Food Preservation efforts and Solar panels install

We worked the week to get our produce preserved

Just a quick picture montage of the produce preserved!

Got 2 pints of pickled crab-apples!  They smell so nice!

3 pints and 1 cup of corn for the freezer. It was the first corn of the year so a lot that I picked last weekend got eaten before it could be frozen!

First canned green beans of the year.  We need to can the remaining green beans because we are so short of freezer space.

Cucumber relish!  16 pints!  Still have some cucs left - those will be used for refrigerator pickles probably.  

Freezer seal replaced

We ordered a replacement seal for the standup freezer downstairs at the city house.  It came over the weekend and I finally got around to installing it.  I don't know if it is better yet or not.  The stuff I have read on the internet say that it can take a few days to seat right.  In fact, it has improved alot since I installed it last night.

The old seal.  Frankly, it look ok to me...

This is the NEW seal.  See that gap at the upper corner?

Another shot of the gap.  I hope that seals up.  

This is the side that used to have problems.  At least this side looks good.  Time will tell

Vivint Solar panels installed

Vivints installers came out Tuesday and put up their panels and installed the transfer box in the basement.  Its not supplying power to the grid yet.  The Vivint representative (Hi Ron!) said it usually takes about 6 months before it goes live after this point.  

The obligatory sign!

Hard to get a good shot.  They did a great job.  I found no damage to anything around the yard and no debris.

This is a better shot I think.  Covers a good amount of the roof.  That side of the roof is mostly facing west, but gets light all year.

The permits need to be up until inspection and electrical switchover.

This is what they added indoors.  The box on the left is new.  Just a big switch from the panels.

First elderberries are in!

Pepper status in the raised beds!

Here are some shots of the pepper plants in the raised bed at the "city house".  They are coming along nicely!  Those Jalapenos are going to town, but even the other peppers are putting in a good showing!

I don't know if these are from a seed packet or from the "grocery saved seeds" - but they are doing well!

OK - not peppers, but my Thai basil and kale (volunteer Kale - it reseeded before I got it all off the bed!)

Jalapenos!

Arrival

Went up to farm late Thursday night. Got there around 10ish.  I wanted to get an early start in the morning so that it would be cool when I did my sawmill work.  It's hot now, summer is here.  It's drying off nicely though, thats a good thing!

Sawmilling old wood continues...

Sawed up an old oak log that looked about the right length for the mill but ended up being a tad too long.  I had to saw off about 1.5 ft from the end.  Other then that though, the log milled up nicely.  I got 6 2x4s out of it!  The are bowing a bit, but they are long boards so I know I can get a good 11ft straight enough for grape arbor tops.  I only got this one log done Friday morning before it got too hot to work at the mill.  

On Saturday morning I tried again and took what looked like a nice log to the mill - it had its bark off and it seemed well preserved.  After my first couple of cant cuts I noticed that it was locust!  It sure looked nice too - but I felt that the log was a bit light.  Unfortunately after I got it cut into a cant and took first board cut I found that the reason it was light was because there was a big wood ant next in it!  The nest shape was perfect to ruin almost every cut I could think of!  Damn!  I ended up just making stickers out of the whole log.  Honestly, I didn't get even a decent length of sticker out of it!  Oh well.  Not many logs left in the old pile now that look even remotely promising for lumber.  I will look it over more, of course, but it looks like its going to be mostly firewood at this point.

Elderberries!

They are getting real close!  I did pick some from about 3 bushes.  I got about 5 quarts.  Put them in the freezer to process later.  I'd really like to process them all in the winter because of the heat issue but we just don't have the freezer space.

Elderberries are loaded!

Most are not quite ready

Elderberries, after de-stemming.  About 5 quarts here.

Pumpkins!

They aren't ready, but they are getting big!  I found two in good shape out in the paw-paw patch.  Probably more hiding amongst the leaves.

Pumpkin is getting bigger!

I found another one, but didn't get a picture.  This is just the same one as the picture above.  

Sweet-potatoes

They are behind, but they are taking off.  I don't know what to do about the surrounding weeds and grass.  I might just weedwack the weeds down.

Sweet potatoes!

Big patch progress

I picked first tomato from the big patch this weekend!  It was a roma - from a volunteer plant.  I de-weeded the kale.  The kale looks ok.  But something snipped of 3 plants!  I have no idea what would do that.  Almost looks like a groundhog or rabbit, but they shouldn't able to get in this patch, and I didn't see any plant debris laying around - which i think would be the case if rabbit or groundhog.  Maybe a raccoon?  I have seen some strange scat around the property - it might be racoon.    I still need to de-weed the cabbages and brussel sprouts.  Next weekend maybe.  I also harvested a couple cups of broccoli.  Pickings are slim due to extensive loss from flooding earlier this season.

I missed a broccoli last time I guess.  Its awful small head!  It was probably ready last weekend, but I didn't take it because it was so small I thought it was immature.  

Whats wrong with my dwarf apples?

Something is killing these trees!  I have no idea what is going on.  It honestly doesn't look like fungus.  Almost looks like something may have attacked their roots!

New dwarf tree is having problems.  See the leaves dying?

