Its a Jungle in There

I've neglected the blog yet again. We've been busy with new life changes and schedules. Evan had surgery to remove his adenoids, the horses are taking up plenty of time, and the garden has decided to start coming in waves. The peas are gone. Replaced by composted horse manure to be tilled under in a month or so to try and grow a fall crop.  But everything else...holy Moses!

Above is the jungle that is my tomato field. There are three arbors total and they are about 6 feet tall. Yes, the tomatoes are now going taller than the arbor in some places. And it's hard to tell but almost every single plant is loaded with green tomatoes in all shapes and sizes.

 From the near 2 pounder...

To the standard sized but oddly shaped! Heirloom tomatoes are considered ugly by some. And I can see why. This is the reason that hybridized tomatoes took off.  Everyone wanted the smooth uniform fruit that we see in stores today. With the added benefit of higher production and disease tolerance, the tasteless hothouse tomatoes we have in our stores today are the norm. 

Wait...did I say disease tolerance? In the past I only grew hybrid tomatoes. (Better tasting than hot house certainly) But I kept getting blight and getting overridden with insects if I didn't use some form of pesticide. I haven't seen ONE bit of insect damage or blight on these. And the production? I don't know how I'm going to keep up. 

Of course, Willow is natural pest control as well. On top of rabbits and the occasional squirrel, Willow also loves bugs. I often hear him crunching away when I'm tending the garden. 

You can most likely see a couple of smaller cucumbers on the vine here. These trellises are also about 6 feet high. I've already put away 9 pints of pickles. That was from my first harvest. I'm considering donating a large portion of the fresh cucumbers to our local food bank after giving them away to friends and neighbors.

All of the onions are in and hanging up to cure.

Also coming in are green beans, carrots, some small ears of corn, and I picked a largish Jalapeno yesterday that was actually hot! (Imagine that!) Last year I grew all of my peppers together. I was not aware that bell peppers can make hot peppers mild and vice-versa.

Last, but certainly not least, I would like to introduce our newest family member, "Proud Jim". He is a 17.2 hand Percheron (That means he's 70 inches or 5.75 feet to his withers) We are having some trials with this new adoption considering he was sold to us with promise of good health and that he could work for several years to come. Unfortunately, shortly after coming home with us, an old injury started to show itself. It is a tendon injury and some people put down their horses for such an injury instead of treating it. After much thought and consideration, we have decided to keep him and fix him up instead of pursue a refund. We worry that in other hands he would be left out to pasture with no medical attention and would eventually become unable to stand at all. Either that, or he would be sold to someone else without revealing his injury. 

We want to make sure he spends his last years in comfort. And with lots of  work, we can make him ridable and workable for short periods again. A horse as magnificent and kingly as this one deserves to be admired. He loves excitement and certainly loves people. We will give him as much as we can.