Tag Archives: garden

Closing up the Garden

We did some canning/freezing this year. A dozen jars of tomatoes, tons of acorn squash and wax beans in the freezer. Kathryn made an elderberry-honey-brandy “elixir” which turned out quite nice. Kathryn’s motto now being “spoon your way to health!” a la Lucy Ricardo. Kathryn also made some elderberry-apple jam that is a knock out. Having discovered numerous patches of elderberry on our property, she has been determined to make use of it.

I hoed the garden in an effort to minimize the amount of weeding that I will have to do next spring. The dark spot in the middle of the garden is the left-over leaves from the worm bucket. I released those fish worms that did not end up as catfish bait.

All that’s left in the garden is a row of Brussels Sprouts.

They will continue even past the 1st snow. I think they get better after a few frost.

Stittville Corn Maze

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My three day canoe trip to Big Bay-Piseco Lake-Fall Stream-Fall Lake-Sacandaga Lake-Lake Pleasant was canceled due to rain and low temperatures.

Saturday Eric had a noon time soccer game in cool temperatures (low 40s) with wind and rain. The kids were chilled, even when playing. They scored a 5-0 win vs Oneida. Afterwards Trevor came over to play with Eric and spend an overnight.

I cleaned out the hog wire supports that I used for peas and tomatoes. I picked 6-8 acorn squash and left another 5-6 for later harvesting.

We invited Skip and Steve for dinner and all played pitch afterwards. While Trevor had played on teams before, Eric had only played with Kathryn and I. Other than a couple of overly aggressive bids Eric did fine.

Sunday afternoon we tackled the Stittville Corn Maze which this year featured the USA Flag with the Statute of Liberty and an eagle superimposed. The goal was to find three mailboxes; each one contained a portion of the overall map.

Trevor, Eric and Kathryn prepare to enter the maze.

Trevor and Eric would run down the intersections as advance scouts and return with valuable information about intersections and dead ends.

Jim kept track of the group’s location on an overall map.

Trevor and Eric display the three map sections they discovered.

Labor Day Weekend

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Thursday night all the AYSO soccer coaches met at the HP Library for discussion and to pick our teams. I am an assistant coach working with Doug Wynne this year. Our U10 boys team has 13 kids. This year they play 7 v 7 with a goalie.

Friday I worked. We got the lawn mowed and I worked in the garden. I cleared out the pole beans and picked tomatoes. The tomatoes have continued to produce and we are getting overwhelmed with cherry tomatoes. We have 4-5 decent sized pumpkins, a dozen or more acorn squash.

Saturday was hot and humid. I moved dirt fill from the pasture to the north side of the new attachment as settling had occurred. We ran to the HP Farmer’s Market and bought corn, eggs, plums and raspberries. We made a connection with Jennifer Romer to acquire meat chickens for our freezer. At Turner Lumber we bought lattice for under our back deck and materials for the 12’ x 12’ tent platform to be built at Cookout Corner: 8” concrete blocks, deck hangers and nails.

Kathryn picked elderberries and made several jars of elderberry tonic: elderberry juice, honey and brandy.

In the afternoon I pulled nails from the rest of the 12’ 2”x8” which will form the joists for the tent platform. Kathryn worked on cleaning out the attic and organizing the upstairs family room.

Saturday night Kathryn, Eric and I went to Pizza Hut in North Utica. It was a night of violent thunderstorms to the south of Utica including a tornado which crossed over the NYS Thruway. Service was slow and we played pitch while we waited for our chicken wings and pepperoni pizza.

Sunday was hot and humid. I awoke early again and watched TV. As Eric and Kathryn awoke we watched the Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole and ate leftover pizza for breakfast. Eric and I installed our old wooden steps pond side. Eric helped install the left over decking slabs under the dog fence to keep the pipes from rusting. In the afternoon Kathryn was trimming our bushes on the west side of the house and was stung by several ground bees. She shed her shoes and shorts and came running in the house to shower and apply vinegar. Simultaneously our neighbor Gary drove in to discuss running drainage tile into our pasture and digging a small ‘duck pond’ in the SE corner of the pasture.

Monday it rained all day and Eric had his buddy Jack over to play. They have used the pool, despite the cooling temperatures. When we set it up in July we were concerned it collapsing due to the bulging, but it has worked out well.

I read Game of Thrones; the first in the series of Fire and Ice by George RR Martin.

Stayed Home This Weekend.

