Family visits, Dog has allergies

The first Luffa turned brown so we harvested it. To harvest a luffa, you wait until the vegetable is dead and drying. It's pretty light at this point. Then you cut it off the vine, bang it pretty emphatically on the ground to loosen the skin and seeds, and peel off the skin. Then you can shake out the seeds and set it out to dry.


Roger's dad and brother went to the Lotus Festival with us, which is a huge music festival in Bloomington. There are seven stages playing at once. Unfortunately, it was raining pretty hard, and while the stages were either under big tents or in buildings, one had to walk in the rain to get from venue to venue. Here we are at the very beginning of the festival, waiting for the first show to start. At this point, we are only mildly damp.



And here's a pic of the boys:


And we think Dia has seasonal allergies. She's gotten really itchy the last few weeks. According to my dog books / internet (and the internet doesn't lie, right?) Dogs can take Benadryl. So I gave her a couple Benadryls with dinner and she's conked out right now. The internet says it shouldn't making her tired, but it appears the internet may have fudged the truth a bit.

agility class

family visits, Dia goes to agility class

Dia has been going to agility class and is doing very well. Roger takes her for an extra practice on Saturday, so I got to go watch some practice.

Also, we're getting close to the end of harvest. We pulled the last of the tomatoes, and the peppers are peaking.


Lastly, Roger's dad and brother are visiting.



And... a picture of the family.

Seed saving

This new world of seed swapping is awesome. So far, I have scored:

Jamaican Hot Pepper
Spinach
Mixed Lettuce
White Pumpkins
Genovese basil

I'm also participating in a seed swap... a bunch of people send any number between 3 and 15 seed packages to one person (and postage) and the person collects them all, puts them in a pool, and then sends you the same number you sent in. I sent in 8 packs.

I'm looking for interesting tomatoes (striped, green, or black) and basil (cinnamon, spicy, purple), but also just collecting things as they come up.

Here's a picture of the seeds as we collect them. We have SO MANY SEEDS. We're going to sell seeds at the winter market this winter. I have at least 150 packs so far.


Also pictures: Dia gets a toy we call 'the worm', and a picture of an Australorp, as requested. The best chickens EVER.




Added: What is the Australorp eating? That would be a bowl of old yogurt that got kind of moldy. Chickens LOVE yogurt. And yes, in light of the moldy corn incident, I scraped off the mold.

Neighbor Party

The neighbor whose house has been empty has finally rented it. The new occupants are a pair of 23 year old identical twins who work for a heating and cooling company. They have a very cute dog named Mini Mac who is a Black Lab / Basset Hound mix. He looks like a very small Black Lab. Dia is in LOOOOVE with Mini Mac. She shuns all the dogs at the dog park and just tolerates a friend of mine's dog, but Mini Mac comes outside and she just falls all over herself to go play with him. She chases him like a kindergartner flirting on the playground. Then she collapses and makes eyes at him.

Anyway, the neighbors had a big bonfire party for their 23rd birthday. They built a log cabin and then set it on fire. Here are pictures of the cabin pre and post fire.

We realized recently that the purple jalapeno plant we have is rare. So rare, in fact, that people who swap/collect heirloom and rare seeds often list them on their 'want' list. (We've noticed this as we joined seed swapping online communities to find new and rare strains of vegetables for next year.) So, in addition to them being our most prized bargaining tool on the seed swap forums, we've also put them up on ebay:


here

We've been swapping seeds for about 24 hours now and have already scored a rare spinach and white pumpkin seeds.

Roger and I are doing the 'Walk for the Animals' this October 4th. It's a fundraiser for our local animal shelter. If you want to sponsor us (and Dia, who will also be participating), visit our page!

Wasp War

The War with the Wasps was quick and decisive. Wasps: 1, Chelsea: 30+

At sunset (apparently when wasps are sleepy) I donned a thick coat, leather gloves, and a hat and went down to the trash pit with my new can of wasp nest killer. I sprayed the small nest first and dropped about 10 wasps instantly. I had planned on spraying and running, but the spray knocked them out before they were able to launch an offense.

Nest 2 was the particularly nasty one. The cement blocks were stacked 4 high and the nest was down in the first block... so instead of standing the suggested 20 feet away and spraying I had to stand right over the nest and spray down. And I could barely see the nest... it was covered in wasps.

I sprayed and ran a safe distance to see if any would fly up and come after me. They weren't flying, but they started crawling out from the cracks in the cement blocks. One after the other... it was like the March of the Wasps. I just kept spraying them as they came out and they dropped instantly.

I wanted to get a body count, but I was reminded of those horror movies where the victim leans over the bad guy and the bad guy suddenly comes back to life. And the entire audience is yelling, 'Who cares about him? Run for the hills!' So despite my curiosity, I did not lean over the pile of dead and dying wasps to get a body count.

Wasp Sting

I've been working to shrink the size of a trash burning pit made of concrete blocks the previous owners left. I burned and burned and shoveled out years worth of ashes (4 tractor carts full). Now I'm working on moving one of the walls in.

There are lots of wasp nests in the blocks. I've had success with just ignoring them and avoiding moving the blocks with nests when there are wasps on the nests. It probably has also helped that when I'm working there I'm usually trying to burn down tree limbs and such and it's smoky.

Well, today my luck ran out. There was a wasp that started to bother me, and in my casualness I waved it away and it kept coming back. Then I felt it knock against my hand, so I started to retreat. Then my hand started to hurt... a lot. Then it landed on Dia and Dia jumped about 10 feet, then it started to... well... chase me. Dia and I ran for the house.

Right now I have a hive on my hand that's considerably swollen, but doesn't hurt anymore. I'm on my way out to Kroger to buy wasp spray before I continue my cement block work.

Dia's training

Dia is definitely learning lots. She's graduated from basic obedience and is moving on to agility training next week. Just now she was pacing around the living room and generally being fussy, and I just mumbled, 'Dia, get on your rug', and she went right over to her rug and laid down. This was about 15 minutes ago, and she's still there.

Porch Staining

When we bought the house it was apparent the porch had been neglected for some time. It was gray and warped. It looked like the wood had never been sealed.

Last week, Roger used a deck cleaning solution and pressure washed the deck and we were relieved to see it brought some color back into the wood, although it was still pretty pathetic.

Today we stained and sealed the wood! We used a tinted seal, so we only had to go over it once. It took four gallons of seal. The wood was very, very thirsty.

Before:


After:

ANOTHER EGG

Another egg!!!! I would post a picture of it... but it looks just like the last egg. But I love it!

EGG

AN EGG!!! IN THE NEST!! IT'S BEAUTIFUL AND PERFECT!




Here it is next to a store bought egg. They'll get bigger as the hens get older.

What to do with tomatoes

What to do with tomatoes... we had a very cool summer here and all of a sudden we had one really hot week and all the green tomatoes that had just been sitting on the vine refusing to ripen all turned at once. I'm talking a hundred tomatoes. Easily. We chopped and froze several quarts, made a dozen jars of salsa, and made chili sauce. Still deluged with tomatoes. So I give you...

Tomato Pizza.
Instead of sauce, we used thinly sliced tomatoes, some basil, and olive oil. Cover with mozzarella and other stuff from garden. Eat with ranch dressing.


Also... Dia at campfire. She's going real camping with us in October. We're going the weekend before Halloween and everyone decorates their campsite. Really decorates their campsite. I'm talking graveyards and blowup ghosts and sound sensor music... the whole nine yards. I think Dia should go as a Hellhound. No costume needed.