Pea-pickin' chickn'

Its has been a busy week, I just finished publishing a post that I wrote almost two weeks ago. So if you notice two posts on the same day, that's why. Our garden is winding down, the squash and cucumbers and the like are gone, and only tomatoes and okra remain. we planted three rows of zipper cream peas that never really got started good, we didn't even get enough for a good "mess" as we call it in the south. they went from green to dry because of the drought. I finally decided to run it all down and fence that whole area in for the chickens. there is plenty of grass and pea vines, not to mention weeeds in there to keep them busy for a while, and there are a few pea pods left over for them to scratch up. We turned them in there Saturday morning and they are in high cotton. (or should i say high peas?) the pea vines and grass are starting to raise back up after i ran them down with the mower, and they are having a good old time digging for bugs and other goodies. so even though my peas weren't worth a hill of beans to me, they are like buried treasure to the birds.

    I planted one cantaloupe plant this year, and as I watched it grow it did not have a single melon in sight. I almost pulled it out of the ground but decided to hold off. A day or two later Michelle and I where in the garden picking, She was picking tomatoes and noticed something that was either the biggest green tomato history has ever seen, or something else was growing amongst the tomatoes. sure enough it was a cantaloupe! a good 10 feet from the plant, there was just one runner that ran from the cantaloupe plant over to a row of tomatoes. I picked it today and cant wait to slice it up, sprinkle with a little salt, and enjoy. Sure am glad I didn't pull it up.

     Michelle is staying busy these days canning tomatoes, the shelves are starting to fill up and the vines are still producing, but we eat alot of tomatoes and we are hoping for around 40 jars, so far we have about 15, and i just picked a three gallon bucket full to overflowing. Maybe we will hit our goal. Thats all for now, thanks for reading.