Staking Tomatoes

Whew, we have been so busy lately with all sorts of activities. Our church youth group has several fund raisers throughout the year to send our youth to a week of camp and one of our biggest events was this past weekend. We sold smoked chicken dinners to local businesses on Friday. On Saturday we had a HUGE yard sale, more smoked chicken dinners for sale, a concession stand and a moon walk for the kids to play on, (50 cents donation of course). Also, last week we had a baby shower for Brooke. Let me just say it was PINK!! She was blessed with lots of beautiful girly outfits. What fun! I would have taken pictures of all the happenings but my hubby had the camera and he was gone on a trip to Minnesota! This is a big deal for him. I will share more later on that later.


Anyway, I just wanted to share what I have learned about staking tomatoes. Maybe someone else feels the same way I do about trying to keep these plants upright with the fruit off of the ground!!?? Every summer I dread this task. I have tried many different things and none seem to really work. Well, this time we talked to a friend that has worked on a tomato farm and he told us how they staked tomatoes in large rows. It is very simple and inexpensive (I could probably buy a tomato farm with all the money spent through the years trying different ideas!) so we are going to give it a try! So far it is working great and makes perfect sense.

As you can see, my tomato plants are in deperate need of some help. See, I told you I dreaded this job! However, this picture is a good before and after example of how this all works. First of all you put one (that's right folks, ONE stake-I used to have 4 or 5!!) stake beside each plant like so...

Then, on the first stake you start with a simple knot using twine or jute string.

Next, take the string and go along each stake making a loop like the example below and keeping the string on the same side of the row. For example, string along the front of the row first then at the end of the row go along the back side of the row and loop around each stake again. Tie off with a knot. The string should be pretty low to the ground. As the plants grow you do the same thing again but higher up on the stake. I have found the trick is to keep your string as tight as possible.

I also learned from this friend how to help keep your plants growing upright. Around the bottom of the young plants there are shoots, suckers, that should be pinched off before the plant gets very mature. Here is and example of a sucker. See how the limb below the sucker is growing downward? That is what causes the tomato plant to get so sprawling.

Here you can see what the stringing looks like when completed. It won't be long and I will need to add that second string. My stakes are 36" high. I am not sure if my plants will get too tall and begin to fall over.

You may be wondering why I planted tomatoes by my house. Well, I ran out of room in the garden and we had no landscaping in the back so I thought I would give it a try. The eave of our house leaves a pretty big shade so I am wondering if it will work. We shall see.

Happy gardening!

A Little R&R

A dear friend of mine, Brenda, invited us to her "getaway" home in South Alabama for a few days of R&R. The trip ended up being just moms and kids. I think everyone had a lot of fun!! The first day the kids wanted to fish, if you can honestly call it that. As soon as you put your hook in the water you get a bite! A fisherman's dream!! The catfish were so plentiful that the kids would see them swimming around the dock, run and get their net and scoop them up from the shore! Brandon is showing the largest catfish he caught (sorry it is not a very good picture). I am not sure how much it weighed but Brandon was straining holding the net up and he is a pretty strong guy. Here is the bass Brandon caught. Right about now his older brothers are wishing they would have gone along on this trip!!

We hardly saw the young'uns during the day unless Brenda and I went outside to watch them play. They always showed up for mealtime, however, starving from all the exercise and fun.

I can't believe we had a fire going in MAY in the south and it really felt good!! We moms sat around the fire while the kids played. Here they are coming by the fire to warm up too.

It rained every day we were there but that didn't slow anyone down. They played in the rain as long as there was no lightning and loved every minute of it.

This is one of my favorite shots! Doesn't that look like fun? Of course I wouldn't be able to move the next day if I were to try something like that!!

Bryce the muscle man! Oh yeah!

Brooke just looking cute!

One day the kids pretended to have expensive mud baths.

Here they are being silly.

Here is a view from the dock looking over the backyard and house. The previous owners had the long picnic tables built because they often had fish frys. I can see why with such successful fishing in this pond. I intended to get a picture of me and Brenda but I forgot. We all had such a great time. It was very peaceful and relaxing. A perfect way to kick off the summer!

Good-bye Alabama house :-( Great fun, great friends and great memories made here! Thank you Brenda and Brooke for the invitation!

By the way all you fishermen out there, this beautiful piece of property is for sale. If you are interested, just leave me a comment.

I can't believe...

I missed this huge zucchini in the garden!! This is the second oversized one I have found this spring! Maybe it is the variety of zucchini I planted? I'm not sure but I was shocked to find this mammoth one. This single squash is more than enough for a meal, even for a family as big as mine!! I had to use Parker to show the size comparison.


He is amazed as well. I wonder what he is thinking? LOL Probably hoping he doesn't have to eat this ;-)

I have a very handsome model, don't you agree?

This zucchini is so big I think it deserves a name! Come on now, we have a cucumber with a name-you know who I mean.....LarryBoy!!

