The Fall Peas Are Planted & A New Compost Pile

Good morning guys. How is everyone today?

The last couple weeks have been pretty busy for us here on the place.

First we got the new piece of property cleaned up, fenced, mowed and the grass seed planted. It has had two good rains since the seed went in the ground. This was just right in regards to timing. It should do well.

We planted the 8 Parks Whopper tomato plants and the six Big Boys. Again, in this heat I’m kinda curious to see how they do. When summer sets in down here the heat literally scalds the plants, but I did put them in afternoon shade, from about 3 in the afternoon on.

We put these in a part of the raised bed garden, so with my luck if the heat don’t get em, the Fusarium Wilt will. If you remember in our spring garden the Fusarium Wilt just kicked my tomatoes butts!

It is a disease that gets into the plants and prevents them from picking up water…it plugs up the water vessels in the plants. When you first see it you swear the plants are wilting from lack of water, like from a drought, but it’s not. You can pour the water to them, and it doesn’t help. They just lose most, if not all of their ability to take water up into the plants.

The funny thing though is most of the plants hung on, and produced tomatoes, but they were small and few in number. I got where I was calling them my John Wayne maters…cause they were showing “true Grit!”

We hope these do well. There is a product you can use called Serenade that is supposed to help, and I tried some on them. This may be what helped them stay alive, but I believe I found out about the Serenade too late, and most of the damage had already been done.

Also, this time of year good tomato plants are hard to find, and these were decent plants, but not top quality. They were very tall and scraggly, but I think they’ll do okay…depending on the heat.

In our garden area we’d been putting in cow manure, leaves, grass clippings, hay, and the compost we made from our first compost pile. After we’d let this lay a week or so, we’d till it in very lightly, at a 3” depth setting, so as not to turn the materials in too deeply.

As I say, it was the first time we’d composted anything before and honestly, it made a believer out of me. It turned out just like it should have. Everything had broken down really well, and when we moved it to the garden it was good looking material. This is why we just started another one.

This pile we made a little larger all the way around. It turned out to be 12 feet long, 10-1/2 feet wide, and about 3 feet deep.
We started with a bed of good topsoil and started layering from there. The soil first, then a layer of cow manure, a layer of oak leaves that had already began to compost under the trees, then a layer of grass clippings, then a layer of hay, then grass clippings again.

We repeated the layering 3 times with each material. When finished, we covered the entire pile again with topsoil. After each combination of materials we’d water it down good to insure all material getting a good wetting down to get it started off. We’ll water and stir about 3 times a week.

In the garden this morning we planted 3 rows of Clemson Spineless Okra, 5 rows of Cream 40 peas, 3 rows of Crowder peas, 4 rows of Purple Hulls, and 7 rows of Black-eyed peas. All rows are 100 feet long.

We ought to be some pea eating fools in about 60 to 70 days hopefully. We’ll be watering it for the next two to three days if we get no rain, and this to get them off to a good start, but if we’d get just one good rain, we’d be set.

Last year’s fall garden we canned right at 200 quarts of peas, several pint jars of them, and we’d eat a good mess each time we’d pick. Our peas really did well last year, and we’re hoping for the same type of production this year. Time will tell, huh?

I will be setting out later today some Texas Cowhorn Okra, a good friend of ours, Bonnie in North Carolina sent to us. She sent us several seeds to try, and again, I’ll be setting them this afternoon when it cools off some. It is a hot mother out there right now!

I’m looking forward to seeing how these things do as I’ve never tried these out before. They’re supposed to be really good, and are supposed to make really large plants, and okra pods too. I’ve heard from a friend of ours out in Texas that this okra is really good according to him. I’m not so sure it is, but maybe Ken endorses anything that has the name Texas in front of it! LOL, Ken!

I’ve said before that we love pickled okra, but have yet to come across a good pickled okra recipe. BUT, my Aunt Ann who is a tremendous cook supplied us with one that she says is very, very good. I can tell you just about 100%, that if Aunt Ann says it’s good, then it is in fact…good!

I’m hopin’ we have plenty to pickle up this year. Course…it ain’t bad fried either! Deb could eat her dern weight in it fried if you’d put that much out in front of her. I swear I don’t know where she puts it. It’s like her legs are hollow, and that must be where it goes.

Our muscadines have started coming in, and Deb’s grabbing ‘em and throwing them in the juicer along with everything else she juices for us each morning. Her motto…”If it ain’t tied down…JUICE IT!”

Deb is doing very good guys. Since she stopped chemo, her color, her looks, her outlook, and her positivity have all changed, in a really, really good way. You can tell she just feels better!

Her physical drive is up to about 90% of “pre-chemo,” and her stamina builds daily. It is impressive to me how much a difference you can see in her.

Please keep her in your prayers, this is a tremendous help to us, and is so appreciated. Keep Sandra in Mississippi, and Ken’s wife Trisha in Texas, and anyone else who is suffering with this dreaded disease in your prayers as well.

If you have a friend or family member in need of prayers just tell us about them in the comment section, and they can go on everyone’s prayer list too.

Well, that about does it for today, and we’d like to say, “Thanks for droppin’ in.” You guys have a great weekend, and God Bless you all!

Deb says to keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart.

Oh, before I forget, I read something I found interesting yesterday. I was reading about Obama’s approval ratings, and how low they’re getting.

It stated that his approval ratings had gotten so low…that the Kenyans were now claiming he was born in the United States!