From One Day to the Next

As of yesterday afternoon this is what I still had in my garden...

Blooming tomato plants...

Lots of green tomatoes...

More blooming tomatoes...

A volunteer potato plant...

Volunteer onions...

Green peppers on steroids...

Cayenne peppers...

Jalapeno peppers...I forgot to take a picture of them...

And sweet potatoes.

I haven't done anything to my garden since I don't know when. It didn't really do all that well this summer so I just let it go to do what ever it wanted to and this is what I got.

Well they were calling for a frost last night so I thought I had better go and pick the last of the tomatoes...

and while I was out there I took a look at my peppers and what did I find....

...some mammoth green peppers.

This beast was as large as my hand...

and i wasn't the only one I picked well over a dozen like this.

There was no way that I could ever get all the beast eaten before the rot so I took to my bible study last night and shared when with every one that was there...

so if you didn't come last night you missed out!

Well this morning I woke up to find this outside...

...iced over dog water.

It wasn't the only thing that had some ice on it...

All my garden plants had a nice layer of frost on them.

I went back out a little bit ago and looked at them all again and my peppers weren't lookin' to good but my crazy tomatoes seemed to be perking up...

So who knows they might last a little longer yet. Shoot last year they made it through 3 frosts before they died.

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe weekend!

JP



Mornings

I love mornings, everything is waking up and coming alive, they are just beautiful! I love it when God gives me these beautiful masterpieces to enjoy every morning.

Well today and yesterday morning were no exception, they were amazing and both very different.

This was yesterday (10/27/10). I told Caleb that the sky looked like it was on fire...

And must have been cause it was kinda warm....

well in comparison to this morning it was.

Now this was this morning (10/28/10).

Isn't it simple and lovely.

It has a cool look to it and boy was it cool out side this morning!!

There wasn't any frost, but it wasn't far from it! 

Now I normally don't do a lot of editing...

not because I'm against it cause I think it's wonderful...

But because I love to see how good of a picture I can take with just my camera...

and I don't have the time or a good editing program...

I'm holding out for photoshop CS5....

but that's another story...

Here's the same pic as above with just a little tweaking of the contrast and the brightness. I can't say that I like it one way over the other but I do think it looks good like this.

Well I hope ya'lls mornings were as beautiful as mine was.

Now I'm off to chase some cows...

Lots of love

Janet

Gettin' Out of the Way

I don't own a zoom lens for my camera. Not because I don't want one, cause I really, really do.....I just don't want to pay the price tag for a really good one. To be honest there are a lot of "toys" I would love to have for my camera and some day I will hopefully have them, but that will be one step at a time.

So needless to say every picture I take is with my 17mm-85mm Canon lens, and I love this lens. It does such a GREAT job, but I need to realitivly close to what I am photographing.

Sometimes the equipment is far enough away that I don't have to worry about it.

But then it gets closer. It's not too close just yet, but I'd better be paying attention and be ready to move in a heart beat cause there is one thing I learned...

...and that is...

...the combines aren't suppose to stop or even slow down.

So I get the and get out of the way...

...and they keep rollin'

To get photos like these I have to get close. For some it might be too close for comfort, but I am at a safe enough distance. The key is to be payin' attention.

The worst part about bein' this close is...

...sometimes you get pelted by flying trash, but honestly it's not really that bad with beans, but corn on the other hand now that can hurt. I've been whacked in the head by a few corn cobs in my day and it wasn't enjoyable that's for sure.

By the time you can blink an eye the combine has nearly ran you over and then has turned around and is headin' the other way.

JP

It Happens to Everybody

These sharp little guys are what cut the beans off so they can be processed through the combine, so....

...when these little guys break, it makes it really hard to combine.

Luckily they are easily repaired, so...

...we can get back to doin' what needs to be done.

(oh don't mind the spot on the lower left....that's what happens when its sprinkling and you get a droplet on your lens)

Since we didn't get much rain we will be going hard at it again tomorrow.

