Rain, rain and more Rain

It's a beautiful Saturday on the farm.  We have been getting lots of rain, almost daily.  Another 5 inches this past week.  Everything is green and  growing....including the weeds.

I have been trying to get out each morning and work an hour or 3 but some days it was raining  and others it was just too wet to even pull weeds.

This morning I did get some  things accomplished.  I started getting the hummingbird bed  outside the kitchen weeded and cleaned.  Several zinnias and nicotiana were finished and needed to be pulled.  I am rethinking the bark mulch.  My vigorous weeds come right through it and  it will need replacing yearly....very  labor intensive and costly.  If I just had a few simple beds near the house, it might be workable but for cottage-style or  country gardening I don't think so.  Of course, I still have 30 or so bags that I will use but mostly at the base of specific plants like roses or clematis.  The rest will be used in the narrow garden  fence border.

The garden is almost  finished.  The determinate tomatoes are done and I have very few of the other kind.
Still waiting  on the late pole beans.  I have canned a few pints of tomatoes.

We have been having fun capturing the beast menagerie on the game cam.  That seems to be the only way we can capture them.

 Here was a surprise:  An armadillo

 Of course, we knew there would be possums:

 This is our least favorite rascal, the groundhog enjoying one of my apples.

 Mama raccoon with two young.

These were all taken out back in my garden behind  the house.

It is now August 21, Monday.  The eclipse is over.  We never got the full whammy but about 97%.  It stayed much lighter out than I thought it would.

We got another 3 inch rain overnight.  We are beginning to smell swamp-like outside.  I seem to be very susceptible to mold and have been coughing and wheezing like crazy.  Today I  decided to stay inside.

 Cooking
 
I made another batch of peach jam.  This is the second batch and they look completely different. The first were made from very small dark peaches and I used some old pectin that had darkened with age.  Made for a  very dark  jar of jam.  It tastes fine but not so pretty to look at.

The one this morning  was made from a very large pale peach that was still a bit tart.  I also had some newer pectin and it looks like peach jam should.

The tomatoes are about finished.  I have a couple of plants that should hold us for fresh tomatoes until frost.
The determinate ones and done.    I have canned a few pints and have two trays (l0x21) yet to do.

Errand Day and Jam Making

I a slept until almost 4:30 AM, a very good night for me. 

We knew a storm front was moving in this afternoon so we did our errands early.  We went to the processors and picked up the cured meat  from the hog.  We pass a place that has a few buffalo and every time I take the camera they are out of sight.  Today, I didn't take it and 8 were in nice range.......We won't be going in that direction for a long time now since  the only reason is the meat plant.

We picked up a few supplies at the small local market and got gas for the truck.

The front came in around 3 pm.  Blew like crazy; rained some; snowed some but now the sun is shining.  It is still very windy.  Nothing will stick  at the temperatures we are  having.

I had thawed two packages of peaches several days ago and knew they had to be worked up.  I thawed them to make jam and jam  I did.  I made a regular 4 cup batch with pectin and then just cooked the remaining 3 cups with 3 cups of sugar until I thought the were the right consistency.

The quart jar is the old-fashioned kind of preserves.



I have the second package of ground hog fat thawing and will render it tomorrow.