Happy Summer

 

Hello there! I thought I would stop in for a fast post. Is that an Oxy Moron? I have been gardening, and canning and picking and cleaning and those kinds of things that seem to take over my life in the summer. Today its going to be 104 so I have to get outside to water before the sun comes up and it seems that sitting becomes impossible this time of year. All of that to say, not many posts.

I could not be happier with the vertical growing this year. I love how it looks as it climbs upward. But note to self, next year put them lots further apart. I also love my seeds I bought from Baker Creek Seeds. They have exceeded my expectations. When Ben and Megan got back from here to North Carolina, she had a ten pound box of seeds from Baker Creek waiting for her. Isn't that a wonderful welcome home gift?

I have so many spaghetti squash growing now. The last picture is of the runner beans. I just love how they have grown to the top. I am sure that they are starting down the other side now. I took these pictures yesterday. I can't wait until all of the sunflowers begin to bloom. I have to just come out here so much during the day. It really is a wonderful place this year.

The big foot had to come out to protect my tomatoes. I am having a fight with the birds over my ripe tomatoes. I thought maybe if I put him out here he would be kind of a scarecrow. Gosh he makes me laugh.

This was what I picked yesterday. One of the goals I set for myself was to not go to the grocery store and to feed us with what we grew. I am also canning something a bit every day. That has been a challenge but it is doable. I made stuffed bell pepper and green beans for dinner last night. Yesterday I made zucchini relish. I also used my beet juice to make boiled eggs.
 We just love those kind of boiled eggs. It always reminds me of my grandparents and opening the fridge when I was a kid and seeing them in there. My grandpa must have put them in his lunch. He always took his lunch in this lunch pail that my brother has now. Every time I see it I think about how in the summer we would come in hungry from outside and eat the cookies he would take in his lunch. He never complained even once. Gardens remind me of them, because they always ate out of the garden too. I feel very rich having all of this food at my finger tips.

This is a tiny butternut squash. I just love baby vegetables. I can't wait until the melons are ripe.
I have also been hooking. I hook a bit in the early morning because we have so many skunks about right now, that I wait for them to go to bed before I go outside to take care of everything.

This was the first rug I sold. I decided that since its my pattern, I could make another. I really love hooking chickens. I am doing the background now so its pretty mindless.

Its a fun little rug to hook and not as big as my whale rug, which is so hot to have on my lap. I really need to hook more.

I hope you are enjoying your summer. We are almost to solstice. Its so nice to have those long summer nights isn't it?

Have a wonderful day,
~Kim~

Author Unknown

How good it is to let our memory wander
And travel back across the fruitful years
To count how many miles we've walked together!
On pinnacle of dreams, through vales of tears,
Along the level ground of every day
We've made our way.
In sickness and in health, in joy and sadness,
Together, side by side, sunshine or shade,
We've worked toward common goals, found
satisfaction
In all the hours of which our years are made.
All things were possible because we shared,
Because we cared.
After many years, we still hold dearest
Of all life's blessings anywhere on earth
The trust and honor that we give each other,
The love that gave our other blessings birth.
Praise be that I am yours by plan divine,
That you are mine!

Welcome June!

 

I love that today finally feels like summer. Today the skies are blue, the wind chimes are singing softly to itself. The yard is green and my flowers are spectacular. We won't talk about the weeds, that really enjoyed the rain we had in May. I have always been thankful for spring, but this year I am happily looking forward to summer. My beets are ready to pick and get packed in jars. That will be next week's project. We had moved our berries this winter and I knew we wouldn't get very much, but I thought maybe enough for at least one cobbler. Nope, something went out there and ate every single berry. Every one. It was kind of startling to go out and not even a single red one left.

We have these strange foxes that have moved in so maybe its them. They don't have fuzzy tales like a fox, more like a dog/fox hybrid. We were working in the garden and it was noon and I had my chicken out with us and it wanted a chickens so bad it was willing to take the chance with us there. Even Sasha spotted it. I haven't lost any chickens so that's good.

Here are a few of the garden pictures I took.

Our first bell peppers.  I don't think we have ever grown bell peppers that looked like this, and I know we have never had them this early.

The plums are getting ripe. We just haven't had many warm days yet. I wanted them to be ripe with Ben and his family were here and I would check to see if any were ripe but they never were.

 

I can't ever seem to get the whole garden in one shot with my camera. Its becoming such an oasis to me to be out here in the early morning. There is always something to see. I couldn't go out last evening and this morning when I went out I was surprised at how much things had grown in the night.

I planted 18 tomatoes from seed this year. All eighteen are loaded with tomatoes. I am going to have my hands full when they start to get ripe.

I think the cattle panel arches are my favorite thing in the whole world. What a easy thing to have for arches. I can't wait until all of them are covered in vines.

These are called Tigger melons. They are kind of a personal melon. I think they like really warm weather and I think next week when we start flirting with 100 degree temps these will finally take off.

I planted pumpkins just one row and in the hole I also planted sunflowers. I am hoping the pumpkins will climb the sunflowers. I tried it one year and it worked pretty well. The pumpkins were good because they weren't on the ground and the squash borers didn't go up on the vines off the ground. That is why I am doing vertical gardening this year. I have dug and read and watched videos of the different things people have tried to keep their vines safe. Only in one place did I see where someone said, that "an old timer mentioned he used sulfur around the base of the plant." We found food grade sulfur on Amazon and I hope it will do the trick. I am desperate to not have the bugs win.

This year I decided I wanted Elderberry trees. At our first house we had a very nice one, but since I was a very new wife, mother and gardener. I told the kids to not eat the berries. So they called it poison berries. Years later, when I was learning about herbology. I came across one of the best things to have in your garden is an elderberry tree. Everything on a elderberry is good for food and medicine, the bark, leaves and fruit and even the roots. In one of my herb books  was a picture of the poison berry tree we had had in our back yard. Boy, did I kick myself. I decided this was the year I was going to put some in and I bought four different kinds. They really like it back here. I am so happy to see them growing like they are and hopefully someday I will get berries to make syrup.

Welcome June! I am so glad that you are here and the weather will hopefully settle down.
Thank you so much for stopping by today,

~Kim~

It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.

---Maud Hart Loveless