i thought I was crazy about bees...

Getting ready for 2nd Crop Season!

While we are up to our ears in squash, we are thinking of what to plant in its place (maybe peas, edamames, beans). and Speaking of ears, we have starting harvesting our heirloom corn!

While removing old poting soil from a pot to decorate for fall, Melisa and I discovered that the potatoe plant indeed give potatoes. We found these growing with the roots even though I had yanked out the dried plant a few weeks ago. In it's place, I transplanted a corn plant and we sprinkled in some "egg" gourds and baby pumpkins. After three days, most seeds have the first pair of leaves!

Ed had bought an upside down tomatoe pot early during summer, I used the "soil" it came with to start another worm bin. So when he came across this topsy turvey pot, he decided to give it a try again. Feeling bad for using his soil and losing the pot, I decided to surprise him when he came home. The boys and I set out to Blue Hill and found his fave habanero plant. The boys and Melisa helped me fill it while i holded the pot up. We hung it in front of our home in the porch where it gets plenty of morning sun.

New Arrivals!!!

Still picking squash and it's back down to normal size.

"We" have pomagrants now... I'll leave it at that...

We picked passion fruits today!!! We aren't sure when

As Big as it Gets!

We left town for about 3 weeks. My cousins were in charge of watering and harvesting the vegies... we return to super sized giant eight balls and summer squash the size of frisbees! We picked so much squash the day after we return Melisa and Josh both carried it in a large laundry basket into the kitchen. It took over a dozen fully stuffed grocery bags to distribute all the zucinis, eight balls and summer squash... As of today, we are harvesting 2 bags a day... thank goodness my mom's coworkers are asking for more.

Speaking of big, we have a hen that every few days lays an egg with a double yolk. We have no idea which hen is doing this amazing thing, but we love cracking the egg... I guess i'm not the only one with bragging rights to having twins. How can we tell it's a double yolk egg even before cracking it, well just look at it's size! (answer: back row, 2nd from the left).

My prize winning pumpkin got as big as it's going to get. After the bee sting incident, I'm staying out of the patch untill all leaves have wilted away. Both pumpkins are turning orange, so i'm not sure if i should continue watering or not, I'll ask the Pumpkin Guru on that. Apparently a few days after we left, a white powder formed on the leaves and started causing the plant to wilt. I was told, the weather was extremely hot and Ed's uncle place a tarp a few feet above the entire vine to help give it shade. Ironicly, the only part of the vine that was wilting was the one not shaded. I'm very happy with the growth of my pumpkins and plan to show them off for all of fall!

Out with the old (my giant pumpkin), in with the new (bird house goards and watermelon)! I planted some bird house gourds along the fence near the pony and my neighbors, in the middle part, Ed sowed watermelon seeds and the are growing! In this same spot a year ago, I sowed sunflowers, however none ever sprouted until now. Between all the vines is a five foot tall sunflower with it head just barely raising to bloom.

Our heirloom corn is growing tall and forming well. In some space, the corn didn't grow, so Ed will be filling it in with edamame (soy) beans and peas. The corn will make natural bean/pea poles.

Do bees fly at night?

Ed's "the shack" bbq was inspired by the OC/LA County Fair Turkey Leg Grills. We grilled the night it was built and almost every night since!


These are my last two pumpkins each on its own vine. I thought it would be idea to remove pumpkin flowers at night since they would remain fresh for morning breakfast. I also thought that when the sun set, bees couldn't fly. As I was out picking off flowers with Mellie, she said, "Liz I hear buzzing..." as I tried to leap out of the pumpkin patch I felt a the legs of a bee crawling on my back under my shirt. Yup, I was stung.. twice! (can a bee do that or maybe it was two bees). My husband came to my recue and flicked off the stinger. While the initial sting didn't hurt, I still feel like i have the stinger in my skin. While Ed gets stung every year in the same ear, I haven't been since I was ten. Now I'm rethinking my bee hive hobby that I was planning to start.

Just a few days later!

We cut on of the pumpkins off and ate it over the 4th of July weekend. Today, I went out there to see how it's grown. Wow, it really took off! There are a few more on the same vine, we are going to have to eat. In our home, the "loser" get eaten... yum!

The eggs have finally hatched and the birds have flown away. "Empty Nest" -

July 5th

Wow, chickens go to bed early, the sun hadn't completely set and they were all calling it a night.

This peach jam came from the peach tree next to the house. This season's bounty was very large and sweet! This was the first time Melisa and I had canned.

We picked zucs for the first time this season. On our first day out there we got alot.
Look at our baby pumpkins grow! Its nearly the size of the soccer ball! I need to place a pellet under it and cut some of the smaller pumpkins off the vine.