Weekend of Oct. 16-17, 2010

sunflower head full of seeds.... so neat!

The largest tomato we grew this year - did not turn red because of drought and heat.  Looks like we are going to can some pickled green tomatoes!

Outhouse - A Work in Progress

Inside of the "Privy"... will have a REAL toilet and sink...

Well, despite the weather map showing that Saulsbury received rain last week, our rain gauge and the ground itself show no signs of any rain.  There's another chance of rain...just a chance this week so here's hoping.

Saturday Cris picked up 50 small mouth bass (about 3 inches long) and 25 albino catfish (about 4-5 inches long).  We added them to our pond to help control the minnow and bluegill population so they will grow larger.  They seem to be fish food trained as well. 

Teddy has made a great recovery from his snake bites...he ran around the pond this weekend but did not spot any snakes....maybe they are all gone???? 

When were pleasantly surprised to arrive at the farm and see the 2 lower fields had been cut and the hall rolled.  Thanks Homer!!  This weekend, Cris bushhogged the 'homestead' field and the garden field (2nd field) and left the hay on the ground to work as mulch to improve the soil. 

We still were not able to plant the winter vegies....it has GOT to rain sometime!  So we watered the fruit trees and worked on the blackberry bushes by putting some of the stems in the ground to promote growth and expansion of the bush. 

We have three late growing green pepper plants that are doing great.  We were able to harvest some peppers to add to our breakfast Sunday morning. 

The tomato plants have plenty of tomatoes on them...they are just all green.  We harvested the bigger ones to make pickled green tomatoes and I think fried green tomatoes are on the menu this week as well.  They would have been beautiful red tomatoes if this year had not been so dry and hot and we had not planted them so late in the summer.  Next year we plan to grow the tomatoes in the hoop house to protect them from the heat.  

Since we could not plant, we worked on the outhouse.  We need to add a door, window, three tin roof panels, install gutters, put up some trim, then paint.  Then we will work on the inside.  The plumbing will come later when we dig a hole, install a drum in the ground and other details that Cris will take care of.  We plan to install a barrel above the toilet (on the outside) to hold rain water to use for the toilet.  The sink will use fresh water from a container.  I am not washing my hands in pond or rain water!