Beauty Farming Life

We interrupt this "Inspiration Thursday" for some breaking news... WHAT IS THAT PEEKING OUT? THE RED COLOR? Why it's our first tomato!   He's not the prettiest... He's not the biggest... He certainly won't win the blue ribbon at a state fair... He won't even make the cover of Gardening Monthly... But when we covered him with a bit of special salt... He was the BEST tomato in the world...

So...Hobart spent the better part of an HOUR watching something outside... ...focused like a laser beam... ...on some terrible creature just outside the window... Yeah...it was a flower blowing around...SCARY! Oh to be a cat...

Here is a great image we found, we'd love to have this in poster form... It is oh so true...our state has some of the most extremes of weather and our Summers are hot and hotter, dry and humid, we have it all around the state. Yep, we live around the "D" in "humid".   In our opinion, the humidity makes the heat much more unbearable than just straight up dry heat.  It saps your energy and just generally makes life miserable.  Dry heat is whatever temp it is...wet heat always has a "feels like" temperature that is far higher than what it might actually be. We're actually under a heat advisory this weekend, even opening cooling centers in Houston for those who don't have a/c and need a break from the heat. Speaking of this heat, we'll be out in it today.  Will definitely need to mow since I skipped it last weekend.  I think I will just mow and t hen check on and work in the garden.  T hen go and do projects inside that can ta...

 Saturday was good.  HOT.  But good.  Started off a bit nerve-wracking though.  I rolled the mower down the ramps from the shed, hopped on and it wouldn't start.  Even though I just replaced the battery a few weeks ago, I checked it.  It was good.  So I got online and Googled our model and the symptoms and found a suggestion.  When you get off the mower, a sensor in the seat cuts off power to the engine (for safety reasons).  I lifted the seat, removed the sensor, cleaned it of dust, hopped back on, and it started right up!  PHEW! I got everything mowed, it looks so much better now.   I cut it pretty short, time for its "Summer" cut (like me), ha! Fresh Fig What could have possibly done this to this fig?  Oh wait, it was ME!!!!!!   I was riding around the fig tree with the mower and realized I needed to pluck them off so it could focus on root development.  Well, the...

Found this at Cost Plus World Bazaar... Farmers Market metal sign It took us about 5 seconds, including reading, to know that we had to have this for the farm...will have to figure out exactly where to hang it at the farm but it will be perfect I'm sure.   We have been out running errands as it's too hot for much else.  Now we're back inside where it's cool. Hope your weekend is going well!

Got to the farm and saw red!  Tomatoes  that is! And a ton of herbs!  (OK, maybe not a ton but a lot!) And here is the basket...full of two kinds of toms, and 5 kinds of herbs...and there are a lot more green tomatoes still to ripen. Some of them I pulled while a bit green on the ends. Any advice on ripening them?  There will lots more next weekend and we'll be pulling as many as we can to keep them going for the next week.   Just a window ledge for a few days?  

One of our local TV stations was giving away some Red Cross Deluxe Emergency kits for the beginning of Hurricane Season.   KHOU.com .  You could enter online daily and so most nights, while watching the news and getting the reminder, I would enter. Red Cross Deluxe Emergency Kit I kind of forgot about it for a bit.  Then the other day I got an email that said I was chosen as a winner!   WOO HOO! Above is a picture of what all it comes with...including a backpack filled with all sorts of items.  A first aid kit, bags of drinking water and ration bars, a crank radio, flashlight, duct tape, and more...even a collapsible 3 gallon water bag.   We'll keep this in town for emergencies, since we have some supplies at the farm, plus I'm working on a better first aid kit for out there as we ll. We've ordered some cool  things  for that at Amazon and will have that in an upcoming post.  Of course today is the second annual AMAZON PRI...

Recently, Jaz over at OctoberFarm  posted about making Amish Mustard Eggs.  We've never heard of them but they looked wonderful.  So I did some Googling and found lnfo about them.  Pickled eggs!  Who knew? It couldn't be easier! Ingredients for Amish Pickled Mustard Eggs Boil eggs.  We boiled a dozen but ate a few so there were 9 left (and conveniently, our jar held all 9).  The rest of ingredients are spices and seasonings, yellow mustard, vinegar and sugar, and a sliced onion (optional). Turmeric, salt, mustard seed, celery seed, and cloves. Put into a saucepan with 2 cups of vinegar, 1/2 cup water, yellow mustard and sugar.  Heat to a boil and let simmer until sugar is dissolved, set aside to cool. Put your eggs in a container that has a lid.  You aren't canning these, they just stay in your fridge while you eat them.  Here is when you can add the onions, sliced up or you can add sliced carr...

