Peachy!

Just for fun, I thought I'd play show and tell with the first productive (sort of) season for my peach tree. Yes, I know I'm in Virginia not Georgia, but this particular peach tree does well as a specimen tree for coastal Virginia if you can give it a little TLC during peak cold times.

Peach blossoms blooming ever so prettily

My blurry attempt to show the nascent peaches

Tiny peaches as fuzzy as can be

Super fuzzy but growing quickly

This is just too fuzzy...whoops...that Boscoe not a peach! :)

After thinning off any that looked off, my still small tree has a small load of a few dozen peaches

And here they are now, still growing, still fuzzy and still not eaten!

Now, I don't know if it is because I still have this potted or because it is the first year it is old enough to bear fruit, but the peaches are rather small. They should be pretty much full sized right now. I'm inclined to think it is because it was potted still. It is a semi-dwarf but I wanted it to be mobile over the first winter with me just in case the cold got too much. I'll be planting it this year in a spot that is just perfect for it.

I'll let you know how those tiny peaches taste!

Cherokee Village Lots

Sorry all for the weird post but I'm trying to show a person who has recently visited my lots in Arkansas my CAD interpretation of their pictures to see if I'm on the right track. Be back with more homesteading news soon.....

This rendering is with more flattening at the 600 ft elevation and sharper inclines at the edges. Click the picture to see it bigger.

This one is a straight interpolation between the elevations as if it rose and fell absolutely evenly between elevation points.

Home-made Pupsicles

Boscoe and Gigi Enjoying a Pupsicle

I used to be that person who occasionally purchased those overpriced Doggie Ice Cream cups. My excuses abound! Ones like; my dog is old and doesn't tolerate the heat so this is cooling. Or another; my doggies is missing 16 teeth and the few he has are weak.

My real reason? Because they looked so happy to get their little ice cream cups!

But then I had a good look at the ingredients and was not impressed. Seriously, 5 bucks for 4 little cups smaller than the ones in school lunches with those ingredients? Not to mention the gas in transport for the product while frozen and all the transport of the many ingredients isn't exactly negligible when you think of it.

So, I had a brainwave. I feed my dogs a spoonful of plain nonfat yogurt in their breakfast to help keep their chemistry in good order (old hounds can get ear problems with yeast). I eat frozen yogurt. Why not make my own?

It so simple. Just take small cups, like the ones used for bathroom dispensers or reusable small cups (like egg cups) and plop a dollop of nonfat plain yogurt in the bottom. Give it a tap or two to settle the blob fairly evenly. Drop a tiny little bit of creamy peanut butter into the middle of that bottom layer and then cover with another good dollop of yogurt.

In all it should be no more than a couple of tablespoons worth for a beagle sized dog that's watching their waistline (or enduring you watching their waistline for them).

Now just freeze hard and tip out after a walkie on a warm day. You'll be a hero and your dogs will feel refreshed with a healthy treat.

Giant Parsnip

You know how you almost always miss one or two carrots or parsnips during harvest? Either because you've topped it but didn't get it out all the way and forgotten or just somehow overlooked it when the foliage died back?

Well, sometimes you get a giant!

This puppy came out with a great deal of effort along with 2 others of normal size. This giant one finally broke off about halfway down in order to come out. The others were about 16 inches long. Amazing!

Now, how will it taste? No clue. I usually leave parsnips in the garden during winter to harvest after the first freeze but I seem to have missed a couple of dozen. One or two I'll leave for new seed, but the rest have to get eaten. Anyone know if there is something special I should do to cook these over-wintered giants?

Boscoe is amazed also. I believe that look means; "So, can I eat that one too?"

I know I'm terrible for not updating!

I'm starting to get questions on whether or not I'm still alive. Yeeps!

Yes, I'm still here but to be honest, since September my live hasn't really been my own.

As many of you know, I'm a Naval Officer. What you may not know is that I transferred. I didn't have to move, but I moved to a different command and you wouldn't believe my job. Yikes!

I've either been gone, been working 7 day a week shiftwork (meaning gone more than 12 hours at a shot) or handling short fused craziness.

I solemnly promise that I will update very soon...promise, promise.

As an aside...we did get hit by that nor'easter back in November. Flooding like you wouldn't believe but not a bit of it in the house. Good thing I built that crawlspace a little higher than it needed to be, eh? Garden bit the dust hard though.

Hope, however, springs eternal. Seed starting is happening and the smell of potting soil is in the air.