Thunder Boomers

Okay, blogger cooperated today so here it is, the big tree laying in the yard. Lightning blew that poor thing right in half. It was a really nice tree too, a darn shame. Hubster and the boy spent about 2 hours cutting on it, got all the branches cut off and piled up and part of the main section cut for firewood. It's still a mess and a work in progress. As hot as it's been, it's going to stay that way for a little while.

We've got between 10% and 30% chance of rain this week but I went ahead and cut hay anyway. I got 12 acres cut before a keeper broke loose. I did my best to straighten it and put it back together but the stress on the injured part was too much and I ended up spending $15 on parts this morning. Not a stitch of shade out there so the repair is going to wait until I get done on the internet ;)

The boy and I ate the first of the cucumbers last night as a snack. We make a sour cream, onion and dill mix and dice the cucumbers into it. Now that's a piece of heaven! We never get tired of eating it and I'm looking forward to a whole summer of cucumber salads :) Our first zucchini is in the fridge waiting to be made into a sweet bread. Tomatoes are teasing me, still a light orange red, just not quite ready to go. The ducks and chickens killed my melons so a replant is in order for sometime this week. I will put those row covers on the replant to protect them. Darn critters, LOL.

Last nights bath was one I honestly have to say I did not miss the hot water tank for. The cold water was truly a blessing after a whole day of pouring sweat in the hay field. Tonights bath will be the same way.

I'm thinking of planting the second round of cornmeal corn. I might get around to tilling the spot up in between the 2 bean spots tonight or tomorrow night. It will be a late September harvest, just perfect. Hopefully i can fit everything I want to get done in......

UGH!

Yep, that's it, ugh. hot and steamy today, thanks to another round of rain. Check out the funky sky. This was what the clouds looked like on the tail end of todays little thunder boomer. I got ran out of the corn rows by the rain but hit it again after it quit. No sense in whining, I Was covered in mud before the rain, might as well finish it out covered in mud. Too wet to run the tiller down the rows so the good old fashioned hand pulling is the order of the day. You could actually see the humidity coming out of the ground. It was awful but it had to be done. I also weeded the peas, the hot peppers and most of the beans. I still have the onions in front of the house and the pintos still to weed but they will have to wait a day or 2 unless I get drowned out of the hay field. Come rain or shine, I gotta get that darn field cut off. It's gone to seed and the grass is dying so it has to be cut. I've got 6 bags of cans, hope it covers the fuel. Not sure what I'm going to do about string yet, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Oh, I am now eating fresh cucumbers and zucchinis! The tomatoes are just a hair away from being ready to go and the blackberries are almost ripe! They are right now a bright purple-red, not quite turned black purple yet. another few days and the blackberry cobbler, pies, cakes and jam will be the order of the day. I so love my blackberries, can ya tell? LOL

Other than that, not much is going on around here. Just watching it rain and watching the weeds grow taller than the plants. I'm just hanging in here.....

Tuesday Downtown

Well, here I am, sitting on a bench outside the local health food joint, connected to the internet! Thanks to a pal, I now have a wi-fi close to home that i can use when ever I need to! how cool is that! They're closed today because of the town working on the water lines so I am outside, on a bench, playing on the computer. Passersby think I'm nuts. Oh well! LOL

First things first, no, I have not made a batch of soap. I need to tho, I am down to 2 bars here so in the next day or 2 I will whip up a batch of soap. I will be about a week or so before it will be ready to go Kati, hang in there! Good stuff isn't it? Also, I will get the blog search box installed right after this post for you.

So, here's some pictures like I promised. Things are really growing like mad around here and the nasty storm that rolled thru last night around 7pm dumped 3" of rain on us in an hour! Yay rah, more weeds and skeeters. At least it's cooled off by a few degrees. yesterday was about unbearable but today it's not too bad. Nice breeze to blow the humidity away. I also took a picture of the container tomatoes but they have grown so much and look so wild and spread out, you can't really tell what's what in the picture so I passed on adding it. The dang things have gone completely ignorant, over growing the support cage by almost double already and over flowing onto the porch and the other containers i have close to it. I guess next year i will know to use that compost soil a little more sparingly!

Oh, I almost forgot, sorry Unk! The hot pepper spray that repels the bugs- a spray bottle with some powdered chili pepper(a heaping tablespoon), a drop of any kind of dish soap( I use ajax) and fill it up with water. Dont shake it up or it's all bubbles. It works on all kinds of bugs, even aphids and the horn worms hate it too.

Farm Update

Here we are, another week has gone by and what have we been doing? Well, sweating our hind ends of mostly! It is pretty darn hot down here in southern Illinois. The humidity is thick enough to cut with a knife. The rains have been hit and miss the last few days but enough to keep me out of the hay fields. The scorching heat is keeping me watering the tire garden even with the rains. I am pleased to report that everything is growing well here, even the weeds! I spent 2 hours weeding the sweet corn, beans, peas and hot peppers. I'll bet the darn biting flies sucked a pint of blood out of me! Those things are vicious. The humidity brings them in full force. I can really empathise with our ancestors as they struggled to live in the wilderness of our country. No air conditioning, no hot water unless they sweated to boil some, no running to the store when they thought they needed something. Everything that had to be done was done by them or it did NOT get done. It's hard work living a simple life. Now, doesnt that seem kind of silly? Here I am, living a simple, basic life and it's so much work? It is tho, especially when it would just be so much easier to buy my food from the grocery, pay the neighbor kid to mow the lawn while I sat in an air conditioned house watching TV and eating popcorn. No critters to tend, no garden to weed... wow, what a boring life that sounds like! Well, at least if I lived like that, I'd not have a couple dozen horsefly bites all swelled up on me and itching. Ah, I think I'll just keep going with what I'm doing now. The food tastes so much better and the sense of freedom providing for yourself gives you simply can not be duplicated.

I'm about a week from starting to can up tomatoes! I am very pleased with how the tomato plants are coming along. Not a single horn worm yet but the japanese beetles are already out in full force and since i don't have any peach trees now, they are crawling all over everything else. Time to mix up some hot pepper spray for them.

I just found out that the library is a Wi-Fi and I can bring my own computer here and use the internet! How cool is that? Thank you to the folks that donated a couple dollars to the home internet fund, much appreciated. I still a bit short but hopefully it won't be long before I can get it all lined out. So, another update on Wednesday with some pictures.....