Michigan

[fair weather chicken]

swampducks, sounds like us the rain was south along the Indiana/Michigan border. just a few sprinkles here also. glad to hear you have tomatoes coming on, ours are also. we have soaker hose on most of the garden, some squash in a new section has to be hand watered but otherwise it's soaker. saw Menards has some on sale this week, if there's some extra in the funds maybe we'll get some more. read in the paper that there are creeks and streams (same thing?), that are drying up. corn farmers are trying to save some of their crop by pumping out of them. good soaking rain can't happen soon enough. also saw 8.00 bale hay on CL. sure hope it doesn't come to that.

 

[Dascountry]

Swampducks my sugar/pie pumpkins just started to show fruit, so there is still time for yours. It rained here again this morning. Picked about a half gallon of beans late last night and will pick again tomorrow. Hoping then I'll have enough to can. I am so hoping our feed prices don't go up. Sure they will though. We buy chopped feed for the cows, pigs and chickens. Plus hay to boot. Right now though the cows are pastering out in the back field. Trying to get enough hay stored for the winter. Hope everyone out there gets some much needed rain your way.

 

[swampducks]

Oh crap.

Just started watering the garden today and the well quit.

It's 87 and rising, DH is on the warpath looking for tools, etc. We just replaced the pump a couple years ago.

Crap1

 

[fair weather chicken]

swamp ducks , we had the pressure switch go bad and then then hose i have from pump to manifold sprang a leak just as we were getting ready to leave for the farmers market. filled some buckets and shut it down. when we got home took about 20 minutes to repair. cut out bad and reconnected. water again. just after lunch today started watering again and discovered that the rotten rabbits had eaten off the broccoli leaves and most of the heads. i know how upset i get when i can't find my tools, but i try hard not to lose it with family. not their fault things wear out.

 

[swampducks]

The pump was deader than a door nail, no idea why. DH picked up a new pump, so $400 later we have water again. At least we didn't have to hire someone to do it for us. Could have used that moola on something else though.

 

[Dascountry]

Sorry to hear about the pump problems Swamp....it so nice to have handy guys around isn't it? Mine can fix and do just about anything, he's a smart cookie Sure saves on the labor charges.

Processed 10 pints of green beans today. Alos processed 4 pints of summer squash. Anyone every had any that was canned? Thought I'd try it and hope it isn't like when you freeze it.

 

[swampducks]

I prefer frozen to canned beans. I've made dilly beans and canned them but have yet to try them. I have had my MIL's canned beans and didn't like them, but then she had a tendency to pick them huge. I like them thin and small. When I buy at the store out of season I get frozen, will never buy canned unless it's the apocalypse.

 

[swampducks]

Just picked my first green beans. Provider to the rescue. Some got a little bigger than I like, I swear they were too small 2 days ago. Gave one to DH to try raw (I hate raw beans) he said it tasted great. So that's the veggie for dinner tonight! And I finally saw a green zuke started, got a few yellow ones already, though still too small to pick. Seeing some tiny cukes started, too but still nothing on any of the pumpkin vines. All tomatoes still dark green.

It's already hit 89 so far today, the forecast is for 99. Ouch, but I'm hoping the spotty cloud cover helps keep it down. After the sun lowers more I'll turn on the garden hoses. So nice to have water again.

 

[Dascountry]

Swamp its funny that you got summer sqaush before the zuc...mine was the other way around :/ I picked three cukes today(the pickling ones) about the size of a large dill. I finally spotted a couple marble size water melons The green beans I froze last summer all went to the pigs. I hated the way they tasted. I also pick my beans on the younger side. So tender that way. Picked four 1/2 pts of beets for myself today. DH doesn't like them pickled. One of my chickens broke open an egg today and they've only been laying for two weeks She better not let me find out who it is! I have five roosters that'll be going to be canned soon. Freezing the breasts but canning the rest for soup or dumplings. Looks like I'm done on the rain till maybe early next week

 

[so lucky]

Dascounty, I occasionally get a broken egg, but it is from the one chicken that has thin shells. They don't appear to eat the egg, tho. Bless their little chicken hearts! One of my girls found a half an egg shell in the compost pile yesterday, and was running around with it in her beak, kind of covering her face. The other girls were chasing her like she had found a big juicy worm. so funny. There were lots of egg shells in the compost...