Today's Harvest

Yesterday, you saw the peppers Hubby harvested from the smaller of his Tabasco chili pepper plants. Today he pulled up the larger plant to harvest its peppers. I think we now have a lifetime supply, plus plenty to give away!

Of course, he couldn't have done it without help from Sadie...

Some Like It HOT!

Hubby is one of those people. He enjoys the sensation of having his tongue set afire. I like spicy, but I'm not into pain.


Hubby decided to plant some hot peppers this year. He only bought two plants. The weather is cooling off fast, so he decided to harvest them now. These are Tabasco Chili Peppers. This is what he got from one plant...
I'm flavoring olive oil with some, and he's drying a bunch of them. I haven't tasted them because I'm not crazy. He says they have a really nice Tabasco flavor. If I use them, it will be one in a pot of something. Hubby and FIL like these chopped up on pizza. If you're interested in growing some for yourself, these rare peppers can be found at WalMart.

The Grass is Always Greener...

We've had some type of wild grass take over most of the back pasture. Since it wasn't so great for grass anymore, we let the horses out on it sometimes when we shouldn't have. It was pretty tore up, but we planned to redo it this fall...

On the fifteenth, I posted about Hubby and Mark preparing and planting our new pasture. It had been drier than usually. We prayed for rain. It was dry for the first couple of days, but it's rained almost every day since.

Here's what the pasture looked like about four days ago...
Then, after some more rain...
And today...I think this project was a success! Hopefully, with good weather next year, it will be ready for four-foot traffic by mid-summer.

September Farmer's Market Challenge

Judy, a.k.a. Squirrel Queen over at The Road to Here is the gracious hostess for the Farmer's Market Challenge.

SQ states, "The purpose of this challenge is to raise awareness for purchasing locally produced foods. Be it fruits, vegetables, dairy products, meat, or any related items we want to know what's available where you live."


I finally took my camera with me down the road to a neighbor's farm stand. They have an awesome garden! They grow peaches, strawberries, melons, tomatoes, corn, peppers, sweet potatoes, and other veggies. Their stand operates on the honor system. On the main table is a set of scales and a chart to help you calculate the price of your purchase. There is also a box for your money. She says they have great luck with it, people pay for what they take.

Here is a load of melons
just brought up from the field...

This is my oldest grand, Dani, trying to decide
which tomatoes she wants to buy...

Sweet potatoes! Yum! We'll be digging ours this week.
They just brought these up while I was there...

The tomatoes are so colorful. They really stand out
between the neutrals of the melons and potatoes...

Here is some squash given to us by Hubby's boss. It was delicious. A family chef told us how to best cook it. Using a long nail, punch a hole to the center from top and bottom to release steam pressure, then bake it. No hard cutting! Scrape out the seeds after it is cooked.











He also gave us these banana peppers from his garden.























These are Hubby's Tobasco Chili Peppers!!! Tiny... but they pack a big punch!

Recently I posted about our first green egg.

We have fifty hens.
Here is a photo of our farm fresh eggs...

Here is a pear that came from one of our fruit trees. We have several apple trees, too. One of these days I'll add peach trees to the mix, and replace the plum trees we lost.

Here's a peek at our zucchini earlier this year...

Guess how much you'll pay to
send 3 loaves of zucchini bread
from Ohio to Florida, next day?

$42! ...but my dad and brother loved it!

Here is a shot of our sweet potatoes early in the season. Hubby planted two different varieties. I recently posted about the four-and-a-quarter pound potato. You'll have to visit my earlier posts to see pics of them.




















We have a freezer full of green beans and corn on the cob from the garden, along with some shredded zucchini for making bread during the winter. (It does quite well, as long as you use it as soon as it thaws.) We also grew tomatoes, cucumbers, muskmelon, green onions, and chives. The shelves in the basement are now full of enough sweet potatoes to get us through the winter.

Visit Judy's blog and add your link to Mister Linky and participate in this worthwhile challenge!

Hubby's record breaker!

Hubby's still talking about that 4 1/4 lb sweet potato. Tonight he got curious... "I wonder what the biggest sweet potato on record is?" He had a glint in his eye. I could even read his mind: "It's gotta be close. Wouldn't that be great if I got in THE record book! If it's not big enough, maybe net year."

So I asked him, "You want me to look it up?"

"Can you do that?"

I'm sitting here, with my laptop at the ends of my fingers... So, in a few seconds, I found this:

Heaviest sweet potato
The world's heaviest sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) weighed 37 kg (81 lb 9 oz) on 8 March 2004 and was grown by Manuel Pérez Pérez (Spain) in Güime, Lanzarote, Spain.

