Week of canning

Sorry I have not posted in a while, we have had a very busy week between canning and dehydrating! Because of  Dr visits to and from St. Louis for my sister and mom (on and off) for two weeks I had put canning off canning as long as I dared to. For the last nine days the dehydrator and canner have been going non stop, I was worried for a while about my gardens but they finally started producing. I also picked blackberries and strawberries last month and froze them but since I now need my freezer for the hog I also removed some of them from the freezer and made jelly. The running total so far is
12 - 1/2 pints blackberry jelly
14 - 1/2 pints of strawberry jelly
12 - 1/2 pints of grape jelly
4 - quarts grape juice
7 - 1/2 pints peach preserves
7 - quarts of peach filling for pie's
I make a lot of jelly during the summer months and give as Christmas presents.
14 - quarts whole tomatoes
21 - pints whole tomatoes
4 - quarts tomato juice
I was really wanting to can some pickles but my cucumber plants did not take off.
7 quarts of green beans and new potatoes
7 pints of green beans

Mom loves to snap the beans

14 - pints zucchini relish
I still have a long way to go.....fingers crossed garden keeps producing.
I have also dehydrated a lot of zucchini, onions and mushrooms to use in soups during the winter :)
I had to hot water bath all of the above I do though have on my wish list a pressure cooker. :) I would so love to can meat and also using a pressure cooker for the veggies would be so much faster!
I also had to dig all of our potatoes last week, hated to but they were ready. We also had a few of the potatoes that were soft, almost like they were cooking in the ground....

Jalapeno Peppers and fingers crossed

With the hot and dry weather being as it is this is the worst garden we have had in a very long time. I seem to spend half of my garden time fighting with the drought and the other half trying to keep the animals and bugs away. All of my green beans and peas in the upper garden have been eaten and a few green beans in the lower garden. I realize now with putting up the fences to keep out the goats and cows (in case they were to wonder into our yard) I gave a hands up to all the little critters that can squeeze though the fences....Once the little animals are in the gardens our dogs can't get them so they have a smorgasbord available with no one to interrupt them! :(  I have tried my soap spray to no avail, I even purchased some stuff from our feed store (non chemical) to sprinkle around the outside of the garden to repel little animals, this really stunk but it did not bother them as more of my green beans vanished! My grandpa always said plant at least 30 percent more than you think you will need because the animals and bugs take what they want, but this is getting ridiculous!

This is what I had waiting for me this morning a total of four tomatoes gone with a few bites out of each and the ants taking the left overs. This is the third day in a row I have had this waiting for me at 7:00am.

We still have a lot of tomatoes on the vines (not ripe yet) but if we keep loosing that many every night......
I am trying something I found in a magazine (fingers crossed) I purchased a big bottle of jalapeno peppers and drained them and put the juice into a spray bottle and sprayed on the few green beans I have left in the lower garden and around the outside of both gardens I hope this works! If anyone has any better ideas please let me know!

Catch up

I have not been blogging very much for the last couple of weeks so I thought I would catch up on a few things I have been doing. I have been outside working all week, the first garden I started last month is coming along fine below is a picture of it. In this garden we have corn, 20 tomatoes, 18 potatoes, 22 peppers, green, yellow, red, 22 zucchini, green beans, onions, 6 cantaloupe, 6 cucumbers and peas sorry I could not get all of the garden in the picture.

I cannot believe I didn't notice the goats are in the yard! OK I'm back
 I just took this picture a half hour ago at least I have the garden
fenced but some other plants are in the open! I put the goats back in
their area, they couldn't have been in the yard long not much was
eaten that I noticed. Lucky me I took a few pictures for
 the blog before I came in! :)

I just finished this afternoon driving the fence posts and putting up the fence around the new garden and also added 4 loads of compost. This took me four days to get accomplished, it would have taken only a day if hubby were here but I got it done Yah!. I planted the berry's at the back of the garden this morning.

Blueberry

Raspberry

Blackberry

We have a lot of blackberries around the farm but I thought it would be nice to have one without thorns! We also have raspberries around here but thought it would be nice to also have one in our back yard.

This garden is 48x38 feet and sets a little ways behind
the house. I noticed in this picture the posts look kinda
funny but I wanted to fence in the garden with what
was on hand, they are a little on the tall side. :)

Now at least both our gardens are protected from our Houdini's (goats) I cant understand it but when I turn my back they will somehow (like an hour ago!) find a tiny spot in the fence and run with it! That is why I took the time to add the fences around each garden so the goats can not get in there (I hope). Next I need to do something about our grape vines I don't want the goats to bother them either.

