I’ve been very busy the last few days, pulling in more dry beans to shell out. I’m talking about 5-gallon buckets plumb full and several of them. Thank God, my knees have been slowly getting better, allowing me to both sit down on a camp stool to pick bush beans and to walk and stand next to the pole bean trellises to pick a long row. Mostly, I’m picking just the dry and leathery pods off the bushes/vines. But some like the Chippewa, have completely dried down so I pull the plants and pick the multitude of pods off, discarding the bushes behind me in the row.
Will finished patching up the cow yard fence so it’s all ready to hold the cattle in for winter. It’s always great to have yet another project finished! I was finally able to lend a hand as my knees were feeling better.
Will got the bearing in the haybine replaced then cut a big field. Yesterday, he went to another farm, planning on cutting all three big fields. Well, as they say, plans of mice and men … A different bearing came apart, the one on the end of the rollers this time. Fortunately, he has a parts haybine that has an okay bearing on it. But he also has a little bracket welding to do and is champing at the bit, wanting to get to cutting before rain starts again.
Yesterday I went out to check the corn in the Wolf Garden while I planned on picking more beans. Oh oh! The darned birds are at the sweet corn. So, I went back and grabbed paper lunch sacks, the stapler and a box of staples. I first tried just pulling the long leaf off each cob and slipping a bag over the ear and stapling it. Then I learned to be smarter. I sat in the golf cart, stapling several bags. Then I put them in my 5-gallon bucket. I went out and pulled off the big leaf on several ears, went back and got my bucket of bags and slipped one over each ear. I’ve learned that if I pull the bag down, then gently pull the ear down, away from the stalk a bit, the bag gets pinched between the ear and stalk, holding it firmly in place, even in a strong wind. The birds have never gotten through the bags to eat the corn.
I was working at this when I heard voices. Our friends, Matt and Jordan and the kids popped in to visit and quickly offered to help me bag corn ears. What a huge thank you I owe them!
I’ve got a partial bucket of Crawford beans to shell out this morning then I’m moving on to seeding out tomatoes. I’ve got lots waiting on the porch for me! It’s such a pretty day. Low 70’s with a blue sky and nice breeze carrying fall scents through the air. We’re so blessed to have this homestead! — Jackie
So happy about your knee condition, Jackie. Very happy for you. Thrilled, too, that you’re enjoying fall. We are in far north California where the only sign of autumn is the abundance of acorns on the ground. I was on a trip to central Oregon last week, and just north of Klamath Falls north of Collier Park, the aspens have just barely turned slight yellow and beautiful!
Wrapping up the last of the garden now and finally the tomatoes are turning. We learned this year that for us raised beds are much more productive and easier to take care of and will add at least two more beds next year. Also expanding the compost bed and will experiment more with raising in cattle tubs. Overall production was good and it was a learning year.
I agree with Vicki; nice to hear the good comments about living the homesteading life, even with our fickle weather. It is always peaceful and purposeful in the garden, albeit weedy as heck!
I have a question: which pepper would you recommend that is closest to a banana pepper? I’m lining up an order to send so will have seeds on hand for next year’s hopes and dreams, ha.
It is so funny to be inundated and exhausted yet already planning for next year’s backache. But that’s what us earthy people do.
I’m canning rhubarb sauce today because my freezers are full, glad for pantry shelf space! Love that convenience of opening jars and having wholesome food, quickly.
Thanks for all you teach us!
Heck, I’m also planning next year’s gardens as I’m sweating to get this year’s garden harvested. Hey, I may complain but I really do love it. I wouldn’t want to live any other way. I pity the people living in cities who have no clue how wonderful it is out here. Yes, it’s work. But it’s so fulfilling work and we eat like kings.
I’m not sure what you want in place of the banana pepper? Sweet or hot? We sell Hungarian Hot Wax, which is “the” banana pepper but don’t sell sweet ones as we like the flavor of other sweet peppers better.
Thanks for the info. I’ll try it out!
So wonderful to be home again. I spent several days at my daughter’s after she had surgery, and her young daughter also was recovering from surgery. Theirs is a young household with a lot of busyness and controversy. Then our daughter and family living up here next to us; also very young, busy, and controversial. Now, at home with husband who’s still working. There’s always controversy. Honestly this world has gone nuts and crazy. Seems you must live in the boonies, homesteading to have quietness. Oh, how I wish for that!
I’m down to one zuke, one slicing tomato, and one paste (which I should just pull up). Hoping my garlic order arrives here soon. Been a bit dry here but we’re supposed to get some rain starting Friday and every day until the next Thursday (as far as my weather app goes).
I still have weeding to do so any rain will help.
I’m reviewing my supplies, some things I need to shore up. I have the money to do so and given the the inflation tsunami about to hit us, the sooner the better. I remember the early 1980s – mortgage rate of 18.65 though if you have cash, you could get a 90 day CD paying 18.63. I remember inflation being almost 14%. I remember stagflation. I’m ready for it again and am in better financial shape than I was then/during all the recessions since the early 1970s.
Be thankful you are in better financial shape than back then. I know I sure am!! I was pretty broke back then. I’m also expecting a surge in already-high prices so am also socking away a few extras.
Meanwhile, I’m seeding out beans, tomatoes and some squash as I try to can up the leftovers. I feel like the ant in the ant and the grasshopper fable!
Unemployment rate was 25% in my area – spouse’s work was sporadic at best. He collected a very small amount of unemployment the first year we were married, raygun’s tax change had us paying almost all of it back. He never collected after that. We were both raised to live within our means and we did. We always have. Which is why whatever the idjits throw at us, we survive. AND have thrived.
