We found another patio type area

While trying to level the area by the steps he put in at the utility room. (It's always been strange having a door to a drop-off.)





Sorry about the pictures, the sun was over the roof.
Hubby said there used to be big brick patios and paths of the red bricks, that's why we find them everywhere. It must have been really pretty then. Wish I had seen it like that.


We went fishing this morning, but only caught a few, so we tossed them back. It was nice this morning. Even with the Cotton mouth that tried to climb the bank. I scared it off by hitting the ground in front of it with my walking stick. No pictures because the camera was in the truck.

On the way to fishing, we saw Pileated Woodpeckers eating on the ground. Very strange.
We got a new camera. While I was fumbling with it, one of them flew off, but we got a picture of the other one.




There is supposed to be a big hatch of cicadas this year and BIL thinks they may have been feasting on an early hatch.

Thought I'd show you our corn, too. Ignore the grass. This garden is running away with grass. I'm going to try and weed a row a day, but this grass is very stubborn. Every little piece of root hubby left when he tilled it up, has sprouted into two or more plants.
Annoying.






The shiny stuff is aluminum foil on fish line. Had to come up with something to keep the blackbirds from pulling up the young plants so they could eat the corn!

The bags are an idea I was trying. I've read about other people 'bag gardening' to help keep weeds down. Yeah, I know, it didn't exