Our First Field Trip this Year, September 3, 2011

As the Summer heat is showing brief signs of fading into a cool Fall, my dad decided to take my two teenagers on their first field trip for this school year. This field trip did not take place within the borders of beautiful Alabama this time. They traveled a little north into the edge of Georgia and on into Lookout Mountain, Tennessee.

They visited Point Park A Chattanooga and Chickamauga National Military Park. A lot of battles took place across North Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee during the Civil War. Point Park is located where the Battle of Lookout Mountain or the “Battle above the Clouds” took place. It is a beautiful park fill with Civil War history and a little family history for us. One of my great-great-great grandfathers’ fought in the Battle of Lookout Mountain, and another great-great-great grandfather fought at nearby Missionary Ridge and was captured there. So, to say the least, this was a good history lesson for my family.


There is a museum nearby where you can look at pictures and Civil War memorabilia. They also have a gift shop where you can buy souvenirs.


On the road home, my dad stopped at Sequoya Caverns and Ellis Farm Homestead in North Alabama. They did not go into the Caverns, but they did visit with a peacock in the parking lot and a duck that followed them around the place. So, all in all, my two young’uns had an awesome outing with their grandpa.

Still Harvesting and My First Attempts at Canning

Well, as HOT August has advanced across the South, we haven’t had any rain in weeks. Our plants have done fairly well in spite of the lack of rain although they are kind of drying up. If we had more rain, I believe our squash would have continued producing well, but they had slowed down some. My husband finally just turned them under in preparation for the fall garden plants. We were getting a little tired of squash although we love squash.


We have to water our tomatoes most nights because they have just started ripening. The cucumbers are still producing in spite of the lack of water although the leaves are drying up a little. The green beans are finally coming in some although they seem a little tough, and I wonder if that is due to the lack of water. Our pink eyed purple hull peas are still producing as well. The corn has been eaten by the deer. They knew that they would be fully ripe last week and paid a visit to eat as much as they could. Since the cornstalks were down on the ground, our friendly visiting skunk decided to eat his share while we were picking butter beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, and peas. He literally ran us out of the garden last Saturday although I think he was more afraid of us than we were of him.


I have been canning pickles. This has been my first attempt at preserving cucumbers, and it has gone better than expected. I have a home preserving book with more than 400 recipes, but as I looked on the isle of the local grocery store for spices and canning supplies, I saw all kinds of pickle mixes which makes the job of canning pickles fast and easy. Since the vinegar in the pickles is so acidic, I just used a water bathing canner to seal the lids on my canning jars. So far, I’ve canned about 37 jars of pickles; sweet pickles, kosher dill pickles, and bread and butter pickles.


We have about two rolls of pink eyed purple hull peas this year and have planted a third, late roll down the middle of the corn. We have had enough to eat mainly, but we have gathered enough at times to be able to freeze about 8 quarts or rather 16 pints of these wonderful peas for my family in addition to the 6 quarts my mom was able to freeze for she and my dad.


As the tomatoes have just started coming in, we really haven’t done much with them although I have made about 3 pints of salsa and eaten a lot of tomato sandwiches. Umm, good! Hopefully, we’ll be able to can some stewed tomatoes for the winter. They are always awesome in soups.


We have begun our fall garden in the midst of all of this harvesting and the lack of rain. We have planted some late tomato plants that I had started from seeds. We have planted more squash seeds and turnip green seeds in my parents’ garden. At home, we have seeded some cabbage in preparation for them to be put in the garden as soon as possible. This coming month should be an awesome time to plant broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, cabbage, turnip greens, carrots, and radishes. I love gardening!