago, albeit the last month the were shriveled and sprouty ones. I had to buy some this week. The onions kept well, too and I still have a few left.  Jim also planted peas and two packages of onions; one white, one yellow.  

We've had some cloudy and damp days.  We didn't get enough moisture to measure.  Today, after a day of drizzly, foggy weather we are getting a pour down.  Too bad our rain gauge is broken.

March 10, 2015

The outdoor season has started again at our house.  I vowed last year to start working outside as early in March as I could, when the weather is decent instead of waiting until the end and running into the wet chill of April when no one wants to work outside.  My goal is to work outside at least 15 minutes every decent day.  Yesterday was a beautiful 60ish day, and I didn't get out, but today we had 70 degrees and I started in getting rid of old foliage in one of the landscape areas by the shop.

I did start some pepper seeds but since I forgot all about them, they died.  I should try again.

October 16,2014

 Summer is over, all the produce is harvested, and the garden is mowed.  We had a little frost so that the garden stuff died but flowers by the house are still blooming.  We have more potatoes than we will ever use, about ten 5-gallon buckets worth.  We got about 12 butternut squash and two of those aren't ripe.  I wonder if they will.  That isn't nearly enough since I've discovered pumpkin bars and most of my family love them.  The tomatoes didn't do very well, but I have several gallons in the freezer, not nearly enough to drink juice all winter but enough for cooking.   The grapes came from a friend and I put them in the freezer to make juice and jam later.  We aren't ready to start thinking about next year's garden yet.

 Corn in the flower garden.

Yellow Summer Apples

Red Later Summer Apples,

 too bad we don't remember what they are..

Grapes

August 13, 2014

The garden has been beautiful this year.  The spring was cool, the rain early.  We had no rain in July, but watering and cooler weather kept everything producing abundantly.  We had a big storm August 8th with 3.80" of rain and hail.  The wind from that storm flattened our corn that we were ready to put up the next day.  It didn't ruin the corn, it just made it a little more difficult to gather.  Mom and Dad came that day to help with the corn and we put up 10 1/2 doz into 36 pints.  

Before they came Jim brought in these buckets of cucumbers and I made pickles again using the same formula I did last time.  However, after preparing a bunch of big ones for cinnamon pickles I threw out one bucket to the compost pile.  Sadly, in the busyness with the 38 qt. of pickles I did, I did something wrong with the cinnamon pickles and they had to be thrown out.  I'm sorry, because it would have been nice to have them, and because the ingredients are so expensive, and it was all thrown away.  

More bread and butters.

More dills.

It is so hard to keep up with picking squash even when we determine to pick them small.  They get huge SO fast.  The big ones went to the compost pile.  I grated some, chopped some and sliced some for future meals. 

Without this mixer/kitchen center I would not get pickles and other canning done nearly so quickly.  It has a food processor that grates and slices two thicknesses, a grinder, a small processor that chops, and a blender. I have a host of attachments and would need three or four separate appliances to replace it.  It is a standard in my kitchen and I can't do without it.  

I bought the first one soon after we were married.  Since nothing like this is made anymore, when one wears out, I go to eBay and buy another one.  This is the fourth one, and this time I bought the stand and the mixer arm separately and without the extra attachments which was nice for a change. 

Wind damage.

Hail damage.

Ready for the second batch of corn, 36 dozen.

Ready to cook.

The rest.

We got 95 1/2 pints out of that 36 dozen.  

Below is our stats.

I was tired after two days of work, and then Mom decided to stay one more day and do applesauce.  So, we did.  We processed 5 of these buckets into 35 qts. of applesauce, saved 1/2 bucket for eating, and mom took the rest home. We took on one bucket too many and we were ready to be done long before we were.  Mom was sure ready to be heading home and within a half hour of finishing, they were gone.  

We gave five more buckets to some friends of our, (two different ones) after Lynette and friend Anthony picked more after dark on the tractor loader.  

I have a little over a bucket left that was supposed to go to someone else, but I guess they don't really want them.  I need to start preparing them for freezing.  Ugh. I'm tired of it. 

Tuesday, the 12th, I picked cucumbers and made some more bread and butters and dills, I also pulled up 10 of our 12 hills of cucumbers.  I just can't do any more and we don't need them.  My few bean plants are just enough this year, and I put another quart in the freezer and grated a big zucchini.  

It was getting to be sort of a game to see how much I could get put up.  I've filled nearly all my jars and some of mom's.  

I think I'm looking forward to fall.  

The okra is just starting to produce.