This morning, we went to a newly opened u-pick blueberry farm. It was a beautiful, cool morning which made the work that much more enjoyable. But the best part was working along side friends. The kids and I picked 25 pounds in about 45 minutes. Not bad. The berries are unsprayed, so I am freezing most of them in a single layer on baking sheets and then bagging them in freezer bags. Some will go into a pie and others will go into pancakes for tonight’s dinner. Oh, yum!

-----------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------

Gleaning

The boys took turns knocking the branches of the pecan tree.

Little Miss decided she would help document us gleaning by taking a picture of me & C searching for the pecans amongst the leaves.

We picked a five gallon bucket full of pecans

and then got crackin'. The dog stalks the kids, hoping they'll launch a nut his way. And they keep a suspicious eye on his thieving self.

Z shows off the meats.

Little Miss is in the midst of all this nuttiness too, hammering away at pecan shells. And I'm here too, sipping tea and taking advantage of prime read aloud time.

Some of the pecans will go into the freezer, and the others will go into "from our farm" Christmas gift baskets. An awsome way for the kids to take part in sharing the fruits of God's goodness with others. 

Merry Christmas!

Ewww?

*late fall fishing on the Tuolumne River

The Tuolumne River

Harvest is long. Really long.  In actual minutes spent, it is a relatively short piece of the year, of the whole farming process. And it is rather significant. Mike ever so faithfully, puts in long, long hours. I ever so, well um, ever so endure it all. Yes, the weather has been beautiful. The fall colors and multiple layers of dust (?) add to the richness of the season. But when it comes to the last few weeks, I get an attitude and then I drink too much coffee. I don’t why this is. The coffee part.

I know the attitude part.

When Mike’s not around, I try to do too much. Stay busy. And then I’m up late, because I get all fired up to do more.  He’s always been the stabilizing force in our marriage. When he’s gone, I get a little off kilter.

Don’t get me wrong. I am thankful for harvest and all that it means to putting food on the table and teaching young men to work hard.

The kids have been gems, though one of them has begun showing the effects of not having his dad around as much. I have to pull the child closer and even keep him from some of his normal activities. He stays near and helps do stuff. And I offer him coffee but he says, no thank you. At least he’s polite.

 I let the kids stay up last night and hang out with Dad while he wasn’t snoring. Little Miss was glued to him. When Mike did fall asleep on the floor, she laid down beside him with her pillow and blanket. Sweet.

This past week, we had a much needed breath of fresh air. My brother, sil and niece came for a much-too-short visit. Little ones amp up the energy and excitement around here. My niece is a honey, and full of good times. I had to share her with way too many people.

Little Miss and G took advantage of our warm October days, swam and ran in the sprinklers.

We all took a walk to see the horses in the pasture down the street. This is my pregnant sil Emily who bless her heart, informed me she was craving a burrito from the taco truck. Oh the joy!

If you asked Mike, he’d say harvest is going well, minus the fifty different equipment brake downs. He likes all the crazy, though the glossy eyed look might make you think otherwise. I’m just going to continue keeping myself busy, drinking my coffee and dreaming of harvest end, when I fly off into the sunset with my farmer turned beach bum, to breathe in a little aloha and celebrate 15 years of dust marriage.

Farmer Dad called one morning this past week and said he needed the boys down at the walnut huller as soon as possible. They were in a crunch and needed the man power. Within minutes, the boys were smooshing themselves into the car, smooshing because thats what boys do when they have been called to duty but some how have grown by 3 sizes just in the time from when Dad called, to getting in the car.

This is important honorable work,  you know.

_______________________________________________________

Little Miss and I took lunch out to the men and I did a little photo journaling:

Mike had to troubleshoot a breakdown and told the boys to unload the vina walnuts into the set of double trailers.

Hooking up the drier trailer.

C teaching Little Miss how to work the trailer dump.

Dumping the trailer.

You can see the nuts coming out the shoot into a set of doubles. The truck driver, who was waiting to haul the load of nuts to the  processor had this look of bewilderment, as the boys were put in charge.

J moves the empty drier trailer and picks up a full one.

 Little Miss and the dog tested the product for quality.

Z was called over to the huller to pick sticks from the conveyer.

Where Z's concerned, work and play go hand in hand.

Them are workin' hands.

Here's the farmer moving a set of double trailers and hollering instructions at the same time.

Captain saftey!

"Look Ma, I can stand and drive at the sametime!"

Oh, he impresses me so!

"The most funniest thing we grew in the garden was popcorn!", so thinks Little MIss.

This was our first season of growing popcorn, and there is nothing fancy to it.  In April, the kids pushed the seeds into the ground & kept it moist. By July, when the stalks had turned completely brown, they picked and shucked the ears of popcorn and tested the kernels for dryness by trying to pop a few. The kernels started to pop, but before they completely opened up, they burned.  So we hung the corn on the back porch for a few weeks in mesh laundry bags.

I ordered one of these brilliant little inventions.

 Little Stripper Popcorn Sheller 

When we were in Texas last year we had a chance to use one of these handy dandy tools.

C counted 71 ears, which yielded 20 cups of popcorn minus the kernels Little Miss put in her pocket.

and then had to clean out of the washing machine.

Good Times!

Erckle the rooster ......

and his groupies.

Mag, Marge, Mel, Meeps, Mac,  Mizzie.

They're going to provide us with lots of farm fresh eggs.

A dozen or so every few days.

I'm into positive thinking. And sharing eggs.

But so far its only Erckle the rooster who's providing anything. 

