Sunny smiles
It's so hoooottt!!!
Going on 2 weeks now of 90+ temps. Geeze lousie!
I can't complain though. I'm just happy it's not cloudy and grey.
The garden is going great. On just 1 of my totmato plants I counted 39 tomatoes (still green though, not ripe yet). And we've got about 15 plants, so I am expecting literally hundreds of tomatatos over the summer.
The cucumbers are doing great too. I've made 6 jars of pickles so far. Yum!!!
I am trying my hand at fermenting foods because I would like to really get into the probiotic stuff. I'm also making Keifer but have not been able to get a good drinkable batch yet. I jarred dill carrots yesterday and have to let it ferment for the next 4 days before eating. I need to try souerkrout too but haven't yet. The dill carrots are my first attempt at fermenting food.
Also we got melons!! We've got a Canteloupe the size of a softball growing away right now. A lot more female flowers too, so going to wait to see if those get fertilized and start to grow us more canteloupe.
And finally a watermellon got fertilized and is growing! SO exiciting. these watermellon have taken forever to leaf out and produce female flowers.
The bees and butterflies in our yard are abundant. I've never even seen so many bees. Any flowering plant I walk up to at anytime of the day will have at least 5 bees on the flowers. And its crazy how quickly they can pollinate. They can get through 10 tomatillo flowers within like 20 seconds. We love watching them work away and are content knowing there are no chemicals on any of our plants and we are not making these little bees sick.
The worldwide die off of bee colonies is so monumental now that even President Obama announced a strategy to the help the honey bees. Canada is changing policy too for the bees. And watching them work away everyday makes me love and value them so much more than I ever have. They are incredible forces of nature.
There are lots of butterflies in the backyard too. It's so beautiful just watching them flutter around back there. They are always in pairs or threes and it makes me wonder what they are doing. Are they playing? Is it a mating dance? Are they being territorial?
And lately the hummingbirds have been out and about and getting agressive with each other. 3 different times this week I've seen hummingbirds fighting.
The zucchini are doing great. A consitent supply of at least 5 zukes a week. The yellow beans keep providing too. Our grocery bills have really plummeted this last month ever since the plants have picked up producing in this heat. I used to have to go to Trader Joes every 3 days and now its just like once every 2 weeks. And I never need produce there, just eggs, broth, cheese, wine etc.
I've frozen batches of zuchinni for use in soups during the winter, and will be doing another round of that later today.
We also picked a good 40 pounds of cherries a week or so ago at a local farm, and perserved that for use all winter.
Our garage freezer was empty at the start of June and it's now about 30% full.
Went to the movies last weekend, saw Avengers 7 and Jurasic Park. Both were decent movies. I like watching those visual shallow films in the theater because of the big screen affect.
Oh also I got an electric pressure cooker, and it's Ahmazzing!!! It's crazy how quicly food cooks. I can make entire meals in just 20 minutes, and it cooks RAW beans in just 20 minutes! I don;t know how I survived without this little cooker.
Anyways I am still overdue for a picture update. Will have to do that soon..
Back to work.. Until later..
Going on 2 weeks now of 90+ temps. Geeze lousie!
I can't complain though. I'm just happy it's not cloudy and grey.
The garden is going great. On just 1 of my totmato plants I counted 39 tomatoes (still green though, not ripe yet). And we've got about 15 plants, so I am expecting literally hundreds of tomatatos over the summer.
The cucumbers are doing great too. I've made 6 jars of pickles so far. Yum!!!
I am trying my hand at fermenting foods because I would like to really get into the probiotic stuff. I'm also making Keifer but have not been able to get a good drinkable batch yet. I jarred dill carrots yesterday and have to let it ferment for the next 4 days before eating. I need to try souerkrout too but haven't yet. The dill carrots are my first attempt at fermenting food.
Also we got melons!! We've got a Canteloupe the size of a softball growing away right now. A lot more female flowers too, so going to wait to see if those get fertilized and start to grow us more canteloupe.
And finally a watermellon got fertilized and is growing! SO exiciting. these watermellon have taken forever to leaf out and produce female flowers.
The bees and butterflies in our yard are abundant. I've never even seen so many bees. Any flowering plant I walk up to at anytime of the day will have at least 5 bees on the flowers. And its crazy how quickly they can pollinate. They can get through 10 tomatillo flowers within like 20 seconds. We love watching them work away and are content knowing there are no chemicals on any of our plants and we are not making these little bees sick.
The worldwide die off of bee colonies is so monumental now that even President Obama announced a strategy to the help the honey bees. Canada is changing policy too for the bees. And watching them work away everyday makes me love and value them so much more than I ever have. They are incredible forces of nature.
There are lots of butterflies in the backyard too. It's so beautiful just watching them flutter around back there. They are always in pairs or threes and it makes me wonder what they are doing. Are they playing? Is it a mating dance? Are they being territorial?
And lately the hummingbirds have been out and about and getting agressive with each other. 3 different times this week I've seen hummingbirds fighting.
The zucchini are doing great. A consitent supply of at least 5 zukes a week. The yellow beans keep providing too. Our grocery bills have really plummeted this last month ever since the plants have picked up producing in this heat. I used to have to go to Trader Joes every 3 days and now its just like once every 2 weeks. And I never need produce there, just eggs, broth, cheese, wine etc.
I've frozen batches of zuchinni for use in soups during the winter, and will be doing another round of that later today.
We also picked a good 40 pounds of cherries a week or so ago at a local farm, and perserved that for use all winter.
Our garage freezer was empty at the start of June and it's now about 30% full.
Went to the movies last weekend, saw Avengers 7 and Jurasic Park. Both were decent movies. I like watching those visual shallow films in the theater because of the big screen affect.
Oh also I got an electric pressure cooker, and it's Ahmazzing!!! It's crazy how quicly food cooks. I can make entire meals in just 20 minutes, and it cooks RAW beans in just 20 minutes! I don;t know how I survived without this little cooker.
Anyways I am still overdue for a picture update. Will have to do that soon..
Back to work.. Until later..