Busy With Harvesting and Other Things

July and August have certainly been a busy time for us here in North Central Alabama. The gardens have been producing. Revivals are in churches everywhere with us seeing more saved for the Kingdom of God this year than I’ve seen since my growing up years. We’ve also had more sick amongst my cousins so this has meant visiting the hospital at least twice a week as well. I think everyone is on the road to recovery now though. So I thought I’d take a breath and write a little on the blog.

We have had squash, squash, and, yes, more squash during July and now in August. We’ve had enough rain that they just continue producing when I thought they would just go ahead and die. We’ve had fried squash, boiled squash, broiled squash, squash dressing, vegetable casserole with squash, green beans, and corn, and my teenagers’ favorite, squash fritters. We’ve shared with my parents, sister, and grandma. I was hoping to see my sister can some squash relish, but I haven’t talked her into that yet. Maybe she’ll give me the recipe, and I’ll have to do that myself.
We’ve also had an abundance of cucumbers. I love cucumbers, and I think I eat at least one a day. We are getting so many that even with sharing amongst family that my mother is talking about us making some pickles. She had told me that they never made them that much when she was growing up, but I think we might give it a try soon.
The pink eyed purple hull peas, bell peppers, Alabama black butter beans, Dixie butter peas, and Kentucky wonder pole beans have all started producing as well. I thought that the rabbits or deer had eaten almost all of our Kentucky wonder pole beans, but we are still getting a little bit of green beans a couple of times a week. We’ve had all kinds of critters eating our plants at both gardens. My parents have had a skunk that visits for the last couple of years. It likes to eat the pears that hit the ground below the pear tree which is located close to our squash in the garden. One evening we were out picking late, and my husband noticed the skunk behind my son. We just continued picking, and it finally moved on without spraying us.
We would like to be canning and freezing, but with sharing with family and planting a late garden, we haven’t yet harvested enough to put up for the winter. My mom mentioned that next year we might need to think about planting four rolls of pink eyed purple hull peas and maybe more than two rolls of green beans so we’d have plenty to put up. Our rattlesnake beans and Kentucky wonder bush beans haven’t yet started producing although the rattlesnake beans are blooming like crazy. Maybe in the next couple of weeks we’ll be able to freeze some peas, put up some vegetable soup, and can some green beans. That would certainly help us save money on vegetables this winter.

It Finally Rained and Our Garden is Growing Good

The last time I blogged about our garden it hadn’t rained in Alabama for quiet a while. Folks around here prayed for rain, and now it’s rained almost every day for weeks. The plants are looking great; so are the weeds and grass. We were able to till between the rolls at my parents to help deal with some of the weeds, and we’ve had to weed in between the plants as well. Morning Glory, trees, and many other weeds have tried to overgrow our gardens.


I have finally figured out which two vining plants are growing in our garden; Alabama Black Butter Beans and Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans. There for a while we didn’t have a clue, but they definitely look different.


Our oregano didn’t ever grow from seeds. I think someone had commented that they were difficult to deal with sometimes. So, after trying to grow oregano from seeds a couple of times and not succeeding, we went ahead and bought some pretty healthy looking oregano plants from a local seed and hardware store.


We haven’t harvested anything yet, but our plants are looking pretty. Some have some blooms so we know that will happen in time. We planted peppermint on one side of our garden. That side doesn’t seem to have that many bugs or ants. We’ll want to plant a lot more of that in the future.

Our Plants are Growing in the Alabama Heat

June in North Alabama has been hot this year as it usually is. We are trying to water our plants every evening so that the water can absorb into the soil overnight instead of it evaporating in the heat every day. When it is 98 degrees or so in the shade, it can be rough on our plants.


We have planted most of my parent’s garden at this point. I think we’ll still plant another roll or two. So far, we have planted tomatoes, squash, pink eyed purple hull peas, banana peppers, green bell peppers, more Dixie butterpeas, Alabama black butter beans, spinach, cucumbers, and two rolls of corn. If the crows and other critters will stay away, we might actually have a good garden over at their house. They already have pears growing.


The soil in my parent’s garden is very different from the soil in ours even though we only live about five miles away. My dad and mom’s garden soil is somewhat on the sandy side while ours is very rocky. The more rocks we get out of the garden, the more seem to be there the next time we go water or work in the garden. Plants will still grow in our rocky soil so that’s okay.


Well, I hope everyone is enjoying their summer and the opportunity to grow God’s bounty. If you have the opportunity, you could visit www.sheconsiders.com. They are having a contest called From Seeds to Harvest on the website.

How Does Our Garden Grow? Well, let's see....

Spring here in North Alabama has been an eventful time for us, but we had begun our garden long before April’s Fury. We’d begun our current garden last fall with cabbage and turnip greens. The turnip greens were awesome, but the cabbage never seemed to reach their potential.



When January came along with it’s snow, we tilled up anything that looked dead. With February’s snow, we just tilled the entire garden and tried to make it larger.



