Digging In The Dirt, It's A Gas, Baby Can You Dig It?

Not all of the rattlesnake bean vines are that heavily loaded with beans by any means but parts of it obviously are.  Picking beans was part of my practically perfect day. It was practically perfect because I spent a lot of time outside and also, I was in a good mood. My stomach issues are much better and I still don't really have a clue about what's going on although add in to the possibilities the kidney stone factor. I do have a recurring pain in my lower right side and my back aches which is a pretty sure sign. And sometimes when those stones get moving, I do feel sort of sick. Whatever's going on, it has done nothing to sap my energy level or bother me too much today. 

Anyway, the point of this discussion is that I ended up with four pounds of beans. They are now all tucked into a jumbo-sized ziplock in the refrigerator and I suppose I should do something with them tomorrow. Pickle or pressure can? Pressure canning's easier but I already have a lot of those. The true fact of the matter is, I have plenty of beans for both. 

The cucumbers continue to produce, a few at a time. 

One of them appears to be pregnant. 

I just put the ones we don't eat immediately into the crisper drawer and pretty soon I'll have enough to make some more dill pickles if that's what I decide to do with them. The ones I made the other day are pretty good. I've been using the same recipe for those since I began pickling which was in about 1979. I got it from "The Joy of Cooking" and it never fails me. It's actually a recipe for Kosher dills because it calls for garlic and I am not shy to use it. 

I don't know what's going on with the tomatoes. I think we have permanent green tomatoes growing on those vines. I mean, there's a lot of tomatoes out there but they are so slow to turn color. Every day I'll get one or two but I can't quite figure it out. There's no bug damage on them, they're not splitting. Go figure. We are getting lots of sweet, sweet cherry tomatoes which always give the most bang for the buck in my experience. More bell peppers are coming along and I've got an eggplant (aubergine) getting bigger and fatter by the day with another one not far behind. A volunteer butternut squash came up and it's got a good-sized baby growing and more blooms. The plant had to come from the volunteer butternut squash that popped up last year. I do love a volunteer that produces good stuff. The okra are coming along slowly and the most I can really say about them is that most of them are not dead. 

So. Potatoes. I've started digging those up and that's what I did for the last hour I was in the garden today. The way Glen planted them this year was to keep covering them with mulch and compost which sounds great in theory and we're getting some nice ones but they go so far down! The mulch and compost have sort of solidified so that digging through it is not easy. Instead of a shovel or pitchfork, I am using my trowel and my hands. I do wear gloves for this operation. Here's a picture of the ones I dug today. 

They are very dirty because the soil is fairly damp. I don't wash them off at this stage because potatoes must be cured to prepare them for long term storage. Also, it heals cuts which may occur in the digging process. One of the reasons I like to dig with my hands is to prevent that. But back to the dirt- I will brush a lot of that dirt off before I set them on the sheet I lay out on the back porch for them. I'm letting the dirt get a little dryer overnight. 

Homegrown green beans and potatoes. I'm toying with the idea of canning a few quarts of those together. Half-a-meal-in-a-jar! 
Maybe. Maybe not. 

Mr. Moon just got home from another day of door-hanging and the door is still not hanging. I swear. I think it would have been easier to just build Owen a new bedroom with a normal-sized door on it. Owen's room is actually an office or some spare room like that, so there's not really a doorway but a fairly large opening. I know there's a name for that but it's not coming to me right this second. Point being, it's not set up for a door and it's not the right size for a commercial door. Owen is helping him all the way and is probably learning new and novel ways to swear. Actually, I'm pretty sure he's educated in cussing already. Why don't we use the word "cussing" the way we used to? It's a great word. 

And he and his Bop are making plans to go to the lake house next week to get started on some sort of something and if all goes as planned, spend a night or two. 
All of Mr. Moon's dreams are coming true! 

I remember when Owen was a baby and he was coming over here a few times a week for me to take care of while his parents were working and Glen felt a little left out because he was still working too and I was getting all the time with our grandson. He always said though, "You get this part. I'll get my part later."
And so he has and so he is. 
Owen has always loved his Boppy. I remember him as a two-year old, pulling the kitchen stool up to the door where he would patiently sit in order to see his grandfather pull in the driveway.

Oh! The container I have the potatoes in is a very old enamel baby wash tub. Probably for a girl because it's pink. I do believe that was a dump find and today when I grabbed it to use to put the potatoes in, I noticed that some critter had been walking in it. 

I thought they were raccoon prints but when I looked up animal print identifiers, I realized that looks nothing like a coon. Still, could be. I'll ask Glen. He'll know. I just thought it was pretty cute. 

And speaking of dump finds, I took the trash today and as always, I scanned the area where metal and household stuff is left and I saw two old zinc buckets. Just regular buckets. But I decided, hell, why not? They'd make great planters. So I went and examined them and one of them had obviously already been used for that very purpose. I think. It had holes drilled in the bottom. So I grabbed that one up. The other bucket looked like it may have been used to mix something cement-related in it and I left it there. 
New free stuff! 

I am such a cheap date. 

Love...Ms. Moon