The green beans finally produced enough for picking! I got about half a plastic grocery bag full. It was our dinner last night, cooked with a Polish sausage and potatoes. Yummm, very tasty! There is enough left for tonight if I add a side dish of something like fried squash. For some reason only about 1/3 of the original planting of green beans even came up, and then some of them fell victim to a gopher. I planted another package but they are not mature enough to produce anything yet. It's a good thing I have plenty of canned ones left on the pantry shelves from other years.
The weather isn't helping the garden much lately. After being so hot for a couple of weeks, now it has been much cooler for the last week. Yesterday morning the back porch thermometer registered only 38, our high was about 75 yesterday, and last night was back down to about 40. Hopefully it will get warmer again before fall really falls. Our first planting of corn is almost ready. I started the seeds in toilet paper tubes on May 14, set them out into the garden on Memorial Day, and our 65 day variety still isn't ready in almost 100 days! The wind has blown some of it over, making it look a bit like a jungle.
Yesterday I helped my neighbor move the cows, calves, and the bull. They came through our place, a shortcut to where they were really going. Breezy was moved temporarily so he would not try to join the fun, that was ok with him since he got to snack on Patch's leftover hay. I took a short ride on Patch afterward since I was already on him. He still feels a little bit lame at a trot but sure wanted to go faster and probably farther than I would allow.
We are having corn on the cob for dinner tonight! It's finally ready! I think we miss corn on the cob from the day after we eat the last little nubs in the fall until our corn is ready again. A fruit and vegie stand in town has corn, but it sells out long before my hubby comes home from work. We never buy it at the grocery store, it is probably a week old before it even gets there.
Yesterday my hubby helped me shred cabbage for sauerkraut. We have a 3 blade shredder which we put over the bottom part of a broiler pan to catch the cabbage. The whole thing sits on the kitchen counter where it needs somebody strong (hubby) to hold it in place while I slide half a cabbage over the blades again and again, making shreds about 1/16th of an inch thick with each pass. The blades are very sharp, but I was careful and managed to shred 21 and 1/2 pounds of cabbage without shredding my fingers! The shredder was an ebay purchase, and sure beats cutting that much cabbage with a knife.
The shredded cabbage is dumped into a bowl, salt is added and I mix it with both hands, then it is put into a crock and pounded with the bottom of a jar until it produces liquid. Layer after layer is added, then I placed a large plastic bag of water on top of it to keep the air from the cabbage, and the crock was put in a cool place to ferment. The cool place is the landing on the stairway going to the basement. Our house is a bit too warm, and the basement a bit too cool, so in between should be just right. In 5 to 6 weeks we should be able to eat some of it, and I will can the rest for winter.
This morning I weeded some of the newer asparagus rows while I had the hose there to water them slowly. About noon I came inside for a quick cool off, and to do some laundry, but had I known that an hour later the wind would be this strong, I would have worked on those weeds a while longer. The laundry on the line is flapping wildly, and will soon be dry if this wind doesn't bring us a shower. Our high temperature yesterday was about 90, today might have reached 80 before the wind started blowing and brought it down to 65.
I always seem to have more than one project in progress, it keeps me from becoming bored! Last week I started cleaning flower beds, something I do every fall, vainly hoping to get them all done before the ground freezes or is covered by snow. Following is a couple of pictures of my present work in progress.
Neut was helping and was almost covered with the sprouts I cut away from the bottoms of the lilac bushes. I just threw them out on the lawn without looking, and when I was finished, there was Neut, happy as can be. Do you see him? He is near the edge of the flower bed.
It's wasp hunting season again. Last week as I was closing a gate made of metal pipes, I noticed a lot of wasps were unhappy with the vibration the gate made as it swung closed. I guessed there was a nest in the hinge end of the gate. And when I latched it, a couple of wasps crawled out of a hole where the pipes join on the latch end of the gate. They weren't happy either but I didn't get stung. I was too busy that day helping my neighbor move cattle, so they didn't get sprayed. It's better to get them early in the morning when they are all at home.
