A day in the life

Wake up before the sun rises.

Start coffee.

Shower and dress for work.

Rummage around in the kitchen for something to eat. Realize someone (me) forgot to bake bread and someone (not me) has finished the last loaf. Swipe the very last, lonely pop tart from hubby's lunchbox, drop in toaster.

Lift piping hot, stolen pop tart from toaster. Watch in horror as it breaks, leaving a tiny corner in hand, and smashes on the floor.

Consider eating shattered floor-tart. Decide stomachache isn't on today's agenda and settle for snack bar and coffee.

Attempt online banking while eating. Become frustrated with 'page not found' message...over and over and over. Give up, finish coffee.

Feed cats. Notice pregnant cat is no longer pregnant. Wake Little Sis and help search for kittens. Find none.

Go to work. Get very, very dirty.

Come home, scour hands, and eat while attempting to fix internet issues.

Give up on internet and help Little Sis search for kittens. Again, find none.

On kitten search, notice ripe berries. Suit up for berry picking (long sleeves, long pants, boots, one glove, long stick for moving brambles).

Fight rabid hoard of needle nosed, winged vampires. Lose exactly two pints of blood to vampire swarm.

Pick berries for two hours. Lose exactly one pint of blood to berry brambles. Spend ten minutes picking thorns from skin.

Plan to make jam and blanch zucchini after bathing.

Tidy bathroom and finally take bath.

Decide that after a hot bath, I am useless and exhausted. Give up on making jam or freezing zucchini.

Wash and freeze one gallon of no-longer-blood-soaked berries.

Assist Little Sis in locking up critters for the night. Look for kittens. Find none. Assume momma cat noticed that babies turn into teenagers, decided to save herself some trouble, and ate them.

Wash dishes, fold laundry, do minimum number of sit-ups, tuck Little Sis into bed, and fall into deep, dreamless coma..um..sleep.

Repeat.

I married a lumberjack

I've never felled a tree. In fact, even watching DH do it scares the bejeesus out of me.

Look how tiny he is compared to the tree he felled.
What's amazing is that he can make a tree fall exactly where he wants it.
I don't mind cutting a tree up with the chainsaw, but I doubt I'll ever feel confident enough to cut one down.
Another amazing fact is that up until about five years ago, DH had never touched a chainsaw.
And yes, I'm fully aware that he looks like Tarzan in this pic. You sure don't hear me complaining, do you? *wink*

A star is born

A Star Nosed Mole, that is. DH is like the Crocodile Hunter of small animals. lol He captured this little guy darting across the yard. We didn't even know they lived here! I've always wanted to see one up close. They are super cute! Of course we let him go, back to eating insects and just looking cool.

And FYI, these little guys eat insects and grubs and pretty much leave gardens alone. 

Garden notes

This year I am trying to keep records of what I've planted, when I planted it, and when I started harvesting. I'd hoped to weigh each day's harvest, but that hasn't been happening. Instead, I'll keep a list of how much I put up (freeze or can) and when. This will help as we try to produce enough food to last until next year's harvest; we'll know about how many plants we need to produce x amount of food. Of course this will vary with the temperature and weather conditions each year, so overplanting is always a good idea.


Here's what we've planted and some of the results so far:

• Potatoes: planted 50 lb each of Yukon Gold and Kennebec



• Onions: planted 5 lbs each of red and yellow



• Peas: Snowpeas and Little Marvel. The peas are now done and the Little Marvel didn't do well this year.



• Lettuce: gourmet mix



• Other: cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, turnips, rutabaga. We are on the second planting of turnips and rutabaga. The kohlrabi seed must've been old as we only have two kohlrabi coming up.



• Carrots: Danvers and fingerling



• Radishes: French Breakfast. These are great- not too spicy or woody and are not as apt to make a person belch. Ew. lol



• Corn: Planted one pound of Kandy Korn seed.



• Beans: Mostly Kentucky Wonder Bush, but a few are Tendergreen Improved Bush and Contender Bush. I have about 183 plants, I think, and so far we've harvested enough for two meals, but it's still early.



• Tomatillo: 12 plants



• Cucumber: I planted at least one seed packet of each kind: Burpee Pickler (a total dud, not one seed germinated), Pickalot Hybrid, National Pickling (got our first cuke from this vine today), Sugar Crunch Hybrid (these are producing like crazy), Straight Edge, Marketmore, and Lemon.



• Tomatoes: We have over 120 plants including: Celebrity, Amish Paste, Sub-Arctic Plenty, Early Girl, Sungella, Champion, Japanese Black Trifele, Siletz, Supersweet 100 (cherry tomatoes), and Pink Globe, Red Zebra, Marglobe, Brandywine, Big Mama (a paste tomato) plus a few volunteer plants (this means they just popped up where some tomatoes fell last year.)



• Squash: At least 24 zucchini plants actually came up, including Green Gem (producing like mad), Black Beauty, and Burpee's Bounty. We also have 12 Bush Pink Banana squash, which I've never had before but hear is super tasty.



• Pumpkins: Conn. Field, Jack'o'lantern (another dud), Casper (white), and some small pie variety (sorry, the name escapes me at the moment).

• Melons: Collective Farm Woman (I've grown these before and they are amazing), Moon and Stars watermelon, and of course Sugar Baby.



• Amaranth: Love Lies Bleeding, Hartman's Giant, and Golden Giant

I know I'm forgetting something. *shrugs* Oh, well, it'll grow even if I don't list it, right? lol Oh, and did I mention we don't own a tractor or tiller?
Update 7-22-09: Over the weekend, DH and I processed and froze 24 quarts of zucchini and three quarts of green beans (thanks to Little Sis for being my official Bean Breaker). Then we immediately went out to the garden and picked another 50 lbs of zucchini. That will be about another 24 quarts once I get it processed.

An update

My apologies to those of you that have left comments and received no response. I do enjoy comments, and I always read them, but things have been hectic lately and I've had very little time to post responses. Please don't be discouraged and feel free to leave comments as often as you like.

DH and I have been very busy with work, kids, grandkids, the garden, various projects, and each other. We always enjoy summer and stay outside as much as possible, even when we aren't knee deep in weeds or lumber.

We did manage to take a two week vacation. We accomplished very little, then visited his family in the south, where I worked very hard holding a chair down on the porch. (That means I did nothing but sit and enjoy the southern accent, y'all.)

I can't even tell you how wonderful it was to have a break after the chaos of the preceding weeks: getting ready for the grad party, helping Little Sis with her 4H stuff, finishing up the garden, working on the house, etc, in addition to our regular jobs. I'm not usually the resting type, but DH is a master at getting me to relax and enjoy life. Without him, I'd get so frazzled that I'd just spontaneously combust.

And now the garden is coming on, which means canning, freezing, and pickling. The wild blackberries are also just about ready to be picked, so I'll add making jam to the list. I'm still working three days a week, which works out great for me. I can do the canning on my off days, in between Little Sis' dozens of commitments and my regular chores. Blanching and freezing can be done after work, or at least the harvesting can, since I'm already sweaty and dirty when I get home.

So now you know why my posts are short lately. Overlook any typos or poor grammar, please, since I'm usually still half asleep when I post around 6 a.m.

The taming of the shrew...

...or at least I think it's a shrew.

DH found it while cutting hay. We took a few pics and then let it go. Shrews, after all, eat a lot of bugs and bug larvae.
If you know exactly what it is, leave a comment. Thanks!

Knee High by the Fourth of July

I'm about 5'9" or 5'10", and the corn is over my head and hasn't even started to pollinate yet. I'm hoping for a bumper crop!!