Late Bloomers

We are having another cloudy, cool morning.  It is supposed to rain later but not much promised.
We really don't need it.

I took advantage of the cloudiness to take a short tour of the east yard to take pictures of a few things in bloom.  Some are looking the worse for wear. I leave the zinnias and salvias for seeds.  I have my best zinnias in years all from self-seeded zinnias from last year. 

The blue are the salvia farinacea which are almost perennials here.  Note the bright colors are the self-seeded zinnias.  I left the dead peach tree for a hanger for bird feeders.  I will have to take it down before too long.

This his spotlighting anemone rosbustissima.  It is a great filler and fall bloomer.  I started with three plants and it has spread nicely.  I saw a hummer visiting this morning.

Another view of the anemone.  I like how it is taller  than surrounding greenery. 

I took this on a sunny day because the blue of the Black and Blue Salvia was just beautiful next to the green leaves.  This one is supposed to be iffy in my zone but had done extremely well here.

Max mowed for me yesterday.   I took a very had fall doing a very foolish thing.  I wanted to measure  the new bed (from MIL) for slats and was trying to prop the mattress against the wall. I had to step inside the bed frame to do it.  That went fine; then I stepped out and snagged my left foot on the bed rail and fell flat on the floor on my left side.  I did this yesterday morning....now have bruises you wouldn 't believe and can't
 lift my left arm without assistance....I am left handed.  All is well; nothing broken but I will be several days getting back to normal.  DH was not happy with me for doing something so foolish. I am frustrated by not being able to do things that I have always done before.  I have learned my lesson!

He has more mowing to do today.  I hope I can pick my hoophouse pole beans using my right arm.  I hate to let them go....

First Week of August

We are getting a light shower this morning. The heavier rains seem to be missing us.  We are grateful for all we get.

Catch up time on the farm

We finally got the entire farm brush hogged.  They put up some hay but it was so late, the quality wasn't good so we decided to just clip (brush hog) pastures and buy hay if we need it.  We did have some carryover from last year.  We hired the work because we don't have an air-conditioned tractor and the heat has been really bad with extremely high humidity.

Yard and Garden

Not much exciting to talk about.  We are getting lots of cucumbers and a few tomatoes, eggplant and peppers.  Also some greenbeans.  The Japanese Beetles have been a constant challenge.  They seem to like everything.  So far, they haven't bothered tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers or herbs.  They are voracious on almost all ornamentals and fruit trees.

Speaking of fruit, the varmint got all the pears yet again.  I did manage a few peaches that I used to make jam.  I bought a 1/2 bushel from a nearby orchard and froze them.  I will also buy apples next month.

Household

During the first year of owning my Frigidaire range, white streaks appeared between the glass on the oven door.  I couldn't clean them since they were inside.  I just hated seeing those streaks.
One serviceman told  me I would just have to live with it since a new door would cost a $l000 or more and that was the only solution.  Well recently the oven went out and when the serviceman came I mentioned that I almost bought a new range just the get rid of that awful door.  He told  me just to clean it!  I was stunned.  He said to just take the door apart that it was not insulated with a seal.  Well, I did it; it was a simple thing and voila! a new clean door,

I haven't taken any photos for a few days but here are some taken recently:

I have mentioned how I can't bear to pull up a good plant......this is from my Halloween pumpkin of (I think last year or maybe the year before).  I placed a few on  a bale of straw by the screened porch.....a seed germinated (I just left them to decompose).

and it is bearing fruit,

Another FYI, my BIL told me the sunflower seeds used in bird feed would be sterile; wrong!

and the little yellow canaries are already perching upside down to eat the immature seeds,

This is my zinnia bed run amok,

These were from packages of cheap seeds on sale from the hardware.  I see some colors are missing.  Next year I will buy them by the  color.

Notice  the tomato plant at the front edge.....It is doing gangbusters, but no fruit yet. 

Hay is Done!

Well, all but removing it from the field back to the hay lot.   We have that done too.  Rains are now predicted and cruel and selfish person that I am,  I want it to rain.... I know others are still waiting for their hay harvest.....but my ground is cracking open in spots.  I even drug out the hose and watered some over the weekend.

I had company over the weekend so didn't do anything outside.  We did make home-made ice cream again and used the White Mountain electric freezer that was a gift from MIL.  I wouldn't pay that price for one but I must say it was worth every penny  (of her money).  It doesn't bog down and freezes evenly all the way down in about 25 minutes.  My whole family loves Mom's old recipe for ice cream.  The don't want half and half, heavy cream or cooked custard, just her old time Milnot recipe.

I have finally sprayed my front ditch and Max is right, it looks bad, but I didn't want another year of crabgrass weeds setting.
I also sprayed the regrowth of Elm trees in the new chicken yard fence row.  Elms and soft maples seem to be rejuvenated by cutting them down!  I can see it will be a long-time process to keep them under control.  We have lost another chicken.....have no idea how or what.  We lock them up each night just at heavy dusk.  I couldn't believe we finally caught a raccoon in the trap and my husband took it back on the farm and released it.  He  didn't want to permanently eliminate it while our granddaughter was here!  I would have in a heartbeat if I had know about it beforehand.  It was probably back by evening.

I have had a few cucumbers and need to harvest my patch of peppers today.  I am letting the beans set seeds and dry on the vine  for next year.  Tomatoes are still very sorry.
Continued on 8/6/2015:
I  didn't get the peppers harvest, but I did get some serious lopping done.  The culprits seem to be ash tree, elm tree (several varieties, and lambs quarter and poke.  Now I need to use the string trimmer.

We got a welcome rain yesterday; near an inch.  I had already been watering some so it was very welcome here.

Today is extremely hot and humid so I will do nothing outside.  The weeds will wait.

Food 

I am on another bread adventure. I read Chickens in the Road blog pretty regularly and enjoy it. She is a professional writer and blogger.  She holds seminars at her farm in West Virginia and if I lived closer I would attend just for fun.

Her latest was about Tudor Biscuits.  This is a southern thing and was completely new to me.  Well, to make a long story short, I did some research and found that the brand Lily (flour) is used by lots of southerners.  I have seen it a few times here, but not at the stores I use.  I ordered lots of flour from Amazon and some from Walmart.  My local stores haven't been carrying King Arthur's white whole wheat flour lately so I ordered it too.  Free shipping and good prices so we will see how it works out.  I will be trying the new biscuit recipe using self-rising Lily flour and will post the experience when I do.

This has also peaked my interest once again in a grinder for flour.....DH is still dragging his heels on this one.....he may be right.

Later today I will attempt my first ever blueberry pie....let you know how that goes (maybe, if it goes well==I recently had a flop of the worst order on French bread due to my negligence.  DH wanted me to post pictures......I refused!) 

Miscellaneous Pictures

They  are working in pairs now:

and I think this is the heirloom rose, Reine Des Violette

 

The zinnias are still going strong but are getting a leaf disease as usual,  I am leaving some for seeds which will also not look pretty,



I thought I had killed  this rose of sharon  when I accidentally sprayed with herbicide instead of Sevin, but it has returned, maybe not in full glory, but the blooms are the same.


I am heading to the kitchen.......