Watermelon Rind Pickles, Little Green Zucchinis and Hawthorn Berries

Since I ruined my lovely little pickling cucumbers I decided to do watermelon rind pickles. I've never done them before but people say they are great.





Aust has been wanting to get a watermelon so bad all summer but I wouldn't until they went on sale. We Finaly got one oh it was so good, crisp and sweet!! So Aust and Ter have been munching on it every day for part of their breakfast.



The recipe said to cut out the red pulp. (I hear the red goes slimy but I know people who actually pickle the red watermelon pulp and love the taste and texture. Yuck.) After doing that I peeled the dark green rind off. (That was near to impossible to do with a regular potato peeler. Wowser! So I gave up and went to a pering knife. I've also heard that you can use a hand cheese slicer. )

When all the rinds were peeled and cleaned I cut them up and processed them like I normally do for dill cucumber pickles. They look kind of pretty but we will see in four weeks if they taste OK or not. (Hopefully they will be tasty!) I only got 4 pints with 3/4 of a large watermelon but four pints are better then none. :) We love pickles!




My zucchinis are doing marvelous.....of course. They are the only sure fire crop I never have to worry about. I just get some picked and the next day there is more of them! I had to laugh when a lady in our ward wrote a song about zucchini's sung to the tune "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree". Here it is...

Little Green Zucchinis
(Sung to Popcorn Popping)

I walked through the garden and what did I see?
Little green zucchinis growing faithfully.
Gardening has brought me such a nice surprise.
Didn't I just planted these?..Oh how time flies!
I could take an armful and make a treat
Zucchini bread or brownies made with dry pack wheat.
We reap just what we sow
But I didn't really know
Little green zucchinis grow so easily.

I stepped through the corn and past the beans to see
Zucchini numbers rising exponentially.
Agronomy has brought me such a nice surprise.
But how am I to cook a thing of this great size?
I could take an armful and make a treat
An apple crisp or a jam oh so sweet.
We reap just what we sow
But I didn't really know
Zucchinis grow so fast and so tenaciously.

I drove some to my neighbors but I could plainly see
They had little green zucchinis just like you and me.
I got back to my porch and found a nice surprise
Little green zucchinis just might be my demise!
I could take an armful and make a treat ?
Or give one to the bishop - he'd think that was neat!


We reap just what we sow
But I didn't really know
Zucchini season grows on through eternity.




We took a walk on the nature path and found some Hawthorn trees so we picks some berries. While Aust watched ShyAnner. These berries arn't to dye for. They lack conciderable flavor and are quite bland. Their texture is a bit different from other berries but they are great for your heart, lowering blood pressure, arthritis and a whole bunch of other things. So we picked some to store. I actually got used to snacking on them while we were picking. But watch out! Their name is for the terrible 1 1/2 inch thorns that scar your hands when you pick them! Ouch!!

Last days of summer vacation and garden thoughts...

Signs of our summer vacation coming to a close have been found in our back yard. Aust has spent every day in the canal by the tree house playing his heart out with all his friends. It has been way to hot lately so he and the neighbors have found this to be their favorite spot. They swing on the rope and splash in the water nearly all day. You can tell by the look on his face he is serious... serious about having fun that is!I remember when I was his age, feeling the panic that summer vacation was almost over. You just go into desperation mode and try to fit all the 'FUN' in that you can!... it looks like they are trying to squeeze every last drop out of their summer vacation in typical boy fashion ;)

I love boys...they always find ways to enjoy themselves!

Terry and I have been focused on storing food even more this year then ever before. Especially from our garden. (I hope that is not a sign of extremely tough times ahead...although there very well could be...) We found a fun Farmer's Market that the city holds on Friday evenings. They had some wonderful things there! We were able to get 15 lbs of fresh honey from a local Bee farmer to add to our growing stash of sweeteners. We also got his location so we can get more. I have never tasted honey so fresh, it is soooo good!!
We also bought some lovely herbs to grow...

