Checking In

Hey Susan... kymber....  See the weeds now?

I know I've not kept up with the blog lately but like lots of other folks the garden is keeping me busy.  And I mean 12 hour days every day.  Well almost every day since it rained like crazy a few days ago and that always gives me sort of some time off.  Except that there are also tons of things that tend to get neglected when the garden starts coming in.

I'll just run down yesterday to give you an idea of what I've been up to.  Since it had rained a couple of days before weeding is much easier to do.  They tend to come loose (the weeds) without tools.  The intention when I went out there was to pick squash and cucumbers to get ready to do some canning.  When I get out in the garden for some reason I can't help but pull weeds.  Heck I was in town the other day and saw some weeds growing along the sidewalk.  I actually had to stop myself from bending over and pulling them.  Does this happen to anyone else? 

So for those who think my garden looks so "weedless" trust me it doesn't happen by itself and is still overrun in many places.  I actually took some pictures of some of my weeds for Susan and kymber! lol  When you have control of the camera you have control of what you shoot.

I spent the early morning dealing with the rabbits, washing some clothes and hanging them out.  I'm still way behind but at least it's a start.  Then I walked the garden to see what all was coming in.  It seems like most everything is coming on at the same time.  So as I picked squash and cucumbers I weeded where I was picking.  Believe it or not I spent the entire day doing that so I could get the pickles worked up this morning. They are on ice and I'll get them canned tomorrow morning.  Then I washed a bunch of dishes, cooked dinner and sat down about 9 to eat.  While we were watching our evening movie I was shelling peas.

Speaking of shelling peas, I picked 3 six gallon buckets and one 3 gallon one of peas.  The way I get them done is to shell them is that I shell them when I'm sitting down to rest up and cool off.  I shell peas instead of reading in the evening like I normally do.  I shell peas while we watch our evening movie.... well heck, you get the idea.  Any sit down time is spent with peas until I get done with them. So far we've shelled a one gallon freezer bag full.  Not enough to fire up the canner yet. Soon though, really soon.

The tomatoes are starting to turn red.  There are a bunch out there but nothing like the huge amounts last year.  The weather has them real confused and right now there are only a few blooms on them.  We'll see how they do once it cools down a bit.  I just need enough to make my salsa and the homemade Ro-tel's.  I've got my fingers crossed.

This week we also butchered dispatched the 6 rabbits that should have been offed a couple of weeks ago.  Our feed bill was getting ridiculous and to be honest I was glad to get it done.

 Now I can officially be called The Rabbit Killer.  Those of you who have been hanging around with me awhile will understand that one!  lol At least this time it's true.  But this morning I had a real scary moment.  What with the rabbits and all the freezer is over full.  As in there isn't any tiny little space left.  So I had to move some things around to get to the ice bucket.  I can't start the morning without my ice tea.  After that I can get my coffee fix.  So I was pulling things out and all the sudden a big package wrapped in butcher paper (read rabbit here) This big package falls out of the freezer and hits me in the shin.  
Well there was a sharp part of bone that clipped me right in that main vein that runs right up the leg.  I started bleeding profusely.  Lots and lots of blood was just pouring out.  I'll admit I was scared.  Mars was outside and there was no way I could holler loud enough for him to hear me.  Still flooding the kitchen floor with pools of blood first I grabbed a chunk of paper towels that only worked for maybe thirty seconds.  I had sat down on the floor to take any pressure off the leg.  I was able to get to the dish towel drawer and grab a towel and sort of tried making a tourniquet out of it.
 All I could think was apply pressure and oh my God there was a  LOT of blood.  The towel and the pressure made everything slow down and before long the bleeding stopped.  You talk about scared!  WOW I was truly scared.  I don't think I've mentioned it before but I have really thin skin and some sort of blood thing that I can never remember the name of. Thromb something.... Anyway, I bleed real easy.  I've now got a good dent in my lower shin that will be needing daily care but I'm still above ground. 
All this to say that the rabbit got me back from the "grave" as it were.  So the Rabbit Killer was attacked by the very  rabbits that were butchered dispatched.  Kind of funny when you think about it. Revenge from the grave freezer. 

I guess that's as good a place as any to wrap this up.  Lots of canning is in my immediate future.  The green beans, Cherokee beans, Limas, peppers, tomatoes.... Well you get the idea.This time of year is what we work for all season long.  I'll just keep repeating it to myself.

Have yourself a great weekend and I'll try to get back to you soon. 
Sci