I wore gloves the whole time and I still ended up with blisters and a few cuts on both hands, but not as bad as I thought it would be. I cant wait for hubby to come home in a few weeks and see the new garden, hopefully the plants with be starting to come through by then! In this garden I have put in 25 sweet potatoes (today), tomorrow I plan on putting in beets, turnips, green beans, cucumbers, lettuce, radishes  and hopefully a few more plants if I have the room. I plan on having a lot of things to can this year, fingers crossed! Then I am taking off Saturday from farm work (except feeding) :) my nephew is getting married down by the river and after the reception is having a party, so it will be an all afternoon and evening thing. I think though I will only stay for a little while at the party Mom will not feel like staying very long and I don't drink anyway so that's OK. I should have some pretty pictures to blog about though! :) I think this is long enough so bye for now!

Planting our Fruit Trees

We put in our order for fruit trees on February 10 and they came in March 5, happy dance! We had an area already planed behind the house for  the fruit trees to be planted. So this past weekend we dug the holes and prepared the area for the trees. We planted :
2 apple, 2 peach, 2 pear, 2 mulberry and in another area 2 grape vines, (we were lucky enough to have 2 existing grape vines) this will give us a good start. Yay!

It seemed to take forever to dig the holes (rocks, rocks and more rocks) :) After we dug the holes and planted the trees hubby cut the fence and added two metal fence posts on either side and wired the fence to the posts.

When we finished with the fence around the eight trees (to protect them from the goats)! Not that goats would get out of their areas and not only into the yard but into the fenced orchard, we also put the fence around each tree (for a while), never hurts to be over protected with Houdini's around. One important thing we have learned is to never ever underestimate goats! :) Anyway I thought except for giving each a gallon of water a day for a while, that was all I needed to do. Wait a few years and collect the fruit. :)

I should never ever think, it never works the way I think it will! Last night we were getting close to freezing so we had to cover the trees with sheets and then remove them this morning (with my daughters help). Now it again looks like we will have to cover them tonight, but hopefully it will not be for very many days and fingers crossed they do not get hurt with the cold weather.

We now have a big area that will just have grass (to mow) has anyone planted around fruit trees, not  to close to the trees just between the rows? I was wondering if it would be okay to plant turnips or another root veggie? Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Check list and visitor in the new garden

I am trying to get as much done around the farm as I can this week before hubby gets home, with hubby having Saturday and Sunday off work we have a long list needing attention around here. There is more to get done than we could possibly do in just two days, so I have a check list of items I can do myself before hubby gets home. First on my list today was to get 6 loads of compost on the new garden so it can set a few days before hubby tills it up (check), first though he has to fix the tractor tiller.

I had this little guy surprise me on my fourth load of dirt today (guess I surprised him to)! I gently picked him up with my shovel and walked him about 10 feet away and left him comfy on a tree stump. I  like to have them around they are good for a number of reasons, he is about 3 1/2 feet long. The only thing I hate is the first scare when I see a snake (flips in my mind) is it a copper head before my mind even notices the color, then it takes me a second to catch my breath! :)
Next on my list was to bring all the fence posts from the barn that will be needed to fence off the new orchard area Saturday yay excited! I also needed to bring down the rolled up fence wire and clips (needed for the metal posts) and the compost hauled down for this area (Check)
Next on my list was to mow the weeds that are 2 feet tall all around the new garden area (check), as I finished the area I left these alone they were just to pretty to mow and not real close to the garden!

The last thing on my list today was done latter this evening, because I had to pack everything away and take Mom to her check up with the Dr first. When I returned (its odd how this works) I left for the appointment feeling "full steam ahead" but when I returned I really wanted to just go into the house! I did not though because I would not have gotten the last item on my list finished! I had help with this last one though, my daughter was home from school and this really needs two people anyway. The fence wire that was around the old chicken house we decided to refurbish so her and I took it down rolled it up and now it will go around the new garden. This fence wire is 6 feet tall and only three years old and I know the chickens cannot get through this fence. :) I am also hoping if the goats get into the yard (fingers crossed it doesn't happen) they will not be able to get into the garden (like they did last year). Or for that matter they wont be able to get into the fenced off orchard area! Goats amaze me at the things they can get into/cross/go over etc...but....they are so funny I cant stay mad at them! My daughter and I were lucky, took down the fence, rolled and tied it up and just got the metal posts out of the ground and stacked before the rain hit! (Check on the last item for today) Now I hope we don't get to much rain, I really want to get the garden tilled and planted this weekend.

Compost Piles (this year and next years)

The above picture is the compost pile that was started last March, hubby turned it again with the tractor and now its ready to be put on the garden. I wish we had a bucket lift on the tractor :( this week I will have to hand shovel it on the back of the Polaris and take it to each of the gardens and hand spread it (rake and shovel). Up side though is I will be getting a lot of exercise this week, bad side I hate to have sore muscles!

This is our compost pile hubby just started last week for next year. It looks like a pile of hay from a distance but everyone contributes to the compost pile from all the animals on the farm to the kitchen scraps (the chickens get first dibs on scraps first though) :)

First load on and ready to be spread on the garden, (it only took me 50 minutes to shovel it in and 30 minutes to unload and spread) :)  now how many loads will it take to cover the gardens......Then we still have to turn the ground over and tiller, I am running a couple of weeks behind but it feels sooo good to finally be getting things started.