Offered Made

As per my last post, I finally got my husband to agree to buy the lot in Suburban Estate, the playground community. We made the offer today and the real estate lady will forward our offer to the owner and if they accept, the lot/land will be ours.

We are going to be a Florida land owner soon. Now we only have to buy a camper, fifth wheel tow behind camper. We are hoping the trail going to the lot is good enough to tow our camper. If not, this will be very costly for us to stay in a camp ground.

We will just have to wait and see. Good luck to us! Very excited!

Florida Lot

After our vacation in Florida two weeks ago, we (DH & I) are thinking more about getting/buying an acreage down there as a vacation spot for a RV.  We are thinking of buying this five acres for $5500. It is a playground for 4 wheelings/shooting rages and such. The only thing is there is no electricity hook ups, water, and septic. Not really sure on how to go about getting those amenities.

But then again if we have RV, all we have to do is drive it to the place to get water and dump the waste water. We will be using propane or gas for everything inside the RV. More research to do before we go ahead with this plan. Maybe one more trip to Florida to see and talk to someone with more knowledge about the regulation inside this club/subdivision.

I am looking forward on planting some coconuts and my warm weather plant collection inside my house right now. I have mango and avocado growing here. I can plant them in the ground down there. No pot for these Asian fruit trees.

Pumpkin Patch

Growing from my garden, straight to my table on Thanksgiving Day.

I was pretty excited making my own pie fillings this year.

The two green ones below are for my children Jack-O-Lantern pumpkins.

Our pumpkin patch.

For Jack-O-Lantern. I saved a lot when growing my own.

For Cooking

Cut-up and roasting

Roasted & peel

Blended

Store in Ziploc back and freeze

Home grown pumpkins for pie

Colorful Corns

I am planning on planting only yellow & white corn kernels next year. I am trying to make this as the only source of corn for my family. However, it makes me wonder if I still get the colorful ones even though I selected special colors. I'll found out next year, I guess.

Busy Summer

Corn maturing, vegetables withering, never ending canning & freezing, not to mention taking care of the house hold and one half crazy, dementia patient MIL. The last few times my family went to Six Flags I didn't bother going. Why you asked? Well, there are many things to consider before I can get of the house.

The night before I need to cook and gather MIL things for the care giver to have the next day. And when the day finally get here, I have to spent a minimum of 15 minutes or more to explain everything. And when my family and I get back, I still need to check my MIL, gather everything on her side of the house and bring them to my side to prevent braking, misplaced, or hidden in places where they are not suppose to be.

So, I decided not to bother going somewhere, doing all the work I do all day in a short time. Have fun I tell them.

Now let's get back to my vegetable garden. I have so much cucumber and tomatoes this year. I made sweet relish, who kinds of bread & butter pickles, tomato soups, salsa dip, & tomato/spaghetti sauce. Right now I have another batch of spaghetti sauce slow cooking on my stove while I am writing this. Hopefully my family will like the homemade version.

I still have potatoes, corns, peanuts, butternut squash, and sweet potato waiting to get harvested. I'm waiting maybe early November I dig the underground ones. I also incorporate some flowers with my gardening this year. I told DH that I can scattered all the seeds I collected and cover our grassy yard with it, hoping the grass will not grow. He just laughed at me, knowing the grass will take over if its not mowed in a week. Well, I can dream, can I?

DH and I also planted forsythia above where my gardens & grassy yard for hedges. I hate not having my children not allowed to go out of the house during school hours in fear of prying eyes and calling what most called authorities because they are not in school. Not knowing they are home school, the damage is done at that point. I want our yard hidden from the road. The hedges are doing pretty well and already have some new leaves. Some are already as tall as my knees. I can't wait until they are as tall as me. My children and I can be outside more then.

