Gardening.

First some photos from the other morning. I thought these were pretty neat. I drove out to a different area to see the foggy sunrise. These were actually taken pre dawn and I was home by the time the sun appeared through the mist.

We had a pretty nasty storm that afternoon that dumped 2 inches of rain in less than a half hour with high winds that toppled our corn.

Thankfully there was no hail so the corn survived.

The photo below is the corn the next morning. But it is upright now.

Before it got too hot, I picked the carrots and the green beans.

Yes, I put a dinosaur in my garden for fun. I sent this to my youngest grandson who adores dinosaurs. He can name the type this is, I can't.

I spent the morning out on the porch with Charlie getting things ready to blanch as soon as we had a break in the weather.

After blanching them, I found to my surprise that I only had enough to make two bags with my vacuum seal!

I had to make a Saturday morning run to the post office to pick up a large parcel that they wouldn't deliver so I thought I'd run to the store to get a roll of bags while I was at it.

WHAT a mistake! 

First, no vacuum seal bags...the shelves were barren. And second? The place was over run with moms and kids with no masks and sense of distancing.

Wait. How did it become this way? One year ago, none of this would have bothered me [the kids and crowds]. 

Anyway thanks to my Kenosha friends I could still dry my carrots and beans and vacuum seal them in pint jars. 

I ordered the bags on line when I got home.

So this is what the carrots look like after being dehydrated.

7 trays of green beans fit in a pint jar, that is about 14 servings.

I will mix and match some of my dehydrated foods to make mixed veggies for soups this winter. It is quite handy to open a jar and shake it up then add it to broth.

I like to also seal the veggies in small frozen packets for meals.

I'll end my Saturday here.

Tomorrow I'll explain my little Bear-y ~~~ Berry adventure.

Gardening and Tools

Once upon a time, my husband bought me a fancy little cultivator Echo machine thingy. He said it would be so easy to use between the rows of the garden and even the ad looked fantastic. Wow, just with a piece of machinery, I could keep a perfect garden.

Yep. It worked once and it was hard to control and it rattled and vibrated my hands so they hurt. It was nearly impossible to pull start and it took a mixed fuel combo.

And it was so noisy!

A friend purchased a Hula Hoe for me and I really liked that too for a bit. I still use it along with the standard old fashioned hoe.

But this old fashioned cultivator works so much better.

It is quiet, easy to start up [yeah I'm kidding] and so easy to control. It does a wonderful job. And the only part that would need fixing would be the handle if I broke it.

Sometimes simpler is better.

Brawn and Brains

The picnic table will get the chainsaw treatment...safely by my neighbor. This was project #2. The ancient glider that was rusted through.

Hubby bought this in 1998 and it was aged then. I painted it a few times and finally just gave up on it. For several years it has just been moved from spot to spot to mow around. No adults really sat in it ever. The kids love it and after the last time kids nearly tipped it over, I figured it needed to be dismantled.

I got out the handy dandy 7/16 inch wrench and 3 got bolts off. None of the other nut thingys would budge. With quiet determination and lots of rolling sweat, I began to saw and rip the old wood away from the bolts.
Charlie supervised.
Again.
No cuss words.

Now to bend the metal at it's stress points and make it smaller so I can toss it away.

Next on my agenda was fencing in the forest. I need/want to stay busy and productive.

The 4 wheeler loaded with fencing supplies and a partial bucket full of pasture grass seed. I'm seeding the 'ridge road' that was re-dozed by my farmer friend.

I want to get the mules into the forest to browse on the undergrowth. I used to have donkeys, mules, and horses in the forest but after 2007, the repairs were just too overwhelming for my husband.

My idea is to do a bit at a time. I'm using electric braid fencing which is easy to manipulate and string. The hard part is pounding the t-posts and carrying the post pounder along with all the posts into the woods.
Hah! I now know how the 4 wheeler operates so I can use the trailer to transport the items I need instead of hiking back and forth, I can use my time more wisely.

Bless the person who invented these little pound in posts. That means a lot less pounding of the T-posts and less pain to those arthritic hand joints. I must laugh though. Yes it hurts sometimes a lot. But my OT person said "Use it ... or Lose it."
I'm using those hands.

I had a round about discussion with my neighbor regarding fencing and straight lines. I argued that yes...he could saw down a tree if it was in his way. However, I'll use that tree with a temporary nail in insulator and make my fence according to ease of use and the lay of the land.

My idea was to use my brains to make things easier for me. He wanted [as my husband used to do...] perfect straight lines. I argued straight lines are for line fences and not 'sections'.

He promised to help.
Yep.
I got this too.

I'll take a photo of this area after the mules have been in for a week or two and see if you can spot the difference.
Tomorrow, if it isn't pouring cats and dogs, I will string the soft wire.

I must be getting much stronger. A year ago, I couldn't squeeze the hand break on the 4 wheeler, I'd given up all thought of ever operating it. My Occupational Therapist told me to work my hands. I did. Out of necessity I've worked my hands, elbow, and shoulders. I'm stronger now than I've been in a few years.

Yesterday I unloaded 50 bales of hay and stacked it in the shed. I felt fine after that. However I did take breaks often.

Tonight was another story. I couldn't for the life of me, sit inside the house after supper and let daylight fade away.
I went out to the garden and picked.

I tossed weeds over the fence to the mules. They liked it.

I picked an ice cream pail of green beans and set them on the porch.

I asked Rich to come out and see the beans. He hesitated, I told him the temperature was fantastic on the porch. He and Charlie came out.
I started to snap the ends off. I have time tomorrow afternoon to blanch the green beans and freeze them.

Rich surprised me by sitting on the bench that my Kenosha Gang made for us...he asked if he could help with the green beans.

We spent an hour in silence. Listening to the birds, the cattle, and the mules all make their evening noises as we silently snapped beans together.

And it was good.

This is a plus in my book. He is taking interest, he is participating. He doesn't see it as a big deal, but I do.

Charlie observed.

So I count this day as a good one.

It started with a gorgeous sunrise....


And ended with a warm and loving sunset...

No act of kindness no matter how small is ever wasted.
~~Aesop

August 21st, The Big Eclipse. Well...

The Big Day came and went without much ado. I'd seen that the forecast was for thunderstorms and overcast skies.

I actually did go outside during the partial eclipse. Of course with such a huge event, "The Event of a Lifetime" as the news was calling it, I had to be a part of it.
Someone may ask me years from now, "What did you do during the Great American Eclipse?"

Well.
I went and worked in the garden. The skies got gloomier for a bit and I took advantage of the subdued lighting to take some photos.

I took these of my Cosmos flowers. The blue behind the flowers are Forget Me Nots.

I will be collecting the seeds from the cosmos for next year, along with my 4 O'Clocks, Malvas, and an interesting climbing plants that is getting ready to bloom with bright red flowers.

Nothing much happened during the partial eclipse. My day was normal. The mules ate, pooped, and the young ones aggravated the older ones.

I dried 8 trays of cinnamon apples and picked vegetables.
Today?
Freeze and dehydrate sweet corn!

I do dislike processing corn. It is so messy!

However, tomorrow this little beauty arrives.

It certainly will help me with the apples. I have a 5 gallon bucket full of apples to make into jelly and applesauce.
The tomatoes are getting ready to blast off too.

And I hope to get some Concord Grapes at the Farmers Market so I can restock my grape jelly. I have enough black raspberries to make into jelly also. This food strainer will separate the seeds from the berries.

Yum!

The eclipse was a good excuse to go into the garden and admire my flowers.