I am constantly amazed by my grandparents.

I know people half their age who would never be able to send an email with scanned attachments,

or even know that it is possible.

This is the email:

We thought these would give you some ideas!

-Grandma

They are great ideas!

I am looking forward to a weekend of 80 degree temperatures and lots of yard work!

We had the opportunity to see how our tractor would do pushing snow.   Before we purchased the tractor, we saw You Tube videos showing the impressive power that it had pushing snow; but we had never tested it ourselves.  It was great!

Ryan got the tractor out first thing yesterday morning to clear out a spot for Sport to use the bathroom.  As you can see in the Photo of the Day, he could barely walk in the snow, much less squat

Later in the day, we both went out and took turns working on clearing the drive way.

The little orange tractor did great!

I moved all of the snow from the driveway into a little snow mountain!

I love our little tractor!

To see previous posts about our tractor, click here.

Autumn Blooms

The most important things, I’ve learned when buying a tractor is:

1.  How good does my wife think she will look on it, since it will be her new toy!

2.  What color does she like the most

3.  What seat is most comfortable.  (and which one reclines)

4.  Make sure it has a neat forward and reverse pedal that makes it easier for her to maneuver

5.  It needs to be able to run accessories, such as:  post hole digger for her new fence, front end loader so its easier for me to spread mulch and so we can play in the snow with it.

6.  Last but not least, (and yes, she did actually ask the salesman) “if I put my beer in the cup holder will it shake it up?”  All we received with this question was a dumbfounded look from him for about five minutes and then he finally said  “They are still working on that one! ”  Sorry Sweetie!!!

But. . .

when I opened the box, I looked in and said, aloud, those idiots forgot about dirt!

Then I saw these:

When I saw them I instantly realized that they must be compressed dirt.

I have seen compressed saw dust briquettes used for fire started logs, and learned about tea bricks in US History, but never have I seen compressed dirt!

The directions said to add water.

So, I added water:

Then I added a little more water:

Those two little dirt tablets completely filled a mixing bowl of moist soil!

They were interviewed for an article about their fig crop.

Please check out the article! Click here.

Grandma’s Fig Preserves:

Fresh Figs:

Monday night my Mother-in-Law brought us some flowers;  as an extremely fair barter for a fresh batch of green beans and potatoes.

We received some lilies and blossoms from her Hardy Hibiscus.

Although the hibiscus does not produce much of a cutting flower, they are absolutely gorgeous while they last!

The Hibiscus blossom in this photograph is nearly 12 inches in diameter!

To see past garden updates click here.

We have a ton of squash, which I have been cooking every way I know how. . .

I will post about that tomorrow.

We also have green tomatoes!  I can’t wait for them to ripen!

Peppers are getting big!

Cabbage is also looking great!

These cucumbers plants are doing fantastic! I think that they might get as big as my parents’ cucumber plants!

Yay! Baby Cucumbers!

We started gathering the rocks this weekend. 

My Wifie on the tractor:

Trailer of rocks:

Along the way we figured we’d gather some of the raspberries that grow along the path.

In another week or so the raspberries will be a lot more plentiful.  We will use the raspberries in homemade ice cream and raspberry cobbler.  We will post about them soon. 

This is a section of woods and ”River Bottom” where I spent a lot of my childhood days.  In the picture below is what is left of the house where my grandmother and great grandmother grew up.

The amazing thing about them is that the color of the flowers can be manipulated.

Bigleaf Hydrangea flowers are naturally pink, in neutral to alkaline soils, meaning soil with a ph of 6.5 and higher.  If you have acidic soil, it is possible to raise the pH in your soil by adding lime, to produce pink flowers.

When the soil in more acidic, a pH of 5.5 or lower, the flowers are blue; and when the pH in the soil is between 5.5 and 6.5, the flowers are purple.  As you will see below, it is possible to have a mixture of flower colors on one plant.  If you have neutral soil and want to produce blue flowers, you can lower the pH with aluminum sulfate.  Be careful when adding aluminum sulfate because not all plants can handle acidic soil, and you don’t want to harm neighboring plants.

Photos of my Grandma’s Hydrangeas: 

Amazing.