Corn–the Popping Kind

While the family was gathered for Thanksgiving, my nephew, Brandon, organized everyone to pick popcorn.

I’ve been putting it off because I wanted it to be dry when we picked it, and we’ve not had a good fall for it to dry on the cob.

There were several of us picking, and it didn’t take long to fill up our buckets.

Tammy and Ron

We hauled them out to my place and took them into the house.  I had narrow paths through my kitchen, and that was it.  That’s a lot of corn.

Brandon

Over the weekend, I had to get it all husked.  The ears were still pretty wet, and I didn’t want them to mold.  I had a lot of help with husking, but it wasn’t near as good as my picking help.

While husking, I found a few ears that are more suitable for the bovine than the popcorn popper.

I got it all husked and hauled to my basement right beside the dehumidifier, where it will stay until it has dried to the right moisture level (about 14%).  We’ll have popcorn for another year!

I have to say, I was worried about that with our bad weather this past summer.

Sharing with Jenny Matlock’s Alphabe-Thursday for the letter C.  I’m also sharing at Rurality Blog Hop.

July at Eden Hills

This is the time of year that things should be at their laziest.  The days are made for basking in the sun and enjoying life.

Litha May Street

Pebbles Sue Street

Of course, this is the time of year that affords time to do a thorough cleaning of the barns.

Sallie Blackboer

The kids like having the tractor and manure spreader as a kind of personal jungle gym.

I don’t know why the tire is so comfortable, but there’s always a kid lounging in there.

Squiggy van de Yell

Maxine’s calf is also getting big and strong.  The little stinker wouldn’t let me touch him yesterday.  Obviously his mother is teaching him her snooty bovine way.

Firecracker Joe

It’s also the time of year we start thinking about sweet corn.

Sadly, we’ll be lucky to have any by September.  That’s our sweet corn in front and then the popcorn.  In the back, is field corn.  Granted it gets taller than my corn, but the weather really put the sweet corn and popcorn behind schedule.  Hopefully, we’ll have a late harvest.

Our recent rain has done wonders for my beans and the alfalfa buffer strip.  My nephew is probably going to bale hay again next week on the buffer strip.

This weekend is also the weekend for my small town’s annual celebration.  The weather is supposed to be picture perfect!

I’ve been busy canning jams, and I still have a ton of baking to do.

July might be a time for the goats to lounge around, but we humans are still busy.

I’m sharing with Alphabe-Thursday where the letter this week is J.  I’m also sharing with Tuesday Muse, Thursday Favorite Things, and Rurality Blog Hop.

Done Planting

I am so pleased to announce that we are done planting!  Last Friday, my uncle tilled my garden and my brother-in-law started planting my bean field.  They almost got done Friday, but it did rain and stop him.  I was very happy to see the planter pulling into my field Wednesday morning.

He finished the last few acres.  It kind of looks like a bigger tractor might be in order.

Our sunny blue skies have been wonderful!

I’ve been busy all week planting the garden.  I did cheat and buy some plants instead of starting with seeds for everything.  Ironically, I’ll be out watering this evening.  That’s how things work when you live on top of a hill.

I dug out my tiller to finish the last little section of the garden today.

I had to have my son and another local man help me get it running well, and then I zipped through this little section.

The robin was enjoying looking for treats in the fresh soil, but decided to sit on the fence until I left.

Finally, my nephew called this afternoon, and I took the popcorn seeds in to my mom’s house where we are planting it.

Her gate to the field.  It really doesn’t work to hold anything out because there’s not a fence around the whole thing, but it still is a nice gate.

Finally, we saw the tractor coming.

The twelve-row planter looks a bit large for this small field, but it plants it in no time flat!

We are officially done planting!  Now it’s moving on to making hay!  Of course, weather permitting.

Linking to Friday’s Fences, Skywatch Friday, and Farmgirl Friday.