February 18. 2017

I guess gardening season has officially begun.  I planted twelve tubes with tomato seeds and 5 tubes with pepper seeds.  That's all the tubes I had.  I was going to take a picture of the tubes, but the planting was going on while the supper was supposed to be grilling.  However, as I put the chicken on, I dropped the thimble that was still on my finger (I was quilting) into the grill.  I shut everything down to dismantle the grill to get it and while I waited I planted.  I couldn't figure out how to take apart the grill so when Jim came home, he did it, and I hurried supper on and forgot all about taking any photos except these of the seed packets.  As you can see, I had a horrible time getting the tomato package open.  I spent a little more time on the pepper packet.  

Now I hope they grow. 

February 1, 2017

Plant pepper seeds in toilet paper rolls.  Cut slits into the bottom and fold in to made bottoms.  Place in a plastic tray.  Unfold the bottom before planting.

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.