Dill, Oregano, Basil, Chives, Mint and Lavender from the students at BYUI. Most of them are perennials and will survive the winter so they will be back next year. (Hopefully. If, I don't kill them before they get established!) I had to put an old rusty metal mesh over them so that ShyAnner-Bananer wouldn't dig them up. She loves digging in the most unfortunate places.

I have had a better gardening year this year then last. Granted...I still have many weeds but the garden is producing much better. I decided to not do all the garden in the commercial weed fabric like last year. This meant more work at first but the root crops all seem to be doing much better than last year's so I do believe it is a better choice. I have larger carrots and my onions are fantastic as well as the beets. Terry planted heirloom Italian beets and they look like a big red onions (except they are more pink) when you cut into them. My, they are wonderfully sweet and they don't bleed like regular beets. But don't eat the ones that don't have their rings yet...they can be bitter.

I think flooding the rows this year as compared to last year's sprinkling irrigation might have helped. My neighbor boy mows lawns and had leftover grass clippings and I learned that if you put 8 to 10 inches the areas you don't want weeds that you can control them pretty good. I just put an 18" wide border around the three sides of the garden to prevent quack grass and weeds from creeping in. It sure takes a lot of grass though and unfortunately animals love to play in it. Well, at least ours do. I went out several times only to find spots strewn all over the rest of the lawn like a tornado hit. It did...a little one...named ShyAnn. She loves the piles of grass and tears through them like a little maniac. Lilly doesn't tear through it but will dig in it looking for bugs and grass hoppers.

I do like to line some of the areas of our garden with commercial weed fabric. The pumpkins, squash, zucchini and tomatoes all love it! (Watermelon does too but I didn't grow any this year). I think the black attracts the heat and they thrive. I have them on a drip system and it does a great job.I have learned some things that you should not do in a garden.

#1 Don't plant small skinny pickling cucumbers next to zucchini or giant pumpkin plants. They cross pollinate and you get this...

a pickling cucumber blown up to the size of baseballs! Yup...I ruined the pickling cucumbers really good...they cross pollinated and now my mini cucumbers are giant base balls and my giant pumpkins are mini! Well not quite mini but let's just say they are much smaller. So instead of cucumber pickles this year I guess I'm doing watermelon rind pickles and dilly beans this year.

#2 Never have your dog around when your planting blue berry bushes...Let me explain. We got four lovely blueberry bushes about 12 inches tall through Gurneys Nursery. When they came we were all excited (since blueberries are one of our favorite berries) and went out in the garden to plant them...including Shy-Ann. She was happy that we were digging holes but what fascinated her even more was when we filled the wholes with a plant. She found those plants irrisistable and a little while later we came out to find the leaves on one of the end plants almost completely gone! We were not sure but we had our sneeking suspicions just who might have done the dirty deed. Yup...moments later she came up to the next blue berry plant and stripped off the leaves with her teeth on one branch. I screamed and that was the end of that. We banned her from the blueberries and not a moment to soon. Now we have a fence that surrounds them so that Shy-Anner can not harass them!

Luckily she doesn't do this as much to our raspberry plants and they are growing pretty good. Whew!! (These were transplants from the year before so they are getting a new start in this part of the garden. I put Amonia Sulfate as my brother and brother-in-law said to do and they sure have done well.)

#3 OK, so our winter apples aren't part of our garden but I am learning that if you don't put out these little fertilizer spikes down into the ground around the base in the spring then the fruit only grows small. But oh they sure look yummy! I can't wait until the first frost so that I can pick 'em and can 'em.

Because of the wet and extremely cold weather we had in June our 18 tomatoes are very late to blush (turn red). They are growing good. (only because we put a plastic dome over them or they would have been goners when it hailed those several times in June!) I talked to one guy at the extension office and he said that if we don't have a couple of good weeks with steady 90 degree weather then I'll have to find a recipe for fried green tomatoes. Um...Yuck! So Terry is very worried. These are his babies. He loves...and I mean LOVES tomatoes!

