good gravy it's a garden update!

I know it's been over a month, but I did have progress pictures, that somehow disappeared... that's what I get for not uploading them right away, huh? So anyway, here is my lovely front yard garden:
Here is from the front porch looking in the direction of the picture above
Flowers planted around the Sago Palm
Brussels sprouts looking nice
corn, sunflowers, and marigolds
planter box full of tomatoes... not including the other 10 plants placed around the yard...
Cucumbers

the next two are just pics of the self heal that has really taken off, if you look down at other posts you will see the difference! It's a good ground cover and really inches around and crowds out the weeds, plus it has nice little purple flowers that shoot up.

So it's a lot of work, I still have other things I want to plant, and move, and weeds to pull, bugs to pluck, and very soon, veggies to harvest!

More random garden photos

Onions

Interesting tomato flower stem, there are four flowers to one stem, usually it's one on one. The stem is really thick too.
First Sunflower bloom
Hydrangea flower... this was a "rescued" plant. I dug it up and transplanted it into my yard. It had MANY dead branches on it.
Japanese Eggplant
I think this is our 15th Zucchini... the kids are sick of zucchini already..

Tomatoes soon!

Chickens

Silly birds, let me take your picture... no I'm not the crazy boy who wants to pick you up all the time, it's me, the person who feeds you. well they wouldn't cooperate, but here they are, the birds.

I think it's time we find names for these birds.. I'm thinking airhead, dingy, and dumb dumb... no not nice, but really these are not the brightest birds in the hen house. The aracaunas are a bit flighty and HATE, can I emphasize that enough... HATE to be separated... the old adage of "birds of a feather flock together" is even an understatement with these two chickens. The other I'm not sure if it's a barred rock, or a Dominique, nor am I sure if it's a hen or a rooster... grrrrrr.

They like to get under a little table on the porch and poop.. Did you know chickens poop a lot.. yep, little poop factories, however, according to my friend Judy, chickens are not to be compared to geese, I believe geese own the monopoly on the poop factories.

So chickens are fun, they cluck and coo, and fluff around, and are nice little animals to keep. These ladies are around 3 months old, and still have a bit of growing left to do, hopefully we will have eggs from three hens in a few months. I can't wait!

Random garden photos

Broccoli floret

Corn getting tall, it's about 10 inches tall now
Yarrow flower, purple flowers behind are self heal

top of Brussel sprout plant
flowering chives with lettuce behind
stink bug
Blueberries starting to redden
My garden assistant, taking care of a grasshopper

your trash, my treasure

Now as I drive around I look for wood, we need it for the soon to be chicken coop, as well as borders for plantings and such. Having Monday's off is the perfect opportunity to check to see what the neighbors have cleared out over the weekend. I have already picked up a lattice plant support, which I'm not sure what I'll plant under it, but I'll figure something out.
Since I live an improv lifestyle and go with the flow, I find and I can create. These boards, plywood, landscape timber and cement rounds will come in handy in something. It's just so much better finding this stuff as someones trash, then to have to buy it. There is always more that I can get, but I choose to limit myself, so I don't end up too pack ratty. Which that is pretty easy to do. So I get what I can, leave what I can't and regret what I should have, and move on with what I take.

more garden progress:

I got all the self heal and Yarrow out of the planter box, and it has been transplanted in front of the bushes, since it will spread and is a nice ground cover with little purple flowers, I thought it would be nice under the bushes as well. I lined it with newspapers and mulch to keep the weeds and grass at bay, hopefully.


Freddy cat helping me scope out the front area. I added some decorative grass, mulch and the lemon balm, because it was in the same planter box as the yarrow and self heal, and I plan to use that box for a nursery for tomato seedlings.
same area, different angle. The dirt area around the sago palm has flower seeds planted, Naturtium, Celosia, Marigold, Cosmos, and Tithonia all summer, annuals that are drought resistant.

behind the squash I have planted cucumbers, I have wire fencing to make some supports for them to grow up onto.

This is a crepe myrtle that has some transplanted yarrow at the bottom of it. And the Corn to the right. The pile of mulch just doesn't seem to get much smaller... what's freaking me out is that I keep considering another load! The backyard better watch out!

Homemade pasteurized grapefruit juice

We received a huge box of grapefruits from a neighbor and I started squeezing them for juice, as there was NO way we could ever eat them all before they went bad.

I decided to pasteurize the juice so it would have a longer shelf life in the fridge, giving that Mike and I would be the only ones drinking it. Liam participated in the process, and I talked to him about the reasons for pasteurizing juice and milk, as well as the temperatures needed for killing off bacteria, especially since our process wasn't the most sanitary, nor were the fruit, I decided it was a necessary step.

The first part was calibrating the thermometer, I showed Liam how to check for proper temperature reading, as well as why it was necessary. To calibrate, fill a cup with ice, and water, and check the temp... it should register at 32 degrees, F. If not, the thermometer needs adjusting. A quick turn of the bolt on the back, got it to 32F.

I made a simple syrup of sugar, honey and water to go into the very sour grapefruit juice.
Into the pot... it's nice to have such a large stainless steel cooking pot!checking the temp, slowly rising.Checking every few minutes during the cooking to get the juice to the temp of 165... I went ahead and raised it to 18oF for a quick kill. A temp of 165 held for 15 seconds generally suffices for basic pasteurization.

I wanted it to cool as fast as possible as well, so Ice was put in a bag to basically "ice bath" the juice. I went through two bags of ice till it was close to 50F, then it is cool enough for the fridge.
We got a good gallon and a half of juice
A full bucket of compostable grapefruit remnants
And just a few grapefruit left for eating, the box was full to the top when we started.
Many thanks go out to Louis Pasteur for coming up with this process. It has increased the shelf life of milk, and many other items, as well as decreasing the possibility of food borne illnesses occurring through bacteria growth. A great scientist, who's method we imitated in our own kitchen.