Garden time

It's garden time again. It's finally here. I've been eyeing a couple orange tomatoes and waiting..waiting..waiting..
The darn things just won't turn red. Guess I"ll have to harvest something else. How bout some carrots. Okay.

Aren't they purty? They looked real good in the basket. Then I washed them up. Oh my. There were a few worm holes. That's what my good knife was for though. I took care of that.
Now they look like this:

Whew. All the jars finally sealed. I love listening for the "ping". Sometimes they all seal real quick. Ping, ping, ping. Sometimes it takes forever. Ping........  ping. Occasionally a jar will seal real quiet like. You don't hear a thing. Next thing you know, you look at the jar and it's sealed. Whew.
I dug a few of these up today too..

New potatoes. Too bad my peas all died. I didn't get one pea. I was so excited over my asparagus finally growing that it didn't bother me at all. It does now. Peas go real good with new potatoes. Oh well. I just up and canned them too. Now they look like this:

I have a routine. A canning routine. My mother-in-law taught me how to can years ago. Our southern friends call it jarring instead. Makes me think of jawing... like talking a lot. I can't do that while I'm canning. I might mess up my routine. It's my own routine. It's occasionally adapted. Not very often though. It's comforting in an odd sort of way.

Sometimes I have two canners going. Today I just had one. Sometimes there's just so much to do I have to start early in the morning to get it all done. Today was a good slide into the routine day. It just took most of the afternoon.

I love to line the pantry shelves with jars. I like to organize my jars by content and color. I may have a sickness. I'm not sure.
In another few weeks I"ll be really tired of the vegetables and the mess. It's a love/hate relationship. When it starts to get cold out I'll really love it all again. Because it's over.
The eating part is the very best part. There's nothing like opening a jar of peaches or tomatoes in the middle of winter. It just tastes better.
For now I'll just keep canning. I know my family will keep eating. They're like that.
I'm still waiting for that red tomato. Just one. I have at least 20 tomato plants. One red tomato shouldn't be asking too much.
Maybe I can  can something else while I"m waiting......

Buzzards... again.

Yes, it's true. There are buzzards in my driveway. Right there. Look at them. They think they are so cool.
Actually, they are after that snake.
Great. There's a snake in my driveway.
I should know. I accidently ran over it.
EEwwwww!
It popped. Sounded like a balloon. I just pulled in my driveway and there it was. Too late.

That poor snake is buzzard bait now.  Buzzard bait. I"m telling you that buzzard was flying over in no time at all. How did he know I was going to run over a snake? Where's he been waiting at? What's he doing.. spying on me??

Now he's in the road. He just can't leave it alone. The only best thing about it is that he flew right off with that snake in his mouth. At least it won't be stinkin' up my driveway.
There's other stuff happenin' around here too.

There's C.B. He's in our backyard picking mulberries. Why? That's what I asked too. He's convinced that our white mulberry tree will make the best mulberry wine. Well you never know till you try and that's what he's going to do.

Maybe mulberry wine will go real well with deep fat fried pickles. Maybe not. I don't know. Fried pickles have become a favorite around here though. We had them on our menu for the 4th of July. Yum!

No, the buzzards didn't get this guy. He just died one day and C.B. took to preserving his head. I think he was the oldest steer in the county. We had him almost 15 years and all we have to show for it is this skull.
Good thing C.B. didn't have to fight the buzzards for it. The buzzards know your every move. The are like a big nose flying around. You better not smell very ripe out here on the farm. They will find you. They might even try to carry you away.

I worry about my dog. Can a buzzard carry off a dog? A cat? Maybe one of the kids.....
Beware of the buzzards!

Perspective

It's hayin' time again. It's harvest time too. It's a crazy busy fun time. The harvest trucks are all over the place. The dust is in the air. It's great. That's my perspective today.
We just got back from a short vacation. Adorable daughter #1 played softball in Colorado last weekend and we went along for the fun. It's so exciting to leave for a destination. About the day before you're packing like a mad fool. Checking your list twice. Do we have everything? Do we need anything else? Can you stuff anything more in the back of the truck?
It's funny like that.
Then the trip starts. Are we there yet? How much farther? Can we stop and go to the bathroom?
You kinda forget about all that in the excitement of packing and looking forward to the trip.
We finally make it to the destination.
It's nice, it's beautiful. The mountains are in the background.
Let's eat a good meal and check into the motel.
Okay.
So that's what we did. By the time you get to your room you're real tired from all the traveling of the day. You unlock the door and go bursting in and then you're real disappointed. It's a motel room after all. A cheap one. haha. It's close quarters for everyone and one bathroom. Whew.
4 nights in close quarters changes your perspective.
We did lots of fun things. Like white water rafting, shopping, eating, sitting at the ballpark and driving in the mountains. It really was fun.
It's fun to see all the farms and ranches along the way. Does anyone else have hay down? Are they harvesting yet? Look at that place....
Then you get home. Home sweet home. My house never looked so good or so big. Our Alfalfa looks great. The porch swing is calling my name. There's a mountain of laundry. That's my scenic route now... the path to the clothes line.
We rested a bit. We have a new perspective. We're ready to tackle all the work we left behind.
Maybe I need a vacation once a month so I can get all those extra things done.

