August 21 2020 Update

August 21st Update

Garden Update So we've got tomatoes now, boy do we, Mortgage Lifter variety are huge this year.  Going to start making sauce soon. Rose picked probably the last of the Zucchini's, our winter squash are getting big.  Green beans are coming in.

Car troubles... Hyundai Tucson -  The Tucson started having issues last week, it would stall over and over.  I went to Amazon, where else?  I purchased a $22 ODBII code reader to tell me what was wrong...  Low and behold the thing worked, told me the Camshaft Position sensor was bad/misreading. I spent some computer time trying to locate the sensor for my Model/Year vehicle, and I finally found an article that located it for me, spend 30 minutes finding and removing the sensor, ordered the replacement, it'll be here on Thursday the 20th. I'll let you know how all this works out.  I have a boat in the yard I can't tow because of this so I'm anxious to see if this'll work out.  So Thursday came and Amazon showed up with the sensor, my biggest fear was realized when I dropped the 10mm bolt that holds the sensor in place at the back of the engine in a blind spot, I heard a clink as it bounced off something and it was gone.  I climbed under the front and looked on the ground, I looked down from the engine compartment to see if I could see it from there  had nearly given up and decided to look under the car from behind the front wheel, lo and behold there it was! I climbed under and was just able to reach it!  It took a couple more minutes with a mirror, flashlight to line up the sensor hole with the engine block and it was in!

The Spider in the Mist Rosie called me to the back door the other day early in the morning

The spider web hangs 10' or so in the air suspended across a 30' or so space between the Martin house and the Apple tree.

Kitchen Sink Strainer rusted out, Rose found water under the sink, when I put a pipe wrench on the nut holding the strainer the whole strainer basket pretty much fell apart, that made for an easy removal.  Off to Ace to pick up the parts I needed, this was a "two tripper" (a job that takes two trips to the hardware store because either you forgot something or the parts you bought were not quite the right ones in the first place). This was the latter, the strainer I bought was too long to fit in the allotted space. I saw a shorter unit at the store but thought I'd best purchase the exact replacement.  WRONG...lol.  Back to Ace, got the shorter unit installed without too much trouble. Only had to re-tighten one of the couplings shortly thereafter as it was dripping. Fingers crossed...

Strainer to Plastic flex, to Chromed, to Galvanized steel, so it goes in an old house....

 

The pond is way down probably down 5' in height from full, there's probably 8 to 10 feet of bank showing that would normally be under water.  We're on a dug well, a rock lined cylinder (9' in diameter x 19' deep) the water level goes up and down as the water table does. We need to watch the water level closely, the pond water level is the same as my well. We've never run dry in 30 years so we're hoping... especially with the watering of the garden daily.

It was Dragonfly Day was Aug 13th this year, tens of thousands of them were swarming throughout the yard and fields, there's a very small white fly that is coming up out of the grass they seem to love.  The Bard swallows also seemed to love the feast there were a couple dozen catching invisible bugs in the sky, they'd fly front to back yard then back over the field again.  Fun to watch!

Obligatory Deer Pics

Lot's of bad stuff going on right now COVID-19 is still here, the spectacle of what they are calling politics too.  Stay safe out there!

August already

August Already

It's hard to believe it's August 8th.

 

Tomatoes of 2020

I picked the first of the Heirlooms, a "Mortgage Lifter" tomato yesterday. It was huge, many more to come.  The tomato plants so far outgrew their cages by more than four feet this year they all fell over, didn't seem to hurt them any just harder to see the fruits.

We picked a few of our first 's of 2020 last week, a black cherry we picked up at Tanglewood Gardens greenhouse in Bedford, NH they grow 10-20 different Heirloom tomato varieties, this same tomato variety last year was super sweet.  

Black Cherry Tomatoes

 

Big Toads 

Along with more bees Honey, Bumble and Yellow-jacket than we've seen in years, this Big Ol' Toad as well as numerous leopard frogs are hopping all over the farm that need to be watched for when mowing the lawn...

 

Blackberries 

The thorn-less blackberry bushes Jarrod got me a few years back have started yielding crazy big berried, some of the berries are the size of strawberries.  A couple of cups of the berries so far, I'll keep adding to the bag in the freezer every couple days we need 4-6 cups to make a Blackberry Cobbler.  If I can keep the deer away these bushes grow canes that are 12'+ feet long in a year.

No we didn't grow corn this year

We did get the first local corn of the year, we picked up a dozen ears at Devriendt Farm Stand in Goffstown Saturday, shucked them, ate a couple, and froze 8 or so ears.  We'll probably do that several times before the season is gone. 

Pickle Cukes 

These are burp-less to boot.  I think other than our Swiss Chard this Burp-less Cucumber is the top producer so far in the garden.

More Garden Updates

We've decided to expand the garden again next year, probably till the expansion up this fall adding another 10' wide by 50' strip along the side.  The Summer Squashes, and Broccoli are winding down, garden clean-up begins. We ate a summer squash earlier this week and it had a distinctive fresh corn flavor, not sure how that happened, but yum!  Wax beans are coming in, pole beans are flowering like crazy just no beans yet.  Potatoes appear ready to dig, Collards and Chard are still producing, I'll pick some this week to see how big they are.  Winter squashes, Acorn, Blue Hubbard, and Buttercup are producing like weeds, the vines are up, over, and out of the fenced garden with some large squask hanging on the fence itself, there's at least one basketball size Blue Hubbard we're keeping an eye on.

Blue Hubbard

The Obligatory Deer Pics

Covid-19 seems to be getting worse in many cities in the US. here not so much we'll remain secluded just the same.  Restaurants are opening up around here which still seems a bit weird, we occasionally get take-out wearing masks at the local sub shop or Chinese place.

Tropical Storm Isaias was a complete bust here, I think it rained maybe an hour and we had some 30+ mph gusts. Still way too dry here, I think the dust bowl is making a come back.

Stay Safe Out There!