Potatoes

Sawyer and I put got the potatoes planted this past Friday. This year we are planting Red Pontiacs. We had a great time cutting the eyes, turning the soil, and getting the trenches dug out. Most folks in Texas plant their potatoes on Valentines, but it has been so warm for February we went ahead and got them in the ground early! Looking forward to making stews and baking with potatoes from our own patch!

 

 

Squash!!

Picking squash today with my daughter in our garden. We planted Burpee Cooked Neck, Burpee Peter Pan, and Burpee Zucchini Squash. The wet early summer weather has been very favorable for squash in Texas. Some of our plants are 2 feet high already! Squash bugs have been kept at bay by a large leopard frog living adjacent to the garden. We need to give him a pay raise!! Fossil flour is the only deterrent we have had to use this year so far, and it helped the soil PH to. Will post on the tomato varieties and progress soon!

Jack Daniels Smoked Christmas Brisket!

Smoked a Texas Beef Brisket this year for the family in the Master Built Smoker. Cut the brisket in half and hand rubbed with canola oil, black pepper, brown sugar, a bit of cayenne, and sea salt. Smoked it over Jack Daniels wood chips for about six hours on top rack low, and it was ready to go!Cheers! Happy 2016 all!

Lake Palestine!

Spent the weekend on Lake Palestine and it was wonderful. The lake is truly a great destination and the scenery was fantastic. I have enclosed a few pics of the trip!! Hope to get back up there this fall!

Summer Garden Update

Here's a few pics to show everyone what's going on in the garden.The Bonnie Japanese Eggplant has done well this year as can be seen in the first picture. It is excellent sliced into medallions, with light batter, salt & pepper, then lightly browned in olive oil!! The next picture shows a typical trip to the garden by my daughter Sawyer. Bonnie Straight 8 Cucumbers have done really well and so have the Bonnie Crooked Neck Squash. The last picture shows what we have all been waiting for at my house, the Bonnie Crimson Sweet Water Melons, which just started really growing well with the June heat. Can't wait to slice into those!!

Frostfire

Looks like my Oregano, Parsley, and Rosemary have survived the colder weather so far but the Sweet Basil did not fare so well. I know the Basil did put off a bunch of seed however, so hopefully it will come back strong this spring. We used the Basil the most of all the herbs this year, as it goes well with so many dishes. It was perfect with salads, sandwiches, or just leaf thrown into a pot of beans. Often I would just enjoy chewing a leaf while working outside. Hope to find some Cilantro to grow this coming spring as well.

First fire of the year

      It has been a very mild winter in 2014 thus far. At the time of this writing we are just now lighting our first fire. Temps dropped into the 30's in East Texas over the New Year's Weekend with rain, so we finally broke down and burned some wood. I used the True Temper Maul to split about a 1/4 cord of a dead pin oak that I harvested off my land, and then used the Hultafors Bruks Swedish Hatchet to split up some kindling for fire-starter. The pin oak is exceptionally good as firewood. It burns long and hot, and is very nice to split. I have used the True Temper Maul pictured for many years and I have come to depend on it. The head was forged in India, and the heat treat was done very well, as it holds an edge for a very long time. The Swedish Hatchet is fast becoming a piece of trusted kit as well for smaller tasks, and holds an equally keen edge. I hope everyone had a safe New Year's and I will try to blog more in the coming year work permitting.

Summer Squash!

Sawyer's Squash patch is starting to really put off some yellow squash. We picked all this week and still can't keep up. I did a very light fertilize a few weeks back with a hose sprayer. 2 Tablespoons of Miracle-Gro to 1 gallon of water dilution. The squash seems to really do well with this amount.I try to fertilize after I have done a regular watering which seems to increase uptake. Michelle has been frying this up with a little oil in the Lodge 10" Skillet and they have been wonderful!! I am going to experiment by pickling some of the squash with some of the fresh herbs we grew this year. I really wish I had planted some dill. Oh well there is always next year God Willing.....

Summer Peppers!!

Planted "Long Red Slim" Variety Cayenne Peppers and Banana Peppers this year and just had the first harvest. I pickled a mixture of the two in apple cider vinegar and the taste is fantastic! Just a dab of it in a salsa or on peas makes all the difference in flavor. The Cayenne's are extremely hot!! I do not remember them being this hot when I have grown other varieties in the past. Usually the dry summer heat in Texas makes even a Jalapeno extremely hot, but it is still very early and these Cayenne's are kickin' already!! I will post more pictures of the squash, melons, tomatoes, and herbs as the summer progresses. Hope everyone is having great luck in their gardens so far!

