Our Babies Are Growing Up

Just a brief little update to explain where I've been. We are planting those 4000 blueberry bushes. They aren't babies any more, but teenagers. It is time consuming and back-breaking work. Not to mention that my hands will never be the same. We are planting in mulch, so the splinters abound. I am digging out splinters from all of our hands. I picked up some rubberized gloves tonight, so it should be better now.

I am also having computer troubles again. Yes, my 3 1/2 month old computer had a hard drive failure. I had to get a local computer guy (one of the Dads in our HS group) to slave the hard drive for me, to save some personal data. The computer is still under warranty since it's new, and they'll even pay for shipping (Hooray!!), but it's still a pain in the neck. I have been trying to get my stuff together for our taxes. We have a new accountant this year doing taxes for us (because of our businesses, I can't do them myself anymore like I used to). We had to file an extension for the new accountant to catch up, but now I am the hold up!

I got my sewing machine back and it's working nicely. What a little cleaning and new grease will do; it's amazing. I sneak a few minutes when I can, as I lost a lot of time on the sewing machine being in the shop for so long, and I also couldn't sew during our trip up North. So I feel like I'm behind on my project. Not to mention that I was having withdrawl symptoms.

Off to bed now, as we're going out early in the morning again. It's getting SO hot to plant in the evenings. The kids skipped school today, but for good reason. It won't last forever. It just reminds us of how the pioneers made sure their planting and harvesting took first priority. The rest of "life" had to somehow find a place around the farm work. Actually, my hubby stayed home from work today to plant all day. He took his sales calls as they came in, but otherwise, he took a "personal" day.

Catch you guys soon. I haven't been able to check any body's blogs.

Tomatoes are Planted

Well, we planted our tomatoes with the help of a friend of ours. We are quite lucky for him to show us his tomato-growing secrets. He inducted us into the Tomato-Grower's Secret Society, and we are waiting for his secrets to work their magic on our plants. It's really kind of funny, but that's what he wants us to do. He's a super guy. Some of you might remember him from our New Year's Eve Party. He was the barbecue chef. He's very knowledgeable about many different and diverse subjects. I am in awe every time I talk to him. I love to surround myself with knowledgeable people. Many of the mothers I meet are this way, and I love it!

Well, our tomatoes will be doing well to survive to the point they can produce their 200# per bush. (Oh, he also says they'll grow to 10 feet tall, and keep producing until the first frost in winter. We'll see, won't we?) Our dogs keep digging them up. I don't know how they're getting out at night, but they are. I have, for the last several mornings, gone out and replanted several of the tomato plants. I am quite upset at our dogs right now. The stinkers!! They are labs, however, and I guess they do this sort of thing. Just ask my friend bfarmmom.

I did finally get in our backordered tomato seeds. They are sprouting, and when they're big enough, I will plant them with the others. They'll probably grow pretty fast since I used extra worm tea on them. This variety is called "Costoluto" beef steak tomatoes, all the way from Italy! The other three varieties we planted are: Brandywine (red) beef steak, Black Russian (a purple heirloom), and then a hybrid "Sugary" grape tomato, just because we love to pop those cute little ones in our mouth in the fields.

The kids have helped with this process all the way through, and they are hoping they can put a little money in their pockets along the way, from selling some of the fruit of their labors. Their homeschool field trip expenses have escalated since the group started going skating every other Wednesday. Let's just say that roller-skating is their latest obsession.

Tomato Mission

I am on a tomato mission of sorts. Our family absolutely LOVES good, flavorful tomatoes. You know, a tomato that really tastes like a tomato! Well, everybody but C love them. He says he only likes the ones we grew in our garden 3 yrs. ago. They were called Brandywine. Anyway, really good tomatoes are hard to find. And if you do find them, they will cost you your right arm to purchase some. Our local grocery store has heirloom tomatoes, but we have never purchased them before because they're so expensive. Well, today, we bought 3 different varieties of heirloom tomatoes, one of each. They were on sale, but they still cost me $8.00!! I almost choked. So, I got to thinking. I need to save some seed from those golden nuggets and grow some myself! So I did some researching tonight online and it doesn't look too hard to do. I see a homeschool project in the works.....

