Summer is coming to a close

Well, it has been weeks since I posted and summer is nearly over. School started this week so life for most people will get back to a normal routine. (Whatever that is!) The garden has been keeping me busy and I have a few pictures to show you whats up in that department. I don't have a picture of the cabbage as they are all in the crock downstairs turning into sauerkraut. I think we got about 5 gallons this year. It will be ready to freeze in another day or two. I have made about 20 quarts of pickles so far and some hot dilly beans. There are some beans in the freezer and we have eaten a bunch. The corn is good and sweet and we eat it nearly every night. Now it is time to pick the rest and get it in the freezer. I picked peppers this morning and will probably pickle most of them. Usually make some salsa but the tomatoes are very slow this year. We have only picked a couple of handsful of tomatoes. Gary is pretty proud of his black diamond watermelon patch so I am including a picture of that too. Onions, potatoes, squash, carrots and cantaloup are all doing well also. It's a lot of work but sure enjoy the fresh flavors when the snow flys.

Black Diamond Watermelons (YUMMY!!!!)

Jalapeno garlic dill pickles and dilly beans (also with a hot chili pepper in them).

First picking of jalapeno peppers. We only have 5 plants total and there are still lots of little ones I will let grow for another week or so.


This is the extent of our first grape harvest but the vines are doing well and if they survive the winter I am sure we will have a much bigger crop next year.

At the beginning of the month we helped Kris and Scott build a shed in their backyard. The guys worked hard for 12 hours but got everything except the trim, shingles and painting done.

All of these pictures were taken with the camera on my phone so aren't of the best quality but shows you what took place on that Saturday. Kara and Jaret helped move all the stuff from the garage into the shed so now Krista can finally park her new car in the garage.

Maybe I will find time later this week to post some new pics of all the grandkids. Joc pretty well keeps everyone updated on Brooklyn so I need to get some pics of the other grandkids posted again.

Hope everyone enjoys what is left of the summer.

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL

My posts have been few this summer as we have been very busy and have put a lot of miles on the car. From June 20th through July 4th we went to Cody, WY for four wonderful days, came home and worked for a week and then headed to Iowa to see Gary's uncle Ben. ( He will be 95 the end of the month and is in a rest home). On the way we stopped in eastern Nebraska to spend the night with my sister then headed on to Lemars, Iowa. Lemars is also the home of Blue Bunny ice cream so we took a few minutes to go through the museum and have an ice cream cone in the old fashined ice cream parlour. After we left Lemars we went up to Sioux Falls, SD for the night and the next day visited Falls Park and the Sioux Falls Zoo. It was rather hot and I thouht my legs would never want to walk again but it was enjoyable and we took in some really interesting sights. After we left Sioux Falls we drove across South Dakota on I-90 (not much to see there) and took a loop tour through the Badlands National Park (too much to see). It is pretty facsinating to have the flat lands suddenly turn into these amazing outcroppings of rock. We spent that night in Rapid City then headed home via the Black Hills. We lived in Custer many years ago and wanted to see how much it had changed. Also checked up on the progress of the Crazy Horse monument. All said and done I think we put 2100 miles + on the car in two weeks time, even with the price of gas!!! I have posted a few of the scenery pictures so you can get a feel for what we saw.

America has so many great and wonderful things to see.

CODY, WYOMING

SIOUX FALLS, SOUTH DAKOTA

SIOUX FALLS ZOO

BADLANDS NATIONAL PARK, SOUTH DAKOTA

It's been a while since I updated on the progress of the garden. In spite of the wind and late frost and having to replant some things it is growing nicely now. We have finished off the radishes and now are enjoying Kolrabi. I think everything will be a few weeks behind because of all the early adversity but should be able to enjoy corn, cucumbers, squash, melons and tomatoes in a few weeks. Of course there is cabbage to make saurkraut (mostly for Kara and Jaret) and cucumbers to make my "famous" jalepeno garlic dill pickles. Most of my rose bushes have bloomed in profusion and are now kind of dormant but one red one was a bit late in blooming so we still get to enjoy roses for a little longer. They will probably all bloom again later this summer or early in the fall. A few pictures follow.