Saturday. (creative title, eh?)

The birthday party Loch went to last night went well, even though it finally did rain!  We dropped him off and came back a couple of hours later to pick him up and they were all playing outside after the rain and covered in mosquito bites, but they didn't seem to notice.

Finn was a bit upset that Loch was at a party, so I took him out for frozen yogurt.  I was amazed at this kid, there was a wall of dispensers filled with candy toppings and what did he choose?  Plain vanilla yogurt with strawberries, blackberries & granola!  I, too prefer the simple stuff for ice cream, but for a 6 year old to choose it was interesting.  It wasn't even the kind of fruit packed in syrup, it was the plain stuff!  

After that he was really nice to endure a short trip to JoAnn's for buttons and then to the bookstore to use my 40% off coupon for a nice canning book.  I already have the standard Ball Book (short version) and "Preserving Summer's Bounty" and they have been pretty helpful covering all the basics, but I wanted a really comprehensive one if I'm going to have the ability to can meat as well as the standard garden produce.  I did get side tracked by the ones with all the pretty photos, but found them lacking in lots of library type information as I figured and ended up with this one which is put out by the Rodale people which is a very trustworthy source of info for the gardening/preservation folk out there.

Speaking of the garden, this is today's harvest.  Once again had to take yellow pears off a dying plant, they are slowly turning and I'm hoping to get some before it's toast.  This is the remnants of a bolting lettuce, just took the good parts and had to compost it.  Rare around here to see lettuce & tomato in the same photo.

Not enough for a big salad, but enough to make tacos for dinner - nobody complains on taco night around here :)

All I did today in the garden was harvest and walk around after dinner, it was just too hot.  The mosquitoes are now out in full force.  Was greeted by this lovely find:

As Finn says "baby pickles are growing"!

The Brandywines are the only variety out there showing no signs of stress, disease, insects or other general mayhem.  They are getting quite large.

Turn the corner to check on the squash bed and get smacked in the face with...

#$&%!

My squash hasn't even bloomed yet and they are already here.  Found a few that were just hatching too, we smashed what we could.  Lots are turning metallic already, indicating they are very close to hatching.  I hope they hold out until morning when I can wage war in a proper fashion.

 Leaving on a happy note... look who's back!

Playing Catch-Up!

I haven't blogged since Thursday, and I am having withdrawl! Things have been swallowing me up whole lately and I have had that whole "garden is a mess this time of year" doldrums! I spent 2 days cleaning and preparing for a Harvest Swap Party I had on Saturday evening. In my head I know my house is just fine for entertaining, but my personality dictates everything must be spotless, even though no one really cares, and the place will be a mess an hour after the party starts, LOL!

I did, however, make it out to the garden Saturday afternoon to harvest jalapenos finally, in hopes of getting rid of them that evening without having to deal with them! Below is what I harvested for the swap: all peppers!

Some great food showed up for the pot-luck that evening, everyone did a great job of cooking up summer harvest dishes. I made the standard Caprese Salad & Potato Salad. These are so awesome because you can make them ahead of time and no cooking required at the party!

Caprese Salad, opted for easy chopped version that evening

Potato Salad w/ Feta, Onion & Vinegarette

Kids got some bitchin' tattoos that evening!

I ended up with some tomatoes and habaneros from the swap. I am drying these cute little tomatoes, not sure what they are but they are smaller than my thumbnail and delicious! Also drying the habaneros and will mix them with some other types of peppers to make a small jar of chile spice.

Yesterday we didn't get any real work done around here, I made a batch of tomato sauce in the crock pot and froze it, managed to get the party debris in the yard cleaned up, and avoided work in general by reading a great novel!

This morning's harvest was yet more jalapenos!

I was able to get a little motivation back today and after the harvest, made 3 jars of spicy pickles and added the few cayennes I got at the swap. These will be the last of the pickles probably since I just used up all the dill that was left in the garden. Hubby, this batch should keep until you get home so you will get a taste!

Also managed to chop and freeze bell pepper strips, blanch and freeze the yard-long beans, and get to the music shop for a violin repair! And now that I have managed to blog, I feel somewhat better.

Any of you having these late-summer doldrums? My garden is a mess, bugs and wilt and something is eating my tomatoes, and it is still to hot to enjoy any chores, and too hot to plant anything for fall... and on and on... what's the cure?!

Watermelons and Waging War

I couldn't stand it any longer, I went out and took it! It's a bouncing 12.5 lb Baby Bush Watermelon! So here's the funny thing: as I was poking at the vines, the little one fell off. Had a brown tendril like it's supposed to and fell off the vine. The BIG one is the first melon that developed and still had no brown tendrils and was still firmly attached, I had to cut it off. What gives? I cut the small one open and it appears to be ripe, although it doesn't have much in it since it's so small! We'll cut the larger open tomorrow and I will report back on the taste.

Finn begged me to make pickles, so I had just enough for 2 jars of refrigerator dills. He was pretty upset when I told him it would be about a week before they would taste "pickly", so I offered him a slice of fresh cucumber but he wouldn't try it.

It's warm today, about 93º (notice how that's not "hot" anymore LOL?), so I spent most of the day reorganizing the canning closet and taking stock of what I need. I definitely need to replace my old canning rack before a disaster happens! Also got my seedling trays and seed starting mix out, seeds should be here Friday.

bad dog

On a down note, Sprocket the Outback Jack killed one of the juvenile doves a few minutes ago. Mama Dove is pacing with her wings out on the deck railing and just breaking my heart. I will never get used to the Jack Russell in her, give me Border Collie neuroticism any day over this. To her credit, Marley was barking and trying to alert me to the chaos in the yard but I ignored her. At least Sprocket didn't tear it up, she carried it up to me completely intact, damn dog. She's still my lovebug, but I am again reminded of the nature of dogs!

In a few minutes I am headed out to wage war against Squash Bugs and Leaf Footed Bugs who are drilling holes in my tomatoes, someone's going to get hurt, and it won't be me.... I have scissors & soap and Neem if necessary. I plan to cut them in half, they're easy to get when they are mating and being all gross and squash-buggly - what a way to go, huh?

Then I plan to be civilized and enjoy a glass of wine and knit, maybe read a book... us gardeners are a deranged bunch, aren't we?