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Thursday, September 09, 2010

TOMATILLO TIME!

On Wednesday, Sophia came running into the house exclaiming “Grandmama!! Papa!! Come and look!! The TOMATILLOS are hatching!“ And sure enough, they were - a number of them were so big that they were splitting their husks:
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Posted by Earl on 09/09 at 01:23 PM
Family Matters • GARDENING •

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

BIGGEST BEND HARVEST TO DATE!

Victor should probably get hold of himself right now, lest he laugh so hard he gets a HERNIA....but today was a banner day in the Bend edition of Earl Aagaard’s garden.

Once Sophia got to our house, and Gail headed out for her appointment, the girlie and I tripped off into the garden for a look around.

I had told her we were going to pick some things, and as soon as we approached the COLD FRAME, she spied the STRAWBERRY and squealed…..this is berry #2, remember, and picking it just thrilled her.

Then I pointed out the CUCUMBER, hanging high up on the tomato cage, and she reached up and picked it.

The ZUCCHINI was impossible to reach….in fact, I had to climb into the frame, and stretch down OVER the wire cage around the plant in order to get it, but that made THREE “CROPS” harvested in a single afternoon!

Sophia was enchanted….although not so distracted by the vegetables and fruit that she didn’t stop half-way back to the house to capture a CRANE FLY. Sadly, she was holding it by one leg, and just as I saw this, the fly snapped off the leg and was away…..ah well.

Then she posed with the day’s harvest
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Sophia was dancing with impatience for Grandmama to get home and be “surprised” by the produce! We ate our lunch (me) and snack (Sophia), and about the time we finished, Gail arrived and played her part to perfection. Then the tasting began…...

The strawberry was rather small and seedy, but we dutifully cut it into four pieces and shared it out, one quarter to each of us - and it was DELICIOUS! The perfect strawberry - sweet, and also with intense flavor. If all my strawberries were like this one, I’d be a happy farmer! I lopped off that skinny end of the zucchini, and then cut a round and divided it in four - dipping each quarter in RANCH DRESSING before the tasting. It was good, although Sophia said that one bite was enough. It was a bit strong, honestly. Then I personally tasted a piece of the cucumber to be sure it wasn’t bitter from uneven watering, and it was delicious. Sophia tasted her little chip, whereupon she followed Grandmama’s lead, picked up the cuke, and simply gnawed hunks off the end. She really LIKES cucumbers.

All in all, a very satisfying afternoon…..although when I told Laura about it, she laughed and said she wondered how Sophia would react to what we used to harvest at the Homestead. A waste of time and energy to think about that—this is Bend….get used to it!

High temperatures will be in the high 60s and low 70s for the next 10 days, and the overnight lows will be high 30s and low 40s. I probably won’t have to pull my plastic over the garden, but I’ll certainly watch the updates from day to day so I don’t get frost-killed by a big surprise. And I’m still needing to cut the basil again.

(sigh)

Posted by Earl on 09/07 at 10:35 PM
Family Matters • GARDENING •

Sunday, September 05, 2010

OUR DAY AT THE HIGH DESERT MUSEUM…..

Almost as soon as we arrived in BEND, we purchased a membership at the HIGH DESERT MUSEUM. We’d been there before with Sophia, and it’s just a fabulous place to spend a few hours.

This weekend, Sophia stayed overnight with us and then we went to Sabbath School (next month, she’ll be four years old and “graduate” to Kindergarten!). There were only three children there (holiday weekend), and this time we didn’t go on to church, because there was a Raptor Show at the museum that started at 1:00, and we couldn’t make it by the time church was finished. So, we went home and made sandwiches (peanut butter and pickle, peanut butter and honey), packed apples, carrots, etc. and off we went to the Museum.

Out front is the trout stream, so we did the usual and fed the hungry fish with bread crumbs….extremely satisfying
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Yes, I realize that the photo isn’t all that impressive - but come back later for the video!

Once inside, we headed directly for the “lecture hall”
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and were mightily disappointed when it was announced that they were doing a “Desert Animals” lecture, postponing the Raptor Show until 3:00. BOY, were we glad we decided to stay, anyhow
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Posted by Earl on 09/05 at 09:18 PM
Family Matters • VACATIONS, SIGHTSEEING •

MOUNT BACHELOR IN SUMMERTIME…....

This is what Mount Bachelor looks like from Songbird Lane during the wintertime…..and THIS:
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is what it looked like on August 30 of 2010:

So, when Laura suggested that we take the chair lift to MOUNT BACHELOR SKI AREA’s Pine Marten Lodge up on the mountain this last Friday (September 3) , I wasn’t sure what to expect…..

Posted by Earl on 09/05 at 07:37 PM
Family Matters • VACATIONS, SIGHTSEEING •

Friday, September 03, 2010

MORE HARVEST FROM THE VEGETABLE GARDEN….

Today I went out and took photos - and tomorrow or Sunday, I’ll actually harvest some of the following. Most beautiful is the zucchini:
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These are squashes numbers 2 and 3, so far….and check out the second cucumber!
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Posted by Earl on 09/03 at 10:51 PM
Family Matters • GARDENING •

Monday, August 30, 2010

NEW HARVEST!!

Another red-letter day, as we picked our first STRAWBERRY!!
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There’s another (small one) on the plant, getting pink at the moment….plus a couple of flowers that look like they’ll produce berries of their own, if we can keep things going long enough.

We cut this one up to share among three - the consensus was that it was definitely a strawberry, although not a terribly SWEET one!

This is Bend gardening, I’m afraid….one of each thing.

Posted by Earl on 08/30 at 05:47 PM
Family Matters • GARDENING •

Monday, August 23, 2010

MY OWN PICKLING CUCUMBER

It’s probably says something significant about gardening in Bend that I’m posting the harvest of a single pickling cucumber!!
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Posted by Earl on 08/23 at 10:54 AM
Family Matters • GARDENING •

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