September 13, 2008

Oh boy, I was driving home from a FULL day's work and realized that I didn't think I posted yesterday.  All I had a chance to do last night was to harvest ALL my corn.  I didn't get 200 ears of corn, I got 85, well 88 if you count the three ears we ate.  The rest of the 85 were not worth eating, so I gave them to SandyGoGreen to feed to her chickens and goats! 



This morning however, started BRIGHT and early.  Yes at the crack of dawn, well before, I got up and headed out to my in-laws.  We first loaded up an entire pickup full of scrap wood to take to a friend's burn pile.  Not very environmentally conscious but not horrible either.  However, while we were covering and strapping our load, one of their neighbor's came over and asked us what we were going to do with it.   Seems he knew of a place where they ground the wood up and made toilet paper out of them.  Turns out the guy owns the company.  In fact, they recycle everything possible there, using it to make anything and everything.  Very good find.  Not only did we not polute the environment, we recycled scrap wood into something useful.

Before we left, my father-in-law sprayed a wasp nest inside a broken hot tub that we were to demolish and take to the dump after the shed.  After my aunt's episode last weekend I didn't want anything to do with another wasp nest. 

When we got back our task was to demolish an old shed and take it to the dump.  Unfortunately we didn't get very far.  While we were dismantling the roof in pieces, my father-in-law broke free a hidden wasp nest hanging from the rafters.  A swarm got him only 3 times, surprisingly.  Thankfully my father-in-law is a tough guy and it didn't slow him down much more than his disabilitating injuries.  After about an hour of resting we didn't see any slowdown of the dozen or so wasps hanging around.  So what did he do?  He went back out and continued taking it apart.  He's stuborn too, or didn't you get that already, hehe.  Over the next several hours we got it down and I only got stung once.  Of course we were wearing our heavy coats with hoods on a very warm day.  I think I must have sweated out 10 pounds!  I know I burned 2,300 calories per my heart-rate monitor. 

Unfortuantely, time slipped away from us and the time I was supposed to be visiting SandyGoGreen's homestead.  We also didn't get the hot-tub destroyed or even get what we had demolished to the dump.  By the time my family got there to get me with the corn, it was 5:45.  We didn't even get to Sandy's place until after 6:00. 

There place is amazing.  Their Freedomgardens.org pics don't do their homestead justice.  They've got nearly a dozen raised beds, a huge pasture and an orchard with a mixture of mature and young fruit trees.  It is very cool.  And of course, they've got a greenhouse that the site does do justice to.  I really hope my brother decides to build it.  I want to help. It's VERY cool.

And the kids REALLY liked the goats...





I felt bad really, they were trying to fix dinner and we just kept talking and seeing the stead.  It was so cool I could have stayed all day.  We even talked about getting the local freedomgardeners together for a seedling swap, a seed swap or even a pot luck, though not in fall since we'd all just bring salads, hehe.

And joy, oh joy, the two blueberry bushes she gave me look great, and they're both highbush!  I had no idea where to put them, but I knew these two new varieties would give me 4 different types, and one was Sandy's favorite.  On the way home, my aunt figured out a PERFECT spot to put them   I had thought about in the rose garden, but my aunt figured out that we could put them where we took out a tree/bush between the rose garden and the blueberry bed.  We could liberate some yard and create a bee triangle.  What's more, the bushes are just about the same size as the ones I planted last year.  I can't believe my luck.  THANK YOU SANDY!!!

Well, tomorrow I wake up bright and early again to take the junk to the dump and then head back to dice up the hot tub and take it to the dump.  Then, hopefully early still in the day, my family will pick me up and we'll head down to Pierce County to the Puyallup Fair.  I can't wait to see the chickens.  I thought Sandy's were great and would like to see others.  That and the sweet corn slow roasted and buttered.  Yum!

Enjoy your garden!