Let the Squash Games Begin

Uh oh. 

Squash is beginning to ripen.

It's time to get creative…

and failing that, 

find friends who want fresh squash!

The recipe I used above was a variation of a recipe I found on Recipe.com.

I precooked the yellow zucchini, split in half,  for 2 minutes in the microwave and scraped out the seeds. I sautéed onion and traditional zucchini in Italian herb infused olive oil. Then I added sweet basil, ground pepper, milk, beaten egg and a blend of freshly grated parmesan and cheddar cheese. I baked it for about 40 minutes at 350, but the yellow zucchini 'dish' was still a bit firm. Next time I'd probably bake it closer to an hour. I am thinking bread crumbs on top, perhaps mixed with additional cheese, might be a nice finishing touch.

The recipe was tasty, but didn't receive raves from the family. I think they are already a bit weary of squash at dinner!

Seriously?

Gypsy has gained a bit of weight during the past year.

We found this 'slow feeding' bowl.

Gypsy doesn't need to speak English to communicate

her true feelings about her new bowl!

Liars!

We planted 5 tomato plants in May. Due to our altitude, which brings early and late frosts, we have a short growing season, so we select varieties of vegetables that mature quickly. (And, boy-oh-boy, the squash is maturing all over the place!) One of our tomato plants indicated it would be ready to harvest in 62 days. Today is the 62nd day the plant has been in the ground. And sadly, we won't have a harvest tonight. 

June 2, 2014

I suppose we should give the plant some leeway since we have had cooler nights than usual, and hail, and wind….

July 23, 2014

Regardless…. we do have tomatoes! We have tons of tomatoes! On this plant, alone, I counted over 18!

But… they aren't ready yet. Perhaps they meant 62 days until harvest - if you like green tomatoes!

In the Jungle...

We didn't quite make "knee high by the 4th of July", but we came close! Perhaps if I were a bit shorter….
Do you see my elephant? I first put him in the same spot I had him in the previous photo (taken a mere two weeks before), and he was lost. I think I heard him trumpeting for help in negotiating his way out of the jungle rain forest. 

We have an irrigation system!! Woohoo!! I am dancing with joy. I am so tired of dragging hoses all over the place, and then trying to get them back in a nice, orderly coil. To water the trees in the back yard one needs almost 200 feet of hose. That gets heavy when water is in it!

The irrigation system isn't exactly new. When we bought our home, which had been vacant for over two years, we found a variety of systems that may or may not have been functional. The irrigation system was one of those. We could see that several pipes and valves in the manifold were cracked, and we noticed many pipes in the gardens around the house that had been chewed up by critters. We knew from previous experience that the manifold valves were very expensive. We wrote the system off, and proceeded to haul hoses around and use sprinklers as needed… until now.

We invited several irrigation system companies to come by and assess the situation. The fellow we selected seemed to like the challenge of seeing how much of the existing system he could use. Within a few hours he had 4 of the original 7 zones working! Wow! Were we ever surprised… I think he was surprised, too! It didn't take too much time and our system was up and running. Hooray!