September 2, 2013

Happy Labor Day!  

Our August weather finally turned into normal August weather.  We've had our share of normal Missouri summer heat now.  He finally got the wasps nest torn off of the license plate.  After 2 more cans of wasp spray.  We did have to get some Hot Shot spray.  

He harvested Sugar Baby watermelons, some of which we put down in the storm shelter for winter.  He harvested pineapple melons.  They are sort of like a cross between a cantaloupe and a honeydew melon.  He doesn't like them, but I do.  We've passed several of them out too.  

We dehydrated an Excalibur full of cucumber slices, then powdered them in the blender to use in dips and soups.  I made some cucumber dill dip with the powdered cucumber and some dry dill that turned out pretty good.  We did get enough tomatoes to run a canner load of pint jars of tomato juice and sauce.  He's brought me enough tomatoes that I could probably do another canner load of juice and sauce.

My mother is flying in on Thursday for a nice visit.  She hasn't seen the new house yet.  We're really looking forward to seeing her.  She'll be here almost the whole month of September, so we're excited about that.  

We made a trip to Baker's Creek yesterday.  They had their monthly festival.  He bought about $20 worth of seeds for fall planting, greenhouse planting, and some for spring.  He's still been working on projects, including installing the front screen door.  

Hopefully, the heat will mellow out pretty soon and we can have some nice fall weather.

August Fun 8/9/2013

This is what the green bean high tunnel looked like in June

and this is what it looks like now:

We've had a lot of rain this summer.  Our August has, so far, been more like April weather.  I think we have gotten 12-14 inches of rain so far this month.  I think we're safely out of drought status now.  The pond is pretty full, so that's unusual for August, for sure.  We've been keeping ourselves busy.  This is a puzzle that Katy and I started and Isaiah and I finished:

The hummingbirds are emptying the big feeder within about 24 hours time now.  They take a little longer to empty the medium sized one.  They have their favorites.  We have counted as many as 12-14 hummingbirds around the feeders at once.  It's hard to count them since they move so fast, though.  Our plantings are all taking hold pretty well.  Not sure about some of the fruit trees, but the landscaping stuff all seems to be doing well.  

He found a nasty surprise this morning, though.  When he went outside, he spotted a wasp nest on the back of the camper:

He used a whole can of wasp spray on it.  Luckily, he didn't get stung at all.  Must be a good year for wasps.  Bet he won't be able to remove it whole from the license plate, but that's okay.  I just hope the wasps don't live through that whole can of spray! 

August 2, 2013

Photos of his pantry and utility shelving project:

North Wall of Pantry

West Wall of Pantry -- Lee's indoor workshop area

North wall of utility room

And these are the two vertical can rotation racks he built from the shelf scraps from the pantry and utility room shelves.

Large-can rotation rack, southwest wall

Small-can rotation rack, southeast wall

I am still moving stuff to the pantry from other places in the house, and rearranging other cabinets.  It has been fun, and I may change my mind a dozen more times before I get it all exactly where I want it.  In the meantime, I'm very happy with my pantry and utility room.

7/29/2013 -- Summertime!

Lots of summer projects this month.  The first part of the month was pretty hot, but we finally did get some rain here.  It has cooled off quite a bit for the last part of the month.

Lee took the opportunity to build the shelves in the pantry and had enough lumber left over to build shelves along the north wall of the utility room also.  The pantry now has pretty much wall to wall shelving on all four walls.  He saved the last wall in the pantry (the south wall) for a special project.  I have posted a page with photos of his building process and how it turned out:  http://sugarmountainhome.blogspot.com/p/can-rotation-rack.html

Or just click on the link at the side bar.

In the meantime, I've already unloaded 13 cases of home-canned goods into the pantry shelves.  I will post some photos of the pantry and the utility room within the next few days.

One summer project of mine has been using the summer produce.  He made a batch of old-fashioned brine sauerkraut, which is still in the fermentation stage.  It'll be interesting to see how that turns out once it's finished and canned.  We have been dehydrating cabbage.  The last load (for this round) is in the dehydrator now.  It's interesting how much cabbage you can fit into a half-gallon jar.

