I Need Some Geritol

We made a concentrated effort yesterday to get the last of the wood split up and stacked in the shed but didn't even come close to making it all the way through the (huge) pile. Even thought it was a physically hard work day, I didn't feel bad at all. Could be I over-did it a little though 'cause I didn't sleep well last night. Very restless and couldn't get comfortable.

This morning neither my brain nor my body wanted to function. But things in the garden needed to be harvested so I gave it what I had to give . . . which wasn't a whole lot.

Picked more peas. The inner two rows (the ones that have grown together and now form an almost impenetrable jungle) are not maturing. Nice, large, long pods but the peas inside don't seem to be growing. This could be because they aren't getting enough sunshine. Or air circulation. Or oxygen. They may never mature. I'll just have to wait and see. I did get three more 2-serving bags shelled and put in the freezer.

Roy helped me with the raspberries and we both were stuffing them in our mouths while trying to make sure at least a few made it into our buckets. We brought in about three more quarts of them.

Then we set up our beet processing assembly line again. I harvested the Forono beets and put seventeen more servings in the freezer. The above picture shows the bags laid out on cookie sheets in the freezer to freeze solid before I pack them all in a bigger bag. (They kinda look like a bunch of bags of nonpareils, don't they?)

I had enough beets left over (3-1/2 quarts) to make a batch of pickled beets. It would have been nice to get this done tonight, but I have done run out of steam. (Problem was I didn't have any to start with today.) I'll put the beets in the refrig and that will be first on my list to get done tomorrow.

While I was cooking the beets today, Roy took down a very tall, very dead pine tree in the yard. The only thing I had to do was to pull on the cable he had attached to the tree so it would fall in the direction we wanted it to. Now I'm a pretty strong German gal and usually have the muscle for the job at hand, but even after Roy had cut the tree nearly through, do you think I could get it to come down? Nope. Roy had to run over to where I was while I kept tension on the cable. He gave one little tug and T-I-M-B-E-R-R-R, down she came.

Oh, well. I'll take some Geritol tonight before bed and be fine in the morning. (Do they still make Geritol?)

P.S. A bunch more quilts have been added to the "Slideshow" over at Mama Pea Quilts and I'm going to write a new post there as soon as I finish this one. Check it out if you wish.

Good Idea . . . Or Bad?

I've just started another blog. Made my first post today.

As I explain on the new blog (Mama Pea Quilts), for some time I've wanted to create an online market for my hand made baby quilts. In conjunction with that, blogging about my quilting activities seemed a logical thing to do so . . . ta-dah! Mama Pea Quilts made its debut today.

But, yikes, can I keep up with two blogs? Heck, can I keep up with the quilting when the quilts start to sell? (Hmm, actually selling the quilts . . . well now. Wouldn't that be a pleasant happenstance!)

I guess I'll find out the demands of both new endeavors soon enough. In all seriousness, both selling my baby quilts online and writing a quilting blog is something I look forward to very much and have entered into with a lot of enthusiasm.

Even if you're not a quilter, the blog may hold some interest for you. (Maybe it will convince you to BECOME a quilter!) Or perhaps someday you might be in the market for a hand made baby quilt for your own wee one or grandbaby or to give as a gift.

When you have the time, I'd love it if you'd take a short side trip over to Mama Pea Quilts . . . and be sure to share your comments with me.

This new venture of mine? I think it's a GOOD idea and I'm rarin' to go!

Mr. Woodchuck Pays A Visit

A couple of minutes ago, our dog raised one heck of a ruckus outside. I can describe her bark by saying it sounded like, "It's a squirrel, but bigger! MUCH bigger!”

Although Zoey was very unhappy about it, we got her inside while Roy and I went outside to investigate.

This little guy was unhappily trying to make himself invisible under a piece of equipment in a little lean-to attached to the side of the house.

Roy got behind him and tried to coax him to travel on to safer pastures, but he was not eager to step out into the sunshine and leave.

We think he was just a teenager, probably from this year's litter. He seemed to be hesitant to step off the slab of the lean-to. (Probably because of the large lady holding the camera directly in front of him.)

Eventually he did take a hard right and disappear under our deck. The deck is surrounded by flower beds and shrubbery and our dog has been trained not to go under there so I think Mr. Woodchuck will be safe until he sees his way clear to leaving us humans . . . and that barky dog . . . behind.

