A bumper crop season!!

Due to the mild temps this year, and the occasional "just the right amount" rain shower, the garden did very well. This year likened the 2009 season - another very mild and perfect summer.

I really like the new type of pole bean I tried this year. They are called Fortex and they grow up to 11" long with absolutely no strings even at full maturity. Much better than Kentucky Wonder beans which, to me, aren't even fit to eat because of the "ball of yarn" you end up with in your mouth.

Bhut Jolokia Peppers (Ghost Peppers) anyone!!??

Yes these are the real deal. I purchased the seed from New Mexico State University's Chili Pepper Institute a few years ago. I bring the original 3 year old plant inside every winter and usually one more of it's offspring as well for backup.

These peppers are grown on a completely separate property away from the garden and all other peppers to prevent cross contaminating the seed I gather for future plants.

Crappie and more Crappie!!

Ok so i'm behind and I've ignored this blog for too long. I need to revert back to 2 and 3 months ago. Spent May and June Crappie fishing at my local public lake every chance I got. As of July I brought home 115 keepers and have caught at least 250+ total. They've slowed down for the summer, but they'll be back and i'll be bringing em' home again September through November. Maybe even through early Winter.

And so it begins!!

Harvest season has started already - time to get busy canning!! Thanks to reasonable temperatures so far this year, and the occasional rain shower, the garden is doing very well.

My new monster

My latest PC build, earlier this year. My most powerful one yet!

Ingredients: Asus P8Z77-V LK motherboard, Intel core i7 3770K processor, G.Skill twin 4G memory (8GB),  MSI NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560Ti graphics card, Samsung 120G solid state drive, Western Digital Black 500GB hard drive, Seasonic M12ii 620W power supply, Asus DVD burner disc drive, Cooler Master HAF-912 case.

 

 

Pre-assembly and power up to make sure all components are functional.

 

 

The brains of the beast. Asus P8Z77-V LK motherboard and Intel Core i7 3770K processor.

 

 

Big boy graphics card, a must for playing World of Warcraft!

 

 

Double drives. One 120GB Samsung solid state drive for the operating system & main software, and one WD 500GB hard drive for music, pictures, games, files, etc.

 

 

Gotta have some big clean power to back it all up!

 

 

And of course the body of the beast, my Cooler Master case.

 

 

Mix it all together and you get.......One nice clean build.

 

 

 

Update - Added 2 more case cooling fans last week, one 200mm top fan and one 140mm side fan. The GPU and CPU were running a tad hotter than I cared for.

 



 

 

 

 

 



 

 



 

 

 

You eat those things?!

"You eat those things?!"

 

 



Roadtrip

Headed down to the in-laws place for a couple days this weekend.

 

Perfect timing! Their blackberry patch was at it's peak.

 

 

 

And of course what's the first thing I see when I return home? One of the 3 resident wild baby rabbits eyeballing the garden. They're leaving it alone for now, but when they're grown up i'm sure we'll be having a war!

 

 

A bunch of tomatoes decided to ripen while we were away. Tomatoes always seem to ripen faster when their care giver isn't checking them 3 times per day.

 

 

 

 



Welp, here it goes.

 

 

It's over 90 degrees today, so the cat is of course miserable. It's his own fault though, he refuses to migrate to the cooler parts of the house. Soooooo....
 

 

Finally starting to get some goods from the garden. Spring and early summer was a wash out with all the rain, so everything got delayed.
 

An ice cream bucket full of mustard greens is always a good sight. These will be takin' a dive into a pot on the stove with bacon grease and garlic!!
 



 

The bees have been taking over the hummingbird feeders lately. I suppose that's why the birds stopped showing up?
 

 

Today is my kind of day!

 

Garden Tomato + Bacon + Salad Dressing + Bread = Supper time!

 

 

 Time to kick back for the evening.