Laters All,

Janet

It Happened Yeasterday

That's right we finally started cuttin' soybeans yesterday. For better or worse we have been plantin' wheat all week and finally finished up with that yesterday as well as startin' beans.

(These last two pics are actually from my Dad's bean field in NE Missouri. Hey dad your beans are ready...ok you might already know that since your combine was in the field, but if you didn't know you do.)

Al right I'll talk more about beans later, but I got to be getting out to the field now, cause it's suppose to rain and we want to get as many beans out of the field before it does.

Hope all ya'll have a wonderful weekend.

Laters,

JP

What to Say?!?!

I have no idea what to say about this picture but it cracked me up and I wanted to share it with ya'll.

Got to head back to the field so I will catch up with ya'll later.

Janet

Boys and Their Toys

Friday I left to go to Missouri for a baby shower for one of my dearest friends and of course that was the same day that our new tractor was coming.

Since I got my new camera I haven't had time to sell my old one and I am glad about that because I was able to send it with Caleb and tell him "take lots of pictures of the tractor when it gets here, and if you don't them don't bother coming home!"

Ok I made up that last part but it sure makes the story a whole lot more interesting!

 

He did me proud and got some great pics and here's one with all the guys with their new toy. You'd think they would be a little happier....I know when I get any thing new I'm grinning from ear to ear.

I got to head out to the field now. I just wanted to share with ya'll the excitement that happened here on the farm while I was gone!

Laters,

JP



It Makes Me Giggle

I know many of you have seen this Old Spice commercial, it just cracked me up!





Then the other night while watching the news they showed a clip from this "spoof" on that commercial and it was done by....





Grover from Sesame Street. I just love it!! I hope it makes you giggle like it did me!

I am working on a cattle post from earlier this week, but I first got to get the rest of the decorations done for my friend's baby shower this weekend a well as do up some more apples and do some laundry as well.

With all that I better get to work and catch up with ya'll later

JP

You Can Get Your Own

All of you have been so encouraging and so complimentary when it comes to my photography so I have decided to start offering some of it up for sale.

I have a lot of my favorite pictures for sale. I haven't had a chance to get the pictures from this summer or from corn harvest this year, but I hope to have them up soon.

You can check them out and take a piece of this Kansas Farm to Your Home.

Also stay tuned for a give away. I am workin' on what I am wanting to give away and as soon as I'm finished with it I will be sending it on to one of you.

Lots of Love,

Janet

Corn Harvest School - Answers to some Questions and Harvest After Dark

So previously I went through all the ends and outs of corn harvest here in Southeast Kansas (if you missed them you can check out Part 1 and Part 2) and I got some questions in the comments so I thought I would answer them for ya'll.

Gail Asked: Do you re-harvest the shocks and cobs for feed use?

Answer: Well we don't remove any of the leftover "trash" from the fields, but...

the fields that are close to our cattle pastures do get some use. We will either check the surrounding fences and shut some gates or put an electric fence up around the field and let them out.

The Cows love this, and will spend all their time out in the fields until the get all the leftover cobs and the volunteer corn that their bellies can handle.

m&em asked: What happens to the corn now?

LeAnna asked: Where does your corn usually end up? Is it a feed corn for animals, or end up in corn syrup, or what?

Answer: since these two were very similar I thought I would answer them together. Our corn will usually end up in the bellies of livestock, epically cattle, chickens and turkeys and possibly hogs.

Some of the corn we keep in the bins on our farm we will grind and feed to our cattle as well.

This picture really didn't have anything to do with the questions or with the night harvest pictures, but I just thought I would show ya'll how dirty and dusty it can be sometimes when I'm on top of my truck.

  

It's Coming

We've been done with corn harvest for a good month now and we are waiting for the beans to finish up so we can combine them.

The soybeans are ready to harvest yet, but they sure are getting close.

The leaves are changing and soon will be falling off.

There is something about bean harvest and cooler temps that makes Fall even better.

Before you know it we will be going hard in bean harvest and I will hopefully have some wonderful pictures to share with ya'll.

With Love,

Janet