I am back at home after my gallbladder surgery last Thursday. Luckily it was the minimally invasive type and I only had three “holes” in my tummy. The pain wasn’t too bad but I couldn’t hack the pain meds as they made me sick to my stomach. No good! So I quit them after two doses. My only restrictions are to not lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk for a month and “take it easy.” Hey, I’m trying!

But the garden is out there laughing at me. Everything is coming in heavily. Luckily, Will is helping me pick tomatoes and turn the Victorio tomato strainer. Boy, do we ever have a wonderful variety in the garden this year. Besides our favorites, like the Bill Bean tomatoes, we have some new “favorites” like Indigo Blue Beauty, which is kind of dark blue/purple on top and a brilliant orange below. Besides being gorgeous, it’s open pollinated so we can save seeds and is HUGELY productive with medium large tomatoes with wonderful flavor. And then there’s Indigo Kumquat, unfortunately a hybrid, but it is also gorgeous in salads and has great tomato flavor.

Indigo-kumquat
We have a few truly free-range chickens (escapees). Will’s favorite breed, Black Sex Links lay abundantly but are also escape artists. One hen (we call her Peg) got a feed sack string wrapped tightly around her leg and by the time we noticed, it had cut the circulation off in her lower leg. We caught her and cut the string off but she lost the lower portion of her leg. Being soft hearted, we did not butcher her. Fortunately, she healed up fine and is so handy on that leg that you hardly notice that she’s missing her foot. After she had healed, I put her into the chicken coop where I thought she’d have an easier time. Wrong! The other chickens nearly pecked her to death in one morning! So out of the coop she went. Well, she healed from that and is now a permanent free-range girl. And she free ranges right into the garden if we leave the gate open, helping herself to our tomatoes. Oh well, we sure have plenty!

Peg
We checked our Howden pumpkins in the pig pasture and I’ll bet we have a truckload! And they are HUGE. I couldn’t reach around some and they aren’t even orange yet. They sure like the manure!

The weather radio is calling for low temperatures Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights with a possibility of frost/freezing. Eeek! I hope not. Pray for a bit of warmth for us, okay? — Jackie

11 COMMENTS

  1. All,

    Thanks so much for your love and concern!! I AM feeling better each and every day. And I am trying to take it a bit easy during this crazy harvest season. As we have so much food in the pantry already I don’t feel quite as nuts looking at all that is still in the garden. One more reason to keep two years’ worth in the pantry at all times.

  2. Hi Jackie,
    So very glad to see that you’re back home and recovering nicely! I have been going through some serious health issues this past year but you are my inspiration in forging ahead in the garden even when I;m not feeling my best. Thanks so much! P.S…..still laughing about your escape artist chickens! Continue to get better!

  3. I’m so glad you are doing well, and back home. Stay well, and full of great joy. Your column is such a blessing. You make the world a better place.

  4. HI Jackie, So glad that surgery is behind you! Please take it slower than you think you need to for as long as it takes. I love your blogs. I read them every morning, and it helps motivate me to get busy in my garden. This morning I will pick enough tomatoes to finish the V 10 juice I started yesterday. I would like to buy enough Bill Bean tomato seeds to have about 6 or 8 plants. If you have them to sell, plz advise me of the procedure. We are in a really cold area of Michigan’s UP, and we need to start every thing in our green house, even then we do not always have good results. Happy Homesteading! Judy and Carl

  5. I’ve been thinking of you and hoping everything went ok. Will the seeds I bought from you be good for saving for years? I’d like to have a supply on hand for emergencies.

  7. Glad your back home and doing good, just remember take it easy!
    your garden sounds wonderful, here in Kentucky mine is about gone. The fall crops are doing nicely. Have a great day!!!

  8. So glad your procedure went well. I know what you mean about taking it easy. I had two major surgeries this year and it was very diffucult to “behave” myself. I am glad to be able to do my canning, baking, and other “chores” again. I have been juicing tomatoes as well for spaghetti sauce as well. Some of my plants look like they may be starting with the blight so I am trying to get as many as possible done up. It sure is nice to not have to go to the grocery store and pay the outrageous prices for so many things. (Not to mention the homemade stuff tastes so much better!) Here’s to a speedy recovery and some warm temperatures.

  9. Jackie,
    I am so glad to see you’re back home, and doing well. I’ve been checking every day for some notice, as have many others I bet! The tomatoes look gorgeous. You said these are hybrids, do you have a preferred company to order them from? Also, do we make an order through your BHM contact for seeds from you and Will?
    My girls are really wanting to get into gardening mode for next year. I don’t believe my dad will be able to continue with his, his mobility has really decreased a lot this year. My daughter is also thinking of turning our storage shed into a chicken coop. It is a wooden structure, and it sits between two rows of trees, and would be easy to fence and protect from the critters that roam here, from feral cats, to skunks and coyotes. I’m not sure how to keep the yellow bellied black snakes out, I wonder if they like eggs as much as we do.
    Welcome back, and remember to TRY not to overwork yourself at least for a little bit. We will hope the freeze will miss you entirely for now.

  10. My brother-in-law had his gall bladder out and he said he had a hard time eating certain foods. I had mine out and eat everything. Including a lot I should not eat.

  11. So glad you feeling better Jackie. Those tomatoes look like plums, so pretty. Are they very acidic? I’ll bet they would be good in a fresh salsa.
    Peg is one lucky duck of a chicken !
    Try to take it at least a little bit easy so you will heal faster.

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