Father's Day

First, Happy Father's Day to all Dads. As I say, it's the best job around!

I was out of town Wednesday afternoon to late Friday night. There was a storm system that rolled through Thursday and to my surprise look what I found Saturday.

Tomato down! So most of my Saturday was spent tying and weeding everything in the garden. And we are finally getting some produce from our 1/2 acre. 

German Queen. Got my eye on this one!

Our haul. Lot of hot and bell peppers, a squash, few roma tomatoes, and we dug up three potato plants. Think we'll give them another week or so.

And the result from our work was stuffed peppers that evening.

Totals from the haul:

Green peppers- 3.1 lbs.

Hot peppers- 1.3 lbs. (we froze these for later)

Tomatoes- .9 lbs. 

Squash- .5 lbs.

Potatoes- 1.6 lbs.

Cucumber- .2 lbs.

Strawberries- .11 lbs. (wow)

Peas- 2.1 lbs. (from earlier harvest)

Totals YTD- 9.81 lbs

As my Father's Day gift my boys got me a new hopper for my paintball marker. So I had the idea of us getting our pictures taken in the woods near our house as we never had any good ones done before. 

We're not real menacing to be sure. 

Well one last image and it is a special one for me. This was taken on my dad's 80th birthday party a good friend of his through for him. That's ole TD and my sister. I miss him a lot.

Well off to bed as I have an odd feeling this will be a long week. Enjoy the week yourselves!

Sunday's Work

Finished up everything I wanted to get done on Sunday, even got my golf in :)

I removed all of the pea plants as they were pretty well done. In their place I planted two more cuke plants (seeds actually), some carrots, and some okra. I never have grown okra before so we'll see how this goes.

As you can faintly see from the picture above, I moved the fencing from the pea bed to the bed where my dying cukes are at. I added the landscape fabric to each side, in hopes of blocking some sun. I even  took some soil samples.

PH a little acidic. Nitrogen and Phosphorus pretty much non- existent. Potash in adequate range. Do a little research on this. 

Here's an overall shot of the bed area after I got all of the mulch down. 

It did rain last night and today with a little cooler temperatures. That for some reason gave me a migraine this morning. Felt decent when I got up but then took a big nosedive. Stayed home and I now can see out of both eyes now. Couldn't at 9:00 am. 

Peas - Round 1

Well we ventured out into the garden this evening at the bequest of The Wife to pick and shell peas. A lot of peas. It took us three episodes of Flea Market Flip to shell all of them. But in the end we conquered all and ended up with a decent first harvest.

Two strawberry buckets full.

Doesn't seem like a lot but they will be enjoyed.

Sealed and heading to the freezer.

Should get one more picking before the weather gets too hot and I have to pull them out. Not sure what we'll plant next in this bed. 

Finally for this evening's' post I was cruising the front of the house watering the flowers when to my surprise..

They have bloomed out nicely and some are ready to come out and join them. 

Until next pickin, put your peas in your pea pot.

Buzzing Along

Well things on the homestead are buzzing right along now. I believe with the addition of maybe two more garden beds we'll finally have everything planted. I am still on the fence about sowing corn. It takes up a lot of space for no more than what you get out of it but home- grown corn tastes so good. I got the new flowering thing Amy bought planted by the garden and the two plants we bought a month ago at the nursery planted by the driveway. Weeded today (always a job to do), got the last two rows of green bean seeds sowed, pruned and tied up the tomato plants, used the old mulch from the front beds around the raised beds, and backfilled around the potatoes. Believe it or not I have vegetables being set so my bees have been around. They're buzzing around somewhere. Off to the back- breaking, knee- hurting, ant- biting tour.

Guess what I found on my potato plants today?

Gotta find a good way to get rid of these beetles before they destroy the whole crop and find my tomato plants. 

We have peas already. We didn't really notice them until yesterday. Shelling time coming up. 

We already have a sweet banana pepper. 

