Hope you're all having a quiet Memorial Day weekend.

I thought I'd show you some of my Nasturtiums. I planted them with the beans, thinking the flowers would draw bees to fertilize the beans. Little did I know the beans would flower circles around the Nasturtiums; and weeks before the flowers bloomed.






These are the colors I ended up with.

Also, a few random tomato and bell pepper plants.









That second picture is supposed to be cherry tomatoes, but they're a bit oblong for that.
I'd tell you their names, but they have WAY overgrown where I put the name tags. I do know we planted some Big Boy and some Better Boy, but other than that, I just don't remember.
I had to stake some of the bell peppers due to wind and the peppers, too. Some of them are survivors of that late frost we had.

The sunflowers are between 4 and maybe 12 feet high? I don't know. I just know they are waaaay over my head.
And full of leaf-legged bugs! Took these with my phone so they aren't very good, sorry.





I was going to dry the sunflowers for seeds, but now that I see them full of the leaf-legged bugs, I am undecided. While trying to find out what bug it was, I learned that I had unknowingly possibly protected the tomatoes from being attacked by them. The bugs, of course, like everything that we planted in this garden, but right now seem to like the broccoli and sunflowers more.
So, the broccoli I was going to pull up, and the sunflowers, are staying put for now.
Then maybe we'll get a few nice tomatoes before the bugs do.
If you remember, last year in North Carolina, our tomatoes got blossom end rot. Whether from low calcium, or those same bugs, I don't know.
I'm reluctant to use insecticide, because 1) it's poison; 2) we also have ladybugs out there (though I think the yellow ones are squash bugs?); 3) there might be other helpers I'm not aware of.

The plastic bags I used for 'mulch' around the tomatoes and pepper plants? Double edged sword. They did keep the weeds down, but fire ants love to build under them. Ugh!

Oh, I should update on the one celery plant that is still alive. We got a lot of stalks. But only about 4-6 inches tall? And it's flowering now, haha. So maybe I'll try again in the fall. I think Celery is a cool weather plant.




That's it for today. I think I'm mostly updated and talked out, so I'll see you around. Have a blessed Sunday! ♥

green beans. At least for the first year. Not used to all this. We were going to start small, he said.
This is my stock pot, next to my water-bath canner pot on the stove. I was heating water to blanch those beans.
That's two days of picking, not counting what we ate for dinner.



I need to get a canner and learn how to use it, I guess.

My internet has been really slow lately. Hope you are all well.
Have a wonderful, blessed weekend and take time out to remember those who gave their lives (and who continue to wear the uniform) for us.
♥

While trying to level the area by the steps he put in at the utility room. (It's always been strange having a door to a drop-off.)





Sorry about the pictures, the sun was over the roof.
Hubby said there used to be big brick patios and paths of the red bricks, that's why we find them everywhere. It must have been really pretty then. Wish I had seen it like that.


We went fishing this morning, but only caught a few, so we tossed them back. It was nice this morning. Even with the Cotton mouth that tried to climb the bank. I scared it off by hitting the ground in front of it with my walking stick. No pictures because the camera was in the truck.

On the way to fishing, we saw Pileated Woodpeckers eating on the ground. Very strange.
We got a new camera. While I was fumbling with it, one of them flew off, but we got a picture of the other one.




There is supposed to be a big hatch of cicadas this year and BIL thinks they may have been feasting on an early hatch.

Thought I'd show you our corn, too. Ignore the grass. This garden is running away with grass. I'm going to try and weed a row a day, but this grass is very stubborn. Every little piece of root hubby left when he tilled it up, has sprouted into two or more plants.
Annoying.






The shiny stuff is aluminum foil on fish line. Had to come up with something to keep the blackbirds from pulling up the young plants so they could eat the corn!

The bags are an idea I was trying. I've read about other people 'bag gardening' to help keep weeds down. Yeah, I know, it didn't exactly work, haha.
Anyway, the bags are compost and they each hold a small melon plant.

Oh, since K asked, I have not started canning anything yet. I don't have a canner. (Well, I have a water bath canner, but I don't have a pressure canner.) I need to get one and learn how to use it.
I've not used the water bath canner since the disastrous pickle affair a couple (few?) years ago.
What we don't eat, we either freeze or blanch and freeze right now.
I need to research canners.

I'm ready for summer to be over. Don't like summer temps so early. Oh well.

Hope you all have a wonderful week! ♥

and we already ate it. :-)


And while picking beans, I found this.





Aren't they cute?

