All posts by ruthsoaper

July 2022 Garden Update

Berries, Blueberries, garden, Gardening, garlic, Peppers, potatoes, Reflections

I’m happy to report that despite our lack of rain our gardens are doing quite well.

BERRIES
We’ve been harvesting blueberries for several weeks now and what we are not eating fresh I have been putting in the freezer. We’ve also picked about a quart and a half of strawberries despite them just being planted at the end of May.

GARLIC
My husband harvested the garlic last week – a total of 270 bulbs are now drying in the barn. What an easy task it was compared to the years when we grew between 2000 and 8000 bulbs.

GREEN BEANS
We began picking green beans a couple weeks ago and after a few meals my husband was getting tired of them. (He doesn’t like them as much as I do.) I saved our pickings for a few days and had enough beans to can 6 pints. Since green beans are a low acid food canning them requires using a pressure canner and since I have little experience in doing this, I am extremely pleased with the results.

I expect I will be canning another batch of beans this week.

POTATOES

Two days ago, when I offered to make a potato salad for dinner, I thought it odd when my husband hesitated. He then suggested that maybe some of our potatoes were ready in the garden.

He brought me home some beautiful red skin potatoes which I transformed into our favorite potato salad. Oh, so good!

PEPPERS
We have also been picking some peppers – banana peppers, jalapeno, cayenne and a bell pepper. In addition to adding peppers to our morning omelet I made a batch of the poppers we enjoy so much. The popper recipe can be found in this post from September 2020.

Thanks for visiting.

Are you enjoying any fresh summer produce?

Innovation

Pond, Reflections, Tools

Earlier this year my husband mentioned wanting to buy a landscape rake to use to remove leaves and pond weeds from around the edges of the pond. A landscape rake has a long handle and a wide head that would allow us to reach father into the water from the shore and remove more weeds at one time. I told him to go ahead and buy one. “They are expensive,” he said. About a week ago when we began raking the weeds from the pond, I told him to go ahead and buy the rake. He had another idea.

Using materials we already had on hand he built something similar to a grappling hook but perhaps we should call it a grappling rake.

He started with one rake head tied to the nylon rope and while it did work to remove some weeds it would always land upside down when thrown into the water, so it was not as efficient as it could be.

He then found a second rake with a broken handle. (Imagine that! We had two old rakes with broken handles hanging around.) He used two 1 1/2inch hose clamps to connect the rake heads together back-to-back. He then secured the rope around both rake handles.

The rope is about 20 feet (6 meters) long. He tied a loop in the end of the rope opposite the rake heads. The loop makes it easier to hold onto the rope while throwing the rake end out into the water.

The rope floats just in case you forget to hold on to the end.

In this case having a good retriever nearby might come in handy.

Once the rake has landed on the bottom simply pull the rope in.

It is quite efficient in removing a large amount of weeds at one time.

Home Sweet (Froggy) Home

Frogs, Reflections

I learned something this week. I don’t think like a frog.

Regular readers will remember this recent post about the frog who was interfering with my watering routine by hanging out in my watering can. We thought we had solved the problem by giving it and alternative housing option. It was a pretty cool setup if you ask me.

The frog, however, didn’t ask me and apparently didn’t share my opinion because it left its new home that evening and did not return. After a couple of days of keeping my watering can in the mud room, we started leaving it on the deck – up on the table. On Tuesday when I was refilling the watering can with the hose guess who hopped out. Yep! Somehow that frog had found its way back into the watering can even though the can was up on the table.

Well, its persistence paid off. When my husband got home the frog was hanging out on the garden hose and since my husband wanted to use the hose, he moved the frog back to the watering can.

I then placed the watering can in the flower bed. I think it’s garden art with a purpose.

Later that day, when my husband was going to the farm store, I asked him to pick up another watering can. He obliged. 🙂

Lavender In Bloom

Bees, Lavender, Reflections

My sister sent me this meme yesterday.

I replied, “You know me well.” 🙂

Our lavender is blossoming right now.

It takes up a large portion of our prayer garden and is lovely in contrast with the red roses and the yellow evening primrose which are also in bloom.

The lavender is a favorite of the bees.

While the honeybees were indulging as well, the bumble bees were the ones that I could capture in my photos.

I do regret that there is no feature that allows me to share their wonderful fragrance with you over the internet.

Thanks for visiting.

Monthly Inspiration

Reflections

It seems that July snuck up on me. I looked at my calendar today and realized that it’s July 2nd already and I had not posted our monthly inspiration. It just so happens, however, that this month’s inspirational quote is one we try to live by. It’s no stranger to this blog, in fact if you look at the side bar you will see this verse.

From my 2022 wall calendar.