If you can believe it.....

see that bowl of cherry tomatoes up there - that HUGE bowl of tomatoes? I picked those from our garden yesterday! I kid you not. And half an hour later I threw them all down the garbage disposal!!!

Let me explain why. . . . . first let me just say, I really need to take some outdoor pictures of our 'garden'. A few of you asked a while ago how things were going, and I just never seem to get around to telling you (or showing you) about it. After the success we had during the early summer with all the zucchini and watermelons and the pumpkins, well lets just say 'we' (cos I can't blame it all on my hubby, although I've always insisted I don't really like gardening) have let things go a little out there, and to say it's looking rather messy would be a slight understatement. Things (and by things I mean weeds and grass) are taking over the beds where the earlier veg have died off, and we just never seem to get out there to take care of it. If I'm honest this is what annoys me about gardening. I'd prefer to do things on a smaller scale, but hubby 'went big' again this year and has done the same thing he did last year.... just let everything get too messy and now he doesn't want to deal with it.

All that said, the tiny tomato plants I planted from seed that never seemed to be doing well during the heat of the summer finally started going wild a few weeks ago when the weather turned cooler and we started getting rain. And that's where all these tomatoes came from... there's still a ton of green ones on there that I'm hoping will ripen over the next few days, although I'm not sure if they will now as we had a little bit of frost early this morning.

Anyway, I thought because I had so many tomatoes I would try and make some salsa with a packet of stuff I got a few months ago for this very reason. Long story short, I had to 'scald' the tomatoes in hot water to peel them and then de-seed them, but by the time I took the peel off and tried to squeeze out the seeds, there was very little flesh left. It was so messy and difficult to seperate them I thought I would just peel them and through the whole tomato in the bowl, seeds and all. After I'd done this with half the batch I came to the realization that most of what was in the bowl was slimey seeds and that wouldn't make good salsa at all. The other half were still in hot water so the whole batch went down the sink :-(

Tomorrow I will try to take pictures out there and share them with you. Today I started on my Christmas decorating. I will share pics of all that as and when I get things done. Although I am realizing that I don't really have that much stuff so a trip to Hobby Lobby or Michael's may be in order once I get everything unpacked ;-)

Can you believe it's Thanksgiving next week? What are your plans? Who's cookin the turkey? We will be having dinner at our neighbors house like we did last year because my inlaws are not here. So no turkey cookin' for me, but I will make my yummy 'make-ahead mashed potatoes' a recipe I love from my friend Heather, and I also might try and make the pumpkin cake on the front cover of Paula Deen's magazine!

OK, I've waffled on a lot today (or I should say tonight, as it's 7.37pm as I type this). I think it's about time I went and put my feet up with a glass of wine - care to join me?

I've changed my mind. . .

about having all 'those other blogs'! I know, I know, I should just make a decision and stick with it, but I gotta go with how I feel...... and right now I feel like it would be best (like I decided before) just to keep all my posts in one 'daily blog - i.e. this one! You see, I want to show you what we got out of the garden this week, and I want to show you what I cooked at the weekend, but if I keep those other blogs then really I should be posting that kind of news over there, which would leave me nothing much to post about over here - are you with me? or have I totally confused you all by now.

OK, suffice it to say, other blogs are 'closed' (until further notice), all news will be posted here.... except for any knitting related news (cos I'm gonna keep my knitting blog open, when I finally get back to knitting, which will be very soon) and that will be posted HERE.

So, with all that said, I can now show you the exciting thing that came out of the garden this weekend..... our very first W-A-T-E-R-M-E-L-O-N!!!

Here's Jason cutting it off the vine. . .

and nearly dropping it!

We were a little worried whether it was gonna be ripe enough, and hoped we hadn't cut it down too soon. . . but LOOK what we saw as I cut in to it. . .


Yay! IT's RIPE!

Can you tell I'm happy! (excuse the bed hair! seriously, what was I thinking, I should have taken a shower and put some makeup on before going out to 'harvest', ha ha) :-)

We are thrilled with this, and it tastes yummy. We have another one just as big lying in the watermelon patch that we will probably harvest next weekend.