Yesterday I declared war and went hunting wasp nests with spray can in hand. I found 4 in addition to the ones in both ends of the pipe gate, and also a black widow spider. Fssst! All dead now. After the can was empty I found more nests.
The wasps compete with the hummingbirds at the feeders, so I have found a way to deal with that without harming the birds. My vacuum cleaner is a canister type with a nice long hose. It takes a bit of luck, plus hand and eye cordination to catch them on the bee guards on the feeders, and even more to catch them in mid air, but it is fun! I slurped up a lot of wasps yesterday between my other activities.
This morning, with the temperature at about 45 degrees and all the wasps still in or on their nests, I went out with my new can of spray and zapped about 6 nests. It's good to start the day with a victory!
My flower bed weeding project continues with a few feet being cleaned every day. Some parts are easier than others. I am presently working where I installed a plastic barrier along the edge to prevent the quack grass from creeping into the edge, so I have no edge to dig out there. That part is easier, but the wild rose bushes grow in from the other side, and I have big clumps of asters that will bloom in another month or two, so I have to reach in carefully to cut the rose sprouts at ground level, and carefully pull the grass and weeds out of the asters, lilies and a few other things that I don't want to disturb. It reminds me of that old game of pick up sticks with the addition of being watchfull for snakes, spiders and wasps. Last year there were nests on the fence rails just beyond the roses. I checked carefully and haven't found any there this year.
Yesterday afternoon I quit weeding when the wind got strong and the weeds were blowing out of the wheelbarrow. The wind was strong from the north well into the night so I think the deer probably stayed out of the garden, but they'll be back, so today I need to put up some netting to try to save the grapes.
The netting is over the grapes and "pinned" to the ground with fiberglass fenceposts that were intended to be used with electric wire. I find a lot of other uses for them. After a one night test, the netting is still in place.
I sprayed 5 more wasp nests this morning before the sun came up, and have spotted one more that I can't reach without a tall ladder. There are several under the roof of the hay shed too. Maybe we will get those with the aid of the tractor bucket tomorrow.
Yesterday evening as I was husking corn and putting the husks in the hay feeder for Patch, he came limping slowly toward me. I took a quick look, a cut on his hind leg just above the hoof. It was so dirty I couldn't tell more. After dinner I brought him out of the pasture to a grassy area where he could eat while I hosed it off. I was running out of daylight, so cleaned it up the best I could, squirted Betadine (disinfectant) on it, put a big gob of Furazone ointment (antibacterial) on a 4x4 gauze pad and wrapped it up to keep it clean and soft overnight.
He was put in the pasture with Breezy, and they were given hay, a little more than usual for Breezy since he is on a diet, and a bit less for Patch who is not. The short ration caused Patch to wander around looking for food during the night, the Furazone kept the wound from becoming dry, and the swelling is gone, so he was moving better this morning.
I unwrapped his leg and hosed it off again, squirted the cut with lots of Betadine, waited for it to dry while Patch ate fresh alfalfa in the edge of the driveway, then when he wandered into the hay shed I tied him to the trailer and gave him some hay. When the wound was fairly dry, I applied another 4x4 gauze pad with Furazone. He will get another fresh bandage tonight.
The cut is below the fetlock joint and above the hoof. It is a horizontal cut mostly on the heel. He also has a couple of small cuts on his leg, one in front and one in back, the result of kicking at Breezy through the fence while they were playing. I still have to repair the fence.
Patch now has the upper pasture all to himself, and Breezy has a change of scenery too, the pasture where I have kept Patch for the past few months. The upper pasture is dry, and relatively clean compared to the middle one where there is a spring that feeds a little stream where they love to nibble green stuff that grows there, but also wade in the mud. Another feature of the middle pasture is a small shed with dusty dry manure in it where they stand to get out of the sun and away from the bugs. It is certainly not what a horse with a cut foot needs.
