Farm Peepshow

Sweet...

Juicy...

Homegrown...

Corn! 

Delridge Deli Mart

Bri'Anna: Slug bait. 

Clerk: Did you say slug bait?!

Bri'Anna: Yep. 

Clerk: That's what half my customers drink! 

Bri'Anna: So it works! 

Clerk: Yes, it does because they keep coming back!

A girl can dream...

Potatoes are not considered a complex carbohydrate if you grow them yourself. 

(Andy's camera is SO much better than mine! Wow!!) 

Andy's Hops

We hadn't seen much change from last year until Andy noticed these flowers! Now, we are noticing them all over the vines. It's a big difference from our first growing season in which we yielded a total of four flowers. 

Surgeon General's Warning

Our home looks like a tropical resort with large plant leaves decorating our walls, but these are not palm fronds they're tobacco leaves! We will hang them to cure in the attic for a year and hopefully be able to smoke 'em up shortly after that! Our kind neighbor, Mr. Matt, volunteered to test-smoke it for us. He said he's been smoke-free for a few months, but home-grown tobacco doesn't count, plus, he owes us a solid. Anyone else who'd like to take up a smoking habit, hit us up in a year. We'd be happy to be your pushers! ;) 

Trust Issues

We went away for the weekend and decided to leave Andy at home. We needed rabbit feed and I volunteered to go to Bleyhls (the local farm store in Grandview).  I volunteered mainly because Andy has a habit of buying additional animals upon EACH visit to the farm store. Even though I bought the feed he couldn't resist an unaccompanied trip. Now we own a duck. It is an all black Indian Runner he named Ugly that I renamed Emilio because, well, he looks more like an Emilio than a Gordon. ;) He is too cute and I have no desire to eat him. Andy would like to plump him up or he'd like Emilio to lay eggs (I should mention we have no idea what sex Emilio is yet!). Nonetheless, I think he's here as our first real farm pet. 

Please stop by and help us welcome Emilio to our family! 

Cabezas de Ajo

While the girls and I were enjoying the fair and the heat of the Yakima Valley, Andy was having fun harvesting our garlic and braiding them together. Andy loves braided garlic. He's funny like that. ;) 

TRY IT! 

To peel garlic, either cloves or heads, put them in a jar, replace the lid, and shake it! It takes a minute or two, but it works! 

This little piggy stayed home. ❤️

I caught these two (at the Yakima Valley Jr. Fair) in an embrace while resting and trying to cool off in this blasted heat. They went to market today, but hopefully they sold as a pair. Come on, who can resist a cuddly pair of piggies?!  

Sowing the seeds...

Meet our fall harvest. 

Crockett's Kraut

We harvested two VERY large heads of cabbage this week and Andy (Andy Crockett King of the Urban Frontier) requested it be made into sauerkraut.  He also insisted HE make it!  I made sure to have the ingredients at home ready to go including: easy to find juniper berries, hard to find pickling salt, and five pounds of homegrown cabbage. The pickling has begun! This recipe should yield about seven pints. Did I hear you say something about a Reuben sandwich?!! 

Cat Nap

Looks like the same ol' Tina, but she is beginning to mouse like the cat she was born to be!  

She started mousing last night.  I'm sure she's done it before, but I finally witnessed her doing it.  

 

Living in the city there is an increased number of rodents in our area and having a farm with smells, spilled feed, and decomposing food scraps, we attract a few extra as well.  Last night, I caught a mouse sneaking through the barnyard, so I grabbed Tina--PHYSICALLY PICKED HER UP--and dropped her out the back door.  I ran to my bedroom window and called her over.  (Luckily, she listens to me.)  I removed the screen and pointed to the barnyard.  She sat in the middle of the yard and looked.  I kept staring until she noticed the movement on the ground.  Tina went into total lioness mode!  She stalked it, pounced on it, and although I couldn't tell if she actually killed it, it was such a relief to see her out there mousing like a REAL farm cat! 

This evening, she willingly walked outside, I called her, and she sat until she saw something move.  

It has begun.

Rabbits are HILARIOUS.

This picture is too much. It even made Andy chuckle when I showed him. Hahahahahaha

Silly rabbits...

Thievin'

I couldn't just let those plums fall off the neighbors tree this year. No way! I sent Andy up onto the roof of the barn to pick what was ripe and then I made him promise to go up again to get the rest in a week or so. :) 

I didn't think we had as much as we ended up with (which was 12 pints and 3 quarts!). They leaked and floated to the top, but after troubleshooting and calling mom-in-law, Robin, they sealed and should be safe to eat and save. The floating is more than likely caused by me not heating the fruit before adding it to the jars, and the leaking is because I overfilled the jars with syrup. Matilde enjoyed licking syrupy fingers and gave me a smile of approval. Andy is now trying to figure out where we will store the jars. 

And we're back!

Wow! What a great week! We had a ton of fun camping at Rimrock Lake. We read books, took naps in our hammock, swam, fished, enjoyed shooting stars and campfire songs, ate pudgy pies, hid from the rain, smelled the trees (Ponderosa Pines smell like BUTTERSCOTCH, it's crazy!!), and even tie dyed shirts!  A giant THANK YOU to Jen, Heather, Hominee (and your families), my sister and our neighbors for helping to keep things under control, alive, and in the yard while we were out of town. It's tough to leave everything behind, but we are grateful to have friends willing to help us out!  

We ended up cutting our trip a day short to save our garden from some escapee rabbits and a hose that sprang a (HUGE) leak. We weren't too worried about the rabbits since they are quick to kindle. I was more worried about our cabbages that I've been loving on for five months!! Andy and Matilde ran down four bunnies when we got home, Andy found the last one in the morning, and we had harvested the meat of three of them by noon! It's been a busy day for us on our first day back. Aside from the rabbits, we gleaned and raw packed plums from the vacant property behind ours, unloaded the car and put everything away, set up the tent to dry and repaired some tears, ran errands, washed all of our dirty clothes, and smiled at the end of the day! It's good to be back home. :) 

--

Matilde enjoying our walk back to camp from Indian Creek. 

This is a panoramic view from our camp. We tend to set up in the same spot year after year....I bet you can guess why!