For some reason I just can't quit taking pictures of our garden produce!   We've only got a few plants out there but they are doing so well.  After we had the garden area rototilled and fenced, we hauled over several tractor buckets of alpaca manure from the pasture.  These are dry pellets we've scraped out of the stalls, piled in the middle of the pasture for several years.  Then we scrape the ground because its not just in the stalls.  So our big pile now is perfect compost with the added grass clippings and leaves from our yard, and dirt from being scraped off the ground in the pasture.

As a result the produce is growing wildly.  Every day we pick, day after day there's more and more.  Thank you Jesus for your blessings.  I decided to try and dry some squash this year.  So far I have two large freezer bags filling up quickly.  Some of the crookneck squash I sliced and lightly salted, left it in the colander for about half an hour, then patted dry and put on the trays.  I tried some this morning.  Whoa!  Is that stuff salty.  More like very salty squash chips.

The others I simply sliced and dried to be used in soup or lasagne later this winter.  We use large thin slices of zucchini instead of noodles.  Its really good and no gluten.

In the 90's here, we been trying to spend some time every day up at the pool.  We get so busy in the mornings we forget until its late in the afternoon, then we are too tired.  The weeds continue to grow everywhere.  Trying to keep 2-1/2 acres weeded around the house is a nearly impossible task.  The pasture looks very unkempt since its grown so much even though I did do some mowing over there early this summer.  Its also 2-1/2 acres but with gas prices so high that's not going to happen again for quite a while.  But we are sure enjoying this summer.


Almost forgot ... our orchard is producing apples, purple and yellow plums, pears and cherries.  This picture is of the yellow plums that are almost ready for picking.  We eat them right off the trees or even better we like to dry them for eating in the winter time.  Sort of reminds of how much we love summer when its hovering around zero degrees.  And they are very sweet and juicy.