The corn was getting ripe faster than we were eating it, so rather than have it get starchy and become horse feed, I blanched about 20 ears of it, cut the corn off the cobs, packed it in plastic zipper bags and froze it. I also pulled up about half the beets and made pickled beets, a job that makes the house smell wonderful. My neighbor gave me peaches, so today I made jam from the ripe and damaged ones (some were windfalls) and still have a lot of underripe ones ripening in a box which I need to check about every second day.
The wind blew for about 3 days and nights. When it finally stopped the temperature dropped and we had a touch of frost last night! It is about 6 weeks early for frost. The only damaged plant was the winter squash with a few leaves looking burned, and a couple of the runners at one edge with that sort of transparent look frozen foliage has. Tonight's forecast is for 39. The sky is overcast and so I think the garden is safe. Last night there was no mention of the posibility of frost.
Patch's wounded foot is healing slowly. It is in an area where the blood supply is not as good as it would be above the knee, so healing will be slow. He has become more active and the bandage won't stay in place, so I have just been hosing the wound to clean it, letting it dry enough for the ointment to stay in place, and applying antibacterial ointment to the wound. This keeps the wound soft and clean for a few hours. Plenty of dirt sticks to the ointment, but the wound itself stays fairly clean. He is quite comfortable as long as it stays moist, trotting around and even running across the pasture.
My hubby is in his first week of official retirement. He has a lot of big and little jobs that need to be done before winter, so he has started on them. Early this morning, before the sun came up he ran the tractor while I stood in the bucket and sprayed wasp nests high up in the hay shed. I lost count of how many nests, but I think there were about 10. These wasps make a flat disc about 3 inches in diameter with cells where they lay their eggs. Some of them have 25-30 wasps tending the eggs, and early in the morning most of them are sleeping, so that is the best time to spray them.
After breakfast, he started working on the riding mower which needed to have the battery charged and a tire pumped up again, cleaned up and started our chipper/shredder that hasn't been used in a couple of years, worked on the rototiller which needed some adjustment so it will go into reverse, and puttered around cleaning the shop. There are several projects we will work on together this fall, but while I am busy canning and freezing produce, he will work alone on most of his stuff while I do mine.
Fall is in the air. We haven't had more frost but it has been close and now has been a little warmer for the past two nights. I shovel pruned the winter squash, cutting off the long runners, small fruits and blossoms so the plants will be diverting all their energy into ripening the larger squash that are already turning a yellowish green. They should be brownish yellow to be fully ripe so they will taste sweet and store well in the basement this winter. I've also stopped watering them. All of this together should shock the plants into ripening the fruit. We usually don't think of squash as fruit, but I guess technically it is, like a tomato, because the seeds are inside.
The first planting of green beans is still producing a few pounds of beans per week, enough for our dinners. The second planting is blooming and had better get busy soon or it will be a lost cause. I planted them when only about 1/3 of the first batch even came out of the ground, and the gophers ate some of those, leaving big gaps in the rows. The soil was warmer and the second planting had good germination and wasn't bothered by the gophers. I still have about 50 quarts from previous years on the shelves in the basement, so I didn't need to can beans this year anyhow.
My tomato plants aren't anything to write home about, but we are getting a few to eat, and my neighbor who borrowed greenhouse space from me last spring, brought us some for slicing, and some marble sized yellow ones that are very tasty. I don't need to can tomatoes this year either, the basement shelves have plenty to last through the winter.
The second planting of corn is ready for eating. It was planted about 2 weeks after I put the greenhouse started plants in the ground. The third planting went in about 2 weeks after that and now has tassles which the honey bees are enjoying, and silk on the tops of the immature ears which is recieving the pollen that floats down. The top ear on every stalk gets the best supply of pollen and is usually well filled with kernels, the second one not so good, and the third, if there is one, has almost nothing. I should walk through the plants and pull the bottom ones off to save energy for the good ones. We usually have corn on the cob until the frost kills the plants, and this year I think it will be a race to the finish line. I might just have a lot of horse feed or crop residue to rototill into the ground.
