Making Use of Pantyhose and Brown Bags

 Tortuga Thursday

In 2012, on the plains of Northern Arizona, two families joined forces and began the trials and tribulations of building a small family farm with nothing in the bank but love.

Lance tying up cucumber plants

When we lived in Minnesota, every year it seemed the winter would never morph into spring. And then one day I'd wake up and spring had sprung. Overnight, there would be flowers everywhere and shades of green sparkling on every tree.

It's the same sort of feeling here on the farm when I'm waiting to start harvesting. Even though we have the greenhouse with year round greens and the garlic was harvested in July, when the bigger vegetables start coming and the cucumbers appear on the plants it feels like an overnight event.

The zucchini and peas appeared three days ago and are now an everyday chore to harvest. Every couple of

Bags and bags of drying dill seeds

days the kohlrabi can be harvested. And carrots can be dug up whenever we need them. The last of the dill seeds have been harvested out of the greenhouse and are hanging in bags to dry before going into jars. Lance planted more onions, okra and broccoli in the dill's place. The outside dill is about six inches high so that should be coming ready before we use up the dried weed and seeds we have from the greenhouse crop. They got so huge in the greenhouse that they restricted air flow and held in too much humidity so we had some mold going on. Lance got that under control.

Garlic in nylons

Found a better use for nylons than wearing -- they make great bags for storing and hanging garlic. Dollar Store (the Paulden Mall) had boxes of ten for cheap. 

More good neighbor stories. Frank's boat trailer had a weld come loose. He asked Dave (of Dave and Eunice with the eggs) if his welding machine could do the trick. Dave took the section of the trailer to Phoenix and had a welder friend of his fix it - for free! We've been swapping produce with them, too. They didn't plant carrots, shard or kohlrabi. I take them some of those every week and we get yellow squash, snap peas and of course eggs.

Can't see the pea plants for the weeds

With all the rain I can always weed if I find myself without anything to do -- which is never, but I still have to weed. No matter how many weeds, it's still better than the last two years.

I'm going to sit in the walk-in care at the Indian Medical Center tomorrow down in Phoenix. Really hate to take the time but they can't see me on a scheduled appointment for ophthalmology until August 18. My eye is blurry with light flashes and I don't want to wait. You know I've written how great it is to have the care available and I mean it, but I sure hate the idea of just sitting for who knows how long. Wish me luck!

My path of destruction when weeding

Me and the Garlic - When you're hot...

 Tortuga Thursday

In 2012, on the plains of Northern Arizona, two families joined forces and began the trials and tribulations of building a small family farm with nothing in the bank but love.

The heat has been...hot. Earlier and hotter than the prior two years. It's affecting so many things including my stamina. Instead of getting some of my author business done early, I'm up and outside by 7:00. The heat is intense by 10:00.

The garlic wants out of the heat too. We're still new with garlic growing, and from everything I've read knowing when to harvest is touchy. Nine months is pretty common from planting to harvest. At seven months, it looked like the garlic was ready - at least from the top. I've been the garlic lady so far, and it was left for me to decide. I couldn't believe it could be ready. More research. Only way to tell was to dig up a couple. Yep, good to go. We started the harvest today.

Garlic has to be loosened and then brought out, not just pulled, and immediately gotten out of the sun. I didn't get around to hanging it today. Tomorrow will do. What we harvested is resting in the garage where it will be hung to cure for three to six weeks. And there's more to harvest.

Out of control dill.

The dill has all gone to flower and is out of control. I attempted to tie it away from the ceiling of the greenhouse as each plant flowered and reached ever higher. I've given up. Some of the flowers have gone to seed and finally tinges of brown are showing. Lance planted more dill outside. And as the greenhouse plants go to seed, we'll save the seeds and pull up the plants so Lance can plant more. We use massive amounts of dill for our pickling.

Last of the cucumber rows are mulched. This year we are using grass

Mulched cucumber plants

clippings which worked great on the garlic. Mulch will keep down weeds as well as maintain soil temperature. It's hard to believe those little babies will have cucumbers on

Cucumber before mulch

them in two months. And then in the jar for Pirate Pickles!

By the way, check out our Pirate Pickling web site. We had so many requests for tee shirts that we now have them for sale. http://www.piratepickling.com/home.html

Roses in my garden that needs attention.