Here is a little bit of the fall harvest. We tried some late beats, and from what I hear they are pretty good. These two jars are going to Mary Helen this weekend. We have also been vacuum sealing and freezing some broccoli and alot of green peppers. My freezer is about full, and more peppers to come. Time to start handing these out. Thanks to Judy Hartlage for the vacuum sealer, I got in 4 more rolls of bags today.

Here is a pic of our lettuce patch. It is growing really well. The bright green is black Simpson, I think it taste really good. The dark green is romaine. I haven't tryed it yet, but will in the next week. We also planted spinach, but it didn't do to well. I will have to read up on it.

Its been too long since my last update. Its been pretty busy around here, cleaning up the garden and storm damage from hurricane Ike. We have had very good success with fall broccoli, ever plant has produced a nice size head. I cant believe that the marigolds are still blooming. Next year I am going to plant some in every bed.

Hurricane Ike Storm Damage

Here is a video I took of the damage we received from hurricane Ike. Its hard to describe, but 3 hours of 70+ mile an hour winds is pure hell. We were lucky, no one was hurt and minimal damage. Thanks to all my buddy's that helped out with clean up. Speaking for Jennifer, it means alot to both of us. True friends come together in times like this, like we all did last week. By the way, the campfire is at my house this fall. Thanks

Our new freind, the owl

We have a new visiter to the garden. Some kind of owl, we are trying to find out what kind. Rick spotted it in the tree and took this picture. If you double click on the picture you will get a better view.

Its been awhile since our last post, been on vacation in Cocoa Beach. Got lots of sun and did some fishing. As you can see, me and Ricky didnt catch much. Rick's dad Dickie (J.R.) had the big catch of the week, a 22" Black Drum. What a beautiful fish. We had a great time, thanks Dickie and Joy!!!!!

I have been slaking on updating this site, kind of the late summer blues. We did pick 11 lbs of cherry tomatoes Monday night. That's a ton of cherry tomato's. We need a vacation, 8 days away. Nine nights in Cocoa Beach will be great. Many more post to come.

Here is a new addition to the garden. A plastic owl to scary the squirrels away. There are two of them. They seem to be doing some good, though its there first day on the job. Thanks Mom.

Here is a project me and Ricky finished this weekend. Its a cold frame for growing late fall crops and starting spring seedlings. It is 8ft by 4ft deep. We got the clear material from our buddy Rippy, Thanks. I cant wait to eat lettuce and spinach this fall and winter.

Me and Ricky and Jennifer canned 7 quarts of salsa today. We were going to take pictures of the process, but forgot. Beer may have been involved. Here is the end result, some zesty salsa, with a bit of a kick.

Here is the first table full of tomatoes waiting to become salsa.Here bye the weekend, its salsa time!!!!

Canning Day

We had our hottest day of the year today, 97 and

muggy. I suffered through picking 10 gallons of green beans, damn near had heat stroke but got it done. We moved the canner out on the porch, using a propane turkey fryer. It worked great. Better than heating up the whole house.

Summer Salad

We made a couple of batch's of summer salad tonight. Good stuff. We have messed with the recipe a bit to fit our taste. I like mine with more vinegar and pepper.

Red Potatoes

Me and Ricky decided to check on the progress of our potatoes tonight. They are just starting to have the vines start to die off, so they still have awhile to grow. We pulled one plant and got this nice batch of red taters. Almost 2lbs of nice looking red potatoes from just one plant. I think we will fry them up tomorrow night, I bet they are taste.

Canning Jars

Ricky scored a good bit of canning jars the other day. Thanks to Pat Mathews!!!!!!!!! If anyone else has any laying around, we would love to have them. Any jars given to us could be returned full of goodies!!!

Hornworm

There was an unwanted guest in the garden the other night. I had no idea what this critter was, but my buddy Joe said it looked like a tobacco worm. I did some online research and found out it is a tomato worm, about 3 inch's long and fat as hell. This big fellow is the only one I have found so far, so I hope his relatives will stay away. I would hate to have to start spraying some kind of insecticide on my plants.

Green Beans

That's 8 pounds of green beans canned, 7 quarts. I'm sure they will be good for the upcoming cookouts or a winter dinner.

Here is 14 pounds of squash and zucchini. Sounds great, well I picked 12 lbs two days before and another 10 lbs tonight. I think 5 squash and 4 zucchini plants are to many. Im getting tired of pawning off the stuff on all the neighbors. Im taking 15 lbs to work tomorrow, see if anyone will take it.

Here are some updated pictures from the tomato patch. We have picked 4-5 of uncle Nick's tomatoes, the red ones. The Roma's are still coming in, maybe a week or two. The cherry tomatoes are starting to ripen, just picking 2-3 at a time for now. Here in a week or so, we will have more tomatoes than we know what to do with!!!!!!

