2015 Is Nearing It's End

Well it's that time of year again. It's about gone! Yes folks the end is near. And as I have been laxed in my blog posting lately I thought I'd get one out before 2016.
And this is it. I hope to start off next year the right way. Until then Happy New Year!

Questions

Mama Pea at A Home Grown Journal posted the challenge below. Fill it out!


1)  Do you like blue cheese?
      Only on hot wings. 

2)  Have you ever smoked?
      Yes. It is a struggle to quit.

3)  Do you own a gun?  
      Yep. Shotgun, 30.30 rifles, etc. Do get any ideas :)

4)  What flavor of Kool Aid is your favorite?
      Cherry. They still make Kool Aid?

5)  Do you get nervous before dental appointments?
      Hate the dentist. When I was young we had a bad dentist that seemingly enjoyed causing you pain. To this day I can't stand them. 

6)  What do you think of hot dogs?
      Cow butt and chicken lips. What's not to love?

7)  What's your favorite Christmas movie?
      Muppet Christmas Carol. Although it is played a lot at Christmas but not actually a Christmas movie, Shop Around the Corner is another favorite.

8)  What do you prefer to drink in the morning?
      Coffee or protein shake.

9)  Can you do push-ups?
      Sure can. 

10)  What's your favorite piece of jewelry?
        I oddly don't wear jewelry. Being in and around construction will teach you this.

11)  What's your favorite hobby?
        Name it: paintball, backpacking, golf, gardening, building, etc. But favorite is being around my family doing anything.

12)  Do you have A.D.D.?
        What? Noooooooooo

13)  Do you wear glasses or contacts?
        Nope. Has surgery years ago to take care of that.

14)  What's your middle name?
        Philip. My dad always wanted to nickname me JP. 

15)  What are your thoughts at this moment?
        Wish my back would let me do something. Hurts too much right now.

16)  Name 3 drinks you regularly consume.
        BCAA, coffee, water

17)  What is a current worry of yours?
        The cat tearing down the Christmas tree.

18)  What do you currently hate?
        Again, the pain in my back. Sucks. 

19)  Where is your favorite place to be?
        Home.  I like being home. 

20)  What do you plan on doing on New Year's Eve this year?
        Probably watch TV and fall asleep around 9 to 10. Exciting I know. 

21)  To where would you like to travel?
        Europe. Love to tour Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Switzerland, Finland, Spain, France. For a year. 

22)  Name three people you think will do this questionnaire on their blog.
        I don't have a clue. 

23)  Do you own slippers?
        Somewhere...

24)  What color shirt are you wearing?
        Gray workout shirt. They're comfy and soft.

25)  Do you like sleeping on satin sheets?
        Never tried.

26)  Can you whistle?
        Yes. 

27)  What is your favorite color?
        Tan/beige I guess, according to my wardrobe. 

28)  What songs do you sing in the shower?
        I don't sing. You wouldn't like that, trust me.

29)  Would you be a pirate?
        Interesting. Don't really know. 

30)  What's in your pocket right now?
        Nothing. 

31)  What's the last thing that made you laugh?
        I'll probably go to h*ll telling you. It was funny but not very nice.

32)  What vehicle do you drive?
        2016 Dodge Ram. Broke down and got one with the ecodiesel. The miles I put on a vehicle a year, I hope it makes sense. Getting 600 miles out of a tank so far. 

33)  What's the worst injury you've ever had?
        Cut my right arm badly when I was young. 

34)  Do you love where you live?
        It's OK. Grew up around hills and I do miss those. 

35)  Would you change your first name if you could?
        Nope.

That's my list. Better get on yours. 

It's December?

Yes, I believe it is that date; December 1st, 2015. It has been a while since I have been blogging I know but life has been keeping me very busy lately. With the upcoming holidays I don't see it slowing down at all. Let me go back to my last big post and see what's changed since then....
Wow, it has been a while. August Harvest Monday. I don't have my spreadsheet with me at work so that'll be on the next post, finishing off summer crops. We did get some plantings in for this fall; red cabbage, turnips and lettuce (which we need to cut on and use.) We've been fairly fortunate with the weather so far but I see freezing temperatures coming up soon. We also planted some garlic to over- winter for late spring pickings. Our garlic last year did wonderful and these are looking good so far.

Turnips a growing.

Thought I had a picture of the garlic but alas I do not. 

All of the fall plantings are also part of my youngest son's FFA course project. Actually excited that he choose to join FFA this year. A lot of farms around us but mostly tobacco, cotton, and sweet potatoes, mainly due to the soil we have here. Property that goes up for sale is usually very expensive per acre. Starting at $5,000.00 per acre is not unreasonable. 

Planting his crops.

 

View from earlier in the fall. 

Seed catalogs have slowly been pouring in the last few days. Seems they're getting a jump this year. Park Seed, Totally Tomatoes (looked at this last night), and Baker Creek have arrived. I saved a lot of seeds from last year for what I wanted to plant this year. I did share some of my True Black Brandywine and Pink Brandywine with another person on Heirloom and Organic Seed Exchange on Facebook. I can't seem to grow them here in the Sandhills well. I do have some Solar Flare seeds if someone is interested. Not all of them as we are planting those again this year! 

Definitely cutting down on the size of the garden this year, back to a manageable size. It was just too much for me this year with all of the other things I have going on. Someday though, it's all that I'll be doing. With the way things are going all around us, I may have convinced my wife of off- grid lifestyle and start this sooner. Almost. I honestly believe some people are getting nuttier. Of course I may seem that way to them :) I am looking for property on the side in a location suitable for retirement, etc that we can work on as we go for now. We'll see.

