Playing catch up and some news

Quite a few things have happened since my last post.  We got some more rain. Yay!  But it wasn't quite as much as I had wanted but something is better than nothing I say.

The garden is still growing.  The beans are taking off and producing like crazy.

Here is a picture my DH took of me and the pole beans.  I think that if you stretched some of those vines out they would be well over 12 feet long.  My lattice is three feet or so apart.  The vines are reaching out to each other and creating a bit of overhead shade.

Last weekend I harvested the majority of the tomatoes, green and red, and they are currently ripening up on my balcony. I figured this was better than letting them sit on the garden bed.  The fruits are so heavy that the plants were completely weighed down and not doing so well.  While I harvested I pulled up the tomato plants that no longer had fruits.

We have been harvesting the potatoes plant by plant.  Potatoes this fresh are delicious and make fabulous french fries. 

Next thing to start harvesting is the onions.  The few that I've pulled up so far don't seem to be as big as the one's I harvested from last year.  I'm not surprised considering how dry this year has been.

I also have a bit of a secret that I've been holding onto the last couple weeks.

Ready?

Drumroll ...

Well, maybe not *that* dramatic.

I'm buying a house!

DH and I found a great house, out in the country about 45 minutes from where I currently live and about 20 minutes away from my Happy Place.
 
It's on 20 acres and features great big Norway pines and oak trees and some maple trees.  There are a few acres of a really REALLY pretty Jack Pine forest.  

There is something so pretty about this kind of forest.  The moss, how bright the greens are, even the bone structure of the trees.  It's primitive and alive all at once. 

Have I mentioned the blueberries?  We found some blueberry plants.  **squee**

It probably won't be ours until late September.  I'm not going to lie, this new big event in my life has caused me to have a few freakout moments the last few weeks.  I've lived in my current house for 15 years.  It's comfortable there and it's what I'm used to. Now I'm going to have a longer commute, may get snowed in during the winter, and the eventual changing of schools for my son, but most of it has seemed to worked themselves out.

This is something that I've wanted since I was like 18.  However, life took me on a different path and this dream got set aside while I was busy with another house, starting a family and teaching myself homesteading skills at the Happy Place. "Someone" must have decided I was ready for this and dropped this place in front of DH.

So yeah, I'm nervous and excited all at once. :-)

Rain!

My area of the country has been sadly lacking in the rain department.  In comparison to the southern part of the state we don't have much to complain about.

However, we probably hadn't had rain since the first part of June. It was getting a bit dire out at my happy place.  The grass was starting to turn brown and the veggie garden was starting to look stressed and dried out.

We did what what we could with trying to keep things watered.  We carried buckets of water and I even filched water from the swimming pool. It finally got to the point where the creek dried out ... completely.  As in no water running and the sand at the bottom of the creek bed was dried out.  No ground water seeping into the creek to keep it wet.

I got pretty sad.  It got hard to go out there and see that things were slowly dying and that there really wasn't much I could do.  There is a sandpoint well out there but it's strictly light use.  The pressure tank is small and would be turning on constantly and probably burn out. There is no way we can use it for the hours of watering the garden would need.

A few days ago it rained!!!!! The skies opened up and the rain poured down like manna from heaven.  Immediately you can tell a difference in the garden.  Nothing is looking wilted, nothing looks stressed.  It's wonderful.

This is a couple of pumpkin vines.  I'm so impressed with how big they have gotten.  I did start these from seeds.

Look!  A baby squash.  I'm pretty excited to see this. I started winter squash plants from seeds back in April.  I'm crossing my fingers that we get more than two squash this year.  Last year I started seeds in the garden and I ran out of time before the frost hit and killed the vines.

 Here is one of my tomatoes.  My tomatoes are growing and doing well.  I don't know if they will ripen in time or if we will need to bring them home at the end of the season and let the ripen.

 

Here is a shot of one of the grapevines we planted this year.

Grapes on one of the other grapevines we planted this year.  The grapes are the size of smallish marbles. 

This year the raspberries seem to have exploded a bit.  I'm finding raspberry canes in the least expected places.  Most of the raspberry canes we have are wild.  This is our third season out there so I imagine that the canes are starting to hit their stride, so to speak.  I'm surprised that the wildlife hasn't come and eaten them.

