Hot Day for Making Raisons.

The female flowers of the  cucumbers plants are blooming and tiny cucumbers are developing.

More evidence of deer in our garden.  The leaves on these grape plants have been eaten.  It looks like there are new leaves forming.

The grapes are getting ripe and the wasps are sucking the juice out of them.   I made the screen several years ago. It is four feet long and two feet wide.  It was in bad shape so I strengthened if with some metal corner braces.  I re-stretched the screen and put strips of wood to hold it secure.  I put some quart bottles under it which prevents ants from getting in the grapes.

I filled this container four times.  I had to trim some branches away to get at all of the grapes.

The dryer or raisin maker is filled.  I removed the larger stems and leaves.  The bottles underneath hold the dryer off the table top.

 There is a wasp inside the circle.  

I cut a sheet to fit the top of the dryer to prevent the wasp from dinning.  

 I made a new cover.  On the other one there are openings on the edges that might let the wasps in.

I put small dabs of honey on both ends of the table.  That should attract the wasps.  I can get them with a fly swatter.

The cucumber vines are getting so big and growing all over the place.  There are many branches and growing to the left and to the right.

I cut them down and planted some new ones.  I will put the trellis up a little later.

I have some greenhouse eggplants.  I planted them today.  I made the hole eighteen inches apart. 

I watered them with a bucket.  The drip tape will give them a daily watering.

I was visiting with Wade Lemon across the street from us.  He is an expert on deer and elk and other game animals.  I wondered if he knew how to keep the deer out of our garden.  He didn't.  He was picking apples from his fruit trees.  By picking them there is less chance of limb breakage.  I thinned out some peaches for the same reason and to have larger peaches.  They won't be ripe for another month.

I have three greenhouse bell pepper plants.  The were really droughted.

I picked up the windfall apples and put them in front of the truck to see if the deer would eat them.  If I fill them full of apples, they may stay out of our garden.

Questions and comments are welcome.

   

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. 

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.