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I think we have gone camping every weekend since Billie Jo’s wedding so this weekend I stayed home. However, Saturday Kathryn took Eric, Ed and Izzabella to the Renaissance Faire in Sterling.

Eric participated in archery, went through the maze with Ed and Bella and won an prize by climbing the rope ladder and ringing the bell at the top of the climb.

I stayed home and mowed my pasture. I didn’t get it all mowed earlier this summer so some of it was very thick and required slow going. It wasn’t a bad thing just to be home and sitting on a tractor.

My garden is doing OK. Acorn squash are threatening to overtake everything. Tomatoes are coming on – I am getting 6 or 8 medium sized tomatoes every 3 days. Yesterday I picked several cucumbers and we have lots of green beans. There are 4-5 pumpkins turning orange and lots of volunteer gourds.

We are getting rain this AM, fortunately they got roofing shingles from C&D Staten Island Roofing on the garage and addition last week and so I am hopeful they will be able to continue working today. At least everything inside isn’t getting wet.

When I left this AM they were working on a roof for the front porch (facing the road) and tacking trim on the eaves. Maybe they will do more siding. We are waiting on delivery of windows, doors and the shower/tub unit.

Kathryn, her friend Jean Krager, Eric and Dakota left with the pop up camper to go to Sturbridge Village for a a couple days. Driving over today, maybe visiting the village this afternoon and tomorrow and returning home on Wed AM. We are lucky the pop-up is small and easy enough that Kathryn feels comfortable taking it places. She is pretty good about backing it into sites, too.

Wed night and Thursday night we have our volleyball playoffs – then our summer volleyball is done. Our Volley Llamas team finished the regular season 2nd in the Wednesday nine team “recreational” league. Kathryn and I played with a different group on Thursday nights. Our Sand Fleas team finished 4th in the more competitive Thursdays. I will miss it, but appreciate having the extra couple of nights available.

1st Weekend in June

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Hip Replacements. There has been a lot of press about FDA requiring analysis of metal on metal hip replacements due to concerns of metal wear and/or metal leakage into the blood stream. I had been experiencing a slight burning sensation in my left thigh. I have been concerned about playing volleyball (3xs/week) and it had been a few years since I had my hips checked so I scheduled a check up with Dr. Zahn. They took lots of Xrays. Dr. Zahn was really happy to see that bone wall has actually grown thicker where the tapered pin encounters my thigh bone. It is very healthy bone mass. The burning session seems to be due to a pulled ligament; treatable by over the shelf medications. A reassuring visit.

Garden. We have been eating asparagus 2-3x a week. I have a row of peas that we are just starting to eat. I recently planted a 2nd row that I expect will be ready to eat the end of July. The end of June I will rip out the row we just started to eat and do one more planting that we will be able to eat in Sept. I planted 12 tomato plants. I tried starting some from seed, but started too late, so I ended up buying transplants. I have cucumbers, yellow wax beans and some acorn squash. I am trying pole beans for the 1st time. Supposedly the vines grow to 12′ so I have this 9′ teepee structure in the garden for them to climb. It looks awesome and the beans are coming up nicely. In theory it allows a lot of plants in a condensed space. We will see. I planted brussel sprouts. Last year I did transplants and they were fantastic late growers. This year I did seeds, but they have come up yet. I will give them one more week and then I will try to find some replacements.

Frankfort AYSO Soccer Tournament. I took a team of 8 boys to participate in the U8 tournament in Frankfort. There were 5 teams: 2 from Holland Patent, Frankfort, Mohawk and Ilion. The tournament ran from 1am-2pm. We played all other four teams. We opened with a 4-2 loss to Frankfort. I don’t think the boys were ready for the intensity of the other players and I was unfamiliar with a couple of players and may not have had optimal line-ups in play. We had two quick goals scored against us before the team got going and pretty much played them even up from then on. We blew out the next team 9-1 with Dylan going crazy scoring – they had no match for his speed. We scored big again in our 3rd game and then broke for a 30 minute lunch break. In our final game we played the other HP team and needed a win to secure 1st or 2nd place. We were down 0-2 in the 1st half and according to Thomas “it was a disaster!”. I told the kids to keep their heads up and play hard. We rallied to a tie, and ended up in 3rd place in the tournament.

1st row: Charlie, Kalib, Thomas. 2nd row: Ryan, Trevor, Eric, Dylan, Sawyer. 3rd row: Jim.

