Porch repair (reposition), honey,wine, tomato leather

Porch reposition

The kitchen porch had been pulling away and tilting away from the house ever since we bought the place.  I decided it was time to change that.  I bought a couple of 20 ton hydraulic jacks at TSC (they were on sale) and used them to push the porch back where it should be.  I got rid of the huge gap between the porch and the house and also releveled it (I left a little slope to shed water though).

There used to be over an inch gap here at the top.

Finally bought some local honey

I stopped at the place with all the hives (supers actually) showing from along the road (great cove, I think - 522?) going into McConnellsburg.   The honey is mostly Basswood.  The comb is from area local to the sales location, but the liquid honey if from further down the valley.  Tastes awesome.

Wine continues to develop

I raked the wine again (or the first time really, since I separated the skins).  I gave it a taste.  HORRIBLE!  LOL  - Ah well.  I will let it develop.  Who knows. I can always mull it or water it down or something.

I tasted a bit - this is the bit that was in the dregs.  Probably not the best part to taste...

Last of the tomatoes? Trying to make tomato leather

I don't know why, but I wanted to try to make tomato leather.  I did what is probably the final harvest of the tomatoes and saw that I had enough to warrant an attempt.  

I just cleaned and pureed the tomatoes in the vitamix, then I boiled them down for about 4-8 hours

Then I spread the mix onto parchment paper and put it in the dehydrator

After drying.  It worked!  You can actually eat  this stuff, but its really just another way of preserving tomatoes.  We have used it to thicken canned tomato sauce - it works surprisingly well.  Just throw a couple pieces into cooking sauce and it really thickens it.

The stuff is brittle and tends to break easily.  Nothing was added to it - it's just tomatoes.

More summer squash

Picked a few more.  Still seem to be coming on.  More to come?

Fall cleanup and trimming around the Osage and Gingko

Cleaned up around the osage and gingko - trimmed the trees a bit to fit into the cages better.    Replaced all of the little cages around the osage with big cages and put the little cages around the gingko. 

Trimmed around the Blackberries too

Going to have to put cages around these little cherry trees too

Gingko (row on the left) and osage (on the right) with new cages and cleaned up

Garden planting finally done!

Cool - they gave me even more mulch!

This is sure saving me lots of work!  Now all I have to do is to move it to where it belongs.  Around they trees mostly.

I still need to move the new stuff up on the pile so that it "ferments" better

Grape health

There is no doubt that the new sprays (myclobutanil and manzate) are keeping the black rot and rust at bay this year.  With the weather being this wet if I didn't have these sprays these grape vines would be dead - I am sure!

Lots of grapes on these vines!

I hope the varmints don't get them before I do!

Orchard update

The orchard trees look ok.  The June drop didn't seems to drop much; most of the fruit is still intact!  I have noticed some diseased looking leaves so I think I will spray sevin and fungicide - just like the grapes.

Pear tree looking ok.  Not needing bracing. yet.

For some reason this pristine apple tree isn't needing bracing.  Apples are lower in the tree i guess.

I switched out the stakes on the pristine apple trees.  The "leaning board" idea just wasn't working.  I moved back to the tried and true tripod setup.

These are getting close to ready!

More Choke cherry/berry damage

Freaking rabbits!  I have managed to kill 4 so far.  I also took out a small groundhog nearby and a raccoon out in the sheep hollow.  Still, there is a big rabbit that I haven't been able to get in this area.  I am pretty sure hes the one doing this too.  I got a couple have-a-heart traps at TSC last week.  I am trying them out.

They just snip off the top and leave them lay!

I mowed around the choke cherries this weekend too.  I use the small - hand mower for this.

Here is one of the have-a-heart traps ready to get the buggers!

Forsythia & elderberry cleanup

I finally got around to trimming the grass away from the forsythia and elderberries.  I did find that one of the forsythia had died below the elderberries.  I am trying to keep them clear until they are big enough to overwhelm the weeds.  I still can't get into the elderberries out in the swamp.

Squash and cukes planted!

I was finally able to get into the garden and put the plastic down and plant the squash and cukes.  I planted all of the buttercup and summer squash that I had left.  I only put in a few cukes.

The corn is growing nicely.  Where it came up.  I was used up all the old seed I had laying around.