In March, we planted onions, more turnip greens, and strawberries. The onions are tasting nice and spicy now which is how we like them. The turnip greens didn’t grow too well. My daughter’s strawberries are still growing, but some of my son’s strawberries died. Today, my son planted strawberries that he’d had growing in pots on the porch for over a year. This time he planted them in a container like garden spot.



My daughter prefers flowers to edible plants so she has planted some of the more decorative plants we have. She and I had tried to seed some marigolds and herbs like basil, but they never grew like they should. So, today, we planted in the garden a bunch of herb seeds; basil, oregano, borage, catnip, and even some peppermint. We’ll see how they turn out and, hopefully, post pictures later on.



The first week of May I had my son and daughter go out and plant some beans; Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans, Dixie Speckled Butterpeas, and Alabama Black Butter Beans. I really should have went with them to supervise because now I don’t know which row has which type of bean, and they don’t remember either.



We’ll be planting in my parents’ garden next week too. They haven’t used their garden spot in years so we’ll just have to see if we are able to grow a good garden there too.

Pine Torch Church on December 31, 2010

While I haven’t blogged for some time, it doesn’t mean that there hasn’t been anything happening here in Alabama. On December 31, 2010, my family and I took a trip to Bankhead National Forest to see an old church which was built around 1840 that was called Pine Torch Church. I thought that they might still be holding services in the old church, but it seems that they have built another church behind the graveyard on the same property that is probably where services are being held. Even with the new church being built, they still have outhouses instead of indoor restrooms. My family had a good time visiting these churches, but it is easy to kind of get lost such a large National Forest. We saw some beautiful land during this trip. It would have been nice if we’d had time to go hiking too.

Places We Visited During My Vacation

October certainly flew past. It is almost halfway through November, and I am just now getting around to posting again. We visited the Fort Payne, Alabama area twice recently and saw some truly beautiful country and sites that God has blessed us with in this state.

Our first visit to Fort Payne took place on October 29, 2010. I’d seen a picture of a very different sort of church a year or two back, and I’d been telling my family about it. So we finally had an opportunity to go see it for ourselves. The name of the church is Sallie Howard Memorial Chapel which is part of the Dekalb Baptist Association. It is located just outside Desoto State Park, and it is built around a rock. It is truly a spectacular sight. I couldn’t help singing “I’m standing on the Rock of Ages….” when I was walking around looking at this little chapel. This chapel was built in 1937. Sallie Howard’s husband Col. Milford Howard built this chapel in her memory. Inside the church is an inscription from one of her letters which says “God has all ways been as good to me as I would let him be.”

http://www.discoverlookoutmountain.com/history-Col-Howards-chapel.shtml
http://www.alapark.com/DeSotoResort/Attractions/

We also took a hike through the woods in Desoto State Park. The Azalea Cascade Trail is part of the North Alabama Birding Trail. This is actually a boardwalk trail through the woods that has a gazebo along the way, then an octagon deck when you reach the end of the trail at the Azalea Cascade. As little rain as we’d had in North Alabama at that point, there really wasn’t much of a cascade, but it was a nice hike through the woods. When we stopped long enough to just listen, we heard a multitude of birds and others animals and even spotted some of the little creatures.
http://www.alapark.com/DeSotoResort/Waterfalls%20&%20Trails/

On November 5, 2010, we decided to go explore the Desoto State Park area once again. This time we made it to Desoto Falls although we didn’t get to see all of the falls. It was sprinkling and my husband thought the rocks leading to the bottom of the falls were too slick for us to attempt walking the trail so we were just able to see the upper falls area. It was beautiful, and we enjoyed the visit. Maybe we’ll be able to go back and see Desoto Falls again when it is not raining and making the trail dangerous.
During our second trip to the Fort Payne area, we stopped in at the Depot Museum there in town. The building that houses the museum was very beautiful, and we were able to take some pictures of it. When we went inside, there were three rooms which held the museum’s historical collection. One room housed the Native American artifacts, and one room housed soldiers’ uniforms and military memorabilia from the Civil War until what looked like World War II. There might have been more, but we were kind of rushed along by the ladies who were there to oversee this little museum. I am unsure what artifacts or memorabilia might have been in the third room, because we did not have time to see. Still, it was nice to see the outside of the building.

http://fortpaynedepotmuseum.com/

The Pinta and The Nina on Columbus Day 10-11-2010

On Monday, October 11, 2010, we took a trip to Guntersville, Alabama, to see the replicas of two of the ships that Christopher Columbus used on his voyage when he discovered the New World. Our family had seen the Nina a few years back when it had been in the harbor at Guntersville Lake. The Nina is an actual size replica of the ship Columbus used in 1492, but the Pinta was larger than actual size. We didn’t get to tour the Nina because the coast guard limit’s the amount of people who are on board that ship. So we just explored the Pinta. The young man who attempted to tell us the history of these ships seemed to have gotten some of the actual history about Columbus incorrect so we had to research to check the accuracy of what we knew compared to the accuracy of what he said. Luckily, we found information to back us up, but it was disturbing to realize that the young man is going from town to town telling people inaccurate history. We will definitely go on a field trip to these ships again if they come back to Alabama. Hopefully, we’ll have a better guide who actually knows some history the next time.

http://www.thenina.com/