Kristen is happy too. . .

she's watermelon's biggest fan you know!

A busy (but fun) weekend

After picking our 'harvest' on Saturday Jason and I spent a fair bit of time in the kitchen trying to cook things and 'experiment' with our zucchini and spaghetti squash! I was right about the squash, it was rather under-ripe and quite hard to cut in to it, but we did manage. I set about cooking it the usual way, by cutting it in half, placing on a baking sheet and baking it in the oven til soft. Then you are supposed to just scrape out the flesh and it comes out all stringy. Not so the case with ours.... I baked one half just upside down on the sheet (that one was mine), Jason wanted his wrapped in foil and loaded with butter, salt and pepper. Here they are below (Jason's has the stalk still on and I wrapped it in foil after taking the pic).

I cooked them for over an hour and here they are out of the oven....

That's my half you can see on the sheet pan, Jason's is still wrapped in foil. I think because it wasn't ripe is why it didn't come out stringy. All in all it tasted good but didn't have the stringy consistency, instead it was just soft squash, almost as if you'd mashed it.

Here's Jason's half after I took off the foil, you can see it's filled with the melted butter inside (not my idea of healthy eating!).

We also tried cooking our chili peppers. Jason found a recipe for stuffed jalapenos so used that recipe even though our peppers were a different variety.


We stuffed them with cream cheese, cheddar cheese and a dash of Worcester sauce like the recipe said, then you added crumbled crispy bacon on top. These turned out ok but we boiled the peppers first (as the recipe said) and found the peppers weren't spicy at all afterward. They were also a little too soft for my liking, but the cheese filling was yummy :-)

On Sunday Kristen and I went to church, and Jason stayed home and 'played' in his Farm! When we came back I made a yummy spinach salad for lunch then later went up to the gym with my neighbor Cheryl. What a difference having a friend with you makes. I did 30 minutes on the elliptical and then Cheryl and I did some upper body weights. It was so motivational having someone stand next to you, counting along with you. I feel like I have a personal trainer again and hope to get up to the gym with Cheryl more often.

Today is forecast to be hot again, so after I've done some housework I'll be taking Kristen around to the pool for an hour.

Daily Harvest

Warning: if gardening news bores you, please click your back button and go read another blog!

Just kidding :-) I know most of you who read this like to see what's going on in our little back yard. So this morning we went out to the Farm and harvested some stuff. Right now we get green beans and zucchini on a daily basis, but today we also decided we would harvest one of the spaghetti squash that seems to have finally turned from green to yellow. We aren't totally sure if it's completely ripe but we thought we'd give it a try because it seems to have been in this state for over a week now and not changing much at all. There is another squash on this plant so we'll let that one go a little longer. So here's our bounty from this morning. . . . .

We have 2 zucchini, and to the right of those two is one pickling cucumber, then we have some chili peppers, and a serving of green beans. You can also see the spaghetti squash (the big yellow thing) and to the left of that above the basket is another 'green' zucchini that I found this morning - yet another one that has been hiding itself from me. I doubt he'll taste very good at that size but we may try to get seeds from it for next year?

Thought I'd also share a before and after picture of our sunflower. I never got to post this picture last week (actually it's less than a week, I took this first picture just on Monday before my sister left). Here's Jason standing next to the one sunflower we have out there. (and the reason there's only one is because he noticed this tiny little plant weeks ago and figured it was a sunflower growing from seed from some he had planted the year before when our garden didn't do so well). Well this one was doing well. . . .

He has a metal pole in the middle of it now helping to keep it up. If you click on the picture you will see the metal pole sticking out of the top. And Jason is indicating the top of the flower with his hand.

Here's the sunflower this morning- just 6 days later. . . .

and again Jason is pointing to the top of the flower. Amazing isn't it. It's growing so fast. Right now there is a little flower bud atop all those leaves, and we can't wait to see it get bigger and open. And that thing really does follower the Sun. In the morning it's head is tilted toward our house, and by evening he's tipped his head the other way and is watching the sun as it sets on the horizon.

