Sights from around Crooked Acres.
The garden is producing like crazy!
This is about 1/8 of the total corn Fred brought in. I spent two days blanching corn and then cutting it off the cob, and bagging it for freezing. We have 35 2-cup bags of corn in the freezer. And there’s as much still left in the garden waiting to be harvested. I really really love corn, and I cannot lie.
The potted Meyer Lemon tree looks like it’s going to produce at least 6 lemons this year!
The beginning-of-July garden pic. Unfortunately, from this angle you can’t see anything but corn!
The eggplants are finally starting to grow.
The Jalapenos are happy.
As are the Bell peppers.
I feel like the okra is taking a long time to get going.
Busy bee in a squash flower.
I think the flowers on the Mimosa trees are so pretty.
Looks like we’ll be getting apples this year!
The Muscadines are happy as can be, despite the lack of rain.
We’ve got lots of little watermelons chugging along, but they’re in the end of the garden that doesn’t get much sun. Next year, they’ll get a sunnier location. I’m not sure we’re going to actually get ripe watermelon this year.
“What the-?”
Little chicks everywhere.
George is not impressed by those chickens.
Toasty the Rooster keeping an eye on me.
I think this little chicken is so, so pretty.
“Is cookie time?”
“She got cookies for us?”
“I don’t think so, I see no cookies.”
“Look at us, lady, we’re being cute. Now GIVE US COOKIES.”
“Pssst! Just give me one little cookie, I won’t tell.”
George has been hanging out by the pond.
Gracie prefers to stay clean, thank you.
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This is how things go in the foster room.
First, Brandywine has her snack on the steps. (You’ll note that she’s not the neatest of eaters.)
Then she comes down, and her boys are all “Ma! MAAAAAAAA! I’m hungry!” and Brandywine thinks “Now, why did I come down from there, again?”
So she goes up in the little blue cat tree to try to get away…
But those little monsters…
..are not as small…
…as they used to be!
They climb up after her and do their best to latch on.
Because clearly they are starving to death.
So she comes back down, and of course they come down after her…
Whereupon she unleashes the Paws of Doom and she yells “GET AWAY FROM ME YOU [very bad descriptive words that I would be horrified by, but they describe the little monsters perfectly], MAMA NEEDS A BREAK!” And they all run to the other side of the room and pretend that they meant to go over there and play ALL ALONG, so there. And Brandywine gets a short break before they start coming around again.
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The ear floof totally looks like action lines coming off his ears, doesn’t it?
Sunbathing.
Hallo, Beautiful.
Kennebec’s coming over to see WHY I am messing with that camera instead of petting him.
“What?”
Yesterday I tried counting to see how many times a day I kiss that boy, but I couldn’t count that high.
He’s such a kissable little thing.
General Grumpy and his toes.
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Joe Bob loves rolling around in the dirt more than just about anything. It sure does make it hard to keep his white furs white, I’ll tell you.
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PS: I hit the “F this” limit on the watermarking-my-pictures issue (I spent hours yesterday trying to make them look the way I wanted), which is honestly about what I expected would happen given my usual lack of patience regarding that kind of thing. So I won’t be watermarking any more of them. 🙂
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Previously
2011: It’s time for those rambunctious, leggy monsters to go off and find their forever homes.
2010: It’s a rough job, but someone’s gotta do it.
2009: No entry.
2008: No entry.
2007: She presents the belly, but won’t let you touch.
2006: No entry.
2005: Mia. (Warning: this is a sad one.)
I can’t remember if I mentioned this last year or not… We use the turkey fryer to blanch the corn when we freeze it. It’s set up outside (with water, not oil), so it keeps the heat/steam out of the kitchen, and it comes back to a boil for the next batch really really quickly. Then we use electric knives to cut the corn of the cob. One of these times, I’m gonna lose a finger. We’ll probably throw that corn away. Maybe.
