Harvest Monday; July 24, 2017

Happy Harvest Monday!

It has been overwhelmingly hot here the last few weeks. So much so that the plants have been taking a beating. Tomatoes are so to ripen and some of the plants are not looking too good, peppers are doing so-so, but cucumbers are doing great. Go figure. I know I haven't been on here for a few weeks so I got a lot to catch up on.

Picture of a harvest.

What a mess.

Weed mess. I didn't get out to the garden last week and it shows. 

Morning glories. 

Volunteer sunflower.

Cuke got squeezed in the fence.

Amy took some pictures of our helpers. 

Green peppers abound but not big enough to pick.

Planted some green beans in the beds, hoping nothing eats them. We want to try to can some more.

Watermelon doing great. Hope we get to eat it within the next few weeks.

Hope all is well with everyone. Sorry so short but work comes calling. Harvest Monday is hosted at Our Happy Acres. 

Harvest Monday; November 13, 2016

Happy Harvest Monday to everyone.

Spent some time in the garden this afternoon. Used the air compressor to blow out all of the water lines to the beds, pulled the bell pepper and hot pepper plants, which now only leaves turnips in the ground. Still getting a few good ones here and there and surprisingly got four green peppers when I pulled the plants.

Looking pretty barren now. I don't plan on any new plantings until spring next year.

This bed was empty next to the onion bed so I tossed a few of the onions in it that were less than desirable. So they proceed to take off. Hope they turn out good next year. 

My green pepper harvest. I believe I will save one of them to get seeds for next year. I don't have great success saving pepper seeds, averaging about a 25% germination rate.

Someone's been in my turnip patch. My FiL comes over and grabs some every now and then.

Our male dog, Chewy, had surgery on his upper left leg this past week and I brought him home Thursday evening. The vet said that it was cancerous growth on his leg so we decided to go with the surgery hoping for the best. After it was over she said she wasn't able to get all of it as it intertwined with his muscle. We are sure it will be back. It has been a struggle with him the whole weekend. His gait is that of a bulldog so his twisting walk- motion hurts him when he tries to move around. His next appointment is tomorrow so we will see what the vet says. He was 6 years old when we adopted him and he's been with us for 4 years. He is a sweet, kind canine with no mean bones in him and it does bother us when he suffers. In hindsight we aren't sure our direction was the best. If it does re-appear I don't think we'll elect surgery, letting him live out his days pain- free. 

The other WOF in the house, as well as the cat, has been worried. She did pose for me Sunday so here's the WOF of the Week. Harvest Mondays are hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres. 

Harvest Monday; July 18, 2016

Hello and welcome. Harvest Monday is where everyone gets to show off their bounties. Go see everyone's at Our Happy Acres and Dave's as well.
A little slow in the garden this week AND happy that there were no beans for the picking. Saves our backs for a week. I still have to replant the ones I took out last week. A few of the tomato plants are looking sickly also and I am trying everything to keep them going. All other crops seem to be doing good. With the amount of rain we've been having (and intensity), I am surprised by that. Oh well; onward to this week.

Tomato bed with the Solar Flares in it. I grabbed one and am saving the seeds from it again this year.

Hot peppers galore. Got to pick them later this week when MAYBE it dips down below boiling outside. 

Sickly looking Brandywines. Man I can't grow them here. 

Green peppers, They love the rain. 

Sweet potatoes really are filling our nicely. 

Sorry for minimal content this week but still working on the upstairs and was on the road two days last week. Hope your week is good. 

2016 And Here We Go

Well let's see what 2016 has in store. I hope this year will give me a chance to lay back some and quit working all of the time. I've purchased a golf membership the last two years and used it a total of maybe 5 times? Rarely played paintball last year. Haven't gone backpacking since I don't know when. Bought a new pack 3 years ago and haven't used it once. It's nice too (it looks nice.) Heck, we didn't even go anywhere for vacation last year. Used maybe half of my vacation days last year, most at the Christmas Holidays.
After typing all of that and reading it, I do need breaks more often!
I know I haven't been posting a lot lately, been busy. That and lack of ideas too. But here's a good one.
List of things I've got going on:

• Still working on the upstairs of the house. Got the other main room and a half bath framed out. Need to do some wiring, insulation, etc. Also got to run main power up there too. I'll take some pictures for you later. We'll discuss this more....... quiet.
• We put in a pool last year. Still got to stain the deck though. 
• I also have to stain the deck on the back of the house. 
• Paint the front porch.
• Hah! Still haven't fixed my wife's bathroom ceiling! But now she wants tongue and groove wood on the ceiling (probably after seeing my sheetrock finishing skills upstairs. Hey, I can build it.) That and she bought some paint for the walls. 
• Laid out for some tile backsplash in the kitchen. Left it up to the wife to get it. So far she hasn't. 
• Work. At my job. Still do that.
• Finish some small furniture projects.
• Do some misc repairs and painting around the house. Starting to look a little rough. 

