4th of July

This year we had some friends over to our place to celebrate. We made Jalapeno Pepper Poppers. These are stuffed with a mix of cream cheese, chives, garlic salt Monterrey Jack cheese and all wrapped in bacon and grilled over an open flame. We used the peppers from our garden. They did not last long as you can imagine. The evening was spent watching our drunken neighbors light the good fireworks. After a while the show became more entertaining when the fireworks exploded on the ground and caught the grass on fire. We watched and laughed from our roof with hose in hand as this was repeated almost ten times. Each time they had to stomp out the little grass fires. It was nice not to have to go anywhere for the show, and they are not normally so funny.

Garden Harvest!

Despite all the garden pests and oppressive heat we experienced this year we had some good success. Produce listed in order of greatest success to least: Cantaloupe, Tomatoes, Peppers, Onion, Okra, Zucchini, Cucumbers, Lettuce, beets, Potatoes.

Marginal: Pumpkin, Cabbage, Green Beans, Strawberries, Sunflowers.

Failures: Watermelons, Corn, Peas.

We made a batch of delicious Salsa with some of the Maters and Peppers. We juiced the largest Cantaloupes and froze the juice for latter consumption. You can see that the largest Cantaloupe was 16.5 lbs, the next was 12.5 lbs and the last was 8lbs. We also had a 5 lbs one not shown.

We had trouble fitting them into the fridge.

Below are some of what we got to eat!

Spider Mites

Spider Mites also had their way with our garden this year. They love the heat and well, this year has been hot. They infested our entire garden before I realized what was going on. They were not easy to get rid of but I think I finally won...for now. They infested our tomatoes and cucumbers, which survived for the most part. They killed our zucchini and green beans.

What they did to our tomatoes! Notice the white on top.

What they did to our cukes! Notice the dead zucchini in the background :(

Rotten Blossom Rot!

Our Tomatoes were plagued with blossom rot this year. This was a result of El Nino which brought the heat a little early this year. Some tomato varieties were more affected than others - Big Mama loss was 90%. All gardens in our area were affected.

Snake in the grass

While filling a bird feeder in our backyard I heard a loud hissing. I looked over and saw this little fella. It is called the Texas Cobra or Hog-Nose Snake. He is harmless but gave me quite the scare.
I got a few good pics before I let him depart.

Over in that there creekbed I found a shoshone arrahead

While working in the garden I found these partial arrow heads. Our area was the last camp of the local Indian tribe before they were forced onto a reservation. Lots of neat stuff to find.

Beach-ball Cantaloupe

Cantaloupe is my favorite melon. The way I see it, the bigger the better, so I got some seeds for 10 lb cantaloupe. They start out looking like a football and then inflate with sweet goodness until they reach the size of a beach-ball.