Home Again

We got back last week, Wednesday night, and itès been busy, busy, busy since.

Picking beans, cutting beans, blanching beans... About 9 gallons so far. My back aches. My legs ache. My thumb aches. Why do I love beans? We'll be well fed and organic this winter!

My hugelkultur bean bed is an overgrown tangled mess of beans. The dry beans in the centre are still flowering, which means I can't let any of the green beans go to seed yet.

While I was gone, Husband, the Littles, and my parents all picked beans. They all agreed, I planted too many beans! lol.

The greenhouses have filled out.  I'm yanking the squash plants out of greenhouse #1.  The corn is touching the roof in there, with tassels on.  That's the sweet corn.  No ears yet.  Peppers are filled out and lush, with tons of flowers.  Green tomatoes everywhere.  Pickling cukes are producing, and I canned two jars so far.  Beets and mangels are huge. Peas are still producing. I feel like I'm in some alternate universe where the garden overproduces. It's amazing!  And most amazing- the weeds did not go crazy while I was away!  Except the perennial bed.  It's a disaster.

We're out of potatoes, so I thought we should just dig up a couple of volunteers for supper the other night, before the tops die off and I can't find them. 5 plants produced this bounty. That's more than we got out of 4 feet of hilled rows last year. We'll keep harvesting these to eat fresh until I run out of volunteer plants. There might be enough to get us through til fall.

The puppies grew like bad weeds while I was away.

That's my boy Smitty, laying with his mom. He's still smaller than the rest, but just as spunky and adventurous.

Wonder and a bunch of her little ones. 5 of the pups left to go to new homes yesterday. Brownie, Belle, Miley, Giligan and Goldie. That leaves us with one black female, Shaniqua, and two tan males, Shaggy and Sam, who need homes. And they're just 8 weeks old today! Pinky will be staying with us as well.

Our trip was good. Lots of visiting, family we haven't seen in a while. No surgery for #1. It was found to be ineffective, and they've stopped doing it. He's three letters shy of being legal to drive right now. They've recommended rigid contact lenses. Because they'll scrape his eye lids and annoy him, his brain may tell his eyes to slow down, which might get him over the edge. and practicing the letter charts, at a distance, to help strengthen the muscles. We have to go back in six months so he can be retested. Oh joy. Winter driving on a long trip. I think I may let Husband take him on that one.

 The Littles did great while I was gone. Grandma had to wake them up once, and Husband had to do a few repairs, but they survived, the critters survived, the garden survived. All is well.

#2 returned from camp on Saturday.  He was a little home sick, but now he's missing camp.  Go figure.  He figures he grew a couple of inches, but I don't find it as noticeable this year.  Probably because he was already towering over me when he left.  It's good to have him home!