In this picture, B thinks I'm getting a picture of her beautiful flower she found on the weed plant.

Back to tomatoes. We have 3 varieties planted in little pots. I ordered some heirloom tomato seeds online this year. I was upset though, when the variety I really wanted was on back order and still hasn't come in yet! We've had some near-frosts lately, or at least pretty low temperatures, so we keep bringing them in to the garage to keep them warm, just to be safe. Then we cart them back outside. Every time we cart them back and forth, we seem to drop one or two, or three! This last trip I nearly had a heart attack because we had a flat break on us. It was cracked and we didn't realize it until it was too late. I think we may have been able to rescue the seedlings without too much damage. I hope that's the end of the low evening temperatures. Florida isn't supposed to have weather like this!

So, these tomatoes we've planted. I am clueless as to what comes next. You see, we have a friend who is a professional horticulture specialist. He is going to tell us his secret on how to grow prize-winning tomatoes. He's swearing us to secrecy over this. Oh, the suspense is killing me! And he's too funny. He shows up to my hubby's shop every few days to get the "tomato report" and the "blueberry report". He keeps giving us incremental, step-by-step instructions on just what to do. I can't wait for juicy, tasty tomatoes. And I'm hopeful that C will like the ones we grow this year as well. Maybe that's why he liked the Brandywine so much a couple years ago, because they actually tasted so good, and not like the cardboard tasting tomatoes I can find for a decent price in the stores. I tried to buy Brandywine seeds again, but could not find the seeds in the local garden stores. I think produce gardening is a dying art. I haven't done much in my recent past either, so I'm not casting stones here! We had about 3 gardens right after we moved here, but we finally gave up because of poor soil and major pests: both insects and rabbits. Hopefully, we'll have learned a little more this time to make this project worth our while!

The kids can't wait for their favorite part of tomato gardening. One of the websites I looked up tonight about tomatoes stated it this way: "To kill the most destructive, ravenous tomato-eater, the Tomato Horn-worm Caterpillar, put a 10 cent bounty on their heads and turn your kids loose in the garden to hunt them down." My kids LOVE this activity, and search for them with vigor. They argue over who gets to stomp and squish them, when I find the caterpillars. Large smears of green goo in the dirt. Isn't that gross?!?

And here is a picture of the tomatoes as they look today, with their buddy the avocado tree. Before the Tomato Horn-worm infestation begins.

Mulch Bucket in Use

Here is the mulch bucket that H welded up nearly entirely by himself. It was just tacked together by his dad prior to H doing his work on it one day at the shop. (See a recent post--Family Business)

Ch is spreading the mulch out evenly over the tilled-up dirt. The boys took turns bringing tractor-loader buckets full of mulch from the mulch piles we had trucked in, (We had to get 6 large truck loads of the stuff!) clear over to where Ch was spreading it out. They worked on it one full day, and we're only half done with our mulch and field spreading. They also went over to a couple neighbor's houses and did the same for them. Now Ch has to till it into the ground, to get the proper mix of dirt (FL sand) and mulch.

More New Pets

Our family's pet population is exploding. We just got 2000 new pets. What are they, you ask? Why, worms, of course! Working worms. They're composting our way to a better blueberry field, hopefully healthier, happier, bug-free plants! We are having serious discussions about whether we should go organic or not. Organic is healthier, yes, but will it result in good fruit? I've always admired organic produce, but have heard it's very hard to do successfully. So, we got the Can-O-Worms composting condo and we're trying it out. Here are pictures of us setting it up. It comes from Australia, of all places!! (They are light-years ahead of us here in the states for their "green" philosophy and practices.) The starter bedding the condo comes with is dried up coconut fiber. You have to add a LOT of water to get the small hard brick to expand sufficiently.

This picture of B with the worm cracks me up. She thinks that she needs to personally touch every single one and tell them each how much we love them. Then I remember that I had a fascination with worms when I was just 4 or 5 yrs. old. I can remember digging worms up in our garden when I was very small. They were my "friends".

