Let The Harvest Games Begin

Let The Harvest Games Begin

We'll rush to get it all harvested, it's always a mad rush, getting everything chopped, blanched, dehydrated, canned, dried, and otherwise put up.  Generally all while working in a 87+ degree kitchen.  We purchased a propane turkey fryer burner a couple years back, it's a lifesaver to be able to get large quantities of hot water going in the back yard for blanching veggies as well as for canning, (canners dump constant steam into the kitchen for an hour and a half at a time.)

Rose already has some herbs drying in the kitchen, the herbs are all doing well.

Raspberries around the farm are starting to come in, it's always the hottest part of the summer...  Blackberries aren't too far behind. Our blueberries all seem to be coming in one berry at a time...  not ideal.  Berries all get washed, and frozen in small batches then added to a larger bag once they are all in.

This week we picked and put up some Kale, it hasn't been through the frost yet, (a frost makes the kale sweeter). Swiss chard and soon, turnips (maybe this weekend)

Kale before blanching.

Squash are setting buds and small squash, our tomatoes have lots of buds... we were late putting them in so we're a couple weeks behind.

Storms came through last night Wed evening, not much in the way of rain I saw Mass. got hit good.

And the sky grew dark...

Potatoes are growing like weeds with all this rain, once we get the heat back they'll be no stopping them.

Did I tell you the Turkeys came back? We had a tom and hen with some poults stop by the deer yard, I never saw the Tom, Rose did, they've been here twice that we know of, they aren't being a pain, dogs don't seem interested, they'll polish off any grain the deer don't finish. As long as they don't make a mess of the yard, or the deer yard we're OK with them. 

The yard is blooming like crazy

The Herb buckets are doing well

Basil

 Rosemary and Turnips below that Rose planted for me

 

 Turnip

I was adding mulch to the potato bed late this afternoon, I mowed the lawn, damn it was hot, I was surprised at the levels of compost, leaves to. still in the garden beds.  We cooked up a batch of Swiss chard for dinner, twas good, I need to cook it for a little longer than I did.

Turkey's and four or five poults came back Thursday afternoon..

 

Rose is working in the dining room this week, she's pulling all the teapots down, cleaning, and re-arranging. 

 

We're replacing the clothes dryer, we have a bad case of might as wells, so we're replacing the bathroom floor as long as the washer and dryer are already out of the room.  This'll be my first foray into installing some of that snap together waterproof vinyl plank flooring, ought to be fun.

Stay safe out there

 

 

The Rush is Real

The Spring Rush is Real

So much to do, so little time to do it all...



We did get the Cabana up a couple a weeks early for Mothers day, we normally wait 'till a couple weeks after as we've had some wicked winds go through about that time that have taken down cabana's in the past. As it was we had to fold over the cushions and put bricks on them to prevent fly-away cushions and pillows.


Victory Garden 2020
Clearing the unused garden plot was quite the chore Rose did a great job and tore though the vines, roots, etc., We had to use the car to pull some of the rogue plum trees out of the ground. Chainsawed several of the larger trees and some old 6' dead ornamental shrubs, 6+ trailer loads of debris and branches, etc. later we had tillable ground.

Rose's dad's 50+ year old Troybuilt rototiller, we replaced the engine 5 years ago. I filled it up with high test and It started up on the first pull. I think the best thing to happen to small engines is a fuel shutoff valve. That is until you forget to turn it on first...  Once I figured out the tiller controls, the control markings were gone long ago, it moved forward the tines turned and the tilling commenced.  The 20'x75' garden took about 2 hours to finish up.  Several years of leaves and grass clippings were raked over the beds and tilled in.  Lime, peat-moss, and fertilizer went down all tilled into the loose soil. Rose cleaned up a smaller 3'x75' foot bed for flowers along the back edge. Tiller ran great, my understanding of exactly what the various controls and plethora of adjustments is getting better as I go, go figure...  We did finally burn through adrive belt I'll have to replace before we put the tiller away for the summer.

Tilling in the leaves and grass clippings

Rose tilling with her dads 50 year old Troybuilt tiller. (Look how much fun she's having)  "I could do this all day she quipped"!

Rhubarb on the left from the homes original owner, Grassy area on the left are blueberry plants

I hoed, "is that a word" up the raised beds 3' wide and 20' long, Rose will start planting everything tomorrow, and putting in poles for the pole beans, we're only a day late this year from our yearly goal of Memorial day.  We're putting in 3 varieties of Tomatoes, Brandy-wine, Mr Stripey, and a black cherry tomato we love, pole beans, a wax bush bean, peas, potatoes, parsnips, summer and winter squash, kale and Swiss chard.

Garden Fencing went in on Sunday, we've several woodchucks this year, we used all but 3 or 4 of the pig panels we'd accumulated over the years, framed 4'x10' panels of heavy wire, and 3 gates were erected, 6' fence posts were pounded in at each panel junction.  Looks way better than I thought it would.

 

Rose planting flower seed Monday

Funny we thought we were weeks ahead with the yard work earlier this spring... We cleared a couple areas of the yard that were neglected then covid-19 came and priorities changed. During the brush clearing we managed to pull Nana's glider out of the Raspberries, we'll sandblast it, have the broken frame welded, and repaint it, hopefully be good for another 75 years.

The bees seem to be back, I'm amazed at the qty of honeybees and even numerous bumblebees that alight the flowering trees, bushes, and low growing flowers in the yard. I ducked under a Russian Olive tree branch and all I heard was the buzzing above. More bees than I' saw the entire year the last two years.

The yellow-jackets that we ran into last fall don't seem to be back this year, good riddance.

Put in some grass seed, the dogs have made a bloody mess of the yard. $40 worth of grass seed and no rain since the day I put it down.

We went for a drive to the hardware store Saturday and I swear Covid-19 was over, thousands of motorcycles, boats, campers etc. all on the roads going somewhere.
There's always hope I guess.

And the beat goes on.