Maybe I need to just go on vacation longer .. then everything will look that much better by the time I get home.

Maybe I'll just enjoy whatever I'm doing now. The work is hard but it is fulfilling. How did I forget that?
How did I lose my perspective? Did I lose it or did it just change?
I don't know. Right now I"m just glad to be home on the farm. Glad to be busy. Thankful for what we have.
And that's my perspective.

In between

Well, the farm is in between. In between one thing and another. The alfalfa is blooming..  It's been too hard to get it cut in between storms. The equipment is ready though.

There's C.B. and adorable daughter #1's sidekick changing air filters. (At least that's what I think they are doing.) ha. Everything's ready now for more cuttin'. It just has to be cut in between the rains. In between just enough to be dried and raked and all that. Not very much time for deciden' when to do it either. Oh my. So what do you do in between? Some people cut weeds....

That is a thistle. Some people cut them in between doing other stuff. Some people don't. Some people think they are evil. Some do not. Some people cut them like crazy maniacs. Some do not. Some people even spray, cut and dig them up. Some people don't.

Some people think they are beautiful. Most people I know do not. A few years ago Country Boy and I went to New Orleans to visit some friends with my in-laws. It was a fun trip. One of the funniest memories of that trip was staying in a motel that had planted Thistles in front in the landscaping on purpose. We just couldn't understand it.
 As a teenager C.B. was hired by an older farmer to go out into a pasture to cut and bag thistles all day. It was a hot summer and he worked hard. The agreement was to cut some small cedars out of the pasture the next weekend so he was to be paid for both jobs then. During the next week, the farmer died. C.B. felt really bad for the farmer's family. C.B. never got paid. The family didn't know about the work he had done.  He doesn't like thistles to this day.

I just can't seem to convince him that there's any beauty here. He won't hear of it. So.. if he sees one anywhere on our property, he digs them up and cuts them down. That's all there is to say about that.
Sometimes in between things you go and admire other things. Like this:

That's our neighbor's wheat. It sure looks purty. Harvest is just around the corner. The harvest trucks will soon be in my way wherever I go. It's okay. Harvest doesn't last long.

In between everything there's time to check the beans! Imagine that. These are my beans and we are going to eat some soon!

These are C.B.'s beans. I don't think I wanna eat any of his.

The clouds are rolling in. I don't think I have long in between to get much done. I need to get the burgers off the grill and grab the clothes off the line. In between all of that.. and another .40in. of rain... I think I'll put my feet up and pet on Waylon. After all, everything is in between!

Another day

Now that's what I"m talking about! Although these are grape tomatoes.. the big ones will be getting red before too long. What a glorious sight!
I'm out snapping photos of tomatoes and I keep hearing a pitiful noise. It's a whine.. a crying. I went to investigate and sure enough. It was Ginger's baby kitty. She was stuck in between some metal sheets stored in the shed. Poor baby. She had been missing for a few days. You never know about farm cats.
I had a friend drop off 13 cats from her farm a couple years ago. She had too many. We babied them as much as we could. Two of them got ran over by the school bus. One by the Schwan's man and one by Country Boy. They just kept disappearing. I think we still have some that are out in the barn. They just don't come to the house anymore. There's just Ginger and her baby now.
Anyway, I'm out in the garden area and I just have to go by the asparagus patch to look at it. I'm just meant to have asparagus. That's all there is to it. I can't believe it. I like to count the plants and admire them. Well what do you know...

Another shoot! Whoo hoo! There are now 11 shoots.. yes I said 11. I can't believe it. I wouldn't be a good gardener if I didn't tell you about it. It's amazing really. It's amazing that a poor kitten can survive 3 days without anything and it's amazing that this asparagus even grew at all. It's all about the dirt maybe. ha.

The garden is looking good. There's some green peppers. The beans are blooming. The addiction of canning and preserving is about to hit me. I love it. I love lining the shelves of my pantry with jars of produce from my garden. It's fulfilling. It's crazy. It's fun.
I get a glazed look to my eyes...
I get dirt under my fingernails...
I get bug bitten.
I dream about it.
I have nightmares ... like my canner blowing up. Stuff like that.
I get real tired from not sleeping and from harvesting.
I get sore from all the picking.
But I can't explain it. It has a hold on me.
Then there's things to freeze too.
Bags of vegetables... cherries..
Oh the loveliness of opening the freezer and finding food!
It hits me then.
The tiredness, the peels, the mess
And I get real sick of it.
I"m ready for the garden to be done.
I'm not there yet though.
I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of the first red tomato......
Bacon tomato sandwiches. YUM!
The potatoes bloomed. The spinach is done. The radishes are gone.
But...
There's more to come... there's more to come!
If you see me in the next few weeks and I don't wave or anything..
don't be alarmed.
I'm in a canning fog and I'll be back later.