Here is a little video walk thru of the tomatoe patch, starting with Uncle Nicks and ending with the romas.

Here is a dish I cooked tonight. Grilled some Salmon with lemon pepper and fresh parsley. Then I sauteed some zucchini, onions, garlic, parsley, basil and balsamic viniger. Then I covered it with some Swiss cheese. This was an awesome dinner, and healthy. I cant wait to cook this up for someone else!!!!

Here are a couple of updated pics from the garden. Uncle nicks tomatoes should be ready in a week or so, they look beautiful. The squash and zucchini are starting to produce well, picked about 18 squash tonight.

Had my first garden meal of the summer tonight. I cooked some teriyaki noodles for the base, store bought. Then I flash boiled some green beans, broccoli, squash and some frozen onions and peppers. Then I put the veggies in a hot wok of olive oil, garlic, fresh parsley, splash of cider vinegar and splash of lemon juice. Turned out very good, maybe a bit to much vinegar, but still good. I cant wait to try this with some fresh green peppers, carrots, onions and zucchini.

Everything in the garden is taking off, the plants are loving the sunshine and heat. Here is a pic of 3 happy sunflowers. I love having the color in the garden.

Here is the radish patch, soon to be followed by tasty carrots. The radishes help break the ground for the carrots to follow.

Here is the tomato patch, Uncle Nick's. They are loving the sun and warmth. The other pic is an emerging green bean plant. They were planted on Friday of last week.

Here are a couple of new pic's from the garden. We have finally have had some warm weather, and things are taking off. The yellow onion patch is doing great. The other picture is a head of broccoli ready to be picked. I steamed some a couple of nights ago and it was so good.

Here is the sunflower patch. They are at several different stages, there are more to come, just put the seeds in the ground. Yes, one little cabbage plant got squeezed out of its patch, it will have to hang out with the sunflowers for the summer.

Here are some pictures of the broccoli patch. It is doing really good. Its starting to form little heads on some of the bigger plants. Steamed broccoli sounds so good, cant wait. You can also see 10 jalapeno plants to the right. The red potatoes are doing well in front, about to have there stalks covered by our recently finished compost.

Been a week or so since the last post. Been pretty busy with it being Derby week. Had alot of fun, it is a shame about Eight Bells, at least she past doing what she loved.

Everything is finally planted. Having decent luck so far, did lose a couple of Roma Tomatoes to the cool nights. Also lost almost all of the cucumbers started inside, but they don't transplant well, so lesson learned.

The first picture is the squash plants. Looks like 5 out of six are going to make it. Didn't fair so well with the zucchini, only 2 out of 6 made it.

The second picture is cilantro for the salsa. It seems to grow over night.

We got alot of planting done this weekend. Planted sixteen cucumber plants, ran some chain link fencing next to them to support the vines. Planted 36 total tomato plants as well. There are 16 of Uncle Nick's heirloom plants, 16 Roma plants grown from seed and 4 cherry tomatoes. Ricky also ran drip irrigation to each plant. It may be hard to see, but the one pic shows the individual sprinkler head that is ran to each plant. This way we can water direct to the roots without wasting any water.

We got some free mulch the other day. A neighbor had a tree cut down, and they dumped the wood chips in the yard. Little did I know it would be 2 dump truck's full. This picture is about a half of what we started with. We were able to get all of the paths, watermelon/pumpkin/cantaloupe patch's covered. Plenty more to spread.

Got alot of work done this weekend. The sprinklers for the corn are all set up. There are 2 for the bed, on opposite corners. We set them about 5ft off the ground to get over the corn once its grown. The one picture is Ricky adjusting the spray pattern on the far end sprinkler. We also got a refrigerator for the shed, thanks Jeff, no more trips to the house for cold beer!!!!!!

Well, I knew we started to early, and here comes some late frost. Funny picture, its not easy to find 40 plus buckets and cans to cover this many plants. They did well the first night, 04/13. Got one more night to go, then things look better. Well the blog is somewhat caught up from what we have started this winter. I will keep adding as we go, enjoy.

Alright, I though that starting my own plants from seed may be a little of out control. Well, Ricky came up with one to put the seedlings to shame. He came up with a whole irrigation system for the garden. Including a 5 valve system with programmable controller. He is going to set up lawn style sprinklers throughout the garden to cover as needed. Five different zones to take care of the different watering needs of the various plants. Several advantages in this. First is, no moving hoses or forgetting to water!!!! Second is putting water on the plants and not on our walking paths. Some initial investment, but should work great. And after the drought we went through last year, the plants should do great.