A Bear Strolled Through

A Bear Strolled Through on Friday Afternoon

We had a Black bear stroll through the field on Friday 8/21, I only had my cell phone so the pics aren't the best.

He was in a bit of a hurry...

Today is the Weare town-wide Yard sale we may do a drive around

 

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!

The End of July

The End of July

I hope you're all staying healthy, This Covid-19 thing... we're still staying in for the most part except for the occasional foray to Home depot, food shopping, and occasional take out pickup.   Restaurants are opening here, little league has started there were 3 fields in use when we drove through Goffstown during the week. 

I think we're still having problems with this new Blogger that Google came out with nobody is getting notified of the new Blog posts. ;-(

It's been too hot to do a lot around here, Rose is working on the camper.  I would like to get the boat out on the water, but I'm not looking to go out there in 90+ degree heat though. 

Probably going to the shooting range this weekend, I have some work to do on a Ruger 10/22 rifle and Rose would like to shoot her pistol some more.  Ammunition is in short supply I'm hearing.

The flower gardens are enjoying the heat, I'm still waiting for the first tomato of the year from the Victory garden, we've got to tie up the Tomatoes, a couple of them fell over they have outgrown their four foot cages and the weight did the rest. Rose saw a cherry tomato starting to go red, soon, soon...  Tomato Sandwiches, Yum!

The 5 pointer

The Doe and her Fawns

Stay Safe!

Pickles in July 2020

Pickles in July 2020

Rose put up more pickles on Saturday. The Claussen style pickle recipe that we found is a winner.  I was in the mood to mow yesterday so I mowed the lawn, then fired up the DR Field & Brush mower and finished a section of the field, more poison Ivy out there than in previous years, we'll do some more targeted spraying of the stuff in the fall.

Victory Garden update
Had to spray the squashes and broccoli the squash borers and other bugs were having a field day.   No tomatoes yet, I think we're several weeks away still.  Jarrod's garden is doing well, he's picked some tomatoes already, they have a bunch of lettuces going too.  We'll see how the Zukes and summers do those borers have curtailed production.  The winter squash are still going crazy and have left the confines of the garden fences.  We did finally get some rains over the past week or so so we're not as worried about the well.

The Deer are finally bringing the fawns by for a visit. 

 

The Bucks

The Garden and the Critters - July 2020

The Garden and the Critters

We had three Fawns playing in the yard last night just before dark.

A huge owl flew in and was sitting on a bird house roof last night just as it got dark, I could barely make out it's form it was so dark out.

Garden is coming in good we had a few peppers last night with a nice marinated steak, I picked the Broccoli yesterday had a bunch for dinner, there's more in the fridge.

Squash borers are causing havoc with the summer zucchini and blue hubbard. I'll have to get some spray out.  We'll spray the plants next year earlier.

Rose has Collards, picked, blanched and in the freezer, Rose is going to try them with Apple juice, it's supposed to remove some of the bitterness.  Rose harvested Swiss chard and froze them up for soups.  It's too hot to be thinking about canning in the house right now. I do have the outside burner we'll pull out once we're ready to begin canning.

Cucumbers, are going gangbusters, our first batch of Claussen type refrigerator pickles was started, we'll should have results in 3-4 days, 2 days in looking good so far, waiting, waiting...

We're going to start dehydrating produce as it comes in to reduce the amount we're having to put in the freezer or can.

We thought we'd won with the woodchucks... Nope...

The Fawns were out for a romp, this is one set of twins. I grabbed the camera but missed most of the fun them frolicking up and down the deer yard.

A couple of the does grabbing a bite to eat

The Bucks stop here

The Bucks stop here

Went to the kitchen for a cup of coffee, the dogs ran to the back door looking to go out for their morning run.  Looked out quick before I turned the door handle, we have to look quickly out in the deer yard, Hannah will bark at the deer if there are any out there, Zeb on the other hand will sit on the hill and just watch them. We always look quick before we allow them out to ensure no one is out, if there are deer out we hold the dogs in for a while, the deer are generally not in the yard for more than 10 minutes or so in the morning.

This morning there were two bucks out in the deer yard, looks like a 4 and a 5 pointer.   I ran to grab the camera and caught these two bucks grabbing a bite off the deer block and licking the salt lick.  I don't remember ever seeing bucks out in the yard other than the deer cams catching a pic every now and then.  This makes 3 bucks in a couple weeks we've seen.

Sharing the deer block

 

 

 

Early season sharing the block

Meandering off.

Licking the salt block

 

Garden Progress

 Garden Progress - July 2020

It's finally the weekend!  Hope you and yours are well.

We're doing well, trying to stay mostly isolated, going out to go food shopping or get gas for the genny, and lawn mower.

The garden's going gangbusters, still. 

Broccoli heads are coming along, the Kale not so much, we have cukes now, Rose picked a bunch yesterday, tomatoes are slow growing, Peppers we'll probably pick the first ones today. Swiss chard and collards are growing we'll pick more today too. Summer squash are just hitting 6" or so we'll have to pick a few for dinner. The other winter squash Acorn, Butternuts, and Blue Hubbard have completely taken over the far end of the garden. Many of the spacious isles are now barely passable.  No beans or peas yet they are all still behind.


The Raspberries have passed, never had the time or inclination to go picking this year, the Blackberries should start to ripen in a couple weeks. The local Blueberry place is selling pints for $5 each, ours should be ripe later next week.

Deer are still coming in every afternoon in shifts, the first at 3pm and then another before dark.  Looks like we have 3 fawns this year, that we have seen anyway.  We had a 4 point buck coming in for 3-4 days but we haven't seen him lately.

More to come!

Stay Safe!