Beans, Beans, the More You Eat

These are, of course, GREEN beans - our third picking.
The plants are being thrashed and trampled by the chickens, but they are thriving enough to produce this amount like every other day.  Between the chickens and the weather, we have lost like 10-12 bean plants.  But we still have some strong and healthy plants, but our chickens are trampling more and more of them every day.  I just don't know how to keep them out of there.  So, for now, I will keep picking until there are no more to pick.  Hopefully, we'll be able to get another 5-6 pickings that will give us a good amount to can.  Right now, we've given a lot away and the rest, we have mostly put up in the freezer.  The rest, we really need to can for storage.
Wish us luck.

The Rains Came and the Wind Blew...

...and our corn was leveled to the ground.
The storm came Sunday night/early Monday morning.  And this is what we woke up to.  Del spent over an hour last night trying to upright all the corn and fortify it with dirt, only to have it windy again today and once again, level some of them to the ground.
Disheartening?  Of course.  Del says we need to plant them deeper next year.  I'm hoping we can still salvage something THIS year.
I picked beans last night in ankle deep water from the rain.  Now, we need some good warm days.

I'm a Jolly Green Giant

I've been patient - prayerful and very very hopeful that we would find much success in this years garden. Well, the time has come for some harvesting of our hard work - mostly Del's hard work, but I have helped enough that I feel ownership in our efforts and success.
The chickens left most things alone for the first few weeks, but once they figured out there were more than just bugs to eat out in that there garden, they started picking it apart.  They ate the rest of our strawberries, but only after we had picked enough to enjoy and then freeze some.  Then, they found the corn.  Oh boy, did they have a hay day with the corn!!  They ate down the first row almost to stubs - and had started on the second row before we finally convinced them we WOULD shoot them if they continued.  The most interesting of all things is...they will follow me in the garden wherever I seem to go.  If I'm checking out the tomatoes?  Sure enough, they decide to check out the tomatoes also - then on to the potatoes?  They are right on my heels.  And they don't just tip toe through the garden...they seem to have a real plowing motion to them...just barrel right on through whatever might be in their way.  A little frustrating but I try not to complain too much as our garden seems to be almost bug and insect free.  Two edged sword.
Last week, Del did some picking of the beans.  There were a few that were ready but not enough for a FULL picking.  He picked enough and dug up some of our red potatoes for two nights dinners and they were so yummy!!!  I was excited for the green light for this week to do the initial picking on the green beans.
Of course, I've been sick for just about a week now.  Started last week on Thursday - head stuffed up, sinuses, ears hurt, throat...the whole thing.  Right ear infection, left ear bulging, sinus infection and ulcers in my throat from all the drainage.  An antibiotic and other helpful meds and I thought I would be fine.  Dr Henao went out of town this whole week and so I thought I would have time to get better.  I stayed in bed ALL last weekend - I mean - solid BED - slept all the time - ate hardly nothing at all, no church, no leaving my house, no anything.  Then I tried to go to work Monday and felt - BLEH!!!!  So the doctor decided to add MONO to the works...No wonder I was so tired.  But no new medicines as I was already past the contagious stage and I had been on antibiotics for 5 days already.  So, since Dr. H was gone, I decided to go ahead and take this week off also as a vacation week.  I hate wasting vacation days on getting better, but gotta do what ya gotta do.
So, this week, I have slept a lot, been doing a jigsaw puzzle, some Relief Society work, reading and finally today, I got up at 6:00am and for two hours, I picked beans.  It was great!  What an initial harvest we have!! Then for two hours, I snapped the beans, cleaned them, took some over to the neighbors and then put the rest out in the fridge.  Del and I will can them on Saturday - we should get about 16 quarts.  Del says we should get about 10 more pickings just like today's.  I was tired - probably did too much for my first day of energy but I don't regret a minute of it.
The potatoes are coming also - the onions - tomatoes will be a few more weeks and then the corn should be another month or so.  The neighbors chickens continue to lay their eggs in our coop but our girls should be laying by the end of the month, if we're lucky.
So, the Harvest has started.  And I have a very full and grateful heart.

Things That Happen Overnight

The title may not make sense to you, but it does to me.
I left the house for work one day, came home that night, and we had our mailbox finished.
Emerson has been growing like a weed - seems like overnight, he keeps getting bigger and bigger.  The little shirt he has on says 'Grandpa's Sidekick'.  He's almost outgrown it already.
And our green beans - literally doubled in size overnight.  It's like, we water them at 6:00 one night, and the next day, after some sunshine, they have doubled.  Del says we should have beans to harvest in a few weeks.  Holy Moly, that's exciting to me.
Always a touch of disappointment though...Dang our chickens, they're eating our corn stalks!!!  They eat the bugs everywhere else in the garden, but then they get to the rows of corn and are like 'plowing them down'.  We're going to have to figure something out for next year, although I do get the biggest kick watching Del flap his arms all over the place chasing them through the rows of corn.  He makes for the best Scarecrow!!

Finders Keepers

Our neighbors chickens have started coming over to our house every morning to visit with our girls.  Well, in that process, they have decided to stay for most of the day and lay their eggs in OUR chicken coop.  At first, we got a little excited when we found the first egg, thinking that our chickens had finally 'arrived' in their time of laying eggs.  But nope...we soon realized it was the Lokey's chickens just using our laying boxes.  The first few days, we didn't say anything because we just weren't sure - then the beginning of this week, Del told them he thought we were getting their eggs...sure enough, they confirmed that they were finding less and less eggs over in their laying boxes and wondered what was happening to their chickens.  We've laughed about it since and have decided to just keep whatever each of us gets, as our chickens fly over into their yard too, and will probably continue to do so even when they start laying.
So, between the 19 chickens we have, we should be just fine in the egg department for awhile.

Look Who's 3 Months Old!

Same monkey, same pose, same onesie.
But oh my gosh, is he getting a personality.  What a sweet baby boy he is - loves to smile and talk, even giggles at times with his momma and daddy.
Growing like our garden - fast and healthy!!
Love this little guy!

The Predator

We lost one of our chickens last week.
Our neighbors lost two of theirs.
And we found out why yesterday.
I was at R.S. Presidency meeting for a few hours and then on my way home, Kathryn called me saying she had just got off the phone with dad who told her the news.
Jordan had shot a predator in our back yard.
Jordan tells the story as follows....
He hears all our chickens pitching a very loud fit and he sees them run off.  He looks out our back windows to see a coyote right by the edge of our garden.  He takes off into my back bedroom closet and grabs his 22 rifle from our shelf and quickly loads it and goes out on to the back patio.  By this time, the coyote sees and hears Jordan and had made it half way to the chicken coop before she tries to make her escape back into our forest.  But Jordan took quick aim and got her, leveling her to the ground, but not yet killing her.  He said he had to go over and shoot her twice more to finish the job.
I arrive home to find him hovering over his kill.
He and Del decided it would be a good experience to skin the coyote, so Jordan spent the next hour hanging it up and skinning it and then burying the carcass.  It was a little more overwhelming than Jordan thought it would be and by the time he was finished, he was a little more than just grossed out, he was exhausted.
Our neighbors were thrilled Jordan had killed it as the wolves and coyotes are real threats to all the pets and animals homeowners have around here - sheep, goats, horses, chickens and rabbits...so, hopefully, there are not too many more around, although they do happen to hang in packs.
But at least, there is one less threat in the neighborhood tonight.