Bountiful Garden

We've had rain showers the last couple of mornings, and heavy dew this morning, but in spite of it all, the guys have been able to start cutting later in the afternoons and harvest is still moving along.  PTL!   

We have a nicer garden this year than we have had in years.   I just had to share some of the pictures.  Please excuse the weeds and rain splashes!  I canned a lot of green beans, didn't count, and we have been eating a few jars worth already.  The quarts are 4 jars deep and the pints are 5.  I have a batch of 8 Day Pickles going on the counter upstairs, and will post a few pictures of that process later when they are finished.  Meanwhile, enjoy some pictures of our bountiful garden.

Happy Labor Day!

For those of you who have the day off, enjoy!  Unless we get rained out, we'll be harvesting today.   The weather radar looks weird today.  A long, yellow streak, but who knows if it will hit the fields where they are cutting.  Friday night they moved up north to Tony's land.  This area got a couple of rains in June when it was at the critical stage and its yielding better than what we have cut earlier.  I'm so glad.  This is the 4th year that Tony has farmed this land, and he has had some not so good crops up there.  Its much different land than other we farm.  It has gumbo soil, so when it rains, you tear out of there as fast as you can or you won't get out.  The dirt sticks to everything when it gets wet.  You can grow inches in just a few steps.  There are also some pretty big hills, which makes it interesting for farming.   Here you can see them coming up the hill.

 

Last night we had a bunch of friends over for barbecue.  They just threw a 50th Anniversary celebration for their parents on Saturday night.  We went to school with all 3 siblings, and it was great fun to spend some relaxing time visiting and catching up with their families.  There were 14 of us total.  They were our guinea pigs as we tried out a couple of new barbecue recipes.  One was a Chicken Cordon Blue (yes, I know that's not the "official" bleu, but its bbq - and thus, blue).  You season and stuff the chicken breasts, tie them up and sear on the hot grill.  Then you put them on indirect heat and smoke them.  Warren found a recipe for brisket that is stuffed with bacon and onions he has been wanting to try, so that was on the menu too, along with some country style ribs, broccoli salad, fresh fruit salad, bread, and brownies ala mode.  yum!

Peace

I'm sitting at my computer in my scrap room, sipping my coffee and looking at the photo of one of my favorite views in the world.  Its at a scenic overlook at Ft. Peck Lake.  All my life, I have loved the water.  My soul is at its happiest and most peaceful when I am by a lake or ocean.  I feel God's presence, enjoy His creation on a completely different level, and feel like He has His arms wrapped around me, enjoying the view with me.  One of these days, I am just going to drive down there, take my Bible and spend some quiet time.  I would love to be able to do that every day. 

We got a lot of packing done yesterday at Warren's parents' house.  I got all the china packed, we got all the bedding ready for both bedrooms so the beds can be made up right away, plus extras.  We also went through her closet and dresser, getting a lot of clothes sorted and packed.  Its so fun to see how excited they are about their new home, and getting to be a part of their joy.

There's not much progress on the combine.  They figured out what caused the problem.  Parts won't be here for a week, but they hope to get something rigged up to get them by until then.  Meanwhile, the weather has been hot and dry, so crops should be ripening well.  We will eventually finish!

I need to do some checking in the garden.  There are probably cucumbers and zucchini to pick, and I need to check the corn as well.   Other than that, its just normal stuff for us today.

Its a Sunset, not Sunrise!

We have the most beautiful sunsets in the world here in NE Montana.  Warren took this on his cell  phone last night.  The little pointed thing in the background is the tiny Grain Lutheran Church.  Its an interesting church.  Just a few neighborhood families attend, and their pastor travels 30 miles from town to minister to them.  We farm the "church quarter" nearby.  Speaking of farming, the guys had a bit of a rough evening last night.  They traded for a different combine a couple of weeks ago, and the header on it broke down last night.  The frame under the center canvas broke, so its pretty major.  We hope that once the boss gets to work this morning, they will send out another one so we can keep going.  Other than that, they are making progress.  They are at the Nelson Half, which is the last farm before they either head up north to Tony's land, or come home to cut around here if Tony's isn't ready yet.  Its been a weird year weather-wise.  This spring was really cold, and the crops were slow to come up and grow.  We had hot, very dry weather in June, which really stunted the crops, making them quite short.  August brought cool, wet weather (June?).  Usually we are finished with harvest by Labor Day, but this year it will be later.   