I hope you are able to can up the leftovers because you never know who will need help. I can’t abide hungry children – they had no say in their lives. Food insecurity is increasing by the day in the US.
I believe I wrote you that we had a small fire in our solar battery room/my larder a few months back. My helpful daughter has cleaned the soot completely; every wall, every shelf, every jar of canned goods; maybe 600. Husband spray painted to freshen shelves and walls. I like to go down and just stare in pride at all my hard work canning, and her hard work cleaning soot.
You are indeed blessed! I wish I had heard about homesteading when I was younger. I am retired and can’t fully manage to be totally self sufficient. Life circumstances don’t allow for growing all I eat. But I do have a fair size backyard garden. Usually just plant snap beans, butterbeans, tomatoes, sweet peppers, squash, zucchini, asparagus and cucumbers. We are gardening on virgin ground. Little topsoil and heavy clay. We added a couple dump truck loads of manure compost to get it going. Decided to add two new things this year. Six Nation Iroquois beans and crowder peas. The crowder peas, butterbeans, Suyo Long cucumbers and peppers are doing well. The tomatoes did terrible, the snap beans did poorly and the squash did awful. Won’t plant the new beans again because I don’t have enough room. Next year we will amend the soil again and I want to try potatoes and onion in raised beds. Each year I’ll add a little something else until I have no more space. I get so much value out of your column and your books. Thank you for sharing your experience with the rest of us!
Yep, it takes awhile to get new gardens productive. Each year we literally add tons of rotted manure to our 6 gardens and see improvement in the soil. But this year was horrible with the drought and then constant rain. We, by the grace of God, did end up with a very good harvest in most things but melons, some corn and beans. We’ll take what we got and be very thankful.
Keep improving your soil and you’ll see a big improvement. We figure on about 3 years before you see a turn-around.
@Cindy – few of us will be as self sufficient as Jackie but anything we can do helps. The soil at our prior home was much better than here. BUT we had seven years to transport soil and plants to our new home. County adjacent to us has clay but we don’t. You’ll get there. I’ve been thinking some raised beds too come the day it is just me.
I have Jackie’s books, and they are my go-to!!! I even have one of her novels. I recommend them!!!
Dear Jackie,
You are so inventive with the corn and your knee woes. But we find a way to do what we love. I love the picture you posted with the sacks on them. So cute; but practical. I am winding up my canning and have started a new quilt for winter. It has been a slight drought here for the last 2 months and they say we will not have a wet winter. But the winter is always cold, so I felt a new quilt was in order. I only have some sweet potatoes and mustard greens that I plan to can next month. In the meantime, I am cutting out woolie flannel.
Yep, I’ve learned there’s usually a way out of your trouble if you really take time to figure it out instead of just throwing up your hands and quitting. Yes, sometimes it’s hard. Sometimes it’s heart breaking. But by not quitting and persevering, you usually come out just fine.
Enjoy your warm quilt!!
Absolutely, Jackie. And you wind up not on the government dole, too. What a wonderful life. The Lord is so good!
Hi Jackie, I have Cherokee trail of tears pods I have left on the vine to finish. How do I know when they are ready? Leathery or dry?
Thank you
If your weather cooperates, just leave them on the vine until they are dry. If you are threatened by lengthy rain, I’d pull them leathery, quickly shell out the beans and lay them out on a dry, protected surface to finish drying.
the squirrels are the problem here in Oregon. I did put old odd socks over the ears one year and it worked. I forgot about it this year, and our simonette corn got rampaged by squirrels when we went away for a weekend! Making a note for next year.
Oh those nasty squirrels. Yes, they’re cute but darned they’re destructive. I set live traps for our Red squirrels as they were getting into everything from feed sacks in the barns to my corn on the front porch. I hauled them four miles away and released them in the National Forest, many miles from another gardener. It did help. Sorry they got your Simonette. : (
I hope the ear bags aren’t “gift wrap “ for raccoons. For me the coons are my biggest trouble makers. The rascals know exactly when the sweet corn is ready to eat and they invade. Have you tried a traditional scarecrow or plastic owls? The plastic owls work for me. It’s painful to see a beautiful crop eaten by my “wild” neighbors. Oh well, that’s life in the country.
Thank you, Jesus, that we don’t have raccoons!!! We’ve had two since we moved here in 2004 and both were promptly shot. Yes, I have tried plastic owls (three of them) and yes, I move them daily. Scarecrows didn’t faze them. They sat on them while they rested from plundering the corn. Also, the big, eye balloons and scare tape. The bags work and nothing else does, including shooting around them. I have lived in raccoon country and only kept them out with electric fencing.
The weather is affecting harvest here too. The days alternate between 60’s and 90’s, and a heavy rain & high humidity caused many of our dry beans to sprout in the pod, so shelling them is slow work. But there will still be enough for some delicious warm the body soup come winter!
Jackie, thank you for writing about your life. In this crazy world with so much hate, your faith filled way of life is a light! Peace to all.
Yes, it’s so frustrating to hear all the hate going around in this country today. I don’t even watch the news because of all the horrible things on it. I glance at the computer news a bit, just to keep up on what’s going on in the world but cringe every day because of it.
When it’s wet, I pick my dry beans in the leathery stage and quickly shell them out so they don’t sprout or go moldy, then lay them out to dry well inside.
Having moved from Iowa last year, your corn fields look familiar!!
And ours is the only corn in miles and miles of mostly woods. Iowa is shocking in the amount of corn you see in the fields to we northerners! (And it’s nearly all GMO corn, sprayed with glyphosate too. : (
So sad to say; about GMO. Now our food at the grocer may be vaccine-injected.