Vacation

The big camping trip is just around the corner.  I have some lose ends to tie up.  I did my last cleaning job for the next couple of weeks.  I have the garden pretty well cleaned out.  I do have to get rid of some more melon and squash vines over the next few days.

I still have to make sure the food is in order.  I do have a good start on that.  I have to run to town for a couple of things tomorrow.  I have my clothes packing started.  We are definitely on track!

I'm hoping to give away some onions, tomatoes and potatoes tomorrow.  We'll see.

Notable Quotable

*Don't freak. By "Spiritual" I take Harvard Psychiatrist George Vaillant's brilliant and studied definition, "Defining spirituality as a combination of love, hope, joy, forgiveness, compassion, faith, awe, and gratitude that binds people together (“Spirituality is more about us than me”). He argues that it has a biological basis, not a religious one. 

Melon Madness

Melon madness is late this year but is finally happening.  Five more large watermelons picked this morning.  All going in the freezer this evening.  Also a couple of French cantaloupes.  Picked some cute baby patty pans and small yellow crooknecks.  I'll freeze those up tonight, as well.

Cleaned th egoat pen and got them some new straw.

Cleaned the dog crate and the dog igloo and got new straw in both of those.  Ready for our doggy guest.

The weather is gorgeous, mid eighties and cooling off fast at night.  Break time!

It is 7:10 PM and it is already getting dark out.  I have cut up 4 melons and I am working on the last one.  It will be too dark to run the rinds out to the compost pile pretty soon but I needed a break and a cup of coffee so here I am.

Worked on the camping gear.  I feel pretty organized.  We'll see on Thursday when I am putting the finishing touches on the trip.

Got the dishes rolling.  Second load of the day.  Got four loads of laundry washed up and put away but have one or two more left.  Need to sweep and especially mop the kitchen floor and wash those kitchen rugs after several days of sticky melon madness.

Cleaning a house tomorrow.  And then I am officially on vacation for a couple of weeks.  Yeah!!!!!!

Melons

Yep, the melon season is winding down with a bang!  I got six watermelons today and froze them all for smothies this winter.  Also, 2 Eel River melons and a couple of Swan Lake Honeydew style melons. The Rocky Fords are nasty and I fed them and their vines to the goats.

The kitchen was a sticky mess but thanks to the nice tile and the really big stainless steel sink we put in this spring it was really  easy to clean up.

The goats are sick of melon rinds so I took a big bucket of rinds straight  to the compost pile.

I got the camping gear out of the shed and parked by the breezeway but I haven't managed to sort through it so I guess I will worry about it tomorrow.  I have Tuesday and Thursday to work on cleaning up and organizing the gear.  Maybe tonight I will organize the first aid kit.

New Plants

Did I mention I went to the state nursery a few days ago?  Well, I bought the Jeffries pine and Austrian pine replacemnts.  I got those in this morning.

I bought these gorgeous Winter berry plants.  The tree at the nursery was a green ball about 20 feet in diameter with branches almost all the way to the ground.  Like a giant shrub.  They get beautiful foliage in the fall and they get really cool looking berries that hang on the tree all winter.  Had to have them.  Also, they were in five gallon pots and cost $8 apiece.  Quite the spluge.  I got five of them.

So, I am wandering around the Westside Windbreak deciding where to put them when I decide that one of the Staghorn Sumacs is really in the wrong spot now that I have finished the long shed/shade cover/greenhouse area.  I have an imaginary driveway to the back couple of acres and I want that to be wide enough to pull a truck and trailer in there.  We don't have horses but someone in the future might.  I have always thought a small sturdy cart pony would be nice.  I probably won't ever get one but I wanted to leave the option for some corrals and animals in the back area open for us or for future owners of the property.

So, I decided I had to dig that sumac up even though it is a good four feet tall now and has a couple of babies as well.  It wasn't too  bad of a job and I think I will move them down the line a ways.  That way I can keep some of my fancier trees up closer  to the house.  Now I have even more trees to plant so I better get crackin'.

Camping

Well, the annual big camping trip is coming up soon.  I made snack packs today with some really good stuff this year.  Cashew clusters [with pumpkin seeds - delish] and tropical dried fruit and nut mix, Payday candy bar, beef jerkey, hard candies, dry roasted almonds, one piece of gum.  Should keep us going for quite a few hours if we get hunkered down somewhere and don't make it back to camp.  And just plain good eatin' if we do make it back to camp.

Got little Penny PooPoo the Corgi's food organized.  Yeah, I decided we will take her with us.  She is so cute and she loves camping.  The big dog will stay home.  He likes guarding the yard and his doggie friend is coming to stay along with her owner.

Hay

Moved the hay around today.  We  consolidated the grass hay in the metal shed.  We then got quite  a few of the alfalfa hay into the main shed. The main shed already has straw on the right side and we haven't used much yet so nothing to do on that side.  We then got the straw out of the greenhouse and into the shade cover with the four bales of alfalfa we couldn't fit into the main shed.  We had two of the grass hay in the greenhouse so we put those in the middle of the main shed and we'll feed that first.

We should have plenty of hay and straw to keep us going until next summer when they start cutting hay again.

Now that the greenhouse was cleared out I put the crates of onions and cayenne peppers in there to dry.  The one little pumpkin and the 4 or 5 small acorn squashes we left on the bales of straw to let them cure.  I have some more acorn squash to pick but I am waiting as long as possible.  They seem awfully small.  I only picked the ones that are starting to turn a bit orange.

