What did you do in your garden today?

[flowerbug]

got a few hours of weeding in. need to do a bunch more, but today it seemed so humid out there that i felt like i was breathing sludge. tomorrow i should be able to start a few hours earlier and that will help since it is also supposed to be warmer.

 

[FarmerJamie]

That's weird! I've canned 'taters in chunks that are great in soup or just sliced up a little and made into home fries.

@Dreamz how did you can them? I can in water (maybe chicken broth once?????). I know some folks dry can them.

 

[Dreamz]

@Dreamz how did you can them? I can in water (maybe chicken broth once?????). I know some folks dry can them.

I think the recipe was to boil for some little time and put and water bathe it. It was like 3 yrs ago. I think that was what made me forget about canning at all. It was a good deal I found on potatoes while living in the city. Now, I am in the country so want to learn more.

Hub got me a new pressure cooker. A bigger one. Just cannot know how to do the pressure because it is not a dial. The old one had no gauge either. Will take pictures tomorrow and post them.

Still not finished with the darn sauce. So many things in between. Yesterday was all the manual exhausting labor of hot water, cold water,and peeling. The crushing them with a potatoe smasher,lol, in a regular strainer which broke. That was with a couple of brakes to drop hub dodge to mechanic. Today, the darn chickens and ducks and dropping hub and picking him up. Almost thick but not enough. Too tired. Still have more tomatoes in the garden and onions and peppers to gather. Need to close sides of house to avoid having to go outside chasing animals from neighbors property. So that is an unexpected outing to town I need to do.

Hub needs to get on asap on the rooster house before winter. I also need to get the plastic from have no clue where in the garage might be to have it ready to wrap chickens and ducks run for winter. They say it will be in the 80's but being so close to lake Michigan, it colder than that. So far it has been no higher than 76. I like that a lot but it will be lower before a blink of an eye.

Got called from mechanic and the dodge injectors are cracked. And some other stuff I cannot remember. 2k for the whole deal. Good thing is that they have been my mechanic for 2 yrs and they will let me pay half on Friday and the other half when I get my next check. God is always good.


My chevy is ok but will need brakes all around and 4 new tires. I drive it a lot. I also need to make it back to Indiana before November to take a snow blower to my son. He doesn't have one nor I think he needs it. They barely get snow. But I have 2 that we do not used. I bought the plow for the Husqvarna mower and works great for all the snow we get in west michigan.

So, with all this bickering, means only that I didn't do squat in the garden today,

 

[Dreamz]

Good morning!

This is my older pressure pot. It has no gauge, just a release valve and a regulator. This is a presto pressure pot.



This is the new one that hub bought 3 days ago. It is a gourmet trends pressure canner and cooker. Has a weird release valve, I believe (red thing behind the gauge), two regulators and a set gauge. Directions booklet mentions a different release valve that is not in the pot and says barely anything. No instructions at all. They could have saved a tree for that matter. But it is bigger than the previous one the got 3 yrs ago and only used for the darn potatoes that ended up throwing away. Lol



And of course, everyone knows what this one is.


These are my only pieces of home-farming equipment that I have, Hopefully, I can get a dehydrator, vacuum sealer, seed-peel extractor, and maybe 2 or more books,

Edited to turn pictures the right way,lol

 

[CrealCritter]

We'll be digging potatoes this evening. One of the youth from church was interested in helping hill up rows at the beginning of the season and one of my daughter in law's helped plant slips and spuds. Both are coming to help harvest and receive their share

2Tim 2:6

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[Dreamz]

Well, that new pot was a trick but first batch is done. Waiting a bit to open it and take out to start the second batch. Can only put 7 cans inside.
Helped a bit hub on closing one side of the house to avoid the dang chicks going to the forrest next door. Now I have to use the normal entrance,lol yeap, I cheated through the other side so I didn't had to get our and open the gate, shush! The knuckleheads only go to that area, so unless they decide to fly, they have to stay on this side,lol
Will post pictures later!

 

[flowerbug]

short version: i did some digging and weeding.

longer version: you know how you go out to do something in the garden and then you get sidetracked? today was that kind of day to start with, but it was cool enough that when i went out i thought that perhaps i could start getting the tomato plant leavings (that Mom raked up yesterday) buried. so that's how the day started and i got a few nice chunks of the tomatoes buried so perhaps tomorrow morning i can get the rest of it done. that would mean that pretty much i have 1/5th of the gardens inside the fence put up for winter already...

after that i did need a bit of a break before going back out to weed in the North Garden. i finished up most of the top part and then got going along the edge where i needed to do the fine close up weeding because i'd transplanted creeping thyme and anytime i do that the purslane will start up in there. several weeks later go back and weed and see how the starts are doing. for the most part they're doing good. about 80% of what i moved has at least got some sort of viable start going and i've not even remembered to water any of it since the first few times right after i transplanted. considering it was August and bleeping hot i think that was a bit of luck that we got some good rains at the right times.

so to finish up that garden (tomorrow i hope) i just have to do some quick scraping along one bottom area and some fine weeding (i use a large steak knife with a wood handle to do most of it) along the north edge which is usually the worst - the bottom part along that edge is really easy to do because i have no transplants at all down low to work around. i just scrape it and it's done. the up higher part of that edge will take some work but my existing transplants have done a pretty good job of keeping a lot of weeds out of there so that's all good and a part of the plan. it's gradually getting there.

on the way back from dumping weeds on the weed pile i reminded myself there were a few thistles i needed to dig out before they spread further and so that was what i finished up with for outside chores.

taking another break now before starting to do tomatoes again later. Mom keeps saying "Whatever you want to do!" and i keep thinking, "i wanted to be done when i said i was done..." but i'm biting my tongue. two and a half buckets ready to go. i tried talking Mom into making chili with as many of them as possible. we don't have jars for this many quarts unless i do pints. i don't really want to do pints...

 

[Dreamz]

Finally done with those tomatoes. Some are pints with spaghetti sauce, thicker. Finished in the crockpot. The others are just tomato sauce for regular cooking. Next tomatoes, I am chunking them,lol

 

[Dreamz]

And we put some fencing so the knuckleheads do not go to neighbors property. Hopefully next summer,we can put the fence in the front. Not enough finances for now.

 

[CrealCritter]

And we put some fencing so the knuckleheads do not go to neighbors property. Hopefully next summer,we can put the fence in the front. Not enough finances for now.
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Fencing IS expensive! I can appricate what you are saying.

We dug sweet potatoes, thankful that's over with. Have spuds left to dig.

Jesus is Lord and Christ