Just rinse if off and it’s perfectly good to eat 😉
The corn and not the finger, I hope!! 😉
I guess that depends on your preferences…. But I was actually referring to the corn. Anybody down by ATL (Henry) that has extra produce they don’t want, hook a sistah up! lol
Robyn, do you ever think about donating to the food bank if you aren’t able to can/freeze/preserve everything? I know our food bank will take anything!
Whatever I don’t preserve and we don’t eat or (if the veggies are blemished) give to the chickens and pigs, we pass along to family members. There’s usually not anything left after that! 🙂
You did mention it last year, and I completely forgot that you had until you mentioned it again. 😀
Shall I go ahead and post it again so we’re covered for next year, or would you like me to just wait until then to forget I’ve already told you?
We’re planning to freeze corn on Sunday, assuming the racoons don’t throw a party between now and then.
Love all the pictures this morning! Thank you! Hope you had a wonderful July 4th! MUAH to all the animals!
Oh, I love all the produce! I really enjoy living in a city, but we have no outdoor space (except for a large planter outside our apartment window) and can barely keep the basil plant on our windowsill alive. It makes me a little sad, so I’m always excited for Thursday when I get to drool over all your home-grown deliciousness!
Thanks to all for the advice you gave regarding my refusing-to-eat Gravy the other day. She enjoyed a trip to the vet during which she was pronounced healthy but angry, and we were given a laxative to help her pass hairballs, which seems to be part of the problem (another part is that she’s a brat). She’s been eating about 50% of her food since (but only dry kibble, no wet food — what a weirdo) and unhappily licking her daily dose of laxative off her paws, because I’ll be damned if I’m going to try to smear that stuff on the roof of her mouth as my vet so easily did. I got a claw deep in my hand last night in my attempt to do so and promptly gave up. It’s just to hot to fight with her.
Hope everyone had a happy 4th!
Healthy but angry: hahaha! I have several cats who have that exact same condition!
Made me think of ::HET:: rays
Thursday’s are the best days in the whole internet! (not in the world because frankly, well, I also read about some bad stuff going around on those “other” sites). Anyway, the pictures are the absolute best thing to wake up to. Love the veggies, piggies and OMG if that is not THE cutest picture of my lovely friend Agata then I don’t know what is. Thank you Robyn for filling up my screensaver folder with such wonderful images. 🙂
It’s my pleasure. 😉
This site is the best site on the internet. I look forward to it first thing in the a.m. It starts my day of just right! Thank you Robyn!
I agree, I always look forward to L&H. Usually read it on my cell phone if I happen to still be in bed when it posts and I check in over the course of the day to read everybody’s comments and oogle the kittehs some more.
Awww, thank you! 🙂
I love reading everyone’s comments and then I comment on their comments! Ha!
I got to hold a friend’s Plymouth Rock chicken yesterday! So soft and pretty. Now I want my own.
Robyn, I sometimes throw entire ears of corn (husks and all) into the freezer, and they do just fine. We probably don’t leave them in there as long as you do though, since you have so much more.
I’ve done that, too – the only reason I don’t still do that is because of the amount of space it would take up. Corn off the cob takes up a lot less space. 🙂
Maybe I’m just a nosy little brat – but honestly I absolutely love seeing how everything else is going at your place. Love seeing the garden, love seeing the chickens and the babies and the pigs and the doggies and the veggies! Love it!
Two things: will you please get on to your husband about updating his blog!?! 🙂 He’s an excellent writer also and I love to read his blog and it’s been almost a month! Dude! AND – why have you not said ANYTHING about the new well? I would love to hear about that experience from your point of view!
I don’t harass Fred about updating his blog because he’ll get around to it when he has something to say. 🙂
And I don’t have much to say about the well – Fred talked and talked and talked about it until the top of my head flew off, and then he hired someone to drill it, and they eventually (thank god!) hit water, and the water that comes out is very cold and makes the pool quite refreshing on a hot day. 🙂
I hope you realize I didn’t mean to sound like an ungrateful brat btw!!! (nosy yes, ungrateful god forbid!) I do love love love your blog and am thoroughly impressed with the time and effort you take into making certain there’s an entry with several pictures and captions and in between text even, 5 days a week. Like many other commenters, this is my first stop every day and I don’t feel right till I’ve seen what’s what from Crooked Acres!