Some of the beans (they're Blue Lake Bush beans) had a light purple color on them. Not sure if the camera shows it very well.



And when I went out to get the laundry, I took some pictures of the garden with my phone. Sorry if they won't expand.





That's the garden behind the garage. I showed you the same area earlier. Bush beans (and one bush bean that wants to be a pole bean - that's why the fence post in the front), bell peppers (the shorter ones have recovered from our late frost), tomatoes, cucumbers (where the plastic fence is), more broccoli and brussels sprouts, watermelon, and sunflowers.

There are also 4 new fruit trees out there.

We also have tomatoes in buckets, and a tire tower with potatoes. They look ragged because we just added more compost to them.





Oh. Can't forget the onions. Yes, I know I planted them too close together.



I did forget to take pictures of the grapes, but I'll get them some other time. ;-)

So far the fix to the sewer line seems to be working. And the people farming the field behind us were out with tractors doing their planting, so no problems there, either.

Have a wonderful weekend! ♥

Hubby told me this morning, as we were waking up, that BIL remembered that the... whatever the pipe is called that goes to the leech field -- well, BIL remembered that the pipe from septic number 2 runs out back alongside the out building.
So I said, "Oh. You mean it was put in when your family still owned that property."
Hubby said yes.
So that explains how it could get muddy and get a tractor stuck, I guess.
I told him we'll just have to keep an eye on it then; and if it starts getting muddy when there's been no rain, I suppose that tank will have to be pumped.
We also need to fill in the hole, and then mark it somehow so we remember where it is.

I don't really know how big that property is back there. But the FIL lost it many years ago due to drinking and gambling. That's how 'the farm' came to be the 6 or so acres it is today.

Hope you're all having a good day. I suppose I should go out and weed. Ugh.

See you later!

Blogger is being a brat and keeps logging me out when I try to post; but yet lets me comment on blogs. >:-/

We went and bought a couple hundred dollars worth of PVC to reroute the bathroom plumbing. After we got home, Hubby decided to check the pipe the way the plumber suggested, and it seems the second septic system works.

So, we put in a patch pipe. A temporary fix until hubby is at 100%. We'll find out tonight if it works or not. And we'll keep the extra pipe just in case.

Anyway, BIL called after hubby emailed him.
Seems he remembers their father and an uncle - a licensed plumber - putting in the second septic tank and leech field.

And he also remembers the second leech field apparently leaked under the access 'road' of the property behind this one. It's a dirt access way that exists by being driven over a lot.

That property used to belong to hubby's family, but that's a story for another time.

Anyway, apparently the farmer's tractor got stuck in the mud created by the leech field. So the story goes.
Now those are big tractors that farm that field, so that kind of surprises me. I don't know what that says about the leech field, because it could not have been put back there, it must have leaked?

So, the BIL said, in a fit of anger, their father dug up the sewer line and broke it, right where the missing pipe is!

Now, as far as I know, that bathroom has always been used.
And FIL passed away in the late 70s or early 80s. My memory fails me yet again, sorry.
But still, that is a LONG time for that bathroom to be...working like that.

It might explain why, though, when we got here, the bathtub in that bathroom was just allowed to empty onto the ground under the house.

Ugh.

Ah well. Moving on. Hopefully it will work well enough for the reunion next month.

Take care! ♥

Thanks for your comments, everyone.

We did call a plumber, and he came out. They were here about an hour or so. And do you know what we found?
We have two septic tanks.

It gets stranger.

The reason hubby's sewer snake came back dry the first time? It was going to the second septic tank that they found in the middle of the back yard.

The reason the sewer snake couldn't get through the blockage? It was capped off!

Remember the leaks I mentioned? Well, apparently the Rid-X would do its thing, and because the pipe was blocked off, the only place left for the liquids to go was out the leaks.
Just think about that for a while.

Apparently whoever did the 'plumbing' work (I use that term loosely) capped the lines off in two places with some sort of rubber and hose clamps.
The cleanout plug under the house, where one of the smaller 'caps' was done, had basically rotted through. If hubby hadn't noticed the smell and gone under to find the problem, well, I don't like to think about it. We're hosting a reunion in about 6 and a half weeks.
That's why hubby put off surgery.

Anyway, the plumber said the second tank - which is about a foot underground, is probably fine to use - he told us a simple way to check it; but without knowing why one bathroom was cut off from that tank, hubby is not willing to use it.

The plumber wondered why the tank was so far out in the yard, until we explained to him that the out building used to be part of the house, too.

Anyway, apparently at one time, both bathrooms were connected to this second tank; while the utility room and kitchen went to the tank closest to the house.