I already took the dry vine remain from my  snap peas & cucumbers. There are about eight cucumbers left when the vines died and I thought I leave it there until they get bigger. Lo and behold they did not get bigger but ripen. Lesson learned, I should have picked them and make juice instead of having ripe cucumbers. They are good for seeds though, but I already saved the biggest cucumber for seeds for better quality cucumbers for next year or the next. With all the canning and freezing this year, I don't think I will need cucumbers next year. The same goes for tomatoes.

And note to self, when planning on canning something, make sure to plant everything I need for canning. I don't like to buy other ingredients when canning my home grown vegetables, unless its sugar, salt, vinegar or something I can't grow or process.

More Photos

This is the smaller garden. I got peas, long beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, a lot of medicinal herbs = lambs ear, st. john;s wort, stevia, lavender, thyme, rosemary =, sweet potatoes, onions, garlics, peanuts, chives, eggplants, & marigold as pesticides.

This is the bigger garden. A lot of corns, can be harvested on different months as you can see. I have a tall ones & short ones. Pumpkins, okra, garlics, onions, peanuts, & potatoes. DH tilled this late, so I wasn't sure what to plant here, that is why I just planted what ever I can think of. I will be adding some wild blackberry around the sides. DH bought a rooting powder. I might as well move those berries in the sun. They are hidden in our back yard under very thick canopy of oaks, pines, & maples. I think it will do them some good in the full sun.

The Vegetables

Bell peppers

 corns 

sweet potatoes

Yard beans & peas

Thyme

Rosemary

Chives 

Peanuts

Cucumbers & many more

Way Behind

Yup, way behind with my posting for the 2016 vegetables season. To begin, let me show you my garden this year.

Above is my 2 yrs old garden spot.

My new one this year. We planned on putting an above swimming pool there but we can never do so because of the township I live in. Children have been wanting it, but I don't want to open a can of worms I can't control.

This is how far apart the 2 garden from each other. Maybe soon we can fence in the whole yard and not to worry about this patches of fencing everywhere.

Last Harvest of the Season

We had a freezing evening last week and I forgot to harvest everything in my garden. However, it wasn't that bad because my peppers are still fine, along with the lemon grass and ginger.

This was the rest of the lemon grass, washed, cut, and straight to the freezer.

Here are the live lemon grass and ginger. Ready to be brought inside the house.

Their new home is right next to my desk in our classroom. That's all the sun they get. Hopefully they can survive until spring.

I left the parsley, lavender, hyssop, and peppermint in the garden. I'm hoping to see them growing in the spring. Last year I brought them inside, but they wither and I had to buy more to plant. We got so much leaves outside, when it gets a little warmer I will gather some and cover those plants I left to keep them warmer.

Utilizing Our Yard Harvest 2015

These are some of my harvest from July to October. I forget to take a pictures sometimes. So, it;s not all here.

I freeze all the left over.

I gave most to the lady who gave my MIL a bath twice a week.

I made cream corn from these.

I even freeze chopped tomatoes, even if they look not very appetizing. I just cut off the bad part and the freezer they go. The big tomatoes you can see here are left on the ground from last year and grew unexpectedly. I'm glad they did because grape tomatoes did not taste very "tomatoey" for me when cooked. Adding other type of tomatoes tasted better.

 And yes, my freezer is stuffed with fresh vegetables. I will be eating them through the winter.

I had plenty of eggplants, broccoli, and okra. And everyday I have cooked fresh vegetables.

7/1/2015 Update of My Garden

Hyssop, give me reason not to plant this? DH is suffering from mucus and congestion at night. I will sure try making tea tonight for him.

Indian/flint corn. Hopefully I can eat some this year. I can't wait.

Broccoli, I'm hoping to finally harvest some this year.

Loving my spinach that took forever to grow, but look at them now.

The same goes to my sweet basil. I thought I will be looking at them with a magnifying glass all year.

Onions, I put onions on everything, hahaha. I bought a $0.50 worth of onions. Hopefully they flowers and drop on the ground for an early start next year. I planted them in-between everything. Where-ever there's a space.