A couple of days ago we moved the cows, calves and bull to a fresh pasture about 5 miles up the road. Patch got the job even with the cut on his foot, he runs around in the pasture and looks comfortable so why not? I cleaned up the wound, put plenty of medicine on it to make sure it was soft and he was fine. When we put the cattle through the last gate, I squirted water on it from the water bottle I carry on the saddle to soften it again, and he was happy trotting most of the way home.
Yesterday my neighbor brought our first load of hay, and will bring another one today. Sometime in another week he will bring the last load. There are 78 bales to a load, each weighing about 100 pounds. He picks it up in the field with a mechanical stacker truck, then just backs into our hay shed, tips the load on end and sets it down! That part is always a hold your breath and pray that everything goes right operation! Now and then some bales fall off the top of the end row at the wrong time but most of the time it works!
Also yesterday, our daughter in law came out from town for a day of canning peaches and pickled beets. She brought along her grandson who is the happiest 5 month old baby alive! He played and slept, and we canned and visited all day. Today after church she is coming back to can some spiced pears. She has no canning equipment or jars, but I have all of that, so she just brought lids, vinegar, sugar and spices yesterday. I decided I have enough pickled beets in the basement, and enough peaches, so I just gave her the rest of it. The jars are returned over the winter as they use the contents.
Our hummingbirds have left us. We haven't seen any for 2 days. I always leave the feeders out for a couple of weeks in case some that are migrating from farther north come through, but I have yet to see that happen.
After cleaning more of the easier sections of the flower beds, I have come to the very worst part. It's about 30 ft long by 3 ft wide, choked with quackgrass roots, vinca minor which I regret planting, wild rosebush roots, and tree roots. I'm going to cut the roses back to the ground, dig out the good plants and just tear into the rest of it as if I was starting all over. This is a job I have put off far too long, and this year, since I have no more rides to take up my time, there is really no excuse for not doing it. Neut the helpful cat is supervising, and seems to be satisfied with my work because he finds a comfy spot nearby and just goes to sleep.
Hubby and I went to the woods one day this week to cut another load of firewood, but the chainsaw wasn't running well and it finally quit, so we loaded what we had and came home. We got about half a cord. The saw has been taken apart, cleaned and put back into running order, so we will go again this weekend, this time with a friend and his sons to help us, so we will take both pickups.
My neighbors are gone for a few days so I am doing their chores mornings and evenings. I can help myself to tomatoes (since mine didn't do much this year) and pick up apricots and pears that are starting to fall, and also keep any eggs the chickens produce.
This weekend we added two more cords of wood to the pile that is waiting to be split and that will be plenty for this winter with what we already have split and stacked in the woodshed. We really like to have at least a year's supply in reserve but that may not happen this year since the saw quit again. It worked until it got hot and then took the rest of the day off. Our smaller saw finished the job but then we were limited as to the size of logs we could cut.
Hubby and I went out for breakfast this morning since he needed to go to the bank and a couple of other places, and take the sick chainsaw to the shop. This is the time of year that they get way behind because a lot of people wait to get their saws in shape to cut wood at the last minute resulting in a few weeks wait for some, and I'm glad we are in no hurry for a repair. We won't know if it will be repaired or replaced for about a month. It's about 20 years old and has cut an amazing amount of firewood.
After we got home I irrigated parts of the garden and picked the green beans, checked the corn, and the grapes. The wasps are saying the grapes are ripe, so just after daylight we will go carefully pick the clusters, put them in big buckets and bring them up near the house, then fill the buckets with water and capture the wasps as they come to the surface. I'm out of grape juice so I am glad to be getting grapes this year. The elderberries are also ripe, so I might mix some with the grapes, about 25% is enough. We also need to process more corn for the freezer, it is getting ahead of us again. The netting I put up for the deer has saved the grapes, but they are biting holes in other things. Just one or two deer from the looks of the tracks. I wish they would at least leave me some fertilizer.
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