These are my cukes with the tomatoes running down the middle. Their leaves are browning somewhat and I am  not sure why. Last year's crop sucked so I don't want to lose this one too. Ideas?

Green beans are moving a little slowly but I did get the last two rows sowed on the right side of the picture. 

Have our first two tomatoes already. These are the Amish Paste tomatoes. 

And speaking of tomatoes here's a couple of shot of my 'rogue' tomatoes. I am not too sure what I am going to do with these. Keep them or not? Hmmmmmm........

Some more gratuitous shots.

I'll get some straw on the potatoes probably within the next week or so after I get rid of the beetles. That should keep them until they are ready to be pulled. 

Knock- out roses in front are in full bloom as is most other things.

Nice little set- up The Wife made for the back deck. 

Well, others things that have been happening. 1) I have been spying a fox that has been cruising around the property and other houses the past few nights. Not getting into anything bad but just out looking around, 2) We've been hearing a noise out of the woods starting at dusk and continues through the night until just before day break. It is a two syllable whistle with a small chirp on the end of it. I have been looking but haven't found anything yet that makes this noise. I may get a sound bite and post it here in case someone knows what it is. It's driving me nuts, 3) Had our first slithering visitor of the year. The Wife finds it and immediately demands it's death. After I find that it is a black snake, killing it wasn't one of the things I wanted to do. He wasn't in a particularly good mood this morning and didn't really want me around him. When I went after him he headed for the deck so that was it. I was going to put the body in one of the houses across the street, sort of a surprise for the drywall crew but decided the woods was the place for it. Would have been funny though. Maybe not. 

Well, sitting here eating my favorite ice cream and drinking a Dr. Pepper. Last time for this stuff for a long while as I am starting a program to get in better shape than I am now. I'm not completely out of shape as I do stay active for the most part. Just seems like things are growing in places I don't want them. Maybe I'll start another blog about this experience. Stay tuned. 

WOF of the Week. Yes we do have one. Both the pups went to the vet's office this past Friday for their spa treatment, which means toe nails done, baths (needed) shots, and general check- up. Well, it turned into a hard day for the WOF. Being up in years I have noticed she has slowed down a little. 

Poor girl. She was out by 7:00 Friday night. 

Make sure you're up to date on your shots and see you next time!

Where Is Warmth, and my Bees?

Where are the warmer temperatures? I just looked back to last years' weather: May 1st to the 5th, 2012= 86, 91, 91, 90, 84 degrees; May 1st to the 5th, 2013= 62, 65, 69, 64, 60 degrees. Firstly, I really don't mind too much the cooler temperatures, but the rain and cloudy days are getting a little annoying. Secondly I live in the south; it's not supposed to be like this now. Lastly, I know the hot temperatures are coming so you can bet that I'll be bitching about them later this year. And yes firstly is a word.

The one thing I will say, the peas LOVE this weather. They are still going like crazy with blooms everywhere.  Here's a comparison from April 1st to May 2nd.

Another surprise is my tomatoes. They are not full like last year but I have my first blooms already. 

Everything else is just cruising along, going with the flow.

Peppers now flowering.

My grown-from-seed Candytufts are getting close to flowering too. 

One good thing is I haven't had to water anything. I actually left some left- over paste tomatoes out on the back deck in their solo cups as I didn't have room for them this year and they're still growing. Maybe that should be the premise of my gardening this year; do as little as possible. Hhhmmmmmmm. Maybe. 

One thing that has caught my attention on the news lately is the decline of the Honey Bee. You know as well as I do that this can be a very serious situation if action is not taken to protect these colonies. Decimation of the world pollinators? I don't think so! I plant flowers around my garden as well as in my garden just to attract as many bees as I can and don't use any products that would be harmful to them. I even talk to them and give them the right-of-way in the garden. I can't say that about all of the farms in my area so that may be worth looking in to. Here's a link to The Honey Bee Conservancy if you want to check them out.