Cookout. After the tournament Trevor stayed at our house and we had our 1st cook out of the year at cook out corner. Kathryn and I checked out the wet spots in Kirkland’s pasture to assess when I could brush hog the perimeter. On our hike back we played a modified ManTracker. The boys tried to ambush us from the hay pasture and we managed to get ahead of them and ambush the kids on the return trip.

Bella’s Birthday. Sunday afternoon we drove to Syracuse and met Ed, Phoenix and Izzabella for a late lunch at Hoffman’s Hothouse. Afterwards we went to a park where Eric and Bella played, Phoenix showed off his latest codes and we chatted with Ed. We had Carvel ice cream and returned home.

Lacrosse. Eric is signed up for youth lacrosse this summer. He and I practiced throwing and catching in the backyard for him to get the feel of the stick.

Planting the Garden

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I planted my 1st row of peas several weeks ago and they are coming up nicely. They can be seen in the background of the picture. Today I planted much of the remainder of my garden tonight. A 2nd row of peas, brussel sprouts, yellow wax beans, pole beans, cucumbers, and pumpkins. This is my 1st attempt planting pole beans. Apparently these can grow to 12′, so I made a 9′ teepee for the pole beans to climb. Tomato plants go in sometime this weekend.

We have been eating asparagus 2x/week; Kathryn’s arm can be seen snapping off a few stalks on far right. We have been giving away rhubarb on a regular basis.

Fish Worms

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We have been getting a LOT of rain lately. The ground is saturated and we got another continuous day and night of rain on Tuesday. Wednesday am Kathryn arose at 5:20am to go swimming. I got up, dressed, threw in some laundry and when Kathryn returned I drove to the HP HS and picked up 305 fish worms in about 20 minutes. The largest of the HP parking lots slopes to the south and has a storm drain at the bottom. I have found that hard rains wash the worms that crawl out onto the pavement down slope towards the storm drain. Since the worms are cold and somewhat flaccid from not eating much over winter they are hard to pick up. I used a plastic wire tie which I would slide under the mid-point of the worm and then dump them in a cardboard milk cartoon containing some leaves. I think I only touched 2-3 worms total. Once home the worms got transferred into a muck bucket filled with leaves and covered with damp towels. This is their home until we decide to go fishing……

Thursday I did yard work. I planted four trees I received from Miller’s Nursery:

a Fellemburg plum
Red Bartlett pear
Bing and Windsor cherry trees.

These supplement the 3 existing dwarf pear trees I already had. I put in a Vanessa Seedless grape vine and 20 asparagus plants (10 Supermale and 10 Purple Passion). I had given Linda B. and George M. each a clump of rhubarb and I used the new space for expanding my existing asparagus bed. The picture below shows sprouts from my existing asparagus, the expansion area and the remaining rhubarb plants.

I mowed our lawn for the 1st time.

Our Yard

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Eric picked daffodils for Kathryn to decorate the house prior to Billie Jo, Maureen and Wendy coming over to make wedding favors. He was carefully clipping each one, making a pile and then counting to ensure he had enough.

My peas are coming up and my tomatoes are sprouting.

On Saturday I dug up my grapevines and transplanted them to the new arbor. In the evening we walked to the pond and fed the fish. There were actually several catfish and a few bass that were active and eating.

Wrapping up the garden

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This was a good year for our garden. Other than the dogs eating a row of peas things worked out well. This weekend I made the last harvest: a shopping bag of green beans, 3 nearly ripe tomatoes and a dozen cherry tomatoes. A few lesson’s learned are worth noting:

We got 9 volunteer pumpkins and I feel lucky they came up. Eric enjoyed watching them grow and they are great October decorations. Note to self – make sure to plant pumpkins next year.
We had 3 volunteer cherry tomato plants. Our one purchased plant that grew in a pot on the deck didn’t do so well, but the volunteers, although late came on like gangbusters. Note to self – try to plan for cherry tomatoes next year.
The spinach grew fast, hung on long but was rarely eaten and is probably not worth repeating next year.
Avoid the climbing peas. Despite the panel field they overgrew everything, matured quick and we missed the 2nd planting as they matured too quickly.
Eric’s carrots grew quickly and we need to harvest them earlier next year as a lot of carrots were thrown away being too big and splitting.
Multiple plantings of beans worked well. Almost too well, according to Kathryn. We froze a couple dozen packages of green beans and had green beans available to eat from July – October.
A new system of tomato cages is needed. These were too light and put into place too late.

Next year I want to try planting a small area of Indian Corn with pumpkins and gourds interspersed.