Well, gardening is a funny thing for me. I usually run out of steam by now but I'm actually getting excited to can and store the produce. Terry is going to make a root cellar in our garage...we are not sure how it will work but we hope it does a good job of storing winter apples, potatoes onions, carrots, beets, winter squash and cabbage.

I am so grateful the garden has produced this year. We have all been working so hard and Heavenly Father has blessed us abundantly.

Fun at the park...Enjoying our time with Aust.

Almost time for school! Needless to say, Aust is pretty happy to see all his schoolmates again ...he is such a social bug! I have to say I'm pretty sad to see him go. This summer has been different from those in the past. We have had many heart to hearts and I have enjoyed it so much. Although I put on a happy face for him he knows I'm a bit sad. In his tender hearted way he lets me know he'll be right home after school and we can spend the rest of the day together. ;) I love that tender heart of his.

Just as much as he loves to be around other people, they want to be around him. This summer we have had to run around the house every morning trying to hurry up and get the chores done because by 11:00am Austin's friends are calling him to come play. Well last weekend we were despirate to have him all to ourselves so we wisked him away early Friday before any phone calls and went to a beautiful park in St. Anthony. We had a great time playing on the lava rocks...Austin found a tiny cave,

It had some beautiful waterfalls, trees and rocks...so we explored and took some pics.

Wow hon, your so handsome!

Oh, If I only had a video camera at the time! Off the screen to the right Dad is doing a crazy dance and some extrordinary singing. You can see by Aust's reaction that he is quite talented :)

You can't see them very well but there are some beautiful water falls behind me. Terry likes to zoom up so they are nearly cut out of the picture.

Austin wanted to take a picture too.

My two favorite people!

A beautiful day to go round and round...

Doing boy things.

There were alot of fun trees to climb and explore. Climbing seems to come very natural to the both of them.

We took a walk along a nature path and ran into this little guy along the way. In the picture he looks rather small but standing he comes to about 8 inches above my knee. You can't see his tail here because it is slid around back of him but he is an American beaver. He just stood very still when we happened upon him but finally he scurried off.

It was a great day with our little guy before he has to go back to school.

Bear Lake Twice

We had a wonderful time on July 24th weekend down at Bear Lake Utah with the Searle side of our family. Jen and David were over it this year and it was amazing what they had planned.

(My little sis Jenni. Beautiful as ever, even after our first very late night of camping!)

From the fun treasure hunts for the kids to the family pinewood Derby...

(Way to go Grandpa!! Great track!!!) to the crafts and great day at the lake, (Ya, it was really this blue!!)

it was just such an enjoyable time to be had by all. We had such great food...Thank you all! (Good food is always a bonus when you are camping:)

The water fight. We never have a reunion without one...or two...or three :)

I loved seeing all the nieces and nephews that were able to make it. Some have kids of their own now and their children are just like them. It is just so funny to watch.

(He is just like a miniature Josh!!)

(I wish I had a picture of Brecken he is the exact image of Bryant. Below is baby Noah, Jill's sweet little boy. I did not get a pic of little Gram, Ange's cutie but he sure is growing!)

Life goes by so fast. One minuet your young and the next your having young ones of your own. Time is to precious to squander on things that don't matter. Family is forefront in our Heavenly Father's Plan. Our little family is so blessed to have such good family members that support and love us on both the Earl and Searle sides.

Unfortunately we missed the Earl reunion in June this summer. It was hard to know that they were all together and we were not there. We hope to be going down there in the fall sometime. Yahoo!!!! :) We are very excited!

We had a little experience last weekend July 31st. First let me explain the weekend before...The weekend before was the Searle reunion and I had taken the motorhome down to it. On the way, one of the tires on the back began to peel apart. It was so close to blowing so we had to leave it over the week so that the mechanic's shop could order the right tires (they don't make them anymore because they are so old!) The warehouse where they ordered them had just enough in stock to change all six tires so Terry thought it would be wise to go ahead and change all six so that this wouldn't happen again. We were blessed that we did not have an accident. Now, back to the July 31st.

