Jammin

That's what we are doing on the homestead this morning. We spent yesterday goofing morning around town; visiting the dealership to get an oil change, cruised the Dunn Farmers Market (got a plat of strawberries, more later) breakfast, big box store for a few things, and back home. We spent the afternoon working on craft projects and the garden some more. I will say that I am really going to give this a good effort this year. I think all of the rain last year pretty much did a lot of people in, lack of enthusiasm seeming permeating everywhere. And with the record- setting rain we had a few days ago, everyone is like "Shit." But an effort will be made.

I got all of the potato plants strawed out in the afternoon. I did encounter a few beetles here and there but not too many so I just picked them off and squished them as I went. Leave them like this until they are ready to come out of the ground.

Got the first cucumber bloom yesterday. These were a big bust for us last year so here's to crossing fingers for this year's harvest.

Amy did a lot of crafting yesterday and ended up finishing the chair idea of hers. We got two old chairs at the auction last weekend for $5.00 total and she turned one of them into this. 

Onto the strawberries. We have been some good pickings so far this year on our strawberries and since we love them, we seem to eat a lot of them. The idea behind the plat purchase yesterday was so we could combine it with ours and can some jam. So that's what we are doing this morning, canning. And from observations (read tasting) it's going to be good. All in all we did (16) 8 oz. jars.

We have actually considered getting some more stuff in the ground and selling our wares plus other items at the Farmers Market. We'll kick it around some more. Naming it has come down to two choices; Woflandia Farms or WOF Dog farms.  

Speaking of which. WOF of the week. We were outside working and guess who else wants out?

Yes, she got to come out but is pretty much useless helping us out. 

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day to all of you Moms out there!

Turned out to be a beautiful weekend and we sit here today enjoying the rented movies. Did a lot of work yesterday; weeding, pulling and killing bugs, muching, tying, etc. Sad to say but my main nemesis is back from last year, the dreaded Colorado Potato Beetle. I spent the better part of 2 hours crawling around on my hands and knees picking the larger ones and dropping them in a bucket of soapy water, squishing the smaller ones and inspecting each leaf of each plant looking for eggs on the underside. That's where they hide. Nothing really kills them although I did use some insecticidal soap a few days ago and that seemed to slow them down some.

There's the little shits now. Hopefully this will slow them down some.

Finally getting some buds on the tomatoes and peppers although the peppers aren't really taking off too well. 

 And in the midst of my looking around I found a little helper.

We have been picking a lot of strawberries. I mean a lot! Definitely been a bumper crop.

Spent Saturday morning at an auction and was able to pick up a few small things, including another heavy old seeder. Thought of hooking the dogs up to it and doing some work but sure as hell the ASPCA would be out here in no time. 

Also found Squeak a truck but alas we didn't get it. 

Pretty cool though. I remember as a young boy working at my dad's sheet metal shop climbing in under the hood and checking the oil as part of my mechanic duties everyday. 

Oh, remember the corn I replanted? Still can't find the damn stuff. At least the squash is doing better. 

Hope everyone had a good weekend. 

April 7th

It has been a little while. Things have been happening.

We got the additional 3 beds filled and planted most of everything out. Hoping we don't get another summer like we did last year. We'd like some green beans this year!

Thinking of planting the green beans between the new and old beds. I held them back to have enough room to get to the watering house. Still have to run the new water lines and install all of the drip emitters.

Potatoes have finally decided to make an appearance.

We had some more 50/50 mix brought in as well as a truckload of mulch to do everything we needed done; front, side flower beds and between the garden beds. The Wife did most if not all of this work. She did a great job. And we still have some left after doing the new herb bed too. 

While said Wife worked on mulching around the gardens Saturday, The Boy and myself played in a big paintball game we've been planning on for a few months. 

Didn't play Sunday as we had a busy day planned doing other things. The Oldest Boy went on his next deployment, leaving at (finally) 4:30 am. Needless to say when we got home it was straight to bed. Not sure how long this one will last. 

One with the family taken by his wife. 

We know this wasn't easy on her. 

That's what I got for now. 

Spring?

I don't know but it was a nice weekend all the same. Spent a lot of time outdoors in yardly pursuits.
After a trip to the store I spent the afternoon of Saturday roofing the building. Getting closer all of the time. Even had Stalker Wife shoot some pictures of me. Weathered Wood is the shingle color and admittedly they are nicer than the ones on the house.

Didn't get to the soffits but I did knock another item off of my list; finished building my son's paintball marker box. It holds all of his stuff in one place. Not crazy about the latches though so those may get changed.