Puttin' Up Beets

We had two sets of drop-in visitors this morning and by the time the last left, my tummy was growling like a bear and it was lunch time. Accck, I hadn't even had time to figure out what my plan of action for the day was.

Over sandwiches for lunch, Roy suggested it would be a good idea to get the beets harvested and in the freezer while they were still tender. Umm, that's a job I'd prefer to start first thing of a morning, I thought. Then he added, "I'll help." It's a deal! Let's do it.

I planted one bed (4' x 8") of beets this year. Not quite a third of the bed is Early Wonder Tall Top and the rest is Forono. I thought I'd save the Forono for pickled beets so I went out and pulled all of the Tall Tops for freezing.

We got a wheelbarrow almost full.

Roy cut off the stems leaving 1/2-1" on the ends.

We got a 5-gallon bucket nearly full of beets. He filled the bucket with water and let them soak for a little while to get off most of the dirt while I went inside to set things up in the kitchen.

Then he rinsed each beet a bit as he transferred them to two smaller pails that I brought inside.

I washed each beet fairly well in the kitchen sink before sorting them into the different sizes.

Most of them were large, a fair amount medium, and just a few small size. The small ones cooked to 'just tender' in 30 minutes, the large ones took a little over 45.

When they were cooked, I put them in cold water to stop the cooking action and make them cool enough to handle. I could slip the skins off with my fingers with no problem. Easy peasy.

Then I cut them in uniform slices.

Roy was official packer, putting them into bags for the freezer.

Haul for the day: Twenty-three 2-serving bags. I think I'd like to shoot for a total of 40 servings (a serving being enough for the two of us) so that means we'll have to do this again using some of the Forono beets. There are plenty of them to use for freezing and still have enough for making pickled beets. Niiiice crop of beets!

I'm Dreading Pea Picking

When pea planting time rolled around this spring, I used some seeds I had left over from last year and also planted a different variety I had ordered for this season. I planted the peas in four rows, one row on either side of two trellises next to each other. The older seeds were used for only one of the rows on the outer side of a trellis. This variety matured in less days and they are the ones I've been picking in the last week.

Now the other peas are nearly ready for harvesting but look what I'm facing.

WHAT was I thinking when I put these two lengths of pea trellises so close together? I had more than ample planting space in the field garden this year. I could easily have spaced them farther apart. Much farther apart. How about if I use the excuse that I'm new to gardening and didn't realize how "bushy" the pea vines would get? (This is actually my 45th year of gardening but if you spread that around, I'll feel really stoopid about this pea fiasco.)

I'm facing the task of picking down the middle of this jungle to harvest our main crop which should be ready sometime early next week. How will I do it? With a bowl in one hand and a machete in the other? Granted, I honestly think the pea vines have grown thicker and busier this year than normal because of the cool weather and lots of moisture, but I still set the trellises much closer than they should have been. What happened? (Maybe I need my meds adjusted? Nooo, don't take any. Did I have a little nip before heading to the garden to measure for the trellises? Believe me, if I imbibed mid-day I'd never even make it out to the garden.) What a blunder.

I'll end this post with a picture of my first slicing cucumber this year.

No, no, I don't mean the first one I've harvested. It's the first one I've found forming. Think there's any chance we'll get edible sized ones before Jack Frost visits us?

It's The Little Things . . .

When we got done with the inside and outside remodeling of our place here about twelve years ago, we tackled some landscaping. Among other things, we purchased three rose bushes. Two of them bit the dust the first year after being planted, and I nursed the third one along for a couple more years before giving up on it.

Because it wasn't totally dead, I didn't want to just toss it so I asked Roy to replant it by our L.P. bulk gas tank which was kinda sitting right out there in the open with all its ugliness on display. We planted a couple more things near the tank in our attempt at camouflage, and also let some wild bushes and shrubs grow up.

All in all, not much attention was paid to the little rose bush except every now and then when one of us went to read the gas tank we would notice that it was still hanging on although it never bloomed.

This year look what has appeared.

Okay, so it's not the most gorgeous thing you've ever seen, but I have gotten more joy this summer out of seeing those proud little roses blooming away, just like they know what they're doing. Who knows, now that it's come this far, in a couple more years it may cover the whole gas tank!