Tomatoes! Tomatoes!

Every spring we plant large # of plants thinking we will want all those tomatoes to "do stuff with" and every fall I think "We are Insane!!  Why did we plant so many tomatoes?!?!"   And this year is no exception lol.

This years weather was perfect for the tomatoes plants. They loved the hot humid weather and since we pretty much watered every day, this is a Bumper Crop for sure.  So far we have done a large batch of salsa. Tonight we are dicing the tomatoes to can, since I can see using them in lots of things and in about 2 weeks (maybe less) we will be doing tomato sauce. Now, while I'm making all this I'm think we are crazy, but all winter long and into the next summer when I just run to the basement and bring up a nice jar of homemade sauce I remember that it is all worth it. 

And I've been lucky enough to be married to a man that is my partner in this whole scheme of things. Not only does he do 90% of the gardening, but he is chopping with me, pulling hot jars out of the water, slicing & dicing and helping me do taste tests.  I highly recommend having a partner while canning.

The Heat!

The heat!! Goodness the weather is always the unknown when gardening. 3 years ago the spring came early but so did the fall. 2 years ago it was just a cold summer. Last year the spring was cold and wet! Barely saw the sun at all till mid-June and while the fall was nice, it came too soon.
Each year we've planted, something different is affected by the weather. Last year the biggest plant affected was the bell peppers we planted. They had enough sun to turn green but were about 20 days short of sunshine to turn orange and red.

This year the heat has killed the beans, the soup beans that is, yet the onions are growing like crazy and so are the tomatoes (though we've never had a problem with them and always have more then we need.) The cucumber plants aren't growing quite as good as they did last year (they liked the wet cool spring) and I'm not sure what the potatoes are doing under ground but the top sides don't look so good :-(

I have  LOT of respect for those way it was before grocery stores. If my zucchini plant doesn't give me one, I can just go to the store and buy one or order seeds for next year from someone else and not worry about harvesting my own seeds if the plants don't grow. Or even for those in many countries who live and die by what the weather does and how it affects their crops.

Bitter & Sweet



Our mouse chasing crew



It is Always a bit of a challenge to leave the city and come back to the farm, especially when returning from Minneapolis. We don't know Milwaukee enough to have that feel familiar when we visit, but Minneapolis feels like home in so many ways that it is hard to leave.

Each year we've been here it gets easier as we have friends here now (though those took a while to find) and our little farm is more and more home as we've done improvments all over the outside to make it "ours" (and so far the landlord doesn't mind). And of course this is the only house Trinity knows as home. 



Time to eat peas



It is a joy to watch her run outside with complete freedom to be a kid. She plays with the outside animals, has a very loyal dog that comes to her when she whistles and even when she doesn't, veggies she eats from the plant & fruit she can pick herself. Riding the lawn mower with daddy is a MUST in her mind.

I often looked at this place through her eyes whenever I question our move from all things wonderful and familiar to a land of strangness and vast expanses without buildings or good ethnic resturants...



OHHH And for those who Minneasotans that want to know.. YES! Trinity is growing up a Packer's fan. It is just unavoidable around here.. Sorry ;-)

So far this year...

Well I've put a reminder on my phone to enter something in here, so I should be able to be more consistent at entering info.

This summer has been fairly easy weather wise. Spring started early and plants that were already in the ground shot up without any hesitation. We plant organic seeds so the seeds from the veggies are able to be used the next year. One example of that was a snow pea plant that must have happened from a see falling last year from plant we had. This spring it was up to my knee before June. And now it is about 5'5" tall and we were picking snow peas off it early. Which gave me the idea to maybe plant them in the fall and see if we can recreate affect next year. Plant is bigger then the ones we started normally and because it bigger had more pods.

Ugh...

Where does the time go? Well it's been a year since we posted and since Daryl hasn't been in the mood as of late, I am going to take over instead of just putting my two-cents in.

It is spring again and this year we have a little better outlook on the future. Last year we were struggling financially while jobs here were scarce and usually paid as little as possible! THIS year, Daryl has a great new job that pays higher then we thought possible around here. We get Lots of yummy free cheese from his new job and a lot of burdens have been lifted off our shoulders.

SO! We have 50 baby chicks arriving next week. 25 meat birds and 25 egg layers After experimenting with a few other egg layer breeds, we have switched back to all Rhode Island Reds. Their temperament is amazing! They are great layers and they are the classic brown egg layers for a hobby farm.

So keep an eye out and you'll see pics soon of all the little balls of fluff!