The Tomato Patch

This year my tomatoes seem to be eclipsed by milkweed.

I’m not complaining because they are crucial for the monarchs.

I couldn’t catch the monarch sitting still, but I caught it in flight!

This is the first caterpillar I’ve found, but there are a lot of eggs.

The honeybees are positively buzzing everywhere.

And I’m pretty sure I’m still going to have enough tomatoes for my canning needs.

So it’s all good!

Another Rainy Saturday

Last weekend’s rain was thankfully enough to keep us out of the moderate drought category for another week.

This morning, I woke up. No wait.  I got woke up early this morning by Herbie sticking his nose up my nose.  Since it was the third time, I finally got up and threw him out of my bedroom.  That’s when I noticed there was lightning outside.

Herbie

It was raining when I got up to let the dog out to go to the bathroom.

Sky being a lazy bum in the house.

Then I got up a little later than usual to milk the girls because I was waiting for the lull I saw on radar.

The rain kept building in.

By the time it was done we had between a quarter and a third of an inch.  And it looks like there could be more later this evening.

I am not complaining. I am grateful for every drop, but I would really appreciate it if we could scootch the rainy days off of the weekend.  I really need to sell bucks and do a lot of other work out in the barnyard (and it’s hard to take blog pictures).

Howie, Crystal, and Terry (They are still here but look horrible)

Instead, I did use the time to make two more batches of mozzarella and can another six pints of tomato juice and eight half-pints of taco sauce.

And that took every single tomato left in my house!

A Rainy Saturday

I would dearly love to quit celebrating every measurable rain because it’s such an unusual thing, but that’s where we are.  Saturday brought a most of the day rain event.

The last rain took us out of moderate drought and put us back into abnormally dry.  Hopefully, the rain we got on Saturday will keep us there.

It really was  an all day event.  By 8:30 in the morning, the dark clouds were here.

Shortly after that, the rain started and brought the goats back up from pasture.

Brigit and Hera

They did get to go out a bit later, but it rained more.  I am grateful for all the rain we did get. (Edit) When it was all done, we had just under an inch.

Pretzel trying to sneak into the barn; don’t worry. She made it.

Since it was raining, I decided it was a perfect day to clear the counter of tomatoes…again.

What was left (and a layer in the box) after another batch of sauce this week.

I did more quarts of cold pack tomatoes and more quarts of juice.

I’m thinking I might still try to sneak in a batch of taco sauce.

The last few tomatoes wouldn’t fit in my pan to make juice.

I’d have to go pick more tomatoes, and I’m not sure what’s left, so we’ll see.