Other news - on our agenda today, I'm taking Kristen to a pool birthday party at 12 (til 2) then I might try to go up to the gym later this afternoon, or not! I am aching just a little from my stint from yesterday and I want to go again tomorrow afternoon with my neighbor, so I don't know if I should just take a rest day today? I'll decide later, depending on how I feel. Jason will no doubt be working in his home office until 8pm, when he'll be out in the garden again as the sun is setting. It's too hot to be out there before that. Hope you all have a lovely Saturday (and sorry this post got so long)!

Everything's BIGGER in Texas!

I've mentioned before that we have a few different squash growing in our garden. The main ones doing really well right now are the zucchini. We have two different types growing. I'm not sure of their names, but one variety seems to be the common green ones you find in your stores and the other one has a more stripey green skin (almost like a watermelon). I commented to Jason last week that this other variety didn't seem to be putting out much 'fruit'. We keep harvesting the green ones every day and I've made zucchini bread with them and also a zucchini cornbread casserole (I didn't blog about them at the time cos my sis was here and I just couldn't find the time).

Well imagine my surprise the other day when I went looking for zucchini and I found not one but two HUGE ones in the stripey variety. They have obviously been camouflaging themselves and because I hadn't seen them I hadn't harvested them. Jason was away in Denver at the time but I knew he'd be amazed when he saw them. Of course I had to get pictures.......

Yes, seriously, THAT is a zucchini you see and not a skinny watermelon! Kristen wanted you to see the length in comparison to her head!

and just for some real scale, here they are with a 'normal' green zucchini I harvested that morning too....

I think it's safe to say there's no 'black thumbs' around here ;-)

It's so quiet around here (sigh)!

Jason left for Denver yesterday and last night was one of the quietest I've had in a long while. Especially after having my sister and brother-in-law here for the past two weeks. I'm not saying they were noisy, it was just wonderful that the house was so full of love and laughter. Kristen was playing next door a lot last night and once it cooled down the kids were playing outside til after 8pm, and what with Jason gone..... well let's just say it was a little lonely for me :-/

But anyway, life goes on...... so I thought I should get back to regular blogging and give you a little update on 'the Farm' (which we still haven't named but just keep referring to it as 'The Farm'!). There are some new houses going up behind us and the other day we went over there once the workmen had left and took a quick look around. I was amazed when I looked out of the upstairs game room in the only two storey house over there and saw a birds-eye view of our back yard.... it looked HUGE! The next day the workmen weren't there, so I sent Jason over with the camera and told him to go take pictures (before someone moved in there). Here's what he saw......

You should click on the pictures to see them larger (and you'll see me and George on the back porch) ;-)

See that big patch of green grass in the picture above... we are seriously considering getting a pool in there for next year. We've hesitated until now because we think adding a pool might price us out of the neighborhood and we know if we ever need to move we would not get our money back when we sell. BUT.... let's just say after a week of nearly triple digits (and it's only June) we are starting to reconsider. The way we see it now, we don't have plans to move from here unless 1) Jason has made LOTs of money on the company he has part ownership in (and we wouldn't care so much if we didn't make a huge profit on this house) or 2) our wonderful neighbors moved out and 'crack-heads' moved in (and again, I'd be out of here so fast I wouldn't care if I lost money on the house!). So with those thoughts we may seriously call a few pool companies in the fall and have them come out and 'battle' for the job ;-)

The 'Farm' is coming along nicely, we've been harvesting lots of zucchini and green beans and patiently waiting for the spaghetti squash to ripen. We've even got a jack o lantern pumpkin growing which would be great to carve come October :-) Jason is out there every night and is loving it. He's been taking a ton of photos too so I'll try to share some over the next few days. I'll leave you with a picture of me, showing off our very first plate of cooked green beans.... and they were delicious :-)

The Farmer's in her DEN... and other news!