Something is hurting this tree!  These new dwarf trees are having a hard time this year.  This one's leave are drying up and dying!  I have no idea whats going on.  :(

Thoughts on Peach, grape, cherries,  and maybe even blueberries issues

I have been thinking about the fungus issues and leaf drop issues/leaf color issues for these plants.  It occurred to me that maybe the real underlying issue is not the fungus, but that the plant is weak and unable to overcome the fungus as it normally would.  I did some research online and this seems to be a possibility in my case.  I ordered a couple soil test kits and some garden sulphur.   I suspect that the ground may be too basic - these plants need acidic soil to thrive.  From what I have read, even if I find basic soil and add some sulfur now it will still take 4-6 months for this to affect soil condition significantly!  I hope the plants can survive long enough to be cured!

Corn and squash

Corn and summer squash takings for this weekend!

Green Beans

I didn't get a picture, but I harvested about 8 lbs of green beans from the paw-paw patch.  Taking them back to can.

Crabapples!

Well, there aren't many, but I picked them!  I hope to have enough to pickle and can.

They are very pretty!

This one Crabapple tree is loaded!

crabapples!  All from one tree!

Septic tank issues continue.

Another Septic tank pumpout was needed.  Called Chesnuts Sunday and he and his son came out Monday morning.

Hot summer weekend.

Mom, Tom and Julie pay a visit

I stopped by Mom's place to pick up a gas can and some stuff she had for us.  I kind of got concerned when I saw her car in the garage but couldn't find her anywhere!  I went around the property, in the house, up and down the stairs - no mom!  I got in my car to head to my place, contemplating calling my siblings to see if they knew anything, when I got a call from Tom.  They were headed over to my place for a visit (Mom was with them)! Whew!

So, anyway, here are some pictures Tom an Julie took while visiting me and mom's place.

Julie, cleaning around some of mom's grapes

Mom, lol, great expression!

Looks like mom has a groundhog.

On mom's porch

The metal arbor there is something I made for mom and dad quite a while ago

These sunflowers came up from seed that the birds knocked out of the feeder

There I am on the left!  Dear lord, I need to get a haircut and loose some weight!

Looking at my "big garden" and the apple orchard

A panoramic view

Looking out across the valley

Hazy, hot day.  Still a nice view.

Obligatory family shot.  Tom on right, mom in center.

close up

I have no idea what we were talking about.

Friday night

I made a pie!  I brought up most of the 11 quarts of frozen green beans (from the beans I picked last weekend from the paw-paw patch).  I needed to make room for the beans in the deep freeze!  I will have bok choi and broccoli and corn soon and I will need more freezer space.  All future green beans will have to be canned.

I made this blackberry an rhubarb pie to use up some old pie dough and berries/rhubarb from the freezer.  I need to make room for the new stuff!

Work on the farm this weekend

I mowed around the locust trees and the hill next to the orchard after the family left.    The next morning I woke to a thunderstorm!  Well, it was too wet to do much outside, so I sharpened some of my chainsaw chains.  

I was able to get out later Saturday to trim around the blueberries.  I wanted to treat the blueberries with epsom salts (they are deficient in magnesium evidently), but I couldn't find any at the house.  So I went to the local hardware store - they didn't have any either but suggested I go to the local grocery store.  They had it!  So I got a couple of the small bags and took them home.  I used 1/4 C per plant, as recommended.   I sprinkled it at about 8-12 inches in a circle around the base of the plant.

The blueberries.  They aren't dieing... but they aren't growing either.

After that I went out to work on trimming the old pea patch in the big garden.  It took a while with the weedwacker, but I subdued the weeds enough to cover the patch with black plastic.  

On the left - no more weed forest!  The black plastic should help hold the heat and hopefully destroy the weed seeds.

Garlic harvested!

I cleaned up some weeds in the front patch too.  Used the weedwacker.  I can finally get in there to de-weed the strawberries!  On the right there you see where I dug the garlic.

Ugh.  The poor garlic was essentially sitting in mud!  Its amazing I got this much from my plantings!

Cleaned up a bit and dried, it looks more appetizing.  I used some to make a nice spaghetti sauce.

And speaking of pies an leftovers.. Broccoli and Bok Choi harvest and freezing

I harvested some broccoli and bok choi from the big garden.  I froze 2 pints of broccoli an 4 quarts of bok choi!  Anyway, I had also brought a half bag of broccoli and cauliflower from the city that needed to be used. So I made another pie!  A pot pie of sorts.  Broccoli, cauliflower, chicken breast, cheese and a sauce.  It needed more sauce, but it was still good!

I almost didn't get a picture!  It was going fast!

Farm pictures

The front patch where the squash are.  I swear I think I see some SVB bites on the squash plants!  I sprayed around the base of the squash with sevin.  Mom suggested that - she had heard it somewhere.  We will see.

The buttercup squash are actually doing quite well!  Most of the squash are blooming now.  I didn't get a picture of the pumpkins, but I did see one about the size of a fist - I am sure there are more I didn't see.

Big patch.  More broccoli is coming.  I dusted with sevin before I left.  The sweet potatoes are looking much better!  Oh, and the eggplant are starting to bloom! Also, I picked about 20 lbs of cucumbers - they are on the left in the picture - outside the garden.

The corn is filling out nicely!

Cucumbers and castor beans on the left side of the garden in this picture.

I spraayed all the trees and the grapes with sevin and fungicide.  The grapes seem to be improving.  The peach trees are looking quite alarming though.  Not sure whats happening to them.  They seem to be loosing their leaves for no reason.  Too wet? Fungus?

I put out new Japanese beetle bags too.  The old bags were full and stinky.