LOL, you did not sound like an ungrateful brat in the slightest. I too wish Fred would update his blog more often, but I’ve come to learn that he doesn’t appreciate me saying “You should put that in your blog!” Sometimes I even sneak over to his blog to see if he updated and just didn’t tell me about it. 🙂 He’s currently focusing his writing energies on finishing the novel he started last year. What I’ve read of it, I think it’s the best thing he’s written, but it’s slow going for him. I did see him walking around taking pictures, so maybe he’s thinking about writing a post.
Love George UNDER the chicken coop. 🙂 And poor Brandywine….kittens can be so overrated. LOL
Yeah, but look at that tail in the “she comes back down” picture. She’s happy. 🙂
Love Crooked Acres Thursdays! Makes me want to dig up the grass in the backyard and plant a garden. What fabulous veggies you’re getting!
Robyn, where do you get the can of compressed air that you use on the cats when you’re eating and they bother you? Norman’s pushiness is reaching its limit (or rather, my patience with it has). He’s such a good boy otherwise, but I’d like to be able to sit somewhere besides the kitchen table and eat without a head in my food.
Oh, and Norman doesn’t look nearly as tiny to me now that there are kittens in the house. He looks HUGE in comparison! 🙂
Kelly, you should be able to buy it at any office supply store, or possibly even a Wal-Mart in the office and school supplies area. The can I have in my desk at work is called Dust-Off. It’s usually used to clean out computer keyboards, and comes with a red “straw” like a can of WD-40. It makes a startling and completely harmless noise and puff of air.
Yeah, you can find it in most office supply stores. I buy the big pack of them at Sam’s!
We never use ours for their intended purpose. My husband made new labels for them that say CAT SPOOKIN’ SPRAY since that’s all we use it for.
HA – I need to make some of those labels!
I should add, Kelly, that after a few uses, most cats figure out what it means when you pick up the can. I rarely have to actually spray it at anyone these days, just pick it up and the cat understands immediately. Which is a good thing because a single can lasts forever (though we have them scattered through the house so we don’t have to go looking for one!)
I just wanted to let you know that “CAT SPOOKIN’ SPRAY” brought me dangerously close to snorting at work. 🙂
Joe Bob is…Joe Dirt!
“Life is a garden, dig it!”
bout time Brandwine gave her kittens what for!!
if you want to do watermarks, you can check out http://www.multipleimageresizer.net/ Nifty little program
and I see you got General Grumpy to turn his frown upside down.. very clever 😉
In Picasa (a free program) you can watermark as you resize pictures all in one step.
I actually gave Picasa a try, but couldn’t figure out how to change the watermark font – and I’m pretty attached to Gabriola. I’m fiddling around with programs that are designed to resize and add watermarks, I think I’ve found one that I kinda like!
re: watermarking, Oldcat is totally right about Picasa being good for this.
re: Joe Bob, OMG SO PRETTY.
re: Taters’ eyes, OMG SO PRETTY.
re: Brandywine, OMG SO PRETTY AND SASSY I LOVE HER.
re: The General, is his wee tongue sticking out the tiniest bit in those photos?
I don’t think his tongue is sticking out, I think you’re seeing part of his lip! 🙂
They’re all so kissable, *sigh*. Hey, does Stompers ever feed at the Brandywine Buffet?
I am so.envious. of your garden. Man… My tomatoes haven’t even flowered yet! And my basil is pathetic.
Corn!
