Sweet Potatoes and Apples

Daddy has been gone all week, but today he was off!  Momma put him (and the kiddos) to work digging the sweet potatoes...

The ground was so dry and hard to dig since we haven't had a decent rain all month, so Daddy did all the digging!  It wasn't our best crop of sweet taters, but I'm sure we are going to have plenty to get us through the year.  And we will have enough to make some baby food for Number 4.

After we were done digging, we went to check on the fruit trees.  Unfortunately, our peach trees produced absolutely nothing this year.  (Insert sad face)  Our apple tree on the other hand, put on a handful of apples.  One looked perfect, so Dallas picked it!

He was teasing that he was going to eat it, but it is sitting in the fridge waiting to be shared.

Until next time...

Fun Friday Fotos

Daddy had a rough day at work yesterday.  They started harvesting, but only one of the 3 combines was able to run.  We thought we would cheer him up this morning with a picture.

This evening, Reba helped me dig the carrots out of the garden!  I was very pleased with how they did.

I think these carrots will be destined to become baby food for Number 4 and a carrot cake for everyone else!

All that is left in the garden are a few bell pepper plants and the sweet potatoes.  I think I'm going to wait for the weather to cool off before digging them.

Until next time...

The Last Days of my Garden

I think our garden is finished for the year.  Doug helped me dig/pull the carrots over the weekend.  Not half bad for the low amount that sprouted from the two varieties that we planted.

Doug also dug one of the sweet potato plants.  There were some good size taters on that plant - this was one of the largest.

Yesterday after school, the kiddos helped me dig the remaining plants.  Enjoy the pictures I was able to capture between digging and supervising.

 

Dallas even took this picture for me.  All those taters came off one plant!

I think Dallas had a wheelbarrow load from each plant we dug; there were 23 plants!

About half way through, my helpers left me to finish by myself (there were two rows on the edge of the garden)

This sweet tater was poking above the ground when I pulled away the vines

There were only two potatoes on the plant!  One HUGE sweet potato and one average-sized tater.

When it was all done, I had two 5-gallon buckets and a wheelbarrow full!

Until next time...

Sweet Potato Gold Mine

On August 11th, Doug and I were discussing when we thought the sweet potatoes would be ready to harvest.  We were having a hard time remembering when we dug them last year, so I turned to the blog to find out!  When we realized it was very close to the same date, and we remembered we planted them a little earlier this year, we decided to dig up the first plant and see what was underneath all those vines.  Look what we found...

When it was all said and done, we were very pleased.  The taters weren't quite at big as they were last year, but very few (to none) had split like they did last year.

After we were done in the garden, and we were putting things back in the barn, Reba spotted a lizard caught in a spider web.  I got a jar, and we watched him for a while.

We did release the little guy that evening...one last photo before he ran off!

Lastly, Reba had to do a little swinging before the day was over.

Until next time...

Diggin' Diggin' Diggin' (now with video)

Over the weekend, Doug and I decided to dig up the first mound of sweet potatoes to check how they were doing.  In Iowa, we would dig them right before the first frost; but with planting almost 2 months earlier than we did in Iowa, you need to harvest earlier!

Check out what we found...

Doesn't it look as though he is holding a field mouse and a rat by their tails?

The kiddos had so much fun helping us dig...and we came out with quite the haul!

Now...what are we going to do with all of these?
Until next time...