About every few minutes or so he lets us know he's alive.

Compliments of Little Miss

 Little Miss was begging for mercy when I asked her to hold one of her sunflowers so I could take a picture. The flowers are much heavier than they look!

The kids have enjoyed picking seeds off the flower and eating the soft meats inside.

likewise, the birds were given a treat,

when we hung a flower in the suet feeder near our front door.

The kids picked a bounty from our garden this morning.

This means its time to set up their first produce stand.

Just a simple set up for the first time sellers of all things fresh. Literally. When someone stops (and I wish I could have captured the squeals and yells of delight the first time someone did) the boys go back to the garden and  pick the prettiest of the fruits or vegetables to restock the table.

Summer's colorful delights

Last evening ……

The men of the family manned the kettles, and cut and stuffed apricots into jars. Little Miss clipped the tops off the green onions and I .... did stuff. I was on-call.

The man-in-charge, the washer-cutter, and the splitter-stuffer.

The jar sealer-kettle stuffer

Just in time to meet the challenge of 'what to do with all those peppers', PW posted this How-to-roast-green-chilis tutorial

I am pretty pleased with the results. When letting the peppers steam. I used a bowl instead of baggies and it worked just fine.

J brought in a gallon sized baggie of basil ... and when life gives you basil, you make pesto.

These green jars are stored in the refrigerator for preservation. I filled up the jar with pesto to about 1/2 inch from the top, covered it the rest of the way with olive oil and then sealed it with a lid. It will hold this way for months.

I made my pesto with walnuts, instead of pine nuts. Shocking I know.  They've been in the refridge since last harvest so I roasted them first to draw out the oils. J especially loves walnuts after they have been roasted.

On the list today, is to dig up the green onions and freeze peaches. I made a huge mess of the kitchen yesterday and didn't get to those.

After a busy crazy good last week, we are back at home, with no where to go except out back. And oh it feels good. Good because it makes me crazy if we can't get out there for a few days to see how the fruit and vegetables are doing. Things grow over night. Mysterious little bugs move in when your not looking. Little underground creatures come up from the depths of the earth and eat the roots of your full grown plant. Even if these things are out of our control, it still helps to know that they are happening, rather than wandering out there asking yourself, "Now when did that happen?"

So we have our hands and mouths full and its time to roast, bag and freeze the peppers. Make up some pesto for winter. Shuck and freeze corn. Freeze the peaches for smoothies. And make salsa ..... for breakfast.

Can you see the mower just under the trees in the orchard? Do you notice the puffs of dust rising from the ground? What would summer be without dust covering my furniture?

My Mothers Day gift is still a work in progress. Here it is in the early stages. It may become our Fathers Day gift too, because I know the Dad around here would really like to call this one ..... done.

I have been strangely out of words lately, falling into bed at night and waking up early to beat the heat. We have been busy with birthday parties,  baseball and our already abundant garden.

There are loads of pictures to show what we’ve been up to and notes about our school year to share, what worked, what didn’t and what I’m looking forward to doing this coming school year.

So if you’ll bear with me, there may be days of more photos than words……

Because that’s life.

As the weather begins warming up, these plants will start producing, and I will be swimming in tomato goodness.

The plum tree on the right is over flowing with fruit which we intend to jam, freeze and dry this coming week.  C's zuccinni has made it into egg dishes and sautes flavored by J's fresh herbs. We picked our first table gold squash today. Z has been shucking beans. 

Little miss has supplied our table with some junior sized sunflowers.

1st of the season apricots for jam

Apricot and apricot strawberry

Yum!

 Remember, I am flexible. I go with the flow.  I have plans, you know, just in case. Just in case something goes my way.

So herein lies what actually wasn't planned:

Mike said he got the irrigation water for that evening and the trees needed  

fertilizing , which means today. As in  - now. The boys enjoy this job and like pruning, gives them a little income. So OK, I'm flexible. Off with you. 

On our way out to C*stco, Little Miss and I found the boys out in the trees.

Z sits in the back and passes out measured scoops of fertilizer.

 The fertalizer is then sprinkled around the base of the little trees or the trees with stakes by them. It took them about 3 hours to do the 35 acres on the home ranch.

When Little Miss and I got home from our shopping trip, we found the farmer rolling around in the pruning tower, looking for a good tree limb to re-hang the circular swing. Little Miss was pretty jazzed.

"Can I ride Daddy?"                                    And this is me not breathing.

I was mumbling to the dog about how flexible I am, and how I watch my only daughter giggle, stories above my head and how I simply smile with a brave fortitude. Meat-head showed no emotion for my plight.

Bike riding

Jesse: "Dad, if you just show us how to change the bike tire's we could do it ourselves."

Dad: "Meet me in the building."

Mike, Uncle Dan and the boys are hard at work changing tires.

C insisted on fixing the tire on this red bike for Little Miss. It's the next size larger than her girly bike and "will make her go faster".

Baseball haircut's

Look at Meat Head (the dog! not the kid), laying on a rug in front of a wood burning stove. What a life!

Flood Irrigation and Gophers

 Mike took over the irrigation from brother-in-law Dan after last night's baseball game. The water chases the gophers out of their holes which means our little gopher dog is on high alert. Ugg! The little sneak will try to stash them in our mudroom!

Thinking of his Mom, J planted a herb garden.

C planted zuccinni, yellow and golden table squash

Z, our resident seed whisperer, planted carrots, beans and peas.

Little Miss was not feeling well on the day of planting, but she did manage to get her flowers planted a few days later.