Today involved another trip to the store, actually returning a bundle of shingles I didn't use and picked up some flowers. Didn't get a picture of those. This afternoon was planting time; Red Pontiac, Russet, and Yukon Gold potatoes, Scarlet Nantes carrots, garlic, Red and Yellow onions. Not too many this time, bag each :)

For your eyes only.

Crazy, right? That's a lot of eyes.

Well I need to do some planning as we are going to add three more raised beds, so that means water lines need to be installed. Also running a line to the building so renting a ditch witch this time. No more digging long trenches for me. Working on that building about did me in. 

WOF of the Week.

Enjoy it while it's here kids. 

Harvest Monday 07/01/2013

Happy Monday to everyone. Visit Daphne's Dandelions to see what others are harvesting this week.

Have a good harvest this week which makes me happy. A lot of hard work  and bug fighting went into this one.

Harvesting the remaining potatoes and all of the onions really set it up for this week. The potatoes were ready to come out and I had already decided to do them and the onions were more of a Oh Crap we'd better get them out as a few were starting to rot off in the ground. 

With this week's harvest we officially pulled in 56 lbs. of potatoes. Not very big as some I've seen but they will be great in soup we plan on canning later.

Pulled and getting a tan. Better than those "fake bake" places on the skin I've heard. Eventually they made their way onto the back porch to dry out for the next few weeks before heading into storage and other peoples' homes. 

 

 

We were also able to pick off some tomatoes, cukes, squash, and some green beans that aren't going too crazy right now.

 

I took the two beds where the onions and potatoes were, through some cow manure in, scattered the straw and tilled everything up good. Now waiting for fall crops.

 

 

A quick garden tour.

 

Odd looking sprout off one of my maters.

 

 

Weird to see it go from one side. Never happened to me before but there's always a first time. 

 

I told you they found me. All I have been doing is scraping and scraping. 

 

I didn't think my melons were going to do anything this year but I have been proved wrong. Got to build a fence for them to go up now. 

 

That's the tour, sorry. Spent more time working and weeding than anything else. We finally did get around to making some salsa Saturday night and some pasta sauce tonight. 3 pints of salsa (medium mix and it still had bite so I may not make the hot stuff) and 4 3/4 pints of pasta which the 3/4 pint was enjoyed this evening.

 



 

Thought about planting some fruit trees around the property to get some jams and jellies too. I have really expanded the garden this year and am going to expand it some more for this fall. It's a little more work but not as much as I had thought it would be. I have most of my seeds, with a few that I need to get started for transplants, so I am hoping for continued success this fall. Broccoli, asparagus, cabbage, lettuce, brussel sprouts, and turnips to name a few. Probably looking at around the end of July/mid- August for those to go in.

 

This week: 108.96 lbs.

YTD: 146.7 lbs.

 

Good luck to everyone!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Well.........Guess What.....

It doesn't stop. And as I type this, it's raining again. More effiing rain! I have to admit that it's get old. 

Spent a lot of time in the garden Saturday. As previously mentioned I pulled out the remaining potatoes as they were starting to get eaten up too much by the beetles. Spent the better part of a couple of hours but harvested another 37.4 lbs. Not all of the were big but will make good soup that can be canned later. And while doing this Amy came out and asked me about the onions. I told her that the tops needs to die down some more but she went ahead and pulled a couple up to check and found out that one was starting to rot off. My guess is due to the abundance of rain we've had this year. So we pulled a few more and decided ready or not they had to come out too. We found a few more of the rotten variety but most were of good size, except the yellows. The biggest were the whites followed in a close second by the reds and the yellows pulling up last. As far as quantities; yellow, red, white. After getting everything out of the ground in these two beds I threw in some cow dung, spread the straw around and tilled the hell out of them. Took me about 2 hours to get everything the way I wanted as the straw kept clogging up in the wheels. 

That's 56 lbs. of potatoes. 

And now the back deck smells of the wonderful aroma of onions. We'll let them sit out here for some time then I''ll trim them back and store them away. And give some away too apparently. Total harvest of onions is  52.87 lbs. (yellow 23.26, red 17.63, & white 11.98.)

Ready for fall crops. 

We were able to harvest some more tomatoes, a few cukes, etc. and that will be in tomorrow's post for Harvest Monday. I was worried about doing that but dumbass me found out you can set for when posts occur so I'll get it typed up this evening. And as I finish this, it is still raining. Storming too so the dogs are freaking out now. And I have another post about earlier in the week madness. It seems to never end here. 

Keep your heads above water kids (blurb, blurb, blurb........................................................)