An epic canning day

So what do you do with meat that you decide doesn't have much flavor when you cook it or use it in dishes? 

You cook, boil and can it!

Yes, ladies and gents, that is what I spent Saturday doing.  Canning approximately 40 pounds of ground meat.  My hubby started the day cooking meat and getting a head start.  He added spices to the meat while it was cooking. 

I do believe it was 43 jars that I filled. At one point we did have to stop, make a trip to Menard's and buy more pint jars.  The canning jars were on sale this week. 

After cooking and draining the beef I filled the jars and would smack the side of the jar to help the meat settle down.  Later on I realized that this was kind of a useless step. 

After filling the jars with meat we put a bit of beef broth in the jars and filled the rest (leaving one inch headspace) with water. Then I took a plastic utensil and ran it along the inside of the jar to get rid of the air bubbles.  Doing that kind of defeated the packing down I did earlier.  While the beef was cooking was cooling and waiting to be processed, we were taking bits and pieces of the beef and taste testing.  Yum!  That was the word of the day. 

It's looks belies it's true flavor. Probably the best ground meat I've ever tasted.   If it tasted that good before being pressure cooked and canned, I can only imagine what it tastes like now!

I'm fortunate enough to have two pressure canners.  If I didn't have two of them, this process would have taken at least two days.  I was able to have the second pot ready to go as soon as the presser canner on the stove was done. I *highly* recommend getting two pressure canners.  This was one of the best moves I've made since I started canning. 

Out of the 43 or so cans only three jars didn't seal.  I'm pretty impressed with that ratio.  I really took my time and properly prepped the jars, making sure that the headspace was correct and that the top of the jars were clean, the lids were on and that the bands were finger grip tight. 

This has been one of the *hottest* summers in recent years.  Those who do canning and processing know how hot it can be when you are doing this. 

 Last year we thought ahead when we purchased a new grill.  We got one with a side burner.  I did all my processing outside.  There was no way I could have done this in the house.  

This project was started about 7 a.m., I think, and it wrapped up after 8 p.m.  I now have lots of jars of yummy meat that will help me and the other cooks in the house when it's time to think up something for dinner. Not to mention the time it will save! 

A garden update

Here are some photos from the garden this past weekend.

The garden has exploded.  Everything is green and blooming and I've been picking some goodies already.

Sugar snap peas.  Just as good as I remember them.  Very few actually make it out of the garden.  Some of the vines are more than 6 feet tall. 

Winter squash plant.  I'm *amazed* at how quickly these grew.  We've had great growing weather.  Lots of sun and heat.  

Beets! We've been picking these the last week or so.  I've never had homegrown beets before.  The smell reminds me of freshly husked corn.

My MIL has been cooking the beet greens.  I imagine it reminds her of days gone by.  She loves boiled greens.  Me, not so much.  I'm a bit particular about food textures.

Our pole beans are starting to go gangbusters.  We have a few plants that are more than 6 feet tall.  The plants are starting to put out flowers.  I can't wait!  I have fond memories from last year when all three of us were picking green beans.

First canning of the season

This weekend I did my first canning of the 2012 season.  Somewhere around 17 pint-sized jars, 3 half-pint jars and 4 one-quarter pint jars.  I should be set for the next year for strawberry jam.  

This year I was able to make strawberry-rhubarb jam.  Pretty exciting!  It's got a little bit more meaning for me since the rhubarb was picked for me by one of my SIL's. 

Saturday we decided head out to one of the local pick-your-own strawberry patches.  It was our first time heading to this particular one.  It started raining just as we got there.  It was decided to forge ahead and pick strawberries.  At some point my son stopped picking strawberries and was just standing there and eating them.  No one said anything. I think they were just impressed that we stuck around to pick berries.  I think we got around 16 pounds of strawberries.

It may just be me, but I get a lot of satisfaction from canning.  Yeah, it's a lot of work and it usually happens one the hotter days that I process, but I really enjoy it.  

I say this now, and in a few weeks or so I will be processing cucumbers and beans and peas and feeling totally overwhelmed, :-).  But it does make me happy. 

My first broccoli of the season

Adorable!
Picture was taken today, June 18, 2012.  I've been waiting for what feels like forever for this.  Last year we had purchased only a few broccoli plants and regretted it.  This year we bought 24, I think.  No regrets this year!