Every Thursday, we like to post a picture of something we've found online that inspires us to do something similar at the farm.   Sort of our own blog bulletin board so that we can eventually look back and, hopefully anyway, recreate it...enjoy! Flowerbed, image source, Southernlivng.com OK...the other day, 2nd Man goes "hey, I found something for Inspiration Thursday....do you think we could someday do something like this around the house at the farm?" and then he showed me this picture. Hmmm...looks amazing, of course, and the farmhouse is kind of "nekkid" (that's NAKED for those of you not from the South, HA!).  I'm not sure we could recreate this in it's entirety, but it's a template for something and that's why we save these pictures.  I like the freeform nature of something like this.  I'm currently started edging around the house and clearing the grass in what could be called "straight and narrow flower beds...

YUM! There is nothing that seems more "Summer in America" than watermelon.  Crispy...sweet... ...bright pink and red...green and white rind... Watermelon slices ...and juicy.  We love watermelon.  We'd like to grow some at the farm but it takes a bit of work and a lot of regular water, we'll have to focus on that later.   I do have to admit that I'm torn between either watermelon or cantaloupe being my favorite.  2nd Man is more of a watermelon only person, I love both.  Never been a big honeydew melon fan though. What about you?  Big watermelon fans?   Any favorite way to eat it? 

Saw this bird a couple weekends ago.   Anyone know what it is?  UPDATE:  Female cardinal!   Thank you all! Female cardinal in a tree I'm off to the farm today, but most likely no mowing.  Will just do a few projects, see what the garden has to offer and come back.  The heat is just unbearable.  Our heat indexes are 105-108.  Not much we can do in that heat.   I would like to get the porch cleaned off, it's become a bit cluttered (for those with porches, is it just us? or does that happen on other porches? LOL). Good time for some Fall planning as well! Have a great day!   More later!

We would be remiss if we forgot to post this.  It was National I Love Horses Day!   (or Love Your Horse Day as it's also known)  Who knew??  Well I bet horse lovers knew. We don't own a horse of course (insert Mr. Ed song here, LOL), b ut luckily for us, 2nd Family has Artax, the horse member of their family for about the last 15 years... We love to see her in their back pasture (they rotate her from their front to their back) because that makes her in OUR front yard, ha.   So today I stopped at the store and got her some carrots.  I had to call her up to our end, but she came... This is "her corner" where Ma, the former owner of our house and land, used to give her snacks.  She knew that I would have something... "And where is it?"   She seemed to be asking... I cut them up and scattered them around on the ground just like Ma used to do in the same spot... Can a horse smile?   Because we s...

Sometimes... simple... Sausage links and homemade buttered biscuits is best...

Saturday was the day at the farm (we had family commitments Sunday).  It was too hot to do much of anything but I could pick veggies! Tomato plants were pretty full... The herbs are growing by leaps and bounds... Eggplant in raised bed And what is this?   Why it's an eggplant!  Almost ready, still a bit small... The other plant in the same bed is a bit smaller and no blooms but hoping that changes soon. Okra in raised bed Here is the okra.  It's getting large.  The other plant in the bed is catching up too.  And of course, there are our perennial chives, ha! Basket of Tomatoes and Jalapeños  BEHOLD!   This weeks haul of t omatoes and jalapeños!  We're going to have to have some meals where we can use fresh, yummy tomatoes.  I'm suggesting burgers later this week.  We'll see what happens!   We're very happy with the garden this season, small though it may be.  The whol...

Noticed that a few leaves were stripped on one of the tomato plants and some fruit had parts eaten off.  I immediately started looking for critters... Green Hornworm Caterpillar  ...and sure enough, I found one... Tomato Hornworm ...and then two!   That was all though, I checked the plants thoroughly.  Ugh, I hate these things.  Masters of disguise and they are so creepy looking.  They can destroy a tomato plant.  I picked them off and "dispatched" them.   They didn't do much damage from last weekend to this so I think I'm OK until next weekend.  I also saw a few red and black spidery looking bugs.  I had some spray on soap mix that I used on both plants and that seemed to take care of them, but I'll have to do some more research. Anyone have any suggestions? 

Oh my, we are in love with these.  A very sweet lady who is a fan of the blog, and has her own farm (much farther along than us) sent this to us recently.   It's a jar of homemade Candied Jalapeños.   Candied Jalapeños I've had some before but they were way too hot.   These were just perfect! Sweet, spicy, pickle-y (sometimes you have to make up the right word, ha) and just the right amount of heat.   We love that she used green AND red jalapeños, it makes for a vibrant display in the jar and on the plate.   Speaking of plate...   Candied Jalapeños with cream cheese and crackers ...there is nothing like having them served on top of cream cheese with some crackers (in this case, Triscuits).  OH. MY. GOSH.  They were so good.   Anyone have any good recipes?   Can they be canned in a water bath and put up?