Yearning for home

Home. I am ready to go home. Not that I haven't enjoyed my visit with my sister and her fiancee, but I am ready to go now. I want to see the lambs and let the pigs snuffle my boots. I am curious how my flowers are faring and if the cosmos have finally opened. Surely there are still some dahlias blooming. I want to snuggle up with Dixie and Jackson and check on the garden. I long for the peaceful quiet of a secluded ridgetop; here the traffic never seems to slow down, let alone stop. I want to smell the pungent aroma of pepper plants that have basked in the sun. And I am very ready to sleep in my own bed with my hubby again. Soon. Brian is coming up to PA tomorrow, and we'll be heading home on Sunday. Miles to go, but in between there will be a fantastic show at Sight and Sound, sightseeing with friends from home, and a quick visit with Brian's sister, her husband and our nephew.

This post is a reminder to myself to enjoy the next couple of days while I have them. Vacations are hard to come by, but sometimes harder to accept. I'll be home soon enough and the realities of being gone for over a week will set in quickly I'm sure.

Still going

Nearing the end of tomato season? No, apparently that's just wishful thinking on my part. I am in PA for a week spending quality time with my sister. Yesterday Brian reported he picked another 5 five-gallon buckets of tomatoes. Poor thing is stuck doing them up all by himself, but then again, I usually do it by myself...so I'm not sure I feel too sorry for him. He's a great guy, there aren't too many that would even consider picking, crushing, and canning tomatoes! In the meantime, I'm helping my sister by picking her tomatoes and we'll probably can some sauce later tonight or perhaps tomorrow.

Buck update

Sunday morning Brian and I were both up extremely early. He happened to spot deer crossing behind the house, and one was a good buck. We're pretty sure it's the same one that we caught the photo of the other night. Brian counted 8 points.

Produce auction

We've also been taking peppers to the produce auction. Our second picking was over 60 pounds of assorted serranos, sweet spot bananas, cayennes, spanish spice Italian-style roasters, and mucho nacho jalapenos. The pepper patch is also producing lots of sheep nose pimentos and paprika supremes. There will be kung paos very soon too. The tabasco, ancho, and habaneros are not yet ready, but boy are they loaded.

I roasted some of the pimentos last week. Oh. My. The flavor was incredible. I froze that batch and may do some more that way. The only drawback is it is pretty time consuming to pick all the skins off once they are roasted. But the flavor is so worth it! We dried a bunch of the paprika supremes and will have plenty of fresh, smoky paprika to enjoy this winter.

It sounds like a lot of work, but honestly, I love growing hot peppers and drying them. From the first sniff of freshly ground cayenne I was hooked. There is so much more aroma and flavor in our home grown peppers. I was amazed at the difference from store-bought spices. I now make all of my own chili powder, and starting this year, paprika too!

Summer days are either crazy or lazy

Around here they are mostly crazy, and that's why I have somehow managed to go two weeks without posting any updates. Let's see...

We have been picking tomatoes and making sauce. Last night we made some spicy salsa, which Brian claims is our best ever. Tuesday night Brian picked 10 (yes 10) five gallon buckets of tomatoes, but the plants are brown and dying off at the bottom, so we are probably nearing the end of our tomato season. I always look so forward to the first ripe tomato, but I usually am quite ready for the end of staying up until midnight or later canning and processing them after work! Still, it is a bit sad to see the season end because you really cannot buy a good tomato. At least we still have cherry tomatoes, so I won't be totally deprived yet!

I also experimented with a tomatillo salsa and plan to can some of that tonight. We also froze some sweet corn and are probably about finished with it for this year. Since we didn't grow green beans, I can't complain much about how much canning I've been doing. We did plant shell beans, and they are about ready to pick. Thankfully they are not "urgent" veggies...they can wait patiently in the basement until things slow down.

We continue to see all sorts of wildlife, and the deer seem to have a highway running behind the house. Here's a picture of one very nice buck I've seen a couple of times.

I'm pretty sure he's the small one we saw last year. So far I haven't spotted the big guy. Our neighbor thinks someone shot him last fall, but we know he's very wily, so I keep looking anyway!

The lambs and the pigs are growing and doing quite well. I need to get some current pictures. Should have done that yesterday because it has been dry and the pigs were nice and clean. But yesterday it rained and their pen turned to mud and now they are no longer clean. The storms have been the more typical on-again, off-again summer thunderstorms here recently. Besides fast-growing grass (what an odd year, it's greener in August than it was in June), this has provided us with many gorgeous sunsets like the one below.

One night last week I saw a red fingernail moon and a shooting star on my way back from putting the chickens in for the night. A couple of weeks ago, there was a storm in the distance at dusk, and from here the lightning looked red. It was eerie and beautiful as it lit up the sky over the mountains.

Brian has been wanting to try home brewing beer for as long as I have known him, and he finally got a kit. He and our friend Matt set up a batch of a red ale over the weekend. In about 6 weeks we ought to have our first home brew.

We have both been traveling a lot of late, two shadows passing in the night or something like that. But we actually went to Pennsylvania together for my sister's bridal shower, which was a great trip. We stayed with my brother and his family, the first time we've ever done that, and it was great fun. We even saw a flock of turkeys on the edge of their yard Sunday morning.

Here are the awesome cakes that Robin did for the shower. It was a fun afternoon and a good weekend spent with the whole family. I wish we lived a little closer together.

We also spent a little time with Brian's family, celebrating his Grandad's birthday and visiting with aunts, uncles, and cousins over breakfast last weekend.

It seems like we've done more than this in the last two weeks. Hmm. Either I've forgotten or it's like tomato sauce - looks like a lot before you boil it down!

Sunflowers bloomed today

Who can resist a cheeful sunflower?

They are planted at the pepper patch (along with zinnias) to help attract beneficial insects.

The peppers are coming along very well. We took 3 boxes of jalapenos to the auction a week ago and will have more to sell on Friday.

A close-up of the Kung Pao peppers.

Garden visitors

On my way back into the house after taking the dogs for their lunch-time stroll, I spotted some beautiful butterflies on the butterfly bush by the back door.

I'm pretty sure this one is a red-spotted purple. I love the iridescent blue coloring.

And this one is an Eastern tiger swallowtail.

This is my new desktop background. So peaceful!

And as I was snapping away at the butterflies, another visitor dropped by.

This is a sphinx moth called a hummingbird clearwing (scientific name Hemaris thysbe).

I also caught one quite by accident last summer, but I am not sure if it is a thysbe or a diffinis. According to my taxonomy research, the diffinis has black legs, which is what I see here, but I only got this one shot, so I can't be sure. The wings also seem to have less of an outer margin. If it is a diffinis, the common name is snowberry clearwing.

And, for Nancy, a video clip of today's visitors...

Gord-geous

We are growing gourds to use as decorations at my sister's wedding this fall. Char, here's your gord update: they are doing well!

Here are pictures of some of the types. There are probably a couple other types, but I couldn't get to each plant individually without trampling on them.

Meet the Wheel Bug

Remember this weird-looking bug I posted a while back?

Well, turns out it is a wheel bug.

I was doing some quick web searching to identify another cool insect we've been seeing (more on that later) and decided to see if I could identify this one. Brian's identification as 'some type of assassin bug' was correct! Not too surprising given his broad knowledge-base, after all as an agronomist he gets involved with a lot of bug identification. Aren't I a lucky gal to have such a great hubby? But I digress...

The wheel bug (scientific name Arilus cristatus) is a true bug and member of the assassin bug family and an insect predator, which means they are usually considered beneficial insects. They can bite if handled (so don't touch!), but are not aggressive. For more info, see this wikipedia entry.