It's been awhile

Hey,
I know it's been awhile and I have no excuse. But after the death of my Brother, I have not felt like doing anything! His death hit me pretty hard and it was all I could do to drag myself to work each day and come home to bed! I mean I did nothing at home, Not even read any posts from you-all. But that is going to change as of today!
I was so lazy that I even stopped feeding the worms and now the worm beds are empty. Ether they moved out or died and I will have to set up new beds and order a new bunch of worms. Maybe I should change the name of the Blog?

So, the chickens are down to 10 hens and all of them are in Molt right now. So no Eggs for the past few weeks. The total of Eggs is up to 1711 for the year and I hope that they start laying again real soon!

Daisy and Izzy are doing well, but are having a problem with fleas. It seems as tho I have to give each of them a bath every other day just to stay ahead of the Dam things! And the topical oil does not seem to have any effect on them!

I did get a new Bush Hog Brush cutter and spent the day yesterday cutting down the weeds and grass in what I call the back 40. It's the back side of Terri's place and the back of mine, Maybe 2 1/2 to 3 acres total. I got half of it done yesterday and was going to work on the rest today, But we got rain last night and it was to wet to get back to it. I hope to get it done tomorrow.

I put up a new recipe of Bread and Butter pickles a while back and they came out pretty good. I took pictures of the finished pickles and how I did the whole thing. they will follow at the bottom of the post.

The garden never recovered from the heavy rain we got in early spring and the only things that produced any thing were the cantaloupes and the crows got them! But I did get a few volunteers and I have pictures of them too!

Here are the ingredients for the pickles. One pound of carrots, cut into sticks, a large onion, cut into wedges, two green peppers, cut into strips, a yellow pepper, a red pepper and a orange pepper, cut into strips and one hot pepper ( for a bite) also cut into strips.

And 3 quarts of Bread and Butter pickles. Because the garden did not produce anything this year, all are store bought.

In a gallon size jar, place a layer of the pickles, then a layer of carrots, onions and then the peppers. Cover this with a layer of sugar.

Continue to layer the ingredients and finish with a layer of sugar. the sugar reacts with the moisture of the vegetables and makes a brine. For a week set the jar on a counter and each day rotate the jar so that one day it is upside down and the next day it is right side up! Then after the week is up, place the jar in the refrigerator for  and few weeks before trying. NO COOKING!

Here is the mess I have to get taken care of this week end.

And the one volunteer cantaloupe that the crows have not found yet! I need to place a flower pot over it to keep them out of that bed!

And a tomato plant that has come up neer where we store trash bags util I can get them gone. I have harvested several grape tomatoes from this plant

See the ripe ones? They are great in salads!

And the squash plant plant that has come up neer the chicken yard!

It has two fruits coming on.

And I hope it has enough time to mature before the cold weather hits!

More of the mess I have to take of.

And the new Bush Hog that I will use to get it done

And because of last night rain, This opened up this morning! There are more buds on the two plants and I hope to see more open over the next few days

Well there you have it! Again I'm sorry for the time have not been here and I hope to get back into the swing of things from here on out!
Talk to you later!
Tom