He doesn’t, because they’re in separate rooms. Fred really really REALLY wanted to put Stompers with the ‘Maters, but I wasn’t thrilled with the idea because the ‘Maters hadn’t been through the two weeks of quarantine and on the off chance that they had something (parasites or an upper respiratory infection) I didn’t want them to pass it along to him. These days, I’m a little concerned that the ‘Mater kittens would kick his little butt. 🙂
I don’t know what I’d do with so much food 🙂 (says the apartment dweller) But I would love such fresh fruit and veg!
Peeing update: None from Pandora last night/this morning. Vet visit scheduled for Saturday. The carpet is still living in my bathroom away from any possible pee-ers, until I get to the shops today to buy some cleaner. I appreciate all the advice; perhaps the vet will have some ideas as well as to why she’s been peeing.
What’s the weather like in your neck of the woods in December? Asking because here in my corner of L.A., where everyone has a lemon tree in their yard, citrus usually ripens sometime after Thanksgiving. Some years not until January if the weather isn’t cooperative.
It’s relatively mild, but certainly not as mild as L.A. in the winter! Once it starts to get cool, we’ll move the tree into the garage, upstairs. There’s a sunny window up there (it’s where the tree spent last winter), so if the lemons haven’t ripened by then, hopefully they’ll ripen once they’re in the garage.
Love the pics today Robyn. We had our first locally grown corn this weekend. Since it has been so dry the sugar was more concentrated in the corn and boy was it good. I told Dave I would ask you how you process corn to freeze. Do you ever freeze it on the cob?
Enjoying the produce but it’s kind of overwhelming. You must have a really big freezer. What is in the bucket at 2 o’clock? I can’t make it out but they look almost like artichoke silhouettes.
Great pictures! I love this blog!
My blog engine lets me automatically watermark everything I upload, but I don’t use flicker since I don’t have so many photos as you do. I’m sure there is some kind of free tool to do it for you in flicker or something.
I know it has been said many times – but worth repeating. Miss Brandywine is such a beauty. I love her little orange slippers on her front paws!
The ‘Mater kittens look like they’re past the age to be weaned. Are they eating solid food yet?
Yeah, they’re eating solid food with no problems at all. Brandywine is making it clear to them that the 24/7 milk bar is closed, though she’ll occasionally still let them nurse.
http://textfromdog.tumblr.com/
I love that site!
We started processing corn a different way this year . . .
Don’t shuck just cut off the top and bottom of the ear (cut enough so you can see a bit of kernel). Put up to 4 ears in the microwave, zap on high for 7 minutes. Let the ears sit for a minute then remove. Carefully peel off the husk (really carefully) or wait 20 or minutes to cool and then peel the husk. The strings will come right off with the husk – no more scrubbing to get a clean ear.
I’ve actually heard of that, but Fred usually shucks the corn before he brings it in (we had an incident a few years ago where he brought in a black widow along with the un-shucked corn, and ever since, he shucks it), and with the amount of corn we process, I’m afraid it would take forever in the microwave.
Since it’s Crooked Acres Thursday I have to ask: Do you amend your soil/fertilize/etc. every year? My garden looks so lovely but doesn’t always produce a ton… this year I tested the soil and needed mass quantities of nitrogen and potassium which I tried to provide so we’ll see if it’s better…
A few years ago, Fred sent off a soil sample and I don’t remember what the results were, but he amended the entire garden, and that year was nothing to write home about. This year when we were planting, we put a healthy scoop of composted chicken poop along the rows where we were planting. It seems to have helped a lot – I’ve never gotten such gorgeous tomatoes.
Ooo I love sweetcorn… We havent grown any in ages.. your pictures are making me hungry!
I love love love the little black kitten hanging on the cat tree trying to get momma showing off a tiny little white bikini bottom!! How cute is that!
Joe Bob! You dirty boy! Well… I’d still snuggle him!
Robyn, I wonder if you could get a setting on your camera that would put the watermark on every picture while it’s inside the camera. I’ve never seen this done, but it seems that it shouldn’t be much different than putting the date the picture was taken on the image. Might be worth looking into.