I've just spent the most wonderful weekend with my best buddy Sue and her hubby Doug. Sadly I have no photos to share just yet because I didn't even pick my camera up while they were here! I know, lazy of me, but I was kinda too busy looking after my guests, and Sue of course was snapping away with her camera so I have asked her to send me the pics when she gets them uploaded.

Of course their visit went by WAY too quickly. They arrived on Saturday afternoon. I'd been looking out the window every 2 minutes wanting to rush out and meet them as they pulled up, but I miss timed it. I had gone back in to the kitchen, was doing something for Kristen ... and the door bell rang! "They're here" Kristen shouted :-) Hugs all around and then we never stopped chatting for the next two days ;-) Sue, I miss you already but I am so thankful that God has brought us together and has blessed us with yet another visit with each other. I can't tell you enough how thankful I am that you are a part of my life, what a blessing both you and Doug are to all 3 of us (well 4 if you include Boo) ;-)

And now, I only have one week to wait before my sister and bil arrive. Despite still cleaning up around the house for them coming we're still making time to 'play' down on the farm. Wanna see how things are coming along?

OK, first up, here's a view of 'the farm' (we're still working on a name for it) looking at it from the house....

and below is a view from the opposite side, looking toward the house ...


Pinto Beans, coming along nicely (below) ....


and here's the 'squash bed'. There's lots of different types in here, mostly zucchini, (they are the tall ones at the back) some spaghetti squash, butternut squash and acorn squash.

My finger in this picture is touching the tip of a flower (see the arrow in yellow), and the red arrow is pointing to the start of the zucchini.




Remember the spaghetti squash I bought as a plant from the grocery store? Actually forget that question, I just looked back over my posts and realize I didn't show a picture of it... well here is the plant on May 10th...


and here's how it's looking today, less than a month later....

Yes, honestly, that is the same plant! We've had a couple of pretty orange flowers that have just opened up then died and fallen off, but here's a close up of a new flower, and I think that 'bulb' shape right below it may actually be the start of the squash (fingers crossed)!

Oh, and look.... a tomato!

Exciting stuff, don't ya think? That's all for now folks! (gosh I hope I didn't bore you with all those photos?!)

It's getting busy around here....

So much to do.... so little time, or so the saying goes, and that's really how I'm feeling. Only two weeks (and 2 days) before my sister and bil arrive, but before that I have some other very special guests coming to visit :-) Next week my bestest bloggy friend Sue is coming in to town again with her hubby Doug and they'll be staying the night with us next Saturday.

I'm sure most of you know by now that I met Sue online a few years ago (quite a few years ago to be exact!) and we've had the opportunity to meet a couple of times now. The first time we did was back in Maryland when Kristen was about 3 years old. And I have to say even that very first time, I felt like I was seeing an old friend who I hadn't seen in a few years, rather than actually meeting a 'stranger' that I'd met on the net. Perhaps that's because we've never felt like strangers to each other. Sue has become a dear close friend to me, and I'm so excited that we get the chance to visit with one another again.

So in preparation for my lovely guests (both Sue and my sis) I've been busy getting the inside and outside of the house ready - and I'm nowhere near finished! I even have plans to paint the dining room , but it's not getting done today. Hopefully I will get to that on Tuesday. Today, and yesterday I've been busy out back with Jason.

I have to tell you, we are SO loving our 'Farm'. I'm still thinking of a name for it, I think Jason might have just come up with one for us, so if we decide to use it I will announce soon what it is. I have visions of having our little farm with a small fence around it and an archway of some kind (trellis like perhaps) that you would enter through. That's not saying the fence would be so high it would keep you out. I'm thinking of just a foot high or something so we can still access it from all sides.

Anyway, things are looking pretty good out there and we're still in the stages of planting things. Today we put more watermelon seeds in and I bought two more herbs from Lowes - dill and Italian parsley. I haven't had a chance to plant them yet as a thunder storm has just rolled in so we're stuck inside for what might be the rest of the day. We also bought a blueberry bush and a blackberry bush, and yesterday we bought new patio furniture that I put together last night. Did I mention things were busy around here?!!! It seems to be never ending, but the good part is, we're having a ton of fun in the process.