Seventy-five dollars was worth finding out this information, because the pipe going to this septic tank was ceramic. We would never have found it if not for the knowledge of the plumber in tracking down curious problems.

So now hubby will draw out a blueprint, buy PVC pipes, and join the first bathroom to the sewer line for the utility room.
It means taking the new toilet off, buying a new collar for it, and taking out as much of the old cast iron sewer pipe as he can get out.

Things were going to well, but it could have been a LOT worse, so we thank God for small blessings, and for cast iron pipe to go to the recycle. :-)

Hope everyone is doing well. ♥

but we found out today it will be a lot more.

We thought we had a plugged sewer line.
Rented a snake and put it through two different... clean out points.
One run came back completely dry. It didn't get to the septic tank, which it should have done easily.
For the second run - where hubby has to get under the house (he can get on his hands and knees once he is completely under it); he hit a block he couldn't get the snake past. (He also tried some sort of rubber thing which expands to the size of the pipe and shoots pressurized water at the blockage.)
And while he was there, and having me run some clean water through the lines, discovered that there are three different leaks, in addition to the blockage.

And because this house is 100 years old, it not only has PVC pipe from when hubby fixed the washer drain line and the main bathroom lines; it also has cast iron pipe and old ceramic pipe for the plumbing.

We decided we had to call a plumber.

And we're back living in the trailer because only the washer and the kitchen lines are uncompromised.

We figure any plumber that comes out probably won't touch it, really. It's not going to be an easy job.
We're expecting easily a thousand dollars or more for an estimate.
*sigh*

Oh well.

Hope you all have a blessed week! ♥

Had a heck of a thunderstorm last night. The ditches are full. Thankfully we seem to have dried quicker than usual. That is a very loose term though, as the garden is very very muddy.
I had to get out though as hubby has been going in town the last couple of days, so I haven't been able to get to the garden and check everything.

Anyway, I thought I'd share our second small harvest of broccoli.



Hubby got me that wicker basket at the flea market for $2!



As I said, I was a few days behind harvesting. We gave the neighbor - the one who told us about the tax problem - three heads of broccoli about the same size as these two. We blanched and froze ours.



I put my glasses here so you could judge the size of the heads. It rained again while I was harvesting, so I had taken them off to dry them.



These are the green beans I picked. That's a 2L jar next to the colander so you judge the size of it. That's home made jerky in the jar, by the way. I've been making our jerky since roughly 1975!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

And Happy Mother's Day to any readers who are moms! ♥

Aside from being rather warm today.

Hubby was working in the pasture and the neighbor ran up waving the newspaper at him. She said, "I don't mean to be minding your business, but your property is listed here for sale for overdue taxes."
What?
All the junk mail the post office forwards and they didn't forward a tax notice?
Not to mention that we applied for homestead exemption in JULY! (Taxes are mailed in November or some such.)
So, hubby called the assessors (?) office and she looked at the records and saw that we were clearly living here when tax bills were mailed.
She gave hubby a number to call and I went to find our Exemption receipt.
By the time I found it and got ready to leave, hubby said she had called back, talked to the person she told hubby to call, and since it was their mistake, they were going to waive our taxes.
Hubby said "Thank you, but I'd rather pay them."
She had also told him that we would probably get a bill this November for .77 cents!
Anyway, we drove into town, went to the tax office, but the lady there couldn't find the tax bill listed in the newspaper. All she saw was the .77 cents.
Which she wouldn't let us pay! She had a.... fund. In an envelope she kept in a drawer. And whenever her drawer was over or under or someone came in with a bill for less than a dollar, she takes it out of the envelope!
And she apologized for us having to go through it all!
And what could we have lost the farm for, had it not been for our neighbor?
Basically $47.
Louisiana is like that.
And there were a lot of listings for less than $100.

So, after freaking out and rushing downtown, we came out okay.

And when we got home, we realized we had a septic tank problem.

The toilet has been... slow.

Hubby was working on some steps (Yes, his shoulder is still bad and he still needs surgery. Probably in July.) and said he smelled something not good. I replied I had just flushed the toilet. So, he decided he needed to go under the house.
And found that One of the lines had had a... rubber hose used as a... flimsy what, he couldn't tell. It had basically rotted, and the line was leaking out on the ground.
Yes, it was that special.
So, we are staying in the trailer again for the next few days until it dries out enough under the house so that he can repair the leak and hopefully clear whatever is clogging the line.

Oh well.

Maybe we'll go fishing tomorrow.
Happy Hump Day! ;-)