I did get the beans picked yesterday morning, and ended up with 11 pints.  I added some summer savory to the jars before I canned them.  Mom used to do this, I think.  Its a wonderful herb with beans.  Warren isn't crazy about it, but I love it.  I marked the jars, and am looking forward to trying it.  This year I have several herb plants that I am hoping survive the outdoors and I can bring in the house to use in the winter.  I've been using my chives on potatoes and something else I can't remember, and I also put some in bun dough recently.  I thought they would add a nice onion flavor to go with hamburgers or homemade soup.  I had cilantro in pots and the flower bed, but it also volunteered in the garden from last year.  I pulled one large plant earlier, and dried it.  Its surprising how much you get from just one plant.

I did manage to finish my recipe cards.  If you are in the recipe swap and want to be surprised when you get your envie, don't look.  :)  Abbie, Judy recommended your spaghetti sauce recipe so highly that I have made it ( have some in  my freezer right now) and made a recipe page from it.  

That's about it for me this morning.  I may head over to Warren's parents' house today.  They bought a condo in town recently, and will be moving in October.  I'm going to go help her do some sorting and start packing for the move.  Have a great day, everyone!  We'd love to hear from you.

Tailgate Dinner

I still think tailgate dinners are kind of fun.  But then I don't have to do them every day.  Usually I only do 2-3 per harvest.  They are a lot of work, but it gives the guys a break from sandwich lunches, they appreciate a hot, home cooked meal, and I get to see what they are up to.  If I don't get out there to ride along and visit, I don't have much chance to catch up with the guys.  We all put in such long hours during harvest that we are dragging in the morning and late at night when they finally get home.  Nobody has the energy then to have big conversations.  Yesterday when Amy and I took dinner out to the guys, we were able to set up by the bins and buildings instead of in the field.  Thats always much nicer than the hot, dusty field with wheat stubble scratching your bare legs.  lol  Here's a couple of pictures of our dinner.  Tony and Casey were unloading a trailer and Warren kept an eye on the bin.

I went out to pick beans yesterday evening and got a good start.  About 1/3 way down the row, it started raining big drops.  Just enough to get the plants too wet to pick.  So the beans went in the fridge, and I'll head out again soon to go see if they are dry enough to pick.  I plan on canning a few jars today, and hope to finish my recipe cards.  Once I am caught up on those, I will be able to get Tony's baby pictures out again and work on that.  My goal is to get his album and our family one caught up to his first birthday by the time their baby is born in November.  I am hopelessly behind!

OK, Judy, Here's our blog!

For my sister, Judy, and all you others who aren't FB fans, here's our blog to keep you up to date on what is happening around here.  Harvest is in full swing.  I just got back from taking out a tailgate lunch a little while ago. It was a huge help having Amy here this morning to get the meal ready.  We served Swiss steak with mashed potatoes and a mushroom cream gravy, garden fresh cucumber salad, peach jello salad and fresh corn on the cob.  We actually made it out the door just at the time we wanted to instead of a mad, mad rush running late like usual when I do this.  I don't know how you can prepare a meal ALL morning, think you are pretty organized, then it is a mad rush at the end.  Today was different.  We made a good team.  :)

I see that I have green beans waiting to be picked, but I'll wait until it cools off a bit either tonight or tomorrow morning.  Its getting to be the end of bean season.  Its been a good one.  My pantry shelves are filled with jars for the winter.  I've been working on some recipe pages the last couple of weeks.  If I would have had a few more hours yesterday to finish the batch I was working on, I would have gotten 100 done in August.  Alas, it was just 64.  These included a KFC Clone Coleslaw and Abbie's Spaghetti Sauce.  The one I'm working on now is a Twice Baked Potato that is so good!   I made them earlier this summer when Amy's family was here, and they were so crisp and yummy.  This will be one I pull out for Super Bowl for sure, and probably a lot more often than that. 

I'm off to go work on the recipes while I record some programs from the dvr to dvd.  Will sure be nice to have more room on the dvr once I am done.  Thanks for stopping by.