Smaller list than normal but the upstairs work entails a lot of things! Doors to cut down and install, electrical rough-ins, hvac units, carpet, etc. I keep busy. 

I injured my back December 4th and am now almost pain free. Almost wanted to get back to working out (my injury cause to begin with) but I figured I could wait a few more days and ease back into it. I've been taking steroids and muscle relaxers. Also got some pain meds but don't really affect me. My wife and I also joined a gym. She's been going and I believe is going to work with a personal training for 20 sessions. I joined for the cardio machines and a few leg machines. I have a bench, curl bar, free weights, and pull-up bar in the garage. I need to pick up some weight plates and a straight bar for the new program I'm doing. Ease back into it I say. And I have to admit I miss working out. Looking forward to get back into it. 

We cut the TV cord a few days ago. Had Directv for the time living in this house and it was nice except for a few big downpours. But with the cost going up I decided that was enough. I upgraded our internet and we have been streaming everything now. My oldest has a netflix so we've been using it and have successfully binged through Longmire (all four seasons), and have started Hell on Wheels. I signed up for a Hulu Plus free trial ($8.00 a month with commercials) and have started watching Vikings, Wings (old TV show) and currently watching Bob Ross. Yes we don't have live TV and will miss things but that's OK by me. We may get a digital antenna so my wife can watch the news in the morning. There's enough stuff out there. BTW, Longmire season five starts Septemberish.

Oh we got a cat. Not sure I told you that? 

Leia (Goes with Chewy the dog)

Took a trip through the garden Sunday during the windstorm and pulled some turnips. Cabbage still coming end but it's demise may be coming next week. Garden needs a good weeding. 

Garden is definitely going to be smaller this year. For sure. I couldn't keep up with it with everything else I had going on. Farmer's Market idea never materialized (thankfully.) I need to get some good compost (add composter to my list above) for the beds. They don't start selling manure around here until May which is after I plant. Need a source. 

Ordered some flower seeds for my wife but I don't think I'll need but a few things this year. Maybe look for some different squash and a new tomato. I've said before that I saved a lot of seeds from last year. A lot of different tomato varieties and we were given some pepper seeds in trade for some of the Solar Flare seeds. And I am definitely going to get my onions started from seed this year. I don't know why but I seem to fail at this.

Getting late and Bob is almost finished the third episode so I'm out for now. 

Happy Trees!

 

Harvest Monday; July 13, 2015

Little did I know that the longest day of the year has already passed and I never realized it. Where have I been? Falls coming I guess.
Pretty good week here on the half acre. Tomatoes and cucumbers were the big stars, each pulling in a boatload of harvest. Green Peppers weren't too bad either, but the tomatoes and cukes stole the show.

Yes, you saw that correctly. I input the information into my spreradsheet in ounces and it converts to pounds at the bottom and right side for the totals. We did two pickings this past week, the last being Sunday morning. That's 26 lbs of cucumbers and 76 lbs of tomatoes. Needless to say we have been a few away and I did a canning marathon Sunday. The garden can be picked again at any time! There's more out there and I didn't finish up everything Sunday! And on top of that I came to the realization that I haven't started any starts for fall garden. :/

Use a turkey fryer stand for our canning pot outside when we water bath. Definitely helps keep the kitchen cooler.

A few pints of pickles from earlier and the bottom picture is what I accomplished Sunday; pasta sauce, salsa (salsa- mad family), and dill pickles. Notice there's more cukes. 

My tomato processor I bought a few years back. Simple design and does the job!

Oh, here's what the harvest Sunday looked like.

This is the first year I've had any luck with Mortgage Lifters and they have done us good. Really surprised as I haven't done anything different from years past. Saved some seeds this past weekend from a good ripe one. 

Partial pepper weigh- in and eggplants. 

After canning I cruised the garden, particularly the squash plants as my wife said she saw my nemesis, the squash bug. Spent a good half hour pulling and ripping leaves of eggs. Nasty things. Haven't had any squash yet but I was a little late on them this year. 

Here's the rest and yes, the tomatoes don't look the best but I have been overwhelmed with everything. 

Need to do some heavy weeding.

Wife's sunflowers. Theres more coming up somewhere. 

Onions are getting close now.

My Morning Glory returned at the water station this year. Waiting on blooms.

More about ready for picking.

Awful I know

Welp that's about it for me this week. If you looked through the photos above you may be able to pick out one of my added projects this year. Visit Daphne's Dandelions for all Harvest Mondays.