Homesteading, 2015

Some of my recent harvest. I grow in small raised beds so I only have a few plants of each thing.

I have three cucumber plants planted in a length of gutter and hanging down. The cukes are deformed looking. I don't know why. I also have one humorless plant planted the same way. It does not seem to have grown an inch since I planted it over a month ago. Guess I will try a different approach next season. That seems to be my modus operandi.

Something else I seem to have no luck with no matter what I try is potatoes. Those in the pic are half of my entire harvest. :(

Not doing well with my corn this year either. I have a few stalks looking ok in one tire. They should tassel soon. The other tire is a bust. Oh well, we will enjoy a few ears and be thankful for them.

Thought I would update anybody lurking around. I moved my seedless cucumber to a tire and it still has not grown.

Looks like I will get a few ears of corn but not many.

Cantaloupe and watermelons each have about four on the vines. Looking forward to those. Need to get out and water them.

Asparagus beans are still bearing. Turkey craw pole beans git pulled up when the tepee got blown over one too many times. I was very disappointed because they were bearing like crazy and they are delicious. I found out you can eat the pods too.

My tomatoes have started getting ripe but it looks like they are starting to die. Typical. Squash and zukes are still going like crazy.

This morning I picked a scallop squash, a yellow squash, a couple tomatoes, a couple mini eggplants and some asparagus beans. Started weeding the row to plant some fall peas. I have never grown them in the fall so we shall see.

I have read back through this thread a couple of years and I so enjoyed "visiting" with Darius again. I miss her.

We had a wake at church tonight. A member of the family that left us last year over the money for the kids trip. She has been sick for a long time. She was a nice lady and she will be missed. She told me way back when to call her Aunt Jean and I was glad to. I met her two sons and a daughter in law today. I know they are hurting and they are in my prayers.

To bad there is not much participation in this thread lately.
All over DG people have moved on. Kind of sad. There were so many good threads to visit years back.
I am still growing a huge garden & selling at Farmers Markets. I have 5 people & some part time people working for me.
Crops are really good this year. Just the right amount of rain. Crop farmers here are looking at record crop yields. Big things right now are tomatoes & pickling cucumbers. Both going gangbusters.

That sounds great. I would love to be able to grow more but I am thankful for what I can do. Many people don't even have that.

It does make me sad that this forum seems to have dried up. We were like a little family and I felt like I knew everyone. I miss the folks.

What kind of tomatoes are you growing? I have just six plants I planted and a couple volunteers that came up in the compost pile. My Cherokee Purple has some on it but they are deformed and going bad. I am sad about that. I really like them. The German Queen is just starting to turn. It has some huge ones on it. The Galena's Yellow Cherry is getting ripe but there are not many on it. Very uncharacteristic for that one. They have always been the one I could count on.

I am very disappointed with my cucumbers this year. Just a few little deformed ones. I had three plants of Boston Pickling. What kind are you growing?

It seems our forum has been moved to the Rural Gardening forum. I am glad it hss not completely disapeared. Although it may at some point with no more traffic than it has.

My garden is still producing but slowing down. Still picking yellow straightneck squash, scallop squash, eggplant, yellow zucchini, okra and asparagus beans. The beans are still blooming and giving like crazy. I planted 100 snap beans of five different kinds. Only about sixty five came up and they are slow with the cool nights. I am sure hoping they bear at least one picking before frost.

I put the ponies out on the grass when we got home from church today. I also drained the hot tub, cleaned it and refilled it. I hope it will be toasty warm again before long. I also took myy dog for a long walk.

I am thinking I may get a booth at tge Farmer's Market next year. I think I will raise asparagus beans. They seem to do very well here and bear for a long time. Also, nobody else is selling them. We will see. It is something to consider.

