The Joy of Gardening, Cutting Hay, and Fall Cleaning

Last week we received 5 1/2 inches of rain.  My garden is on sand and drains well, but this week we are getting more rain.  I am not complaining because we need rain now to have a garden and crops next year.  I will not even complain about snow and severe cold.  In short we need a normal rainy fall and a cold snowy winter.

I still have quite a bit to harvest in the garden, but I did manage to get all the potatoes dug before the rains started.  I do not think I will be making anymore tomato juice this year.  If I do get enough tomatoes to juice and can, then that will be wonderful.  There are still gourds, lima beans, peppers, and cotton to harvest.  Yes I planted cotton (in Southern Indiana) to see it grow.  It has beautiful flowers and I am still waiting to see the cotton to appear. 

My husband cut hay again last Saturday, rain was not in the forecast until Tuesday.  Well it is wet and will have to be picked up with a pitch fork.  We have two pitch forks so I guess I will be helping. 

All these little things make life interesting.  We definitely do not get bored around here.

Since it is cold and has been raining since Saturday afternoon, I have tackled fall cleaning.  I am thrilled to say I have 2 rooms done, from top to bottom, closets, drawer, and rotated clothes.  After all the house is cleaned I am setting a goal to deep clean one room a month so it doesn't have to take so long twice a year to get it done. It will make normal cleaning a lot easier and hopefully I feel like I am always behind.  Sounds like a plan to me, I will keep you informed if it works out.

The good thing about any type of cleaning and or organizing you find things you forgot you had or those misplaced items.  It's an a-ha moment when you find things.  I am looking for a land line phone I bought last spring to use when we loose power,  just a plain jane, no bells or whistles.  I know I bought two of them, but I can only find one of them, the one that is plugged in.  Its is here somewhere, along with a big flashlight.  Sometimes I put things up so my grandkids don't play with them and then I can't find them.  I found a stapler after six months of looking for it.  You just have to love grandkids, they tend to keep us on our toes.

 

Adding To The Harvest

My garden is still producing and today I picked tomatoes, peppers, and dug 15 pounds of potatoes. 

I still have more potatoes to dig.  I will get it all done in between everything else that is going on.

I have a ton of peppers to do something with.  I think it is time to start chopping and freezing them.  I  freeze them on cookie sheets then bag them in small bags.  I use my vacuum system so they keep in the freezer a long time, sometimes I have so many they will last 2 years.

I only cook for 2, but I cook every meal so anything I freeze and pressure can helps with meal planning.  It also saves a lot of money.  Grocery shopping is not my favorite thing to do so I stock up when I do have to go.

My intentions of starting fall cleaning are still there and I am making very slow progress in that area.
I am still in the reorganizing phase right now and am finding several items to be mended.  I am catching that up.

When I do get started cleaning my husband will disappear to his building and to the farm, he hates that time of the year.  I loose him at least two times a year, but he always shows up at meal time.

The Things I Have Delayed In Doing.

It is here!  All the things I have placed on the back burner and labeled I will get to that later.  All the chores I have done during the busy summer giving them a hit, lick, and a promise(as my Mother always said) have to start being done.

All the fun stuff, cleaning out closets, drawers, cabinets, we all have those fun things that need to be done.  Who wants to look at all this  all winter long?  Not to mention washing wall, cleaning floors, window coverings to be cleaned, and the dreaded windows to be washed.  Fun, Fun, Fun!!!!!!!!!!!

I did some small jobs yesterday.  There will only be time for a few today.  My husband has an appointment with the doctor.  He has traveled all over the world(work related), but mention doctor and it is not a task he can perform on his own.  I will gladly go with him, it is not me that has to be weighed, probed, prodded, and questioned.

We still have garden waiting to mature and be harvested, hay to be cut and baled again, and fall calving to be cycled through.  Last summers heat messed up the breeding cycle and I am afraid this year will be the same.  Weather plays a big part in all our lives, but it makes life interesting.  I am just grateful for anything our garden produces, our calves that are born and all the delayed chores to be done.  It keeps us busy and we all need a purpose in life.

If you retire  just sit down and do nothing, it gets pretty boring.  We retired to keep working.