'Round Here

The dogs take serious morning naps.

I have been fermenting more peppers:

I made a hot pepper sauce about a month or two ago, and it was delicious.  Lydia and I have eaten most of it, so I started a new batch.  I am thinking of doing more, since my friend gave me a ridiculous amount of peppers.

Gyunay helped me set up the Respect Life October table again this year.  He likes having his picture taken!

And I don't think I shared a picture of the sweet potatoes.  These are purple Molokai sweet potatoes.  I've grown them before, and they are really sweet and delicious. These are now curing, but we will be eating some soon.

 

September Harvest Totals

 There is not much left in the garden, and we harvested all of our meat birds, so the Oct numbers will be miniscule. However, September was not too bad.

Beans, Dragon - 10.9oz

Cantaloupe - 2

Carrots - 7

Chicken - 110.3 lbs (26 birds total)

Eggs - 327

Peppers, Bulgarian - 3

Sweet Potatoes, purple - 17.8 lbs

Tomatillos - 13.1 oz

Tomatoes, Eva Purple Ball - 9

Tomatoes, Red - 33

Tomatoes, San Marzano - 4

plus cherry tomatoes, and herbs - parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, mint, basil, dill

I have been working on getting the gardens ready for next year.  I have been mulching like mad, and I expanded the garden a bit already.  I also have been working on the tree house garden, which I didn't really utilize this year. Planning, planning, planning.  I really love my gardens.  

French Lick Weekend

I didn't realize that I never actually posted this one!  Nathaniel and I had a great time at French Lick with my parents and siblings.  Dad turned 70, so we got a house and spent a nice weekend together.

It was the Block Bash weekend, so chainsaw artists were working on these amazing sculptures all weekend long.

The fox in the henhouse one was my favorite.  It went for $3,900 at Saturday's auction.  It was the second-highest sculpture.  The highest one was about the same size, and it was a machine-gun toting Uncle Sam that sold for $4,300.

Nathaniel ordered a 64oz beer at the German restaurant because he was curious, and because the waitress said she had never sold one.

 

Family Camp

I finally finished decorating for fall, although it feels really weird to be getting out fall decorations with a heat advisory on.  It was 97 degrees again today.

Luckily, it was not quite that hot at Family Camp last weekend. 

The kids enjoyed the regular events, like archery, kayaking, and rock wall climbling.

However, Lydia and I got to try something new. We climbed the telephone pole, then walked along the rope.  Halfway across, you have to switch ropes. It was about 35 feet high, and it was tricky but a lot of fun. We had never done any of the high ropes elements before, so it was nice to try something new. 

Speaking of something new, I finger curled Emry's hair yesterday.

He really likes it.  Now he wants to grow his hair a bit longer, so he can have longer finger curls next time.

 

Donuts, Black Rabbits, and Gardens

 

Nathaniel, Lydia, and I went yardsaling a couple of weeks ago, and I saw this donut puzzle.  I did one that is very similar a while back, with either 500 or 1,000 pieces, and I really enjoyed it, so I decided to buy this one. It is the first 1,500 piece puzzle I've ever done.  I enjoyed it very much, but I don't think I'll make a habit of doing more that big. 500-1,000 pieces are more my speed.

Nathaniel and I had a date night last weekend, where I took his picture with a black rabbit:

Speaking of black rabbits, can you see Buddy Bean in the sweet potato vines?

He loves hiding in them, and eating them.  Fortunately, they are safe for bunnies.

In other garden news, I have been working on layering compost and wood chips on beds that are done for this year. The tomatoes are the center bed here, which are still producing little ones. To the rear and the right, you can see the beautiful Mexican sunflowers. Hummingbirds and butterflies visit daily. There are also some weeds back there that I need to clean up.

Here is the other side. Not much still growing here, some zinnias and zucchinis.  You can see Nathaniel's fancy new air conditioner in the back.

August Harvest Totals

 August was a good month for the garden.  The cantaloupes were divine!  A lot of my plants are done now, and I didn't do a good job of succession planting, so harvests will be smaller going on, but I still will have some things coming in, and September will see the meat birds harvested.  Plus, the sweet potatoes are still growing well, so those will be harvested either late September or early October.  Fewer hens were broody this month than last month, although I've had a stubborn one broody nearly all month. 

Here is the August report:

Beans, green - 7.8oz (these were either Provider or Blue lake, but only a couple of plants)

Beans, dragon - 4.9 lbs

Butternut squash, mini - 3

Cantaloupe - 11

Carrots - 24

Corn - 10

Cucumbers - 27

Eggs - 379

Jalapenos - 2

Pepperoncini - 12

Tomatillos - 13.5 oz

Tomatoes, Eva Purple Ball - 13

Tomatoes, red (various types) - 38

Tomatoes, San Marzano - 61

Zucchini - 6

Also, cherry tomatoes (not as many as I'd hoped), cilantro, dill, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, mint, basil (lots!)

Meat Birds

Before Malachi left for college, he got the outdoor pen ready for the meat chicks.  They are quite happy in their new set-up.

 

They are just over 3 weeks old, and it is plenty warm enough for them outside. These birds are more curious and active than some meat birds I've raised.  They are quite fun.  We have 26 of them.