Britesea - Living the good life in rural Oregon

[frustratedearthmother]

Dang, I know how it is to be working in that heat - it's just miserable! Good thing ya'll are taking your time. Can't wait to hear about the dehydrator! Hope you get the irrigation figured out. We're being carried away by skeeters here too.... 14+ inches of rain in two weeks.... yeah.

 

[MoonShadows]

Green with envy...a freeze dryer! Did you get a Harvest Right or another brand?

 

[Mini Horses]

Your OWN freeze dryer??? WOW!!!

I just bought a vacuum sealer unit and was pretty happy. But
yours is over the top.

 

[Britesea]

Well, the only way it happened was because my dear father left me a chunk of change. We've been carefully building our infrastructure with it and we talked a LONG time about whether to get it or not.
We got the Harvest Right, @MoonShadows because I had heard that some of the others weren't as well made. If I'm going to spend this kind of money, I want to get the best.

I checked the bank and the payment went through today, so I think we'll see it in about 10-14 days.

The garden looks better today after giving everything a good manual watering last night. Plus the temperature is dropping back into the 70's now so that should help them. I know it'll sure help ME!

Another problem with me working on the greenhouse that I didn't mention is that it turns out the problem in my knee is only PARTLY arthritis; the patella is wandering around like a headless chicken as well because my quadriceps aren't holding it in place. Not sure, but I'm thinking that long spell earlier when my neck had a pinched nerve may be the culprit. While I was hurting, I couldn't get up and move around very much so I may have lost some muscle tone. I'm doing excercises in the pool to strengthen them again so crossed fingers!

 

[Britesea]

I had an appointment with the VA physical therapist. He confirmed that the patella is wandering because the quads are not strong enough; prescribed some excercises that should take care of the problem in less than 2 months (he said. we'll see)
I did them faithfully last night, and everything is sore today; I can sure tell which muscles got worked! I'm supposed to do them 3 times a day... it will take all my willpower to do that today.

DH went fishing yesterday with his friend. They didn't catch any keepers, but they are going to a different lake today and hopefully they'll do better today. I'd love some trout.

Little Bit, the duckling we rescued, has spent the last three days with the rest of the flock. They still haven't actually accepted her, but she can hang out within 3-4 feet of the group and I think she's grateful for even that after living the first part of her life alone in a plastic tub. It's been chilly at night, but she's almost completely fledged out and seems to be ok with the weather. It looks like she spends her nights inside the nest box, which would be a shade warmer and the other ducks can't pinch at her as much. I hope they accept her completely very soon though.

We have our first frost advisory of the season tonight- predicted 37F. I have to cover pretty much the whole garden except the kale. The next step on the greenhouse requires two people and a ladder, so we have to wait for DS to come home from his housesitting job today or tomorrow before we can do it. With the cooler weather coming in, I'm feeling the pressure to get it finished now. We also need to re-roof DH's workshop and finish making the back yard Millie/Houdini proof (all that is left there is to finish streching a piece of fencing where she was getting over the 5 foot wooden fence, and make the gate taller as well.) I also need to start some seedlings of winter crops for the greenhouse. It will be unheated, but I can still grow greens like cornsalad and so forth, as well as carrots and radishes and broccoli and kale. Those are hardy enough to make it through the winter months with the protection they will get. I also want to try growing one or two currant tomatoes indoors under the lights. They are supposedly very compact- 24" so I should have room inside the house.

DS's Christmas gift arrived yesterday- we bought him a nice starter set of Cutco knives. They had a special at the county fair- over a hundred dollars off! He likes to cook, and has mentioned that when he housesits for people they rarely have decently sharp knives (he's been spoiled I guess, lol)

Bad news front: Our income is a tad too high for DH to get any help with the premiums of his health care, so we will have less money for savings and purchases. I'm glad we already bought the freeze dryer because I would probably have said we couldn't afford it now. Thank goodness our first quarterly check from DH's retirement account is coming this month so I don't have to dip into the savings for the first premium.

Between the tomatoes I bought at the Farmers' Market, some that DS got out of the garden at his housesit (with their permission) and the first earlies from my garden, we have enough to make some Summer Spaghetti (a pasta salad with tomatoes, garlic, onion, basil, and a vinaigrette- it's a family favorite) and I might bake a cake tonight since it's finally cool enough to start up the oven.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I started some broccoli, cabbage and spinach seeds a couple weeks ago. I used one flat and planted broccoli on one side, cabbage on the other and the spinach in the middle. Problem is that I forgot to mark which end was cabbage and which end was broccoli, lol. One of them germinated VERY well, and the other....eh not so much. Spinach was right in the middle. Put them outside to harden off and we had a couple days of rain... drowned part of 'em. I should pay better attention - out of sight, out of mind these days. Ugh! Hope that your currant tomatoes do well - let us know!