Yesterday was a monumental day for me..... I harvested my very first radish! Yes, just the one!

He was looking so big in the ground that I just had to pull him out! The others still look a bit thinner, so I will leave them for a few more days. Look at him, isn't he cute? :-)

He tasted pretty good too. I planted more radishes yesterday too. So once this crop is harvested I will have others starting to grow already.

Ok, before this becomes a novel, I'll end here. I will have more pics to share with you over the weekend.

More Farm Updates

There's nothing much going on here other than getting the house ready for some special guests and of course 'farm work'. So, here's a few pictures of what's going on in the Farm this week. Jason went around taking lots of pictures! I need to come up with a name for our farm - any ideas?

This is a picture I took last week but didn't get a chance to post on here.... this is our pomegranate tree.The flowers started off as tiny red berries which eventually burst open in to these pretty things.

A pear on one of our pear trees. There are a couple more on this tree, hopefully we will get to eat them?

Chili peppers :-)

and the Scarlet Runner Beans getting bigger....

And I bought more herbs for the Herb Garden and added a few little whimsey things!

The Farming Den

I thought about making a new website so I can journal about what's growing in the yard and how things are coming along. But then I thought if that's my 'daily news' and most people would want to read it here instead of having to click on yet another site, I'd just keep things as is and give you some regular updates probably each week.

So this week down 'on the farm' we've been watching the seeds sprouting and watching the aphids gather and start eating the life out of them! Much to Jason's surprise, those little 'buggers' are just running rampant out there! We have some stuff to spray on them, and the other night we simply took a bottle of soapy liquid out there and sprayed too. No doubt it will be an ongoing battle, but hopefully the plants will win in the end.

On Sunday (mothers day here) Jason went out with Kristen while I rested still, and they bought some ladybugs. You release them in to your yard in the hopes that they stick around and eat the aphids. Sunday evening we let the first bag go (we have 3 bags total). There are about 1500 ladybugs in each little bag. I took some pictures, but I also tried out the video so I'm gonna see if I can post that for you first.

Radishes are coming up quickly, and they already need thinning out.

These are Scarlet Runner Beans and will grow up a trellis that Jason has made.

Kristen with 'Petey'! For some reason she's trying to name all the ladybugs!

Spreading a little 'ladybug' love!

Busy in the Backyard!

Yes, I know it's been forever since I updated in here, and that's partly due to the fact the weather has been so nice lately that we've started making the effort to get outside and clear up our back yard. Remember last year when Jason tried his hand at growing veggies but the organic soil we bought was no good.... well the beds just went to waste and Jason lost all interest in doing anything out there.

Until a few weeks ago. We found a local gardener on line that specialized in helping suburbia bring a little farming to thier back yards. We had his crew come out and clean up all the veggie beds for us and re-do the sprinkler system so the beds and fruit trees get watered better.

Here's a few photos of the changes so far.... this first picture is taken from the upstairs gameroom (through the closed window). You can see the beds are all full of weeds, and look, we even have fence panels that have fallen down from the high winds we had!


next picture.... here are the beds, all cleared out with mulch in between them now, so it's not so muddy to walk on out there after we've had rain. The two beds at the top right have had hay put on them, this will keep the soil moist and stop the weeds from growing up and I've already planted some tomato plants and peppers in there that I bought from the store. You can see the other bales of hay that we haven't used yet. We won't need to use them until the seeds we've planted start growing.

below is just another view of the beds....

Over the weekend Kristen and I painted some cute signs for the veggies. I told Jason I need to make it look as inviting as possible otherwise I'll lose interest in going out there!

So that's what we've been busy doing over the past couple of weekends. Yesterday we also added plants and mulch to the flower beds out back. I'll take pictures of that later this week.

Tomorrow is my pending 'nasal surgery'. I just went to the hospital this morning to get blood work taken, and I also had to have a chest xray and an EKG! Everything looks good and my surgery is at 9.30am. I'll update how I am as soon as I can, but it may not be until the end of the week. Until next time...