To Fillmore for Lunch

I have been working in the greenhouses.  Carol would like to eat at Cluff's today.  When? about one.  I came in, changed my clothes and we headed out.  When we got at Cluf's , there was no place to park.  Being Friday and lunch time we planned on eating somewhere else.  The other places were also busy.  Our neighbor gave us two coupons for free ice cream cone.  There were lot of customers so I waited and waited and waited.  finally I presented the coupons and the clerk did not know how to enter in the register.  I waited and waited.  He was able to do one, but I would have to pay for the second one.  His supervisor came by and did it in seconds. 

Robert Came

This morning I finished up the preparation for my taxes.  I called  Dave, my tax mad, yesterday and left a message.  I called him again this morning and left another message.  He called me back early this afternoon.  He came by this evening and picked up my papers.

I worked an hour or so pulling weeds out of the perennials. I gave the weeds to the chickens.  By the way they layed three eggs today.  A couple of years we started out with 25 baby chicks.  They have layed pretty good.  We gave some away, some animal got some of them, and some have died.  We have eight hens now.  They are almost finished with their egg laying.

Robert and Frank came.  I helped them pick tomatoes.  They got quite a bunch.  I for got to take a picture.  There were about ten buckets. 

The weather has been nice.

Income Tax

I didn't get my taxes done in April.  I got and extension and now I have until October 15th to get it done.  Today I started working on it.  I have a lot of things ready now and it shouldn't be long now.  Maybe by tomorrow night I have it ready for my tax man.

Kinda Slow Day

The eleven tomato plants are looking good.  I want to transplant more Globe Mallow, but using dry potting soil which is difficult to get it all wet.  I am waiting for my soil bin to dry out some more.  While in house five I noticed one of our cats above one of the shutters.  I put Tigers food up there to keep the other cats from finding it.  Well, sure enough a cat found it.  When she was finished, she looked for a way down.  It is about eight feet high.   She moved around a little looking then jumped down to the heating bench which was below her and a little to the right.  I thought she would be afraid to make that jump.

We drove to Fillmore and bought a few groceries.  I bought a few things at Ropers.  While I was there I measured a fridge to see if it would fit in the space that we have for it in our kitchen.  It will fit.  We need a new fridge.  The one we have is over thirty years old.

I had an appointment with my dentist to day at one.  I was there a little earlier.  They gave me a four papers that I had to read and sign.  It did it.  He fixed one of my front teeth.  When going into the house this cat had one paw in the water.  She took it out and licked it.  She would put it back in and bring it out lick.  She did this several time today.

I checked out Roberts garden and ate a few cherry tomatoes.  I called Robert no answer, he called me back.  He and Frank will be coming tomorrow.  He said he would be here around 4:30.

I transplanted the glove mallow.

Picked Apples and Pears

I usually have oatmeal mush every morning.  I make one batch which contains a handful of raisins, a little salt, two cups of water and one cup of old fashion oats.  I put equal amounts sin three mush bowels.  I have one for breakfast and one in the morning and one the next morning.  Sometimes Carol eats one or has it at night.  The first thing this morning I made the mush as usual, but I used the raisins from the grapes that we grew.  Carol had one of the bowels and quickly recognized that it was the raisins I made.  They were pretty good, they didn't have the taste that I was expecting.  The raisins that I made are juicy and tasty.

Every time I through the orchard I notice the pears.  They were heavy and some of the branches were bent down touching the ground.  Others were broke.  Over the years we have had a good harvest of pears.  They are hard and instead of ripening in our pantry, they begin to rot.  On You Tube the other day I was watching a video on when and how to harvest pears. You snap the pear stem from the branch.  I it leaves a scar, then it is ready to be picked.  About 80% broke of properly.  Below is a branch touching the ground.

I got two five gallon buckets full of pears.  They are hard and instead of leaving them in the pantry, I left them in the garage.   In three or four days the should be ready to eat.

I picked a bucket of apples of the tree west of house five.  The apples are wormy.  I sprayed them once this spring when they were the size of a marble.  The tree is really productive and quite short.  Next year I could easily cover it with a netting to keep the apple moth at bay.

I can't resist taking pictures of our old kittens or young cats.  The black cat is very casual. 

Picking Before the Frost.

We had a good rain last night.  Today was cool but no more rain.

I thought that Robert and Frank would be here this morning to pick the tomatoes, cucumbers, beans.  They are usually here by ten.  After lunch I called him.  He said that it had been raining in Woodland Hills and thought that it might be raining here.  About two Carol and I picked the beans.

The bean harvest was really good.  This week was a lot better than last week.  Carol picked the south side of the row and I picked the north side.

I put them on the scales and the fuzzy picture shows  a little over eleven pounds.

This morning started picking the stems of the last bunch of raisins.  I finished up tonight during the women's conference.  Which by the way was really good.  Interesting enough was the raisins weighted the same as the beans.  I still need to wash the raisins I did yesterday and today.  That is a job for Monday. 