Yeah, maybe next year...

A bit of this, a bit of that...

Hmm... Is it bigger than a toaster?

Almost...
These potatoes grew so large they burst open!

OK, this is the last you'll hear about the sweet potatoes... (that is, until my Farmer's Market Challenge post.) I wanted to show you the storage rack Hubby built for them, using wood from skids. You know we love to re-purpose. This room in the basement is behind the stairway. It is dark and cool. We will have to expand the rack next year, as Hubby is already talking about 3 rows instead of 1.

Speaking of re-purposing... notice the Christmas candy bag? Makes a nice way to keep garlic.
Being confined to the AC put me way behind on the stairway garden project. Hubby finally took over for me and stained the new steps the other day. Don't they look great? Since the red crushed brick flows down from above to the stone steps below, the wood color adds to the continuity. (Note the chives I planted next to the wall.)

I wasn't out there to harvest the chives when they were small. Better late than never!

This bad boy is huge!
It reaches all the way across the sink!

They still taste great. I'll be chopping and freezing some for use over the winter. They don't keep their flavor when dried. These are onion chives. I will add garlic chives next spring to the other side of the steps. I'm thinking about putting some in a flower pot to see how they do inside over winter.

My dining room table is really wide.

This shows better how huge this thing is...

Of course, I couldn't resist posting a picture of Sadie.

Here is her happy face...

Harvest Smiles

Hubby was born to be a farmer. He loves growing things, and takes such pride in his harvest. This year, I suggested he grow sweet potatoes. They are so expensive at the stores, and my MIL and I eat them often throughout the winter.

It seems that as he digs up the mounds, the potatoes keep getting bigger and bigger! Here are two that he brought in today...

The one on the right weighs about three pounds.
The one on the left weighs over four and a quarter!

I not much of a potato eater in the summer,
but I might have to make an exception...

Swweeet!

I love sweet potatoes! This is the first year we've grown
them in the garden. According to the seed catalog, you can
leave them in the ground much later than this, but my FIL
was anxious to dig a mound and see what they had.They got quite a lot out of each mound!

Some were long and skinny, some short and fat.

Some got so big they broke open!

When you look at this one, keep in mind that Hubby is 6'5" and wears a size 14 ring! Yep, it's a big potato!

Of course, anytime something's going on, Nekoda is nearby watching... and Buddy's never far from her.

The garden looks like a jungle now. The morning glory vines have staked their territory. There are a few tomatoes struggling to turn red. FIL has turnips left to harvest, too.

The rest will have to wait until tomorrow...

A Tale of Two Tractors

I hope my horses are happy. I gave up my new front yard for them. We've lived in the middle of this old corn field for six years. Each of those years Hubby promised me a new front lawn. That lawn always gets knocked down a notch on the to-do list when those other random farm projects pop up.

This is it. This is the week that I was supposed to definitely get my new lawn. Guess what? Not gonna happen. But that's OK with me. We were going to do the lawn and the back pasture. Then some things happened that made us rethink the investment. We decided we should only do one or the other. I picked the pasture. Yep, me. My horses rank pretty high on my priority list. 'nuff said.

Hubby had already sprayed the pasture, killing all the grass and weeds that were growing there.

Here is Hubby on our tractor tilling all the dead stuff under and loosening the soil.

Hubby has a part-time job in the summer working for Mark's landscaping company in exchange for grass seed and fertilizer. It's nice to have friends with heavy equipment! This is Mark's harrow rake. He uses it to smooth the tilled ground.

Mark has a really nice tractor. I'd love to have an enclosed cab! When I sell my book, a bigger tractor is on my list. (I know... I dream big.) This is Mark using the harrow rake to smooth the pasture, getting it ready to plant.

Hubby took the tiller off and installed Mark's seeder. This is Mark on our tractor, spreading the grass seed and then the fertilizer.

The best time saver of all... This is Mark's straw blower. Hubby is just getting over a bug, so he gets to drive Mark's truck. A friend volunteered to cut open the bales and heave the straw to the blower. Now that's a real friend! The boss is operating the blower.

I am a safe distance from the mess, using my zoom while standing on the bedroom deck. It makes me want to gasp for air just looking at this picture!

So now the field is ready, but the weatherman said it will be dry for several more days... Come on rain!

