Hot here. Really hot. In order to garden at all I am forced into either working in the garden early early in the morning or late in the evening right before dark. Morning work is only feasible on the weekends due to my job and so for the most part I get about 45 minutes in the evening. As a result of my lack of time in the garden, the weeds have run amok. So this morning DH and I got outside early, bout 8-ish. I started at one end and started working away. Step by step. Little by little, I reclaimed my raised beds and a few of the rows. I still have much more to do, but was finally driven indoors about 11am. During the coarse of my work, while raking up some pine straw in order to till, I discovered a little turtle guy. Unfortunately I delayed getting my camera and he moved homes. Drat!
It's a good thing I raked up the straw prior to tilling cause he would have been in bad shape. As it was this little guy just looked at me like "Hey whatcha doin. Give me back my cover!". I took him and put him in a raised bed I had already completed. I laid down a pan of water which he drank and then he promptly found another bit of pine straw and dug himself under it. He has been there all day. I checked on him this evening and there he was quite contented in his new straw cover. He's a funny little thing. Most turtles will go into their shell when you pick them up, but he didn't. As I moved him around he was more like "where we goin?". Just along for the ride.
Another little buddy I found was a surprise snow pea volunteer. I know! 90 degrees outside and there he is just happy as you like. I was clearing out the area where the snow peas had been planted in early spring. I had let the rest of the pods go to seed and so was collecting the pods from the now gone plants. There he was under some plants. Well at least I know the seeds will germinate. I told him he could stay and covered him some with straw to protect him a bit. You know since I took his cover away too. Mean ole gardening lady takin everyone's shade away. How dare she! The little guy didn't stay mad long cause something ....ate him. (sigh) yea. Dh says it was probably the turtle.
I like to think it was a bunny. We all have our delusions.
Also on the garden front. I'm in the process of back to back tomato sauce making/canning. I have about 3 gallons of ready tomato sauce in the freezer to can, but since I'm out of room in my freezer for the moment, I'm finishing each batch now from start to canning completion. I made 8 half pint jars of pizza sauce yesterday and have enough for probably another 18 half pint jars. I also have enough raw tomatoes in my dining room to do another 4 batches. I have more tomatoes in the garden to pick. I need 52 half pint jars of pizza sauce and would like 52 quarts of spaghetti sauce for the year. I'll take what I can get.
Never a dull moment her on the homestead. Dull would be nice. It would mean I was looking for something to do. On a happy for me note, tomorrow marks the 6 week mark til my last day at my outside the home job. I can't wait. On another note in 2 weeks we will make our last credit card payment!!!!!!!!! So excited.
So that's all the news here!
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