When It rains it pours

I'm in the process of fixing my riding mower again. I just put new blades on it and ruined one on something that I have mowed over a thousand times. That's not the worst of it. When I hit the rock the blade stuck in the ground and burnt the belt up before I could get it shut down. So I called Sears to check on a new belt and blade. I bought the other blades at Tractor Supply for $15.99 a piece. I figured that Sears would have the belt because I bought the mower there. Tractor Supply didn't have one to fit. Sears said the belt would be $36 and the blade was $17.99. Well I was disappointed to say the least. My stepfather said to check with Clay Farm Bureau. I did and the same belt was $12.95 and the blade was $15.99. I bought them yesterday and put them on and realized the the deck where the other blade is was bent. I guess I'll go back out and pound it out straight and start mowing my 4 and 1/2 acre lawn. Well at least I trimmed most of it this morning. Well that's enough complaining for today.

Hot and Tired

It's getting hot around here again. It's in the 50's of the night and upper 80's of the day with a lot of humidity. I still have many things to accomplish before winter. I need to get most of the garden cleaned off. I'm still hauling in some wood in my spare time. We've been canning some kraut and green tomatoes. We picked some apples late yesterday evening and spent last night peeling and freezing. My wife made an apple pie and it was really good. The only thing missing was some vanilla ice cream.

I'm waiting until the weather cools down to clean out a really large area for a new chicken pen. It'll be about 20 feet wide by about 200 ft long. There is a spring in the middle that I'll cover and I'll put in an automatic watering system from the spring. I'll just winter the few Rhode Island Reds and next spring I'll get another 50-75 pullets. I'm thinking about getting some more geese next spring also. I love geese. They are my favorite farm pets of all. They have great personalities and are great weeders.

A Lost Picture

I killed this buck on December 2, 2007 with a muzzle loader. It had a 19 and 3/4 inch spread. I just recently found the picture and thought I would post it. I have pictures of him hanging in my living room but I couldn't find any of him before I had him mounted. That is until I ran across this one a couple days ago.

Hauling in more firewood

We've been hauling in more firewood again here lately. We hauled some in back in May and then we became to busy with everything else to finish it. So we've been going out and getting a load busted up and hauled in every day or two. We now have 8 loads on my Dodge Dakota and about 5 loads on my dad's F 150. We still have wood in the pile that I cut last summer and fall. There were a lot of storms here last summer and it blew down an abundance of trees and I cut them up and hauled them in to an old log landing in the middle of my meadow. We busted about 4 F150 loads out last year and the 8 Dakota loads this year and there are still about 4 loads out there. I also have about 6 loads of wood that I pulled out of the log landing to be cut up and busted.

I have dead trees and fallen trees all over the farm that I need to cut up and get out of the way. I probably won't have to cut any next year. I can't wait to I get the log landing cleaned up and get my uncle out here with his tractor and bucket and clean it up completely. There will be some blood, sweat, tears and a lot of brush burning in doing it, but I can't wait until we get it cleaned up. I have a low place or two to put all the extra dirt. Well like Forrest Gump said "That's all I got to say about that." I hope everyone has a great day.

Blake's 5th Birthday

I'm a little bit late in posting this but my son Blake's birthday was the 13th and we had a big party on the 16th. He really loved the movie Wall -e and wanted a Wall-e cake. The bakery did an excellent job. He had a lot of fun and tired himself out by about five. One big event down and an even bigger event to come Sept. 8, his first day of school. I'm just glad he's not as nervous as I am.

A little more garden produce

The boys wanted to hold one of the bell peppers and for me to take a picture of it and put it on the "puter". Dylan is getting ready to talk mid-picture. He is hard to get to hold still for a picture.

Blake loves taking pictures. I wish I could just find a way to get them to eat them. Maybe dip them is chocolate. :)

The corn is doing great this year. We've pickled about 2 gallon and froze a couple of bags so far. I picked another 2 buckets right before dark last night that my wife will put up today. I planted Candy Corn and it has a lot of ears but they are on the small side and the worms are on them.

This is the best bell peppers I've ever raised. I only planted about a dozen with ten surviving. I picked 48 big peppers off of those plants so far. I planted the Gurney's Big Bertha and I'll plant them again next year. We're freezing them and stuffing them and putting them in anything and everything we cook. Good thing I like peppers.

From cabbage to kraut

My youngest son Dylan didn't seem to happy to be holding the cabbage even with mommy's help. It was around nap time though so it's understandable.

Blake on the other hand loves to pose for the camera. The cabbage did very well this year I have a bunch this size. I have only one complaint and that is the dreaded cabbage worm.

My kraut all fermented and canned up for winter. It was about a 5 week process but it was well worth it. I love tomato kraut. This is a little on the hot side but that makes it good.

Canning and preserving and kids

This is a picture of my boys just after we bought them the gator. The date is not correct in the photo. This was around late march in 08. They are so big now that they have to ride it one at a time. Oh they grow up so fast or shall I say to fast.

My banana peppers went crazy this year. I've already picked about 2 bushel and they are still loaded with young peppers.

My wife and I made a bunch of pickles and they are so good. We eat a pint jar every three to four days.

The deer and rabbits ate a bunch of my green beans. I still pickled a few and planted some late beans and I hope they do well because I'd love to can up about 70 quarts or so.