 

[Britesea]

Welll, here I am, after a long time away from my journal.

My garden did ok, considering that the first frosts came early. Strawberries and raspberries: small amounts of fresh berries. The raspberries are just getting started (this was the second year). The strawberries are getting old- I think it's time to pull them, amend the soil, and replant this spring. I didn't do like the books say and pull out the older plants to give room to the sproutlets.
The corn was doing well, until the frost hit
The sweet peppers did ok, but they were smallish and thin walled. I don't know if they were suffering from not enough water or fertilizer or what. Anyone know?
The eggplants did ok, but next year I'm going to grow them in containers so that I can move them into the greenhouse if it's not warm enough for them.
Lettuce did great until they bolted. Need to plant a fall crop or even a greenhouse crop for longer season.
Potatoes seemed to do ok, but I didn't get most of the crop dug up before the rains and snows hit. Somehow, I need to get in there and try to dig up the rest of the crop, but it's too wet now.
Tomatoes would have done better but it was too hot to set fruit in July, and not hot enough in August and September to ripen most of the fruit. I got enough to can up 2 pints. (note: I love my new Squeezo!)
I got a good crop of Poblano chilies, which I dried.
The beets did beautifully!
The green beans took so long to get going that they were just starting to produce when the frosts hit. We got 2 fresh meals out of them. I will try this variety one more year, starting them early in the greenhouse; if they do poorly again, I'll have to look for a different variety.
The winter squash didn't get enough time to fully mature, but I picked them anyway and we are eating them fairly quickly since they don't have the hard shell for long storage. I think I'll try another variety next year- looking at the Lakota squash; the Tromboncinos aren't as sweet as I'd hoped, although the menfolk liked the pies I've made with them.

In other news, I STILL have not set up my freeze-dryer. I have to clear out the junk room for it, and I've been too busy to get to that, what with building the greenhouse, and taking care of my friends' house while she's in the hospital. She and her husband stopped on the highway to help another couple (young and pregnant) that had gone into the ditch. While they were trying to figure out how to tow their car out with her van, another driver in a pickup lost control of his car and hit their car. His pickup flipped over on top of the van, sandwiching him between the 2 vehicles; he was pronounced dead at the scene. The impact moved the van forward into my friend and her husband. He broke both bones in one leg (just had knee replacement too!) and she broke three bones in her hand and two in her neck. They couldn't find her for a long time, because she was unconscious underneath the vehicles. The young couple escaped with nothing but a couple of scrapes (baby unhurt as well). My friends were taken to two different hospitals, and then she was airlifted to Portland from the emergency room. Amazingly, she is not only NOT paralyzed, but the bones in her neck had not moved and will not require surgery. Her hand as well didn't need setting, only a cast to keep everything from moving. She has improved enough that she has been moved from the hospital (ICU, then Trauma, then regular room) and is now in a rehab- walking on her own, and generally taking care of herself with minimal help. But it will be quite a while before she can come home- so we are taking care of animals, picking up mail, etc.

We had an unexpected repair that had to be done to her roof (she rents my mom's old house from me) which wiped out our savings, and we are counting our pennies until the retirement check shows up next week. She wanted to help with the repair bill, but I told her to save her money for now- no telling what kind of expenses might crop up. In fact, I told her to hold off on paying rent until she gets a settlement on the accident.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Gardens are fickle, for sure. I had a terrible garden, actually I can't even call it a garden, lol. Got lots of basil though! And now, just in time for the cold - I've got some volunteer tomatoes that I'm going to try to baby in hopes of early tomatoes next year. Eh...we'll see how that works!

Scary stuff with your friends accident! Glad it wasn't any worse for them!

 

[lcertuche]

How horrible for your friends. Just seeing it would be enough to send me over the deep end! What's the old saying 'No good deed goes unpunished."

 

[Mini Horses]

I was about to write & see if you guys were ok as you haven't posted in a long time & that is sooo unlike you. Have seen some replies to other threads but no dinner menus from you! Sure makes the rest of us wonder what to cook

The accident sounds "unreal" and you just never know what will happen in your day when you get up, do you? You're a good friend to help out with all the work.

Sorry your garden didn't do well but, many of ours didn't The weather everywhere has been so odd & extreme that I am sure the efforts of most were not rewarded as usual. Pantries are suffering. I know I didn't get anything planted due to weather and work when the few good days were there.

WHAT?? Don't you remember we need pictures? You got the greenhouse up and I don't recall any ..... did I miss them?

Glad you are able to post sometimes. Take care. (I was beginning to wonder if DHs retirement gave you time to do too many other things....fun things)