Wed Garden Update

I went out into the garden this morning

after feeding all the animals.

The okra is in bloom!

These are in the little bed along the back

fence, in with some purple potatoes and

some corn Kyle planted for fun.

And a random volunteer sunflower.

I harvested enough okra from all the beds

to have a good breakfast and also freeze some

for another day.

We are finished with the rattle snake beans.

The ones that are left we are leaving on the plant

to dry so we can save them for seed for next season.

The blackeyed peas are still covered in flowers,

although they are also covered in beans,

and some of them are already dry!

(The leaves got a lot of beetle damage, but it didn't affect

the yield, so we didn't worry about it...)

It's doing all three stages at once!

I was going to pick the rest of the pintos this morning

but they aren't quite dry enough yet.

Maybe another day or two...

 

Aaaaaaaaahhh

 

Beans.

LOTS and LOTS of beans.

I was out back, filling the cow's water bucket.

I was thinking what a beautiful morning it was.

Chickens wandering around finding morsels for breakfast.

Horses in the barn eating their grain.

Ducks and rabbits (on the right side) enjoying their morning...

Cows in their pen munching on their grain.

And I realized, again, how much I love my life.

It is so peaceful here.

We have our shares of challenges.

But over all...

I LOVE MY LIFE!

Dried Beans!

 This morning we decided it was time to harvest

the first bed of dried pinto beans.

They are well and truly dry.

The green you see is grass growing up

in the bed and a couple of stray okra.

The okra didn't amount to much in this bed...

In the bed to the top left there are more

pinto beans and LOTS of okra.

I've been harvesting off the okra for about

a week or so now... every other day or so.

Just enough for breakfast, but SO YUMMY!

We got two buckets of beans.

They were full to the top but I forgot to take

a picture until I had been shelling for awhile.

All done shelling.

One bed yielded 2.3 pounds of beans!

We have 2 more beds of pintos,

I think 2 or 3 beds of navy,

and 2 beds of black eyed peas.

We'll harvest the next bed of pintos on Wed.

And see about the final bed - it's not nearly as dry.

We planted them all on the exact same day...

no idea why they are so different.

But its kind of nice, since we don't have to 

do a marathon harvest.

We can spread it out over a couple of days.

Not a bad haul for one 4'x8' bed!

And I just can't resist a picture of the

sunflowers against a beautifully cloudless blue sky.

"New" Ride

 I'm back to driving my old Trooper.

It was the truck we bought when we found

out we were pregnant.

And it's been a great truck all through the years.

(it's a 1987!)

The grey top part got a new paint job.

Kyle and I brushed (yes, brushed) on some smokey grey

Rustoleum paint. It's nice and shiny.

First he and Rod filled all the holes and sanded it smooth.

Looks the best it has in years!

And it still drives GREAT!

(I also bought 4 new tires and Kyle put them on for me...)

New seat covers too.

I forgot to take a picture of them though.

And some new windshield wipers.

Which came in awfully handy yesterday.

We drove it to the beach on Wednesday

and I drove it to work yesterday.

Great little truck!

Hasn't had A/C in it for... 25+ years?...

but it has nice big windows so its ok.

Just need to remember to bring a brush

for my hair when I get to my destination.

Today I picked up some new window shades

for the front window since it gets pretty hot

in there in the sun.

So now I'm all set!

Blueberries galore!

 It's that time of year!

Over the weekend we drove up to Rod's brother's

in-laws' place.

(got that?)

(Tim's wife, Angie's parents..... whew!)

Anyway.

They have a u-pick blueberry farm.

But I don't like to pick blueberries.

So we pay for a box of already picked.

(Actually, we bought TWO of them...)

See the box on the left? We had two of those.

One we kept fresh for ""grab and go" snacking.

It's almost empty.

This one made THREE cookie sheets full of berries for freezing.

These are the best blueberries!

Large.

Sweet.

YUMMY!

First Okra!

 It's a tiny harvest.

But it is also a tiny patch.

We are pulling the beans this week

(they are "drying" beans and are nearly ready...)

and replanting with okra.

So by July we should have LOTS!

But these are good for a start!

Ta Da!!!

 I can't decide if I'm The Little Red Hen

or SUPER WOMAN!!!

But either way.......

I DID IT!

I ordered the J hooks.

I measured and bought the eye hooks.

I borrowed the correct tools.

(And I PUT THEM BACK in the right place

when I was finished with them... lol.)

I used the power drill and drilled the hole.

(took two tries to get the right size bit,

started too small...)

I used a screw driver to screw in the eye hook.

Then I measured and, using needle nose pliers

so I didn't smash my fingers, I hammered in the

fencing nail to hold the chain in place!

(I didn't hammer them ALL the way in, just in case

somebody who actually knows what they are doing

needs to adjust them a little... ahem...)

And now we have THREE new J-hook closures

on the gates out in the new facility!

And I'm feeling pretty accomplished!

And thirsty.