Saturday, August 16, 2008

Salsa!

My plans today changed a bit. I had planned at first to start painting my kitchen today, and then I was going to go pick some peaches and can them, and then I was going to go to the lake with my family. Well, none of that worked out for me today. The lake idea got shot when Tyson got scheduled to work overtime, and then I couldn't get a hold of the right person about the peaches, and I can't reach my kitchen ceiling because I'm too short.
So, I changed my plans. I went through my garden this morning and it seriously needed some harvesting. I decided that I would go ahead and make a couple of batches of salsa. Tyson loves my mom's canned salsa and so when we planted our garden we made sure to plant what we would need to make salsa. Luckily our garden is producing what I need at the rate that I need it. I had exactly enough ripe tomatoes and jalpenos to make two batches today. We pulled our onions a week ago because they were set to go. We found a great variety of tomato that we love. It is called a Jet Star Hybrid and it is perfect! It has a really good flavor with a lot of flesh to it. I know, not overly interesting to all of you, but I'm thrilled with it. Anyway, that is my exciting day...

Sunday, August 10, 2008

We got a lawn!

This last week we bought our first batch of sod for our yard. Basically our entire back yard and side yards were non level at all, the grass was weak and the lawn full of weeds that just would not die. So, we killed it all, tilled it up and re leveled the yard. So now the process of putting in sod has begun. We purchase 500 sq. ft. this last week and we need about 800 more so we'll be getting that in a few weeks. But in the mean time it is really nice to have our west side lawn done. I'm excited about it!
I hadn't posted an update on our garden lately, so here it is. My garden is insane! By the 4th of July our corn was taller than Tyson and it is just getting taller. It is producing well though. We are having some of the corn for dinner tonight and one of our cantaloupes as well. I took over a dozen tomatoes to my parents yesterday because I had more than I could use and I have dozens of jalapenos and bell peppers. This is fun! More fresh veggies and less money spent at the grocery store. Tyson and I finally decided how we are going to do our garden beds next year so I can't wait to get those put in this Fall.
This next picture is just for fun.
I love my petunias that I put in the planter box next to our front door. It will all get taken out in the next month or two though. The planter box takes up a lot of space and doesn't offer up much planting space in return, so we are going to tear it out and widen our front patio. I figure that once we put in a new railing I'll just buy a planter box to hang over the railing. For this summer though I though it would look silly to leave this box empty. My grandma also had barrels of petunias all over her front and back patios so I went with the petunia.