Ut-oh

I just realized I haven't been to town for the free wi-fi in a while. I'm just feeling a little tired every night after I get everything done. I will post a couple pictures and do a full post in the next day or so....

Sort of a Milestone

Look at this beauty! Found him/her on the kitchen curtain this morning. Ah, the joys of having no window screens.

This post is sort of a milestone for me. This is post number 300! I spent the day thinking about this whole blog adventure, all the way back to when my only followers were shywolf, grumpyunk, mayberry and bullseye. I am so blessed that all of you have chosen to be a part of this adventure with me. Thank you everyone, God Bless.

Today was kind of a lazy day. I spent the morning restacking 400 bales of hay. I pulled the entire stack down to the barn isle and changed the way it was. The chickens let me know I didn't have it stacked well enough to please them the first time around and they threw around 15 bales on the floor, right out of the middle. let's see em knock them down now, LOL. I also moved a bunch of the panels I have around here so I could get the horses to eat down the near waist high grass in the barn lot. The ticks and chiggers were getting to be a bit of a pain in the ass from having to wade thru that grass tending critters. It looks like we're not going to get the mower fixed this season. We just don't have anything left after the bills and fuel each week. This sucks.

This evening, I spent a couple of hours cleaning up my kitchen. Every day it's a complete and total disaster without me ever going in it. Long story, not going to get into it here but I can assure you, it's never ending and very depressing. I took a break about half way thru it and picked some produce from the front garden. A nice, fat zucchini, some sweet peppers that went right into the quiche, some yummy beefsteak tomatoes and some kidney beans. Pods were dry but the beans still need a little drying. My cat Squeakers helped me pick the beans, she was stealing the pods out of the bowl and eating them. I guess she likes kidney beans. Hope she doesn't decide to start eating them right off the plant or I'll not have any beans left!

I'm still picking blackberries every other day. I need to learn how to carry more than one container at a time, LOL. Maybe I will whip up some jam tomorrow.......

This weeks hay baling

I know it's a really small picture but the cell phone doesn't take em any bigger! The regular camera is holding on by a thread so a hay field adventure is definitely not on the agenda. Not too bad baling today, a bit more humid than I'd like but it's hay season, it's going to be icky. I have 500 bales put up now with around 300 bales worth still laying on the ground. Not quite dry enough to bale today and I'm hoping the thunder clouds spouting the lightning go around the hay field tonight.

I now have 3 gallons of blackberries in the freezer. I had to put them in there to be on hold while I finish up the haying. Can't have them getting mushy and molding on me before I can mash them into some jam!

The beefsteak mortgage lifter tomatoes are about ripe and the romas need a little calcium. I'm seeing a little blossom end rot on them. Not really that big of a deal, I just cut the end off but still, a few tums in the water bucket and they should come right out of it.

Not much else is going on around here. I did get the mortgage paid ( Thank you Lord) so we're good for another month. Geez, I hate to think like that but we're doing the best we can with what we have. No extra to fix the broken stuff around here tho. Soon, I hope, keep the prayers coming....

It's that Time Again!

Look what I found on the way to the hay field! I just happened to be poking along on the tractor, looked over toward the ditch and they caught my eye. Of course, after I raked, I had to go on the blackberry hunt. This is what I found. The majority of first crop are still red but very close. These were the middle berry of the first end clusters. Only on the east side of the road tho, the west side were all still green. Must be the daylight thing. I'm on my third day and a second round of raking, all the rain we've had is causing the bottoms of the winrows to not dry properly. Can't be baling any wet hay, those are barn burners and i can not afford to burn a barn down,
especially one of mine! No hay for the loft of the old barn, I still can't do anything to shore it up but it's not shifted any more than it originally did. I've already got 400 bales in the bottom and there's only room for around 150 more. What I have on the ground waiting to be baled should fill it.

Not much else going on, I can't seem to get much done with my time being taken up with the haying. too hot in the kitchen to be cooking much and a couple fried eggs late at night is about all we can stand. Morning coffee is getting to be a chore with all the heat in there. Not something we haven't dealt with before, it just seems to be dang hot sooner than normal this year.

Sweet peppers and cucumbers are producing like crazy, a couple tomatoes have finally come red. I ate them last night with the fried eggs. Hopefully the Romas will turn soon and I can start processing my sauce for canning. The zucchinis are doing well and the dill is about ready to be clipped, again. I love my fresh herbs.

I haven't used the haybine since the repair, I might cut more this evening. I hope it fixed the problem, I don't know if I can take any more disappointment. We had to go rescue the daughter off the side of the road early yesterday evening. The fuel line fix her boyfriend did for me did not last. What part of 'double clamp it" didn't he understand? So, 10:30 last night I was laying in the dirt in the driveway, putting the fuel line back on with gas pouring down my arm. I put the fuel line all the way on the fuel pump nipple and got 2 clamps on it easy. Hope it stays put now!

The old broody hen that was setting the rotten eggs hatched out 4 of the 6 eggs i gave her. Boy, was she mad when I stole those chicks! I hated to do it to her but the cats will kill the chicks if I don't. So, she got mad and claimed another nest to set on. That poor hen is gonna set all summer.

Well, time to go check the hay rows......