Late this afternoon I finished the clean-up in house two, I mean the emptied the trays.  I hauled away the wheel barrow full of dead plants, and in one of my new gardens for next year. and began again to empty the pots and trays in house one.  Also, in house two I hauled more horse manure that was washed in.  There is still a little more to remove.

Nice Rain

Last night we picked all the bell peppers and we left the jalapeno and Anaheim pepper.  It had rained most of the night.  The garden was muddy and the peppers were wet . We don't need those peppers, so we put them in grocery bags and left them at the post office.  They were mostly gone by noon.  We have taken a lot of our surplus to the post office it is used by some that don't have much gardens.

Carol Sliced a lot of the bell peppers and put them on large sheet pan.  I put them into the freezer.  Later in the day she put them in a gallon zip bag and then back in to the freezer.

A couple of days ago, I cut the dead and worn out flowers and plants in the dry garden north of our house.  This morning Carol said that she would rake them up and wanted me to get a tarp.  It is much easier to use the tarp.  I then drag the garden refuse to the trailer.  When the trailer is full we take it to the dump.  

The was a couple of times during the day that I destemmed the raisons.  We have two red bowels when full of raisons will fill one quart zip bags.  I is quite slow doing this.  I filled both of them.  I have enough raisons to fill two more bowels

Carol picked two pomegranates and removed the seeds.  They are put into a zip bag, frozen until all the pomegranates are picked.  She makes them into jelly.

 Robert will be here tomorrow, Saturday, to pick the beans.  The planted late.  This will be the third weekend to pick, and most likely the last one.  A frost is forecasted early Sunday morning.  The will be turned into pickles. 

 This picture is the entrance into the crawl space under our house.  The threshold has been moved by some animal.  Maybe a skunk.  What ever is doing it cannot crawl under the door.   Mystery.

Harvesting

I was working on another cage for the tomatoes.  I have three to go.   It seems like we just picked the beans,, but after breakfast we picked another nice batch of snap beans.  Carol gave them to one of out neighbors. 

This morning I washed two bags of raisins and drained the water out through a colander. After they had drained for an hour, I spread them out on a towel and by lunch time they were dry. 

I put them back into their quart zip bags.  There are four bags.  The first two are the ones that I washed.  The second two bags were washed before I put them in the bags.

There are enough grapes in the tote that is left to fill four more bags.

Our melon patch has done very well.  The variety is Topaz.  They need to be picked as soon as a little yellow appears in the skin.  It is my favorite melon.

The smell of the orange flesh reaches across the room.  I save seeds from year to year.  These seeds are not sold in any of the seed catalogs.  It weighs about eight pounds.

 We have been drying plums in the fruit dryer in the house.  I have removed the pit without cutting the plum in half.  First I used a small tube and pushed it into the stem end of the plum and forced the pit out the blossom end.  That did not work very well.  I used a very sharp nail and pushed it into the stem end.  That was difficult.  I took a slice off the blossom end which exposed the end of the pit.  That was a little better.  I made a slice in the end and used a small spoon like tool and fished out the pit.  Conclusion.  That takes to much time.  Finally, a light comes on, I will dry the plum with the pit inside.  We will see how it goes.

The forecast was for rain.  Carol wanted to pick the peppers before the rain and the mud. This is what we got. 

Plum Juice, Dried plums and Apples

Yesterday afternoon after we got back from the Temple, I picked a big bunch of plums.  They are mostly ripe and are really sweet.  We got the juicer out.  We filled to the top with plums.  We left the pit in.  After an hour of steaming we poured the juice into the four quart bottles and one pint.  Carol offered me a taste, it was hot,  She let it cool a little and the taste was pretty blough.  She added sugar and the taste was good. 

I slice the apples with a peeler slicer machine.  It worked really well.  Carol  put the apple slices on the dryer.  She removed all the pits from the plum and put them on the dryer upside down.  They have been drying most of the day.  We will turn it off at for the night.

 The grapes have been drying in house three for a couple of months.  Monday I started removing the stem.  I did more last nigh.  I have two quart bags full of dried grapes, raisins.  They are pretty dirty.  Next year I will wash them and pull of the stems, and put them out to dry.  It is hard to pull of those tiny stems after they are dry.  I washed the dirty raisins and put them on a towel to dry.  As I write thins they are nearly dry.

Plum Juice, Dried plums and Apples

Yesterday afternoon after we got back from the Temple, I picked a big bunch of plums.  They are mostly ripe and are really sweet.  We got the juicer out.  We filled to the top with plums.  We left the pit in.  After an hour of steaming we poured the juice into the four quart bottles and one pint.  Carol offered me a taste, it was hot,  She let it cool a little and the taste was pretty blough.  She added sugar and the taste was good. 