We have all been very busy in our garden. The Lord has blessed us with a bounty already this spring. We have had rain for 9 consecutive days and our chances for rain are 50% and higher for the remainder of the week. It has been nice to not have to water the garden and everything is growing like crazy! We have harvested green beans, cucumbers, black-eyed peas, okra, squash, carrots, potatoes and rattlesnake beans. There are several watermelons coming along and my tomatoes have some babies coming along as well. The pepper plants, all varieties, are growing very slowly for some reason. It has been hard to keep up but I am loving it! Our grocery bill has been reduced drastically and I am happy knowing exactly what we are eating, well most of the time!

Graduation Day for Bradley

Congratulations goes out to our third born, Brad! He graduated last night from our home school association.
I posted a few pictures of our evening. We had a great time with friends and family.

My guys!

Long time friends, Chelsea and Caleb!!

Wonderful church family that came out to support Brad and a few other graduates as well.

My "soul sister", Ginger with her hubby, who happens to be our pastor, and their grandson, Landen. Brooke and Ricky are in the background.

Here comes our graduate.

Our home school organization puts on a very unique, memorable graduation. The head of our school works very hard to make this night perfect for the graduating class. Parts of the evening are similar to traditional school graduations with the salutatorian and valedictorian speeches. However, one thing that makes this graduation different is a slide show of all the students (57 this year) at several different ages of their lives that is shown on the big screens. There are many cheers and sometimes laughter from friends and family as we recognize our loved one. Another difference is that the diploma is given to the student by the parents. A previously recorded message from the parent to the student is played as the student walks up on stage to greet his/her parents and receives the diploma. I apologize for the picture below being so far away but I wanted to give an idea how this all happens. It is a very emotional moment.

After graduation, Brad got to choose the restaurant to continue our celebration. He chose Smokey Bones and it was delicious! The company was great too!!

Well, another child in our family is "getting his wings". This is a bittersweet event for me. Oh, and don't worry, if my little chickadee doesn't fly straight this momma knows how to clip those wings ;-) But in all seriousness, we are definitely covering Brad with our prayers as he steps out into a new area of his life!

Welcome Jack

We have a new face on our farm!! Our Nubian goat, Isannah, finally had her kid on Thursday. We were hoping for twins but we are happy for a healthy new baby and a birth with no complications. Whew! This is our first experience with goats and I was praying for an easy birth. We named him Jack.

Here is the proud momma and Jack looking for his first meal. We are enjoying little Jack so much. He is very soft and cuddly. Mom and baby haven't ventured out of their stall yet. It must take a few days for the kid to get enough strength to go out to pasture. We are learning.

Isannah has become an extremely protective mother. She is always on the look out for danger and becomes very aggressive if she feels her little one is in harm's way which is so out of character for her. Kinda reminds me of human moms!

We are looking forward to some goat milk soon. My boys have milk allergies so they can finally have dairy products in their foods again. I was fortunate to find a yogurt maker at a yard sale recently and I can't wait to try it out. Hopefully I can get the hang of milking. Brandon is excited to give it a try. He will think it is fun for a few days then I am sure it will become just another chore. Oh well, such is farm life!

Blueberry Picking

The younger two boys and I finally got to go blueberry picking! We have been patiently waiting for the blueberries to be ready and wouldn't you know it, when we got the call to come picking we were so busy at home that we were afraid we might miss our opportunity!!

Aren't they beautiful berries? They were so sweet and delicious. I couldn't believe how good they were!

The picking was very easy as you can see in the pictures and the morning was perfect. We finished just as it was beginning to get hot. The berries are grown in the barrels because of drainage problems on the farm -just in case you might be wondering-I was and had to ask :-)

We also bought some "bakers" frozen berries from here for only $5.00 per pound! What a deal for organic blueberries! They are very ripe which makes them perfect for jams, syrups and even pies!

I had more pictures to share but I am having trouble with placing pictures on my blog for some reason. All in all it was a great day. My younger guys had never been blueberry picking before and they had a blast. Can't you tell by Bryce's (black shirt) face? This IS his happy face...really. He is just a serious guy.

We will definitely be going back to this farm to get more berries.

Brent's Basket of Love and Prayers

This past week has been Finals Week at the college where Brent attends. The school sent out order forms for Stress Baskets and Energy Baskets that parents could purchase and the school would put them together and deliver them to the students during Finals Week. Well, I decided to make my own and make a family project out of it, I like to think of it as brotherly love. Hey, this needs to be encouraged whenever and wherever possible!!

The brothers and I went shopping for Brent's favorite goodies. There was bubble gum, Boston Baked Beans (candy), lollipops, vitaminwaters, apples, bananas, sunflower seeds and lots more. We also included his "special someone," Natalie, when making up this basket. Half of the basket was for Brent and half of the basket was for Natalie. The boys even added a stress ball and a water worm for fun.

Of course the gift wouldn't be complete without some homemade snacks! We made banana nut muffins and a special caramel-coated cereal that I normally only make at Christmas time.

I think the project was a success. Bradley and Brandon delivered the basket to Brent at the school on Monday. He was surprised to see them and even more surprised that they had a special delivery for him. Now if there were only someway I could bake up something to get all those correct answers to the tests into his brain!! Best Wishes to you Brent and Natalie!