Bugs

Okay, Okay, alright. These are my Hollyhocks. I really like them. I really do. I just don't get close to them. Why? Because they are full of bugs!!
There are bugs everywhere. You can almost hear them from a mile away. At night, the space light in my yard buzzes. Not from electricity either. It's the bugs. June bugs, flying bugs, weird looking bugs, buzzing bugs...you name it. We have them.
All that is the intro to my next little story... C.B. and the bugs.
Poor C.B. .. He works all the time. He came home one night last week and told me it was too nice of a night to not spray. There was no wind and there were lots of weeds ...... Weeds.. they might be a story of their own. haha. Anyway, away he went. He prepares everything. Mixes up the spray. Fills the tank on the back of the 4wheeler with water. Hollers for Waylon and off they go.
I think he was gone for 15 minutes. It wasn't just a good night for sprayin'. It was a good night for bug biten' too. He got bit a little bit.
Okay, He got bit a lot.
Maybe even a whole bunch.

Well, It might be safe to say he was attacked!

I think every mosquito in a mile radius stopped by and bit C.B. They weren't just having fun after all. They were blood thirsty mosquitoes on a mission.
I asked C.B. if he wanted some lotion or something... Naw, he just wanted to jump in the shower. Alrighty then. Later he told me he counted 104 mosquito bites.
Now is it weird that he counted how many bites he had... or is it weird that he got bitten so many times? I'm not really sure about that.

These are my poor green beans a little while back. They were bug bitten too. They came out of it though. They are blooming now.
Why aren't the barn swallows doing their job?

They supposedly eat 1,000 mosquitoes a day. What's the deal? I have more barn swallows than I want to admit. (I finally got the one trying to build a nest on my front porch to leave. I don't know how. I'm thinking it was the butter flavored cooking spray that finally did the trick.)
So I've been teasing C.B.  Telling him he's a bug magnet. haha. Why do bugs like some people better than others? Gnats are like that. They really like some people and don't even bother others. They don't bother me at all. Poor adorable daughter #1 used to swell all up from gnats. Eeww.
Bugs.. Can't live with them and can't stand them. I'm so glad we have screens on our windows and a screened in porch.  The big bug battle. That's what's going on around here. I"m not sure where the boundary lines are. I bet your yard is included. Well, it is summertime. The only bug I like is the lightening bug. He doesn't bite and has a lot of entertainment value. That's it. I have to go find my bug spray now. I think I"m feeling a little itchy..........

Waylon

This is the most jealous dog you will ever meet. His name is Waylon. He is 8yrs. old. He rolls over for all people. He doesn't care who scratches his belly as long as it gets scratched.

This is Chip. This is my in-law's bundle of extreme energy. We are going to be dog-sitting for this crazy guy this weekend. Now ..Here's the deal...

 If Waylon thinks you are even looking at Chip.. he comes over and sits on your foot. He leans against your leg. He whines. He wants to be king of all who will pet him. Him alone. He is so jealous. He won't even play with Chip. He's afraid he'll miss out on some attention. When he thinks you aren't looking, this is what happens:

Yes, I caught them playing. Now Chip, he's all about playing, running, jumping and running. Your neck gets a lot of exercise while watching him. He's the little dog that is always running in the background. He's checking things out. Not Waylon. Look at him. He can't even play sitting up. If you aren't going to pet Waylon and his whining doesn't work he'll just go lay down and chew on his paw. He's just like that. He's always chewing on his paw. The vet told me one time it made him feel better. I guess when you don't pet him he takes it as total rejection and has to chew on his paw.

So there's the standoff. Look before you lick. That is their motto. They are just looney when they get together. These two. Actually Waylon is just weird. If he is outside all alone- He will bark at the horse or any cattle that may be in the vicinity. Watch out. Mr. Bob Barker. That is what I call him when he does that. Bob Barker.

Don't even think about petting Ginger. You will get the whine and dance. Waylon has a cow if you pet her. He will nudge your hand with his nose and whine something terrible. He's not a good farm dog. Not really. He's scared of guns and snakes. He's a big whiney baby.
I'm not going to say all that though. Because he is Country Boy's baby. I tell you what. If C.B. is out in the yard... Waylon is with him. That's just the way of it. Period.
All farms need a dog. I wonder if there's any qualifications for that. Probably not. Waylon wouldn't pass the test. C.B. would be devastated. That's his dog. C.B. is a pushover for all dogs. He lets them lick him and he teaches them tricks. Waylon is the nicest most jealous dog we've ever had. Be careful when you come to my house. Bob Barker lives here.