We headed back to Montpelier to get the motorhome and we had planned to spend the night then go to the lake and have some fun the next day. Well, we picked up the motorhome about 3:30pm. We came to the canyons several miles down the road where we were looking for a an open campsite. All the campsites were filled. We decided to go the the RV place we had seen earlier. (They had told us that they had only one spot left.) So when we turned around Terry led the way in the motor home this time and I was behind him.

Immediately I spotted a serious problem with the set of tires on the back right side of the motor home. They wobbled like they would nearly fall off! I frantically honked my horn at Ter but he could not hear me over the loud engine in the motorhome. He sped down the mountain to hurry and get to the RV place before the last RV site was taken all the while I honked like a crazy person all the way down the mountain... but to no avail. So Aust and I prayed and prayed that the tires would not fall off and Terry would not be injured.

We got to the RV place and Ter was able to get the last camp spot but then we had to tell him the bad news about the right side tires. By now it was 4:30pm and we had only a few minuets to call the mechanic's shop to see if they could fix it before they closed. Terry could not get any service on his cell phone at the campsite so he jumped in the truck and went as fast as he could to a place where he could get reception. He came back pretty discouraged. He called but they were already gone for the day and they would not be open on Saturday.

We did not know what to do. Here we had spent a bundle on new tires and now we had even more problems with them. We were so stressed that having any fun seemed out of the question. We decided that we need to at least try to have fun for Austin's sake. So we piled in the truck and headed 16 miles to Garden City to their Raspberry Days. I wanted to get some fresh raspberries for canning and thought this would be my prime opportunity. We got there and found a huge crowd along with many booths but absolutely no raspberries. Well, I take that back. We got a raspberry shake and there was one berry on the top. So we did find one. :)

We headed back the 16 miles to the motorhome still worrying about what to do. Austin could tell we were stressed out, he was so patient with us. I had a feeling to "calm my heart and an answer would come" but it was so hard to push the worry out. The terrible fact was that we did not have much money left to spend on these tires...so how would they get fixed? Terry was worried that the rims had been bent. The rims are as rare as the tires, no one would have them in stock. In fact one of the guys we took it to said they might have to try the junk yard. Oh brother...

Later that evening after we had eaten Austin told us what he thought might be the problem. He told us to look at the bolts that held on the tires. Some bolts seemed to be tighter then others he explained. But we were to stressed, we were pretty sure it must be that the rims were bent and not the tightness of the bots, "After all," I thought, "Surely the place we took it to would have tightened the tires on tight enough!" Well, a bit later Terry came to me and said, "I have been praying and I think it is just exactly what Austin has said."

He went out and jacked our motor home up then proceeded to use this big bar thing to tighten them up. He could easily turn several of the bolts...which isn't a good sign. Tires should be tightened very tight. Well, that did it! What a blessing!! Aust told me later that he had been praying and singing primary songs the whole time to help keep him calm. I believe that is why he was the first to receive an answer. I so stressed out and near tears. The worry and stress I felt left no room for faith to receive an answer. It was a great lesson for me. I am grateful our Heavenly Father loves us and hears and answers prayers. I am grateful for a sweet son who has a strong testimony of prayer and for a wonderful Husband who always manages to take good care of us...even during tough times. We were so blessed.

So, then we went to the lake and had a wonderful time!!!

We ended up having a great time!!! I didn't get any pictures of us out in the lake because I didn't want to get my camera wet and ruin it. But Bear Lake is great!! The sand is perfect for playing in, very few rocks if any. The level of water is so gradual that you can go out a couple hundred yards or so before it gets deep. It was very relaxing and much needed :) We love the Bear Lake area and want to go again soon.