Shopping

Went shopping for the forthcoming hunting trip.  Got the beef jerky, cashew clusters, dry roasted almonds, brie cheese, club crackers, fun stuff to eat on the go.  Also, some hard candies to go in the pockets and some gum for going over mountain passes or for when the mouth is feeling a little scummy:)  And Payday canndy bars with the peanuts for an easy boost with a little protein in it.

I bought some plastic egg holders since I have eggs coming out my ears and we can cook those up pretty quickly.  Plenty of bacon, too.  Ham and havarti cheese for lunches and quick dinners for when we get to camp after dark.  Forgot the split pea soup in a can.  It's the only kind Hubby likes for a quick hot meal with the sandwiches.   Of course, there will be oatmeal.  We like the old fashioned kind.

I bought some new bins with the snap close handles to put some of our gear in.  Some of the old bins are just plain old and I like the kind that have the snap close handles that don't keep trying to fly off in the wind.

We have a friend staying at the house and she will keep an eye on the pets.  This will be a mini vacation for her since she had to move back in with her mom and she needs a break.  Her dog loves playing with our Aussie.

Froze up a large watermelon, 2 Eel River melons and 2 swan Lake honeydew style melons.

I pulled all the onions yesterday and left them laying on the ground.  When I got back from shopping it looked like rain so we ran out, cut the tops off them and threw them into milk crates.  I hope they harden up okay.  I'll have to try to trade some for eggs this fall and winter.  I have yellow, purple and white and we can't possibly eat that many.

I think I will start picking the acorn squash tomorrow.

I pulled two more non producing summer squash since the frost will be here a little after October 1.  This way the goats get to eat the vines which are really hard to compost since once they are in the compost pile they make the compost pile hard to turn.

I also need to pull some of the finger potatoes and then put straw over the main rows of them to keep them from freezing before we can get around to eating them.

Watered the front thoroughly this evening.  Watering the Northside Windbreak over night tonite.

Went to the state nursery and got my 3 Jeffries and 2 Austrian Pines to replace what died.  Then I saw a new plant called winterberry.  They had big five gallon ones for $8 so I got 5.  They get about 20 feet tall and 20 feet wide and they have really cool berries that hang out on the trees all winter.  Have to get these ten plants total in this week.  Mostly won't need to add water lines but maybe a few.

Shopping

I went online to Johnnys Seeds and it turns out there is no winter rye available so I searched the internet and wasn't having much luck.  The prices were really high and shipping was outrageous.  So, I ordered a winter cover crop mix from Johnny's  that I am supposed to be able to put in in the fall.  I hope this works.  It was pricier than Johnny's winter rye but I still did better than buying winter rye on another site [although I would have gotten a lot of winter rye it was $70.  I cannot spend that kind of money on a cover crop] . I will have to seed the winter mix kind of thin but at least I will have something out there holding my dirt down and improving the soil.

Shipping prices have gone through the roof.  I ordered the wheels I need for the rolling barn doors on the infamous shed.  The price on the wheels was great.  They were on sale for $27.95  but so that was $111.80 but then the shipping was an outrageous $48.30.  The total was $160.  Still, at least this project will be done.  Honestly, that is probably about the price I would have paid at Meeks so....

I tried to get the wheels through the local lumber store but the guy at Meek's couldn't seem to get them ordered and it has been two or three tries for me to buy the twelve foot wheel bar for the large barn door.  I decided to wait on the bar since the bar we had shipped by Gardeners Supply a few years got a bit bent but now I will have to go by and tell him not to worry about ordering the wheels since I have done that.

Wrapping up the garden

Well, it is time to start wrapping up the garden.  I need this to be done as of October 1.  I picked another watermelon and several other melons.  Need to eat 'em or freeze 'em and keep doing that everyday for the next week.  Whatever isn't done October 1 is going to the goats.

I managed to throw some of the melon vines that are done to the goats and I took out one patty pan vine and threw it into the goat pen, as well.  If I get rid of the least productive plant at a rate of one or two a day I should have them gone in a week.

I picked some more cayenne peppers and I have them on the expanded metal wagon hoping to jump start their drying out.  I cut the pepper plants back so that as much sunlight as possible would reach the peppers that are almost ripe.  I also cut off all the green peppers since there is no way they are going to ripen up now.

I got a spade out and loosened up all the onions that are left in the garden.   I turned the water off on those rows a week or so a go and now it is time to get those into the shade cover and get them hardened up for storage under the bed in the guest room this winter.  I dug up some earlier this week and left them on the hay in the shade cover to dry.  Those can go into a milk crate and get put away in the guest room to make room for the next round of onions coming out of the garden.  Really, there are too many onions for the two of us but I am thinking that I might be able to trade them for eggs for awhile this fall and winter.

I have quite a few acorn squash and I should start picking the ones that are trying to turn orange.  Those need to get put under the shade cover as well and then later I can store them under the guest bed, too.

We only have a few butternuts which is my personal favorite.  I am waiting until the last minute to pick those.

We need to get the hay out from the greenhouse so that I can get our rosemary and pineapple sage put in there.  I froze some of the rosemary so that we could use it this winter.  Dried rosemary is like pine needles so we are trying the frozen route.