Started another new exercise program (yes I still do it) and man it's a killer. Arms feeling it today.

Thrift store find of the year so far. $1.06 and its handy as we like to cook a lot this way. Saves time in the evenings. 

Welp that's it for now. Gotta do a couple other things and get back to work. Have a good one. 

Still Here

Yes I am. Just keeping very busy right now. Hope to have a good post coming up later this week.

I Am Around

Sorry I haven't posted in some time. Been a busy month for us and it looks not to be slowing down anytime soon. Hope to make something for tomorrow. Garden is done for the summer and way have a few things for the fall.

Harvest Monday; August 10, 2015

Good Harvest Monday to you. Click to go to Daphne's Dandelions to see all Harvest Mondays.
Finally got some work done in the garden, weeding and cleaning up five of the beds readying for fall plantings. I also did the last picking on the green beans and pulled all of them out. They were pretty much done. Also pulled out all of the squash (disappointing year) and zucchini. Squash bugs were starting to get numerous in their egg plantings so I pulled them and put them in a bag to the trash. I don't want to be fighting those things for the rest of the year when we are being bombarded by June bugs. They are everywhere. Doing my best to contain them but only so much you can do. Here's the sheet for the week.

Pretty good week considering everything is slowly wilting away. Man what a summer. 

Before.

After.

Eggs, eggs everywhere!

My pickings from Saturday. And some follow- up more presentable pictures. 

My wife went out Sunday and did a picking on the cherry and grape tomatoes. I hate picking them.

Went out Sunday morning and actually bought squash so I could make some squash relish. We eat it on hotdogs, chicken sandwiches, etc. And the guys my wife works with love it. Going to have to make more. 

Found this big guy hiding.

Finally to end our weekend me, my wife and our boys went to see Garrison Keillor, Prairie Home Companion, America the Beautiful tour show. Big NPR geeks the boys and I are. Great show and supposedly his farewell tour. 

Welp, that's it for me tonight. Got stuff to do. From my family to yours, get your geek on!

The Other Item Filling My Time

Finally had the chance to get back to work on the additional bedroom (which is to be my youngests) since my oldest was in between leaving the Corps and starting his new job (which he has.) They got the insulation up for me with the assistance of my FiL, then we sheetrocked it and I've been slowly mudding the joints. I had all of the electrical run earlier and the floor was done when we moved in. I am going complete the finishing and simultaneously start on some walls in the adjacent area that we floored a few months ago. I have to do that so I can set the electrical panel and run power upstairs. It's a process and a hot one since it's summer and no ac up there!

Floored area. This was just  ceiling joists before. I intend on this weekend to gather up the excess insulation straight ahead and continue flooring out the way for storage only.

Insulation install.

Sheetrock and finishing(ish).

So this takes up my time as well when I'm not working on pool decks, in the garden, fixing crap, or at my actual job. 

I have a list a mile long. 

Harvest Monday; August 3, 2015

Another late post, I know. My excuse? Woke up in Charleston, SC. Had to go there for work so I drove down Sunday because I had to be on the jobsite at 5:30ish this morning.  Then  I proceeded to leave Charleston, drive 100 miles, get a call from the hotel telling me I left my tablet there. Another 200 miles out of my way. Yipee. But all is good as I made it back home this evening. Charleston is my wife's favorite city, me not so much. Think its hot where I live? 90 degrees by 10:00 this morning. No thank you.

Another decent week in the garden. Eggplants are really coming around so got to find something to do with them. That and tomatoes are still there. Picked a little over 40 lbs. this week and canned all of it. Pizza, Pasta sauces and more salsa.

The rest of the garden is slowly wearing down as we still are getting really hot weather every day. That and the occasional thunderstorm dumping on us. I need to get out there and clean up the beds that have been sitting idle and start fall plantings. A lot of work to do. 

Pickings from Friday afternoon. 

Eggplants looking good.

Lots of blooms on the squash but no real production this year. Been picking off eggs like crazy but those darn bugs are back this year.

Finally got a chance Saturday to hit the links this year in prep for our upcoming trip to the mountains. My boys got me a new driver for Father's Day so I got the chance to try it out. Played better than I thought it would. 

Well that's it for me today. Check out Daphne's Dandelions for all Harvest Mondays. 

Harvest Monday; July 27, 2015

Quick post as I've got canning to do :)
Here's this weeks' spreadsheet.

A little over 57 lbs this week. Yes, tomatoes..... A lot of them. I did get some work done in the garden this week but not nearly as much as I needed to. I stored up all of the onions in the storage building. I fastened some plastic netting to the underside of the trusses and put them up there. Got more than I thought. Still have some white onions in as I didn't start them until a month after the other ones. Also been on a seed- saving binge. Going to have a good collection.

Told you it was going to be short. Visit Daphne's Dandelions to see other "Harvest Mondays."

Garden Tour

Well I took a tour of the garden this afternoon assessing what work I needed to do tomorrow. Seems like a lot of work needs doing :)

Tomatoes definitely need some work.

The heat and storms have really taken a toll on the plants. 

Pickling cucumbers have just about had it.

White onions I got them in the ground later than normal this year. Weeding needs done.

Carrots still growing.

Wife's sunflower in a pot. 

Squash plants. Not many squash yet. 

Zucchini plants have had it. 

Marketmore cucumbers still hanging in there.

Pulled the yellow and red onions out last weekend. Got to get them set out.

Weedy mess.

Wife's row of sunflowers. 

Eggplants doing great this year. 

True black brandywine.

If you're bored you can come help!