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Backyard Antics

Been a busy morning out - thankfully it's nice a cool! In addition to receiving three loads of dirt already (let's be honest - I'm just signing the papers), I've been moving all the potted plants, trimming them down to whatever looks like it still has functional growth, adding stuff to the compost pile (or starting a new one with questionable leaves - do you compost squash/tomato leaves if they had downy mildew, or just turned brown and dried up?), etc.

I have to say I'm SOOOO grateful to mom and dad for getting me the garden cart! I've used it quite a bit this morning - mostly for moving big, branchy, unmanageable potted tomato plants...


...and other heavy stuff! (Eh hm... Ok, I didn't actually push it around with Tucker in it, but he DID like getting up in it on his own a few times)


He's also been trying to venture off into the neighboring unsold lot, which is full of waste high weeds (that's how ours would be if I hadn't weed whacked it and hit it with weed killer awhile back). Tucker: "Would you STOP trying to put me in the now-overcrowded garden so you can control where I am!? I want to roam! I want to wander! I want to..."


"....ooh, I want to check out this small potted catnip you moved back here to the garden to distract me! This is niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice!"


...and now he's feeling all frisky and was a little more manageable for awhile. For awhile.


Tucker supervising: "Ok, move this tomato in the direction I'm pointing my nose..."


This year's most-prolific, and therefore, most-hated (after awhile) tomato - or at least the one I'm most-tired of: The Ildi. Oy!


"Pleeeeeeeeeeeease let us come out and play! You let Tucker come out! Why not us!?"


Tucker overseeing his acreage:


I finally brought Moxie and Simon out for a short bit. She's really well behaved, and was having a BLAST chasing some tassled long grass around that I was dragging for her. I had to keep Simon parked up on the back steps. Too far off of them, and he gets this wild, dilated-eyes look, like "I don't know you. Don't come near me or I will run. I will run into those woods over there. Don't touch me!" And that gets a bit scary - not knowing if you can catch him. So keep him by the steps and he's fine.

More Dirt!

Here's the second load of dirt, delivered an hour and a half after the first (the fresh dirt is darker than the previous load which had dried some already)



And the third load just got dropped off a short while ago. Really - I don't think it looks like all that much! Ask me again after we've moved it all! ;-)

Garden growies

Some pics I took out at the garden yesterday...

First I thought this was going to grow up to be a Howden pumpkin, but now I'm realizing it (and it's pumpkin mate in a pot elsewhere) might be Sunshine Squash. Did I grow Sunshine Squash seedlings this year? Funny - I don't remember! I know I had interest last year and this year, but I don't remember following through on that. Oh well - I'm guessing that's what they are - will have to bake 'em later! (I had rested it on a shard of terracotta to keep it out of the damp soil/straw - in case it grew up to be a nice big beautiful pumpkin. OH well...)


Yaaaay! Looks like I AM going to have a Rumbo squash this year! I STILL have one from last year - these things are amazing! Afraid this guy's not going to get huge, but at least there were no signs of squash bugs out here or I bet he wouldn't have made it this far!


And here's the beginnings of some edamame pods. I'm going to have to start watching these like a hawk to ensure Sharon doesn't sneak out here and steal them once they're closer to picking time. I just hope they mature before first frost (I'm sure they will - that's got to be a month and a half away!)



Yay - homegrown green beans! I only wish we had plenty more. So far there haven't been enough ready at one time to amount to anything. However, this is from the beans I planted in pots before I had the temporary garden plot. I've got some in the ground now that are juuuust starting to bloom - so there's hope! We could get some seriously good pickings before the end of the season if we're lucky.


Oh yay - another cucumber beetle. I'm blaming these guys for my few cuke plants dying out and drying up. There's still hope in the plants, and a couple gnarled cucumbers trying to grow, but I don't have any hope. Maybe NEXT year... I'm hoping to do weekly to every-other-week sprayings of a garlic tea on the plants next year - hopefully that'll deter the little basards! (BTW - this guy didn't last very long. He got squished!)

Good soup!

Made a kick ass soup earlier this week. Had some chicken breasts and chicken thighs in the freezer that I thawed out, and decided to poach in water and beer, to which I also added a whole jalapeno, a big onion, a head of garlic, and a dried branch (with plenty of seeds) of coriander/cilantro.

Here's the jalapeno I'd just picked that went into the soup, plus the very first green beans from the pots out back (and no, there really aren't very many).


After poaching, I tasted the resulting broth and, wow, it was GOOD! So I decided the "who knows what this'll turn into" chicken was going to be chicken tortilla soup! I'd just seen Ina Garten on Barefoot Contessa make something similar, so that was a big influence I think. I also had some great smoked chipotle montery jack cheese that Andy at work brought me to try (yum!) - more influence!

So the soup got thrown together while the chicken cooled. Strained the broth, and sauteed onion, carrots, celery, garlic and jalapeno (yes, another jalapeno). Added the broth back in, and some of the cooked salsa I'd made the week before that we weren't really using. Also chopped up a bunch of fresh tomatoes and dumped those in. Added some ground coriander, cumin and a touch of chili powder. Brett thought it needed even more kick, so another jalapeno was tossed in fresh - no sauteeing, so it added a different flavor/texture than the first. Oh, and what the heck - may as well use those beans I picked from the garden - too few to have as a side for anything!

