Farm and Garden Update: Harvesting and Canning

The zinnias are looking lovely everywhere -- outside and inside.

 I have not posted an update on the kittens lately.  They are all spayed now and getting friendlier by the day.  My two friends who each wanted one have not followed through as yet. So we still have 3 little kittens with no mittens. They like to come up on the deck for the morning's cereal leftovers.

 Fresh veggies are feeding us daily from the garden.  It rained most of last week and this week is supposed to continue to be rainy.  My tomato plants seemed to need more air flow with all the wet weather so I pulled out about 10 plants.  Now the remaining plants should be healthier and I get to  make things with the fruits from the plants I "thinned" (green tomatoes).  The cousins' crab apple tree fell over and we have been using the windfall from that too. Onions and squash are coming in well.  The beets and kale are finishing up. Oh and green beans! I am finally having a good bean year.  I planted the Cherokee bush beans this year and they are thriving despite some bugs eating their leaves.

 Lots of tomatoes are splitting from all the rain. Luckily I am not trying to sell them or anything.  They still taste heavenly and will be great for salsa and sauce.

 I made spicy pickled beets and picalili relish this week. The relish uses green tomatoes.  My jar total so far is 105.

 Hubby made some ladder roosts for the turkey and chicken hoop houses. They all want a place to roost off the ground at night anyway and it was messy trying to make-do with branches.

 Our little guinea keets are getting so big. 

Beach Days, Lancaster, and a Parade

Another wonderful trip to Lancaster! I have stopped taking as many pictures because it is often similar to the last time. We meet at our favorite White Horse diner for breakfast, go to Miller's Natural Foods, hit as many fresh produce stands as we can, stop at a park with a merry-go-round, and try to check out a couple new shops. 

 We went to the Lancaster Costco this time, to see whether they had any special Amish supplies.  They had a place to park horses and buggies (like a run in shed :) and many of the prices for things were 2-3$ cheaper than around our area.  The only other major differences that we noticed were a bunch of German/Russian type foods - lots of bologna choices and pickled things.

 We have been going to the different lake beaches every Friday.

 

We went to our annual town parade and fireworks. I love that it is small scale and that we can walk to the fireworks site from the parade.

Field Trip: Fort McHenry

  For our field trip this week we went to check out Fort McHenry National Monument. We had never been before.  We went with our buddies and had a picnic lunch. It was a beautiful day.

 They have special reenactment shows for the summer visitors. This was a demonstration from the Fife and Drum Corps.  They played Revolutionary and Civil War era songs. Then they demonstrated some of the calls that drums were used for: call to arms, call to eat, wake-up calls etc. Their instruments are replicas as close to the original style as we can make today.  He explained that the drums don't have dampers like most do today because the drums needed to be loud enough to be heard on the battlefield.

 Brother S says that he wants to be a drummer...

 We looked around the fort's various halls, rooms, and ammunition storage basements. 

This is one of the more modern cannons.

 

 This was another reenactment station -- she was making cookies for the troops in a dutch oven. 

 They had a demonstration of arms and firing techniques.  Front line firing while the second line reloads, all at once firing, every other man firing, that kind of thing.  It was incredibly loud! and their were some misfires, which is true to real life for troop in those days. It was so interesting to see them using powder and muskets, and having to reload after each volley like they would have back then.

 Their was a lot of smoke after each round.  The guide told us that that is why in descriptions of battle fields you hear about things being so smokey that it was hard to see.

Summer Injuries

Why is it that when daddy has to go to Boy Scout camp everyone decides to get injured? On the Friday before he left brother S and little sister L were playing in the church gymnasium and POW! had a full speed head collision.  Here is a series of photos starting the first day with a new one each day or two:

 It is mostly all better now (10 days later). We went to an ophthalmologist to be sure that his eye was going to be unaffected and she said that his vision seemed fine.  There is a slight risk of orbital fracture, but the risk of that was lower than the risk of cancer caused by scanning the head area, so she advised us to wait and see whether the eye seems sunken in at all.  And if that happens then they will scan/xray that area in preparation for corrective surgery. So far it looks okay.

Just in case brother S's injury wasn't excitement enough for a month or so, brother M was trying to make a hole in a paper cup and stabbed his finger. It was a deep split and I knew that it was going to need stitches.  I just love going to the ER at 9pm with all of my kiddos! uggh.  At least it was not too long of a wait and we got home by 11:30pm.

And these are only the people injuries for the week.  We also had a lame dog (Icy broke her toe) to take to the vet and a kitten with an abscess (Tiger). 

Farm Fresh: Summer garden update

The garden is showing off its summer abundance these days.  So many flowers! Mixed tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers, and eggplant are all growing well. 

Lemongrass

 The weed pile composting under black plastic with cantaloupe seeds sprouting.  This worked great last year and made beautiful dirt by the end of the summer.

 Lots of basil, marigolds, and zinnias growing in with the tomatoes.

 Popcorn crop with squash planted underneath.

 I harvested a couple rows of onions this morning.

 Comfrey growing in the orchard -- part of my permaculture plans.

 Our local orchard had a bumper crop of tart cherries so they reduced the price to $1.75/lb.  Needless to say we have been back several times to pick more! I now have plenty of cherry jam, cherry pie filling, and cherry chutney.   I went to pick up 4 dozen canning jars from a craigslist ad over by one of my old favorite orchards. I stopped in and bought a bushel of cucumber seconds and tested out a new recipe: Amish Blue Ribbon Pickles.

 We also somehow found time to go to "Fiddlers and Fireflies" at a new (to us) nature center.  They had great live music and crafts.  We took a picnic dinner and had a grand time with our buddies.