Nine Eleven

I would like you all to read my post remembering 9-11 on my essay's blog. There will be a special post tomorrow too. And if you write a special post honoring this sober occasion, please leave me a note in the comments so that I may read it. Thank you.

It's all good!

I have mostly good days anyway, but today was especially good!

I often complain about my camera... the third or fourth refurbished warranty replacement.I like the camera for over ten months. A minor defect was covered under the warranty. Wish I had the broken one back. I bought it because my old one had a broken battery door that I was holding shut with a C-clamp and it was kinda big. (HP 850) Well, big or not, it was a great camera, and today I fixed it! Now a piece of strapping tape will hold the door closed. (long story) You all were so kind to say that my pictures looked great, even if they didn't. These first two pictures will show you what I meant. They are both pictures of the same pear, both with flash. The first was taken with the refurbished camera; the second was taken with my antique huge monster camera. Tell me if you can see the difference.

Which brings me to the second great thing today... my first pear of the season! Yes, this is from our pear tree. They are yummy. We don't get much fruit because we don't spray our trees. We savor the ones we get!


The third fantastic thing... Hubby couldn't wait for me to get home so he could share his news. His first green egg! They are so much richer than brown eggs. My favorite! The yolks are orange. I'll try to remember to take a picture of one cracked into a bowl. Half of the baby chicks were Araucacas or 'Easter egg' chickens. They lay colored eggs - a beautiful bluish green.
Check out the egg carton. It's what prompted me to fix the old camera. The other one wouldn't take a good picture with the writing in focus. We saved our old 'store-bought' cartons. I never noticed this before. It has a favorite scripture inside the lid! Let's just call that the fourth thing!


The fifth? I saved this for last. If you don't have arthritis or carpal tunnel, you won't appreciate this. At my two previous homes I had my favorite can opener. I was certain that I had taken it off the cabinet and brought it with me, but never found it. I've missed it for six years! I could no longer buy one locally. My FIL had one of those Pampered Chef openers that cuts the side so there's no sharp edges. It is difficult for me to use, plus you have to often crank it around twice to get it to cut.

I don't use a lot of canned stuff, so I never got around to replacing it until now. I found out that Ace Hardware had it online and would ship it to my local hardware store. Today, I used it for the second time! I love this can opener. There is nothing better on planet earth! I had the other one for many years. It stays sharp, cuts first time around, is easy on your hands and wrists, pops off and into the dishwasher, and it's 'green' for energy consumption!
My Swing-away wall-mount can opener. Hehe... I just noticed in the picture... I never put the magnet thing in place. It's still stuck there on the back end where it was in the package! It hooks in and catches the lid. Oh well, think I'll go do that now...

God was multi-tasking!

See the bright sunshine?See the pouring rain?

See the bright sunshine & the pouring rain?

I did not correct the exposure on these; the sun was blindingly bright! It poured rain so hard that we had standing water all over the yard and pasture. I just knew there had to be a beautiful rainbow to the east.

To see in that direction I have to go through the garage or look out my in-laws bedroom windows. I did neither. I waited for the rain to let up to a light sprinkle before I took these next shots.

See the double rainbow? It's faint, but it's there.

I just love it when I can see both ends and the double bow! The other end was other the barn and not very picturesque. Someday I'll have a new camera and be able to capture those moments much better!

Splish Splash - It's raining awards!

I was just catching up on some blogs I haven't had a chance to visit in a few days. I popped in over at Al's Caramel Macchiato and was BLOWN AWAY by the awards she is racking up! Impressive Al! While reading her post, I found my farm blog among the list of recipients for the Splish Splash Award that she was passing along. Thank you Al. You are super sweet.

Invasion on the Farm

Did you ever get that feeling you were being watched? I was sitting here, minding my own business, working on my book. Uneasiness crept over me, as I became aware that someone was watching me through the balcony door. The heavy shadow loomed above my head at the glass. Dare I turn and face the intruder?

Hubby was working nearby. Would he come to my aid if needed? Would I be able to make my scream audible... or would I freeze?

When I turned to face the culprit, I was shocked by what I saw! A giant monster had invaded my balcony!Here he is, trying to tip-toe off behind the chair. Have you ever seen one this big? Sadie would be no match against this guy!

OK, here's one that gives a better perspective on his size...
Here's a couple of shots of him peeking at me through the window...

Just had to share.


Hubby and Sadie have been busy cleaning the barn. Together , they decided it was time to clear out some of those old scraps of wood we were saving 'just in case we need a piece this size'. It wasn't exactly a marshmallow fire, but still a nice view.