Friday, August 21, 2009

A day off???

I had a day off today since I worked last weekend at my day job. What is it about days off that I seem to work harder than I do at work? But I guess that's typical of those who choose the lifestyle we do. There is always so much to do, especially this time of year that there aren't enough hours in the day.
But before I regale you with the day's adventures, a few pics of from Wednesday evening. We had a HUGE storm come through. Well, it wasn't that big of a storm in terms of length but it RAINED!!!! The creek flooded and washed our new bridge off it's footings and caused lots of erosion. The sun came out shortly after the downpour. Here is our little creek:
Our placid little creek bed is probably 2-3 feet deep and a foot wide.
It was well out of banks.
We went out in the downpour for a while to look at the run off. It was quite impressive, and of course, we all got soaked!
Wet boys after the storm- in dry clothes.
We had 1.75 inches in about 15 minutes. On top of the several inches we have had in the past few days and more rain today. It has been WET!!!
But on to the adventures of the day. First, I slept in until 6:20!!!! Wow!!! The kids caught their buses for the second day of school. K has said he has made a few friends. And I12 said that Jr High isn't as bad as his sister made it out to be.
V and I had a lovely day to ourselves in the house. We had a lovely breakfast for two, I made a quick foray into the garden before today's rain arrived, then we ran errands in town (home improvement store, tracking down a few more school supplies and grocery store run) and had lunch. After lunch, I got busy in the kitchen.

Hmmm, what am I making with my morning harvest???

It doesn't seem like much for that much work!!!
I ended up with tomato sauce (5 quarts and 4 pints) and 4 pints of tomatillo/tomato salsa. I have some more tomatoes that I'll have to deal with tomorrow and lots more ripening on the kitchen table. I'm really glad that we kept my old table in the kitchen even after we moved the dining room table into the house. It is nearly covered with ripening tomatoes. I've discovered that we are having trouble, not only with mice but with opportunist Black Soldier Fly larvae that are getting into some of the tomatoes that have been gnawed. If I don't catch them early enough or if the tomato is too green, the tomato will rot from the inside out from the larvae burrowing into it. I think we're having this trouble because there was so much horse manure lying around and supposedly these fly larvae live in poorly decomposed manure or in decaying plant materials. Grrr. Just what I needed, more competition for my tomatoes.
Then, there is the even more exciting news!!! We had a new harvest this evening.
Our first sweet corn!!!
Yeah, I know, I could have let it grow for a few more days to develop a bit more but it was so tasty and we've been waiting so long. There is more out in the garden and we've still got my heirloom variety that is just tasseling now. Since I got it into the ground so late this year we're getting ours much later than most people around here. I'm still excited, this is the first corn I've ever grown in my own garden. Oh, I grew up with sweet corn by the bucket full and Roger and I occasionally planted a bit of ornamental corn, but this is my first real harvest of corn on my own- ever!!! We've never before had enough room for corn as well as everything else we wanted to grow so I'm quite pleased with myself. I think some of my impatience in harvesting it is that I'm so worried that the raccoons will find it and destroy it before we get much. But we've never seen much evidence of raccoons here. Rabbits, mice and deer but not raccoons. Hmmm, I'm sure they're out there and they worry me.
Now, I've still got a full weekend of work ahead of me. I've got laundry, gardening, cleaning, canning, and the continued work on the house and unpacking. Sheesh! It will be a relief to go back to work on Monday.

6 comments:

  1. Judy, I don't blame ya for rushing into the sweet corn-it looks wonderful.
    Sounds like you've had quite a bit of rain too. Hope your bridge didn't get ruined!

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  2. I'd have gone right into that corn too - congrats on your first harvest! Storms have been passing here, a lot of rain for a short time (maybe 10 minutes), dramatic thunder/lightning, but little actual rain though. Yours are quite different. Wow. Gack on the larvae. Is there something you can do to kill them off, or do they just keep coming back?

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  3. I think I work harder on the weekends than i do during the week. And yeay for corn! Ours isn't ready yet - got it in the ground too late, but my tomatoes are going like gangbusters. Which is good for the sauce and the ketchup and salsa:)
    Kris

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  4. What lovely looking corn! We too finally had a big storm last night with more forecast for the weekend. YAY! It provides a little relief. I am enjoying looking at all your veggies and what you do with them.

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  5. Judy, I love the young corn more than the fully developed corn. When you eat it, it just pops in your mouth. I planted candy corn this year and it did great again. I'm glad to see you're getting tomato's canned up. The deer jumped my garden fence and ate mine.

    We're also getting some hard rain showers. They last about 15 to 20 minutes and dump about an inch of rain and then they're gone as fast as they came. It rains so hard it doesn't have time to soak in.

    Is there ever a real "day off" or is it just a myth.

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  6. Shoot, sorry to hear about your bridge...guess V will have to secure it somehow huh? More things to add to your list. We have been so enjoying all the fresh corn from around here. We have it almost every night. That and tomato slices from the pots or from the neighbors. Hate to see the fresh veggies come to an end. I bet the boys had a grand time in the rain!!...debbie

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