I slice the apples with a peeler slicer machine.  It worked really well.  Carol  put the apple slices on the dryer.  She removed all the pits from the plum and put them on the dryer upside down.  They have been drying most of the day.  We will turn it off at for the night.

 The grapes have been drying in house three for a couple of months.  Monday I started removing the stem.  I did more last nigh.  I have two quart bags full of dried grapes, raisins.  They are pretty dirty.  Next year I will wash them and pull of the stems, and put them out to dry.  It is hard to pull of those tiny stems after they are dry.  I washed the dirty raisins and put them on a towel to dry.  As I write thins they are nearly dry.

Delivering Salvia pachyphylla

This morning after chores, watering, picking beans, cucumbers, and few other things.  The grapes that I started to dry six weeks ago were 90% dry.  I dumped them into two totes and took them to the house

 It was a littler after ten when we left.

A person in Salem ordered four con-tainers of Salvia pachyphylla.  I brought five.  I emailed him late last night to because the was not a shipping address listed.  There was an email from him this morning with the address of his work and directions to get there.  When we got close I called him and he gave me more precise directions.  We missed the turn to his work.  I called him again and we met him near the shipping area.  He got in our car and he directed to where his truck was parked.

We stopped at Sam's Club where we bought a lot of non-edible stuff and a little edible stuff.  Next stop was at the Church Distribution center.  The we bought two copies of the DVD "Infinite Gift".  We had a little discussion on a place for lunch.  I want to eat at a place where we have never eaten before.  Carol prefers a place where we know something about the food.  We ended up at the "Great China Café" on the south end of State street in Orem.  Food was pretty good.

One purpose of going up was to stop at Nyleen and Miles home to get information on brain enhancement supplements.  I got the information and from miles computer I emailed the to me.  On the way home we stopped at Costco to get gas.  I took the following picture while we were stopped at a red light.  I clicked it as the light changed green and got a better picture than I thought I would get.

This is Hardy Pampas grass.  To the right of it is Russian Sage.  This was such a good example of the grass in the landscape, I had to take a picture.

I have wanted to visit with my sister Karla and her husband Jim, in Santaquin.  He does wood working and I also enjoy it.  I wanted to see some of the project he is working on.  Jim and Karla were not home.  That is the third time that we have stopped there and no one is home. 

We had to stop at the Red Barn in Santaquin.  Carol got her a root beer shake and I got a peach shake.  It tasted pretty good, but the peach that they used was not ripe and didn't blend in.  The peach was in hard chunks.

To St George and Back

We are expecting Nyleen and Mile Batty this morning.  We were up before light to get things ready.  We couldn't get all the produce into our car, so we loaded up their car. I did some watering at the nursery before we left.

Many years ago I was asked to clone the trees inside of Cove Fort.  It was early spring.  We went to Cove Fort and with the use of a ladder I climbed up and cut quiet a few branches which I took home. I put the stems into pots.  After some time the sprouted leaves and roots.  We had four or five growing in large pots north of greenhouse three.  Only three survived.  In a later spring some    We stopped at Cove Fort where I to see the Black Locust trees that we grew for them.  They really look good and are growing so well.

I don't know how this phot came to be.  Unless it was a merger of the three photos above.  I didn't do it but somehow it got done.

We got to St George before Anne and Fred did.  While waiting by the temple I took a bunch of pictures.

We unloaded Miles' car and loaded up Anne's car.  It filled the trunk and the back seat.  We then met at the Big Bear Diner.

On the way home we stopped at the Beaver Creamery and bought some cheese and a couple of ice cream cones. 

Harvesting Veggies

The first thing after breakfast was to pick the tomatoes.  I found an old long sleeve shirt to wear to keep the green stuff off my arms.  By so doing I did not have to wash my arms.  When I we finished picking, the shirt went into the washing machine.  Carol waited for her bath and got in the tub when she finished picking she jumped into the tub.  The five tubs of tomatoes are on our the steps of our back porch.

We then picked the peppers. Anaheim's, jalapenos, and bells. 

 We have here onions, zucchinis, Arminian and burpless cucumbers.  We are meeting Anne, Carol's sister and Fred her husband, in St George Friday morning.  They will produce from our garden.

Canning Peaches

As soon as it was light this morning, we were in the garden picking beans.  I think that we got about a peck of green beans.  Carol washed them and took them to one of our neighbors on the other side of Town.

Last Friday, I picked a couple of bushels of peaches.

 They were not very big, but has big taste.  I tried to peel them, but it was difficult.  I figured out how to peel them after a couple sessions on You Tube.  The key was to let them sit, soften, a couple of days.  Today was the third day.  Carol put them in boiling water for 30 seconds, and the skins peeled right off.  by the time we finished peeling we had 48 half pints.

We haven't canned peaches for a long time.  She put them in a water bath for twenty minutes.  We finished around 11:30.



That was about it for the day.