Hello all can you believe its already the end of September ??? Well it has went fast it seemed like the summer was a blur.......we literally like never go anywhere and just keep busy here on the farm. This year I had a whole lot of tomato plants, a whole lot of cucumber plants I say a whole lot as it was so many I never counted. I had of course started all my plants and with no where to sell them I ended up planting them all......IDK if that was a mistake or a blessing. I took care of all these plants and spent what seemed to be every minute in the high tunnel or in the fields. When we were in tomatoes and cucumbers which I actually still get some but not as much as June and July and really the tomato plants are maybe one to two tomatoes every few days and they are so tiny. Our huge greenhouse fan died and that's what helped with pollination. Tomatoes are self pollinators but they need wind or touching or air movement to pollinate. The cucumbers are parthenocarpic so these type I grow don't need pollination from insects or pollinators. So where I am headed to in this post is I feel like the summer was a blur as so much time was spent watering and picking this summer. I canned 112 jars of spaghetti sauce all quarts, 72 quart jars of enchilada sauce, 47 quarts of regular tomatoes, 84 pint jars of salsa. These are whet we did for our family, I had a lot of these jars just from my own stash from all our personal canning needs. We go thru about a 100 jars of spaghetti sauce every year sometimes I have even had to purchase it. The tomatoes I use for chili, beans, tomato pudding, butterbeans and tomatoes, soups. My boys have a already gone thru a case of the salsa....tacos, enchiladas, burritos...you name it chips and salsa. It seemed like we spent so much time canning and taking care of the farm. I keep on going despite the severe pain I suffer in my back and all over from the spinal stenosis and the fibromyalgia. I also dehydrated a ton of food for soups, and beans. We eat a lot of beans and pressure can black beans, pinto, navy, and kidney beans for soups, chili etc so with the dehydrated foods I just add them to the soups. I have done, onions, garlic, so many peppers I can't even being to tell you how many, and celery. I am still in peppers and actually have a dehydrator full as I type this. So as you can see this was a busy summer. Getting soap supplies, and canning jars this year has been a true struggle. There are no lids anywhere, no jars, no canning supplies....it's sad real sad. We raise our own chickens for meat and pressure can it and without jars we have NOTHING. I need these jars to feed my family so hopefully there will be some back on the shelves. Not to mention make my jams, pickles and elderberry syrup.
Since this blog is supposed to be about my art I wanted to show you the last paining I was able to complete while Skylar my granddaughter from Alabama was here for 44 days this summer. It was a wonderful time with her she was able to ride her bike all day everyday. We went so long without rain from mid June to mid July that when it actually did rain Dusty called me on my cell phone to tell me "its raining." So Skybear spent a lot of time outside. We had a blast with her making crafts and using Perler beads to make things. We did go to the bird park...we arrived an hour before closing and it was like no one was there. I absolutely love that place. Oh well trying to play catch up like I do most often and telling you everything I can remember since the last post.
I love the painting. Of course I had a blast painting it....Skylar painted 13 canvases while I painted this...LOL!
Some of the sweet peppers I dehydrated
Just a few of the habaneros I have picked and dehydrated this year
Some of the salsa we canned
Applesauce we did it was like three cases, my boys add this to their oatmeal.
Of course while Skylar was here she helped me in the kitchen here we were canning chicken
This was my BEST year ever of figs so that means lots of fig jam, strawberry fig, and cranberry fig jam.
This was also the best year for grapes we ever had too SO THANKFUL
We hatched chicks while Skylar was here it was awesome and so exciting. She checked on the eggs everyday until the final day and it was one after another of hatched baby chicks.
At the bird park
Budgies at the bird park (my favorite part)
Skylar at the bird park we had so much fun
We had an amazing time with Skylar she loves Snapchat and every night we played on their pic after pic
We spent the Fourth of July together we decorated her bike and a cookout
Colten graduated this year Class of 2020 what a challenging year to graduate but he is very thankful as we are that he graduated. Well done Colten.
As you can see it has been a busy summer.....glad to se fall. I have been making my bracelets too late at night.
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Until next time....
Cyber Hugs,
Dawn Gallop |