We've been blanching and freezing sugar snaps (snow peas), green beans, broccoli, and even a bit of cauliflower.  I have found new and different ways to use up lots of zucchini and summer squash.  One new way was something called Pizza Boats.  This turned out pretty good!

6/24/2013 Summer is Here

The last month has been a busy one around here.  He has been working on getting all the garden stuff in, picking produce out of the greenhouse, and putting in fruit trees, berry bushes, and all kinds of landscaping projects.  Then there is the job of watering and taking care of everything he has planted.

I have been working on clearing stuff out of that old trailer.

In the meantime, we've had visitors that have enjoyed the pond (and gardens) as much as we do:

Plus visitors who enjoy the porch and the porch rail as much as we do:

 and then we spend some of our time just enjoying the beauty around us:

and what a difference a month and all his hard work has made in the raised beds and the gardens:

We got a new dryer, so I've been working my way through a lot of the winter clothes and bedding that was still over at the trailer.  We also got a new deep freeze for the kitchen, an upright Fridgidaire, that will be delivered on Wednesday.  I'm happy about that, as I won't have to go shopping in the garage any more.  We made a trip to visit some friends on Saturday and also picked up a feeder piggy from them while we were there.  It really has been a busy month, but summer is finally here!

5/26/2013 Garden and Orchard

Well our 2013 garden is in, and he has been busy!  Here is a list of what's been planted:

6 hills cucumbers

2 40-ft rows okra

3 40-ft rows turnips

6 20-ft rows sweet corn

24 cauliflower

24 broccoli

24 Brussels sprouts

3 hills zucchini

4 hills summer squash

Pole beans on the high tunnel

36 heads cabbage

2 30-ft rows of Danvers half-long carrots

12 jalapeno peppers
6 habanero peppers

12 Marconi peppers

24 California wonder green peppers

72 assorted tomato plants

2 - 4' trellises of sugar snap peas

1-4'x4' bed of carrots

4'x8'bed of carrots

4'x4' bed of lettuce

4'x4' bed of radishes

4'x4'bed of spinach

Orchard:

100-ft row of thornless blackberries

Granny Smith apple

Gala apple

2 Montmorency (homestead) cherry trees

2 Georgia Belle peach trees

Bartlett pear tree

We also ordered some trees from the Arbor Day Foundation.  We are waiting on fall delivery of:

Oriental pear tree

Methley plum tree

2 Pecan trees

Our order came with 2 forsythia bushes, a red maple tree, and another redbud tree for free.

Here are some photos of the new raised beds he built also:

High tunnel for pole beans in back.

raised beds on south and east side of greenhouse

raised beds on south and west side of greenhouse

This does not count any of the "pretties" he has planted this year.  This is all just the food part of his gardens and plantings.

5/5/2013

Well, let's see.  We had a cold front move in along with some rainy weather.  Last Friday May 3rd), we even got some snow.  They were big flakes and really coming down, but it melted pretty much as soon as it hit anything.  I believe that's the latest we've ever had snow here.  We did get our shopping done Friday, though.  We picked up some mulch for the trees and blackberry starts, plus some potting soil to mix in with the raised beds.

We had a fairly quiet weekend, although he still worked on a lot of stuff.  He moved the rest of the dirt into the raised vegetable beds, unloaded feed, and we ended up moving all the flowering baskets inside due to the frost warning.  We were worried about the hummingbirds but looked it up.  Apparently, they're more hardy than we thought.  They must be, as we left the feeders out; and he counted 14 of them on the porch at the feeders that morning.

Today, he moved all the flowering baskets back out to the rail, plus he added his three topsy-turvy tomato planters, and all the cucumber baskets.  He planted broccoli and cauliflower in one of his raised vegetable beds today, plus replaced a few cabbage plants.  He also got both apple trees and both cherry trees planted.

I cleared a bunch of empty boxes out of the guest room and took them over to the mobile to help in finishing packing up that stuff over there.  I brought over a plastic 3-drawer cart and got it cleaned up good to put in the guest room.  Isaiah will be here Tuesday to spend his summer with us.  I moved some toys out of there and put them in the toy area out in the living room, and I went through and organized most of the video games again.  I believe the guest room is ready.

Hoping that the warm-up continues and nicer weather is on it's way to stay!