Sorry about the delay...

To my fan,

Sorry about the delay in posting to this blog. On the advice of my attorney, it was recommended that I keep my mouth shut and not use "The F Word"....(Frito). But upon reviewing my past blogging, it's too late for that. I think I just about said my piece when it comes to the Frito empire and it's management. Nothing like a year (or in this case 15 months) to put a little distance on it. Now it's in the hands of the attorneys and I just hope that it's not wasted money.

Out here in the woods, it's summer. and not like any other summer y'all ever saw in California. It rains here in the summer. Then it gets hot. Then it gets real, real, real green. And bugs. Lotsa, lotsa bugs. I am caviar and filet mignon for insect invaders. Bugs like to bite me. It looks like I have measles. Not ticks so much, since the woods are too overgrown to hike in right now, but chiggars (little suckers that dig under your skin at the sock line), mosquitos, and biting flies. The biting flies are the worst, since they bite right through fabric. When you feel the bite - too late, they've had their meal and off they go. Itchy, itchy, itchy!

But the green is amazing. My little garden is running amuck! I planted canteloupe, gourds and butternut squash in a newly reclaimed area of the chicken yard - and the stuff is growing up the fence and out into the cow pasture. The gourds are so cool - all mixed varieties, and just so cute! I hope the livestock doesn't eat them before they get mature - they are supposed to the proper size for birdhouses. When they are mature and dry, you cut a hole with a drill bit for door knob holes and shake out the seeds, paint them white & the martins will use them for nests... or so I've seen. The good thing about this, when the martins leave for the winter, you simply throw away the bird houses. Regular martin houses have to taken down and washed out every year - ugh, don't like to clean bird cages, did it enough as a kid! Martins are supposed to be a very beneficial bird, as they eat flying insects. They do make a wonderful little chirpy noise as they swoop and fly around their bird houses. So, overall, I think I'd like to have some houses out for them, just not the maintenance of bird apartments.

I have watermelon growing, I planted this for my family. I'm not particularly fond of watermelons, they don't agree with me, but the family loves them. I planted these on the side of the driveway, out in full sun. I do have a dirty horse that has decided she like canteloupe vines and is pruning them back at the chicken yard, I sure hope she doesn't notice the watermelon - I actually have a lovely melon about the size of a basketball & I sure don't want it's vine munched by this stinky filly. I've never grown watermelon before, so this is kind of neat to watch it get big.

enough for now, I have to do something with the zucchini I've picked. I wasn't getting much zucchini, the yellow crookneck was doing way better. Until we had some rain and it pushed the leaves around and then I saw them. Moby Zucchini. Three of them. Probably the first ones that started, hidden under the leaves. Zucchini has to be picked daily, if they are allowed to fully develop, you don't get many. So here I had the 3 originals. 2 feet long, 20 pounders. ugh. pitched them over the fence for the cows to eat. I did have 1 great white shark size which will be shredded and baked in bread. been putting that off - why would I want to start the oven in this heat? I did see one recipe for fried shredded zucchini - looked pretty good. I may shred, squeeze out the water and freeze some of this stuff. just to get it out of the refrigerator and off the counter. Green beans are starting up and those I want to keep. It frightening to see how many big lovely green tomatoes are out there - I will have to can those guys when they are ripe, I still have some frozen ones from last year! I think I'll try to can some salsa, THAT I'll eat, just add the cilantro after I open the jar, since I don't want to cook it during the canning process.

yep, nothing like train of consciousness blogging. hehehe. multi tasking thinking: gardening - freezing - canning - food processing all in 1 paragraph.

my next task is to get photos posted. just have to figure out how to get the camera to talk to me, or maybe get a newer camera that has directions...