I so miss the old group.I often think back to when I first joined and all the help I got starting out with my chickens ,and now I can give help and info to other chicken people.I guess everyone is so busy and maybe some don't have animals anymore.I still have my silkies,sold a lot this year and am done hatching for this year.Cant wait for next spring to start hatching again,love seeing them babies.Have some new buff babies.4 in all,I sure hope at least one is a hen.I spent $70.00 and only have 4.Noone around here has that color so had to order from people.So anyway that's my project for next year hatching buff colored silkies.This year it was the paints colored silks.Here is a pick of one of the buffs and paints.Well guess I cant the box is gone to download pics,Will try some other time. green04735

This message was edited Sep 22, 2015 10:24 AM

It's true not many of us still seem to be around; I'm glad you are.

I look forward to your pictures!

It is sad that folks are gone. I enjoyed coming here and talking about my progress, lamenting my failures and learning from everybody. I miss it.

Green, I guess you are making plans for another winter already. I really admire you for being able to take such good care of your chickens in such cold weather. I did not know silkies came in buff. What kind of layers are they?

I am giving serious thought to getting a few hens. Probably no more than six. If I do, I will make a chicken tractor for them. That way I can move them around on the grass and supplement with a bit of feed. They would be like free range then. I have really missed having chickens but I could not justify replacing them as long as I could buy fresh yard eggs cheaper than I could buy feed. That is not the case now. Getting the fresh eggs is hit and miss from the new supplier and they look like bantam eggs. And buying them in town is very expensive so come spring I may get some more chickens. I still have my two incubators and I can get fertile eggs from a friend to hatch out. Just something I am thinking about right now.

I am not a gloom and doom person but I also don't bury my head in the sand. The economy is in bad shape and will likely get worse before it gets better. With us spending so much of our limited income on meds, we need to plan on ways to have healthier food for less money. I raise as much as I can and am studying on canning. We will either be sending the boy's horses south to them or selling them. We can also sell the ponies if it comes to that. They would go last as they are cheaper to feed and ponies always hold their price. I would like to get a couple Nigerian Dwarf does for milk, cheese and yogurt. We can also put the kids in the freezer. I have several friends with bucks so breeding would be no problem. Goats do well on browse and even when milking they don't take much supplementing. I would like to get a few rabbits too. We really enjoy eating rabbit and it is healthy meat. They are also econimical to raise and they produce well. I am just considering it all right now but it pays to plan ahead.

I need to get the last of the summer garden cleaned up. The scallop squash is finished. One side of the yellow zucchini is dying. Looks like something is eating the vine in one spot. The other half is still growing well, blooming still and producing. I will leave it. Still getting a few eggplants from both plants. The yellow straightneck squash is still producing and blooming so I will leave it too. My peppers have been a bust. One plant has hardly grown at all and I am toying with the idea of lifting it into a pot and bringing it inside for winter. The other one has bloomed finally and is pretty heavy with a bunch of deformed peppers. I think I will just pull it up and call it a loss. The okra is still bearing but it has been slow all season. My third planting of onions is ready to pull. I have more to plant when I get that done. The second planting of snap beans is starting to bloom. They are in the big hoop bed so if it looks like frost is going to catch them I can cover them. Asparagus beans have slowed way down so I might go ahead them. They have done very well. I also have three or four volunteer taters that need to be pulled. I hope to have a few new potatoes to saute' with the last of the asparagus beans. My new planting of sugar peas is coming up quickly. So are the new greens I planted. Looking forward to those.

We got the last two big horses moved to Louisiana. They will be much more comfortable there and it has lifted a great burden off my shoulders. The ponies have a very nice barn now and I have four big rolls of hay in the shed so I am resting easy on that front. Just have one dog and one cat left so work will be easy for the winter.

The summer garden has been cleaned up. I have a tire of garlic and a tire of onions growing well. I have a skimpy row of sugar snap peas that I doubt will do anything. I also have a bed with three kinds of greens growing and it looks very nice. I am making mental plans for the spring garden as I look through my Baker Creek seed catalog. We are hoping to have a booth at the Farmer's Market next year so we are looking for seeds of some things nobody else will have.

I started a new thread. Please go there;
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1411642/