Sneaking a Quick Minute to Blog

Hubby brought the internet card home tonight, but I didn't get much time to use it. I am working on organizing the place and trying to catch up on stuff that needs done around the house. I have been very bad. I've been procrastinating sorting through a few piles of who-knows-what since we moved in here around June 1st. Granted, the boys' room didn't even get done until Christmas Eve, but I don't have an excuse any more! So sorting and pitching have begun.

I just took a little break right now to answer a quick question that was asked. Why are we plucking off all our blueberry blooms? We're only picking them because our little bushes are very small. Some of them are only a few inches tall, barely more than bare sticks. We got them several months ago as bare root cuttings. If the bush is too small, it cannot support the blossoming and fruiting process. They can actually bloom themselves to death. Evidently, a blueberry plant only has so much energy. If it spends all its energy on fruiting, there won't be any energy left for plant growth. We know we won't have a harvest this year. That's to be expected because they are so young. But we should have a small harvest next spring, if the plants have grown enough by then. With all the TLC they're getting, they should be good.

Speaking of which, we've really got to keep our eye on them. I just discovered some invaders this weekend! We have aphids and caterpillars. The latter seems to have killed about 10 plants. It happened very quickly, too! I don't know what kind of caterpillar it was, but they were small and very furry. We sprayed Sevin on them, and soap water on the aphids. H wants to order several thousand ladybugs to take care of the aphids, but I am hoping the soap water drowns them sufficiently. It's cheaper!

Sorry if you guys are getting quite tired of the blueberry and family project talk. That's about all we've been up to lately!

Oh, except for one thing. Hubby was hopeful for a deal with a fellow from Australia. He said he might order 50 or 60 water trucks for resale over there! We've already sold several to Puerto Rico, but that's the only "out-of-the-states" activity I know about so far. Otherwise, we have water trucks in several states across the country, as well as many here locally. Back to Australia: the gentleman was supposed to meet my hubby again this morning down at the auction. He didn't show. He did have his flight back home today though, so maybe he couldn't come because of that? I'm praying about this one for sure. I want to get this deal so I can fly to Australia to check on things a time or two! Wouldn't that be nice? I can dream, can't I? I have always wanted to visit the Outback.

Off to bed now. It's been a long day. I miss visiting you guys' blogs though. I'll get there soon.

Laying Down Irrigation & Picking Blossoms

We've got to get the field ready for the baby blueberry bushes. So, the irrigation must go in! We're working on it almost every day after C gets home from work, until it's finished. We're also picking blossoms nearly every day because that's how fast they grow! Not to mention the weeds... Here, B is doing her part picking them with me. She is SO good at it too. She will pick blossoms for a couple hours with me before she politely asks for a "little break". She likes to put them all in her bucket so she can see how many she's picked. She must be visual like me.

While B and I pick blossoms, the guys dig irrigation trenches. H moves the tractor for C when he's ready for the move. C keeps busy with the shovel, hacking through tree roots. (See the string that runs along the trench? It's to keep the trench going relatively straight because it's so long.) I didn't get pictures of us laying pipe and electric cord in the trench then covering it over. The electric is required because we have an automatic irrigation timer, and also an electric well to pump the water from the ground. B and I were able to help with setting pipe and lines in the trenches.

I am so thankful we have these family projects to work on together. It keeps us involved with each other. C also believes in the value of a strong work ethic. He's been known to say that, "the family that works together stays together." We're also hoping that by keeping our kids busy, they won't have time to get into trouble as they enter their teenage years. I think it also gives them a sense of value as they see how much they can contribute to the family, and to society in general.

Where Have I Been?

It's been a busy few weeks, that's for sure. For one thing, I have been battling major computer troubles since about the middle of Dec. I am finally starting to get somewhere with it all. It's wonderfully nice to see progress. But it's taken up so much of my time that I didn't feel like I could spend any more time on the computer for "pleasure" by blogging. My kids were having mild withdrawls from me because I was so tied up on the computer lately.

Secondly, we have been spending SO much time working with the blueberries, and preparing the fields for the babies to be transplanted soon. I am definitely feeling the sore muscles of a farmer.

Needless to say, I have a lot of blogging to catch up on. Hopefully I can get several posts up in the next few days.