Herbs into the Good Earth

     Got the herbs into the ground this week. This small patch should meet all of our needs for the coming summer and fall. I had to "Deer Proof" them with a homemade chicken wire cage. Although the deer have been known to knock cages down to get to sweet basil!!! (Can't say I blame them). There is a very protective Catahoula Cur piled up within ten feet of these herbs though so I think they will be fine this year..... I planted Greek Oregano, Triple Curl Parsley, Tuscan Blue Rosemary, Santo Cilantro, and Sweet Basil. Had to fight off the aphids last year with Dawn Dish Detergent in a spray bottle with water, so we will see what happens this year. Really looking forward to fresh herbs in my salads this year though! May go snap off a piece of sweet basil right now to snack on!  Take care everyone. Peace.

East Texas Spring Fishing!

     Was able to slip away this past Saturday for a few hours to Dragonfly Lake and stir up a little trouble with the bass! The spawn was in full swing. I tried plastic worms first and was unable to get a single strike, which is very uncommon at this lake. I tied on an over-sized top-water bait with rear prop and the bass started to slam it that afternoon. Not sure of the name of this top water bait but it is one of my favorites. I need to buy some of the old Wooden Devil's Horse's by Smithwick. I lost all mine over the years and they are another favorite of mine. They can be picked up on Ebay for under 10 bucks shipped, and are well worth it! Good luck to all with their Spring and Summer Fishing this year. Have Fun!

Trinity River Sand Bass!

The Sand Bass are running on the Trinity River so I took the boys today. We had a blast catching Sand Bass all morning and spending time together. The weather was just perfect in the 60's & 70's. There were lots of folks out fishing today! Everywhere we looked people were catching Sandies! We are going to go back next week and take the Kayaks. We were fishing small jigs on light line. The bass seemed to prefer the yellow and white ones. We gave our fish away to others, but next time we intend to cook up a mess ourselves!

Friend in the woodpile

Flushed this guy out from his warm winter spot in the woodpile by accident today with the leaf blower. Not sure what type he is yet. He was none to happy to be blown out of his nice warm spot. It actually was very mild today for January in Texas. It has been in the 70's all week so the reptiles are getting very restless. We normally get at least a few Copperhead Snakes around my place this time of year when the temps swing like this. Otherwise they are mostly nocturnal. I am going to work at getting more posts up this spring of lots of goings on around the place. My schedule has gotten a little better at work so that should help. I need to get some birdseed into my feeder so the Black Capped Chickadees and the Woodpeckers will drop by! If I get any pics of a copperhead I will post them to. I usually take them deep into the woods and release them away from my kids and pets if they visit! Good excuse for a day hike to!

Cajun - Nathan Abshire - Pine Grove Blues - Accordion

D.L. Menard sings The Back Door with L'Angelus

My 6 year old Daughter Sawyer asked me to help her clear a small plot of our land behind the house to plant some Watermelon Seeds she had. I must say with our poor East Texas "Sugar Sand" I did not have much faith of her reaping a harvest as I struggle to even get "Common" Bermuda Grass to grow here. Boy was I to be proven wrong. Her Vines have exploded with little more than a bit of rain, and the melons have been a sweet addition of home grown fruit to our diets. Needless to say I have encouraged her for her efforts, and look forward to many more melons off these vines. I would say she has about 100 Square feet of healthy vines now and they are continuing to thrive. We will no doubt plant an even larger patch of Watermelons next year! The yellow "Acid Free" Variety of Tomato has done well this year for me also. I really enjoy them and the deer don't seem to crave them as bad as they do the red ones. We have finally had a few nice rains, so I hope the wonderful showers will continue into the long hot summer! Take care everyone.

Cicada Launch!

Woke up this morning and found this fella about to launch on my back porch! What a show!

Blackberries

Took my son Daniel and the hounds for a little trek today in the East Texas Timber. We did'nt take any food with us but we found a nice snack at Tonkawa Creek! A Blackberry Vine and a Grape Vine appear to have grown together at the head of the creek and we feasted on the Blackberries that were ripe. We marked the spot and we will go back later when the grapes are ripe. I would like to attempt making a Wild Blackberry Fruit Leather as posted here by Laplander: http://naturallore.wordpress.com/2009/08/23/fruit-leather/. We had to share the Blackberry Bush with what looked like a Monarch Caterpillar. He was getting quite fat off that bush.... We will check back on him later when we gather berries for the Fruit Leather.



Mac Wiseman Jimmie Brown The Newsboy

Firewood Rack

I saw a kit in Home Depot for a Firewood Rack from a company called 2x4 Basics. Made of a PVC type plastic. All you provide is the 2x4's and some labor, and you can make it as big or small as you like. It looked like a fun project, and I badly needed a place to store some of my split hardwood. I went with a 4 wide 4 high config so that I could get the most out of eight foot 2x4's. I am very pleased with how it turned out, and how affordable and fun the project was. They have kits for storage shelves and benches as well. I may try another kit real soon!