Sorry about the lack of WOF pictures but there's only so many comatose pictures you can take of her. And Chewie is getting just as bad as her. Next time I promise. Until then, keep your buzz on and beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee happy. 

Alfred Hitchcock and Such

Well, it is mating season here in the sandhills, especially for the Purple Martin. They have been everywhere; attacking the mirrors on the cars and trying to get into the house. I took these pictures a few days ago of one bird that was bound and determined to get in.

Here he is trying to open the door. 

Things have seemed to calm down now so they must be done. Wish I had built a few birdhouses since these birds love eating gnats. Oh well. 

Took a quick tour through the garden this evening. I can't till straight!

Onions getting big.

Potatoes starting to do good also. going to have to get more dirt, then top them with some straw later. 

I do know one thing; I have a hell of a lot of weeding to do this Saturday. And I got stupid and got some sweet corn seeds to plant. And I also have to plant the second and third rows of beans, AND get the peas trellised up. 

Quick post tonight. Long week and dead tired. 

Weeks Worth of Work

Well it has finally arrived. My week off. It actually started this past Friday and no I haven't been sitting on my butt since then (OK, just a little), I have been working some and playing some. I have the remainder of this week to work on that My Long "To Do" list. Amy and I have purchased a great many things that need to go in the ground or be put up so we're off and running.

Friday started off slow as we slept in a little. Bubby and Squeak were home so we decided to knock out Amy's mailbox garden and get started on the front beds. Bubby didn't get his leave approved in time so we could go to WV so we decided to just stay home. As of last night however his Captain approved a leave for him that will last all week, so now I have an extra hand for the week! So after I started the mailbox garden I let the boys finish it and Amy planted it out, guarded by her attack WOF.

Saturday. Well it was a very nice day so the boys and I decided to paintball from about 9:00 am to 4:30 pm. Long day of running around the field and at the end of the day my left heel started hurting again so now I walk around scaring little children with my gait. I doesn't get me much sympathy from anyone though. I did take some pictures of the peas (going strong) and the 10,000 onions (also going strong.) a while back.

Saturday also brought the WOF's their Easter gifts as they would leave us alone about them.

Sunday. The morning started with rain so I held off doing anything until I was sure it wasn't going to do too much. Watched the prerequisite This Old House and America's Heartland TV shows and read the paper. Once I saw that it was done it was time to plan out a strawberry garden for the plants we purchased. A trip to the big box store and I was back with some more of the damn heavy blocks. I was considering cedar but there's already a lot of that out there. After a few layouts I decided on a big oval.

In the front are two blueberry plants and off to the right are two blackberry plants. There's a history with me and blackberry plants that I will explain soon. I also transplanted my Candytuft plants I started into a large white box we had and put them off to the side of the strawberries. After this I hit the front left bed (front of the house) and topped off the new plantings with some good mulch (no more cheap stuff.)

New in here was a couple Creeping Flox and a couple Rasberry Surprise Dianthus. They smell really, really good. I'm sure I looked like an idiot bending over after I was was done with my nose to the ground. I also transplanted six Shasta Daisies that I started. They're on the steps as I have to find places for them. 

Also on Sunday brought a new change of order in the kingdom of the WOFs. Ginny, being the spoiled dog  that she is could always bully Chewie as he was the new addition to the household. Think red- headed stepchild. She always finishes her bone first and then takes all of the toys and keeps them to herself. Well on this day she went after the Chewman's bone and he snapped at her. She proceeded to snap back and he then proceeded to tell her that he had enough. So what do I see this morning?

Chewie with both Easter Bobos and his bone. He doesn't let it leave his sight. And now Ginny just sulks. 

Well, the sun is out after more rain and the temps are supposed to hit 72 today before crashing to 54 tomorrow so it's off to work on the front right and side beds today. I even toyed with getting some veggies in the ground but that may wait until later in the week when it warms back up. 

Protect your bone kids.