While all that was going I thinly sliced some corn tortillas, tossed them in a little salt and oil, and baked til crispy. Also made cornbread using the chipotle cheese Andy gave us.


So the soup, topped with the crunchy tortillas, shredded cheese, and freshly snipped cilantro, with a side of cornbread, was REALLY good! I only wish I'd had a little sour cream and avocado to really make it primo!

The first load has been delivered!

Took today off to have topsoil and mulch delivered for the big weekend lawn-installation project. The first load (15.48 tons of the 80 we're receiving) just got dropped off. I've a feeling it'll be about an hour before he's back with the next. We also have 10 tons of mulch coming from the same company today.

Gee, it really doesn't look like much out of the truck. He said wait til we're moving it around, especially since it's a little damp.




I'm sure I'll be posting more pics of this today, not to mention of the whole weekend project! The Bobcat arrives tomorrow morning (or, if we're lucky, they'll bring it this evening). And Brett's brother and parents show up tomorrow to help... Blake intends to stay at least one night out here, and Brett's folks' are planning to come both Saturday and Sunday - they're really putting a lot of time, energy and sweat (and hopefully no tears!) into this for us - they're wonderful people!!!

Need to see about getting some bales of hay delivered ASAP. And I also want to get cow manure delivered for the garden beds - still torn on whether I wait til after some grass has come up, or get it dumped back there now. Why add extra to the stuff we have to work around, if I could just get some dumped on the driveway later and then move it back in lighter cart-loads rather than have a heavy truck drive across the newly planted yard.

Sucky Flash

Check the hot guy in the background of both of these pics from the upcoming Sept 14 episode of Sci Fi's Flash Gordon:



Hot hot hot! But reason enough to give this show another chance? We watched the premiere. Well, I watched it, and Brett fell asleep. We were both very disappointed in it. (For one thing, I can't stand Eric Johnson, the guy playing Flash, who was in the first season or two of Smallville)

Anyone else watching this? Opinions? Did it get ANY better? I mean, they took away the whole "Flash, Dale, and crew leave Earth on a super cheesey but fun space ship" from the movie (and I'm assuming from the original strips), and instead go through a space warp. Oh yay. Don't we already have that with Star Gate? And that's just for starters... The whole thing was really very unoriginal (yes, I know Flash Gordon is hard to make "original" since it's an old series)...but it didn't feel like a really kick-ass reimagining like Battlestar did.

Cross your fingers for Peter and Conrad!

I got email from Peter right around when the nasty surprise storms and tornadoes hit Chicago earlier, and he said they were forced to the inner parts of the building for safety. Looks like that initial bad section of the storm passed, and that there's a new strip of storms that just developed and are passing over them. Hopefully all is well - stay safe guys!

Muchos Huevos!

Sweeeet! Major excitement here! I've been hoping to find a local chicken farm where I could get farm fresh eggs...just like I'm still hoping to get local honey from a bee keeper, local chicken meet, local beef, etc. I'm really wanting to do more local, good, wholesome food and less of the processed/preserved grocery store stuff if possible. I'm not getting freakish about it and going all out - I just figure now that we're more "out in the country", I'll see what options are available.

Long story short, we cross paths with a farm selling eggs the other day, the little girl playing in the yard said they were currently sold out, I talked to Mary at work who lives in the area, she knew of the place and shops there, hooked me up with info, and I got me some farm fresh eggs after work today!

I guess they're normally $2 a dozen, but the lady felt these weren't up to their "large" size expectations, and gave me three dozen for $4 (one dozen is for Julie at work).

Not big enough? Are you KIDDING ME!?!? These things are GREAT! When I questioned her idea of "large", she showed me the ones they don't sell - the ones where they can't even close the egg carton!

These eggs are "all natural" - not specifically organic, but they sound just as good. Their roaming "protection zone" is moved every day - pulled by tractor so the chickens can eat the bugs out of the grass (along with home grown/ground corn and the grass and who knows what other goodies). Without the semi-cage protecting them, the lady told me they lost as many as 11 in one night to chicken hawks!! Oh, and apparently different breeds of chickens don't always get along, and sometimes have gang wars and slaughter each other. Oh the craziness of chickens!

Anyhow, these are beautiful. She warned me they're REAL fresh (one dozen of them from yesterday, the other two from today), and so they'll have a different taste and look from what we get in the stores. That's ok - I consider that a sign of goodness!! I've been buying "cage free" (and I'm not totally naive) eggs lately, so we're used to the more-golden colored eggs that folks are used to. I'm wondering just how much stronger the taste will be!?

Oh, and we've been warned - do NOT hard boil these suckers right away!! If they're for hard boiling/devilled eggs, and if we don't give them a couple weeks first, I guess it's next to impossible to get the shells off.

Guess I've got some baking ahead of me, eh?

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY TOMATOES?!

Went out to pick a slew of split tomatoes today (too much rain will do that!), and found my Aunt Rubies got snacked on... Someone ate a good portion of one of the tomatoes, ate all the leaves off the tallest branches, and put little poops all over the plant (but bigger and more ornate than blister beetle poop). Believe me, I scoured the plant high and low, checked the neighboring plants since I found more fancy poop on the pumpkin leaves nearby, and still had no luck.

Then, out of frustration, I was letting myself be amused by a bumblebee buzzing around that landed on the tomato cage holding the Aunt Ruby. Maybe it was trying to tell me something?


Oh, heeeeello!

What say we take you inside, introduce you to the cats, let Simon terrorize you for a little while, and then launch you out into the middle of the front, VERY muddy yard. It's either that or pitch you into the pond! (I opted for front yard, figuring I'd give it a chance at the weeds!)

Yes, I'm weak. I couldn't squish it. Brett was harping on me to be nice to it and set it free anyhow. I blame him. ;-) (No, really, I'm weak)

Lots more rain...

Waving hands in air and admitting defeat...

"Ok, ok, we've had enough - thank you!"

Two weeks ago.

This week:


Please note that this means we had AT LEAST .5 inches of rain on Sunday (but less than an inch), AT LEAST an inch yesterday (but less than two inches), and again, AT LEAST .5 inches today (but less than an inche. I've got my plastic manure/rain collecting tubs tucked in an out of the way corner behind the house, and I'd swear they each have about four inches of rain in them from the last three days!

Blister Beetles

Who's been pooping on my cherry tomatoes?!


As you can see here, it seems the blister beetles have a very high fiber diet. That would be a diet of my cherry tomato leaves (I should've noted whether they seemed to only be on the Sweet Golds or Black Cherries - which are really intertwined).


These guys are about an inch long, and are very intimidating looking. They shouldn't be - they panic in a heartbeat, dropping to the ground if you wiggle the leaves they're on.


The only problem is this... I don't want any of them touching me, 'cause I don't feel like having nasty gross, and probably very painful, raised blisters forming from the chemicals they exude!


The good news is that this is the last you'll most likely be seeing of them. A day or two after I took these pics, I went out and there were ten or more having a party, all on leaves near each other, some mating, some probably looking to get lucky. (Chicka chicka bow wow!) I ran back inside, filled a stainless steel bowl with hot water, loaded it with a bunch of liquid dish detergent, carefully wriggled the bowl under party central, and started tapping the leaves.

Nothing ends a party faster than hot soapy death!!!


I've seen a few since then, but I just wiggle the leaves til I can get them out in the open on the ground, and then I step on them. :)

Big girl, you are beautiful

We had over an inch of rain by the time I got home today - that goes along with the nearly 1 inch of rain we got yesterday! By the time I got home, there was a lull in the storm, so I decided to run out and see if anything needed to be picked.

Boy howdy!

I finally decided one of the two supersteaks was ready - that big beauty in the foreground of the picture below (not to be confused with TWO tomatoes) weighed 1 lb 6 oz! I have a similar one still on the vine. Also picked some smaller tomatoes, squash, cherry tomatoes, and swiss chard.


Bird's eye view...


As usual, I have some sort of kitchen helped... Tucker, I think Mika's singing about you...

Baked goods

Got busy doing some baking yesterday - needed to use up some bananas and some zucchini. I've tossed two recipe I'd been using for Julie's banana bread (the loaves on the left), and Mary's choco-zucchini cupcakes (from last month's Better Homes & Gardens magazine) on the right.

Mary let me in on a little secret with the cupcakes. She got lazy. Instead of shredded 2 cups of zucchini and adding it to 3 eggs, she dropped the three eggs and a large (more than 2 cups worth!) zucchini, chunked up, in the BLENDER! Not a food processor, but the blender. She whizzed it up til it was frothy, and then proceeded with the recipe. WOW - that's a great change! If I hadn't told Brett there was zucchini in these cupcakes (meaning he won't eat them now), he never would've known!

And to really go over the top, the cupcakes come with a peanut butter frosting recipe - wowza! It's very pale with all the powdered sugar and air whipped into it, but soooo good!


"Mmmmm....you know you want me..."

Mmmm salsa!

I made a big batch of fresh salsa yesterday. I like it wet and chunky with some kick. Brett doesn't like it fresh though, so I tried converting some of it into a cooked salsa. He's thinking it tastes a bitch ketchupy now, and I'm not quite sure what's wrong with it.

In addition to the tomatoes, green pepper, jalapeno, onion, garlic, lime juice, cilantro and salt that went into the original salsa, I added a small splash of vinegar to the cooked batch after I realized it didn't taste quite right. Didn't hurt, didn't help. Any suggestions!?

Let's play fetch!

Tucker's got a number of very odd habits. One of which is pretending he's a dog, and playing fetch with cherry tomatoes in the yard. Back at the condo, he'd delicately pick them up and bring them back (near) to me. He took an interest in doing this again the other day, only after the first one, he kept checking them out, and then deciding maybe he didn't want to put it in his mouth. My guess was that they were picking up a lot of dirt before they stopped bouncing across the yard, and he didn't like the dirt in his mouth?




Anyhow - we finally gave up. Sorry Tucker - wait til we have a lawn next year!