Labor Day Weekend Begins...

It's  Labor Day weekend already...just in time for laboring.  :)

The kids started school this week, but have a long four day weekend.  It's a nice way to ease slowly into the new school year.

Yesterday, Jim mowed one field of 5th cutting of hay at some of our rental ground, planning to round bale it and wrap it today.  It made eight large round bales...

We used a different baler this time....one that has knives in it that put cuts in the bale.  When it's time to feed it to the cows, it should fall apart easier.  We'll see if we like it.

This is the last bale coming out of the baler...

Here, Jim just brought the first bale home to add to Ag Bag Row.  It's still on the wrapper at this point, and he's finishing wrapping it as I type.  I hear the bale spinning outside the window...

While the humans labored...(the kids were painting the calf hutches and some newly repaired barn doors) someone else took a snooze in the shade...

What a hard life!

Happy Labor Day Weekend!


Linking to FARMGIRL FRIDAY today...

Fun at the Phillies...

On Tuesday evening, Eric and I had the chance to go to Philadelphia to a Phillies game, thanks to our friends and neighbors, who had season tickets that they weren't using.

When I was in middle school/high school, I was obsessed with the Phillies.  I listened to every game on the radio (no TV) and memorized the players stats.  My hero was Manny Trillo, the gold glove 2nd baseman from Venezuela...born 12/25/50...6' 4"...164 lbs...I still remember.  Need I say more about being obsessed?!   A bit unusual for a girl, but I had so much fun!  This was Eric's first major league game, and my first time in 20+ years.  I'd been a couple of times to games in the old Veterans Stadium, but this was my first trip to Citizens Bank Park...

It was a great night for a ball game.  The weather was just about perfect...just a little cloudy, but not at all cold.  We didn't need the sweatshirts that we'd packed in our bag.  There was a sort of electricity in the air...I don't know how else to describe it.

The Phillies played the Cincinnati Reds.  It was a great effort by pitcher Cliff Lee, but once again he had to leave the game winless.

We had great seats, right along the third base line...

The Phillie Phanatic was entertaining as usual...getting the crowd pumped up...

Shooting free hot dogs into the crowd...doesn't the security guy look thrilled?

We got to see a local guy who made it to the big leagues.  Chris Heisey came in late in the game to play left field for the Reds...

It got late...

But we stayed awake!  No problem for Eric, he's a teenager.  And really, who would fall asleep at a ball game?  It was the drive home that got me...

So thanks, Craig and Anne for giving us the opportunity to get away and have some fun in Philadelphia!  We had a blast!

A "Finished" Experiment...

Way back in April, when the corn was first planted, I decided to do an "experiment".  I followed the corn from the day it was planted until it was harvested.  You can follow the growth of the corn  by clicking here... (Each post contains a link that takes you back further, until you get to the first one!)

Here is the final result...

That corn stalk took on a new look yesterday morning...

It quickly turned into this...

Now it needs to ferment in the silo until it feeds a hungry cow.  Then, it will eventually turn into this...

The cycle continues!

Making Grape Juice...

You should see my kitchen.  Or maybe not!

The counters are full of canning jars...a triple batch of salsa made yesterday...and a second batch of grape juice.  The corners are full of canners, large kettles, my food processor, empty canning jars, etc.  And the floor is badly in need of being mopped.  But that's for another day.

We have access to several small grapevines...I'm assuming that they're concord grapes.  The kind that get really dark purple when ripe, and taste good when you first pop them in your mouth and quickly turn tart on you.  What to do with them, other than let the bees have a feast?

I made a batch of jelly two weeks ago, but was looking for something new when I cut the next batch.  I found this quick and easy "recipe" for making grape juice...

Quick and Easy Grape Juice

(this makes a full strength grape juice)

Wash grapes thoroughly and remove stems.

Place one cup of washed grapes in quart canning jars.

Add 1/2 cup sugar to each quart.   (experiment with the amount...my second batch I used less)

Fill jars with hot water, leaving 1/2" head space.

Stir to dissolve sugar.

Process in a hot water bath for 15 minutes.



That's it!  Nothing to it!

Let the grapes sit for several days before tasting the juice...this gives the juice a chance to reach it's full flavor.

Drain the juice and enjoy!

Short Season Corn Silage...

I know I've said this before, but it really does seem like yesterday that we filled silo, and here we are again.  We don't usually fill until the last week of August...right around the first day of school...but Jim planted some short season corn so that we wouldn't run out and have to buy silage this summer.

Last week we spent some time getting the silo at the other farm ready for filing...

The old tile silo isn't very airtight any more, so a few years ago Jim put a plastic liner in the silo.  It's fastened at the top, and falls all the way to the bottom.   The only part that gets cut away is in front of the doors, so that they can be opened (one at a time, from the top) to fork out the silage.  There's no unloader in this silo, so it's forked out by hand every day.  This is inside the silo, looking up.  That long vertical strip of brown is where the plastic has been cut away from the doors over the last year.  Jim has all the doors shut here, ready to put a door liner in place...

He climbed to the top of the silo with the new door liner, and I stood inside to tell him when he had it lined up straight.  I felt a little claustrophobic inside there...this was my only way out, through that last open door...

He fastened it at the top and let it unroll, covering the doors...

Now it's ready for filling.  When air gets into the silage, it spoils, so an airtight silo is essential for good feed for our cows.

Last Saturday morning, the guys came to chop.  Here he is unloading from the wagon into the blower at the bottom of the silo...

Jim spreads innocculant on top of each load before it goes in the silo...

Keep your hands back!!  I wish my camera had a setting that would show you the blur of that auger!

Even though they were finished putting silage into this silo, they left the blower hooked up.  Jim ran the tractor and blower the first few times he went up into the silo, to get fresh air to breath in case any silo gas had formed.

If the short season corn here at home tests dry enough, they'll likely fill the silos here at home over the weekend.

Life's Interruptions...

No matter how busy we are, life happens.  Interruptions happen.

Today was a funeral for Dan, an Amish neighbor of ours.  He was only 74...way too young...but he passed away on Tuesday after a very brief illness.

Amish funerals are typically held in the home of the deceased.  As soon as the obituary is listed in the newspaper, visitation begins.  Family, friends and neighbors stop in any time during the day to pay their respects.  Yesterday we walked down to Dan and Emma's.  We talked to one of Dan's sons, who was outside with some of the children.  He told us where to go in, so we made our way inside.  The men and women sit separately around the edges of the open rooms.  It was very quiet, and we weren't quite sure what procedure we should follow, but we made our way around the first room where the women sat, shaking hands as we went...that's the way they greet each other.  When we got to Ruth Ann (Dan's daughter in law), she quickly stood and graciously made us feel welcome and comfortable.  I think she sensed our unease, and she took us into the room where the casket was.  Her husband saw her do this, and he and his brother (another neighboring farmer that we know well) joined us.  After a few minutes of quiet talking, we made our way home again.  The buggies and cars rolled by all day and into the evening.

The funeral was this morning.  (Amish funerals are by invitation only, and are in German, so we wouldn't have understood it anyway)  By 9:00 the driveway was full of buggies, and the road lined with vans...some of the English drivers waited in the shade until the service was over.

Around lunch time, we knew that the procession to the graveside was about to begin when a police escort drove by and stopped traffic at the end of the road.   I took these pictures from an upstairs bedroom window...

The Amish hearse...

If you enlarge this picture, you can hopefully see the #10 written on the side of the buggy with chalk.  They do this so that the person directing traffic knows when all of the buggies that are part of the procession have passed.  There were 29 or 30 buggies today.  Jenna was watching from the porch and she counted them...

While the family and close friends were at the graveside, there was work going on back at the house.  Within 45 minutes or so, the benches were cleared away and loaded into this wagon.  This young man is likely taking the wagon back to the house where the next Church services will be held...

As I was running an errand a little while later, I passed a number of buggies coming back from the graveside.  I knew where they were coming from because of the chalk numbers on the side.

Tomorrow will be another day...life will go on.  But it will be different for their family and for the neighborhood.   A new normal.  Dan's thirteen children and fifty grandchildren will miss him.  We'll miss seeing him standing along the road, letting his horse graze on the road bank.  He was a good neighbor!

And Summer Rolls On...

After about 1 1/2 weeks of having house guests, it's back to "normal" around here...whatever that might be.

The kids enjoyed time with their cousins...we are THANKFUL that they enjoy being together!

It's been oppressively hot and humid...and we are THANKFUL for our air conditioned bedroom!

The laundry pile hasn't gotten any smaller, with smelly barn clothes and extra towels from taking sometimes multiple showers in one day...but we are THANKFUL for the opportunity to be clean!  Someone new to  PA once commented that..."Pennsylvania is the only place they knew of where you could sweat in the shower."   I think they were right!

The weeds are getting ahead of me in the garden...but I am THANKFUL for the 2 inches (!!) of rain that we got on Wednesday evening, although it came all in 45 minutes.  It makes the weeds pull much easier!

Our Amish neighbor man saw my ridiculously weedy garden up close and personal this week as he reapired our calf hutches...but I am THANKFUL that the hutches he was working on are now repaired, and no calves should be able to escape and stomp on my veggies!  (maybe he didn't even tell his wife about the neighbor lady's neglected garden!)

All it needs is some paint, and some new wire around the back side...

Lima beans always seem to be ready in the hottest part of the summer...but I am THANKFUL for the many packs of frozen beans that we will have in our freezer!

They're a pain to pick, and a pain to shell...but I am THANKFUL that Jenna sat with me on the porch yesterday and helped!

Just like me when I was a girl.  My Mom planted tons of lima beans, and we shelled and shelled and shelled and shelled and shelled.  She paid us 10 cents per cup...

I pick them young, so they really aren't fun to shell...but they taste oh so good...

I can hardly wait to taste them, cooked in milk and butter, just like Grandma used to do...

You never heard of this?  Here's how...it's simple...

Put your fresh frozen lima beans into a sauce pan.  Add a small amount of water, and salt to taste.  Cook until soft.  
Remove from heat and drain the water from the beans.
Add milk, just enough to cover, and return to heat, cooking just enough so that the milk is hot.
Drop a small amount of butter into the saucepan (1 Tbsp?)  and allow the butter to melt in the hot liquid.
Serve and enjoy!

It's another scorcher today...but I am THANKFUL and HOPEFUL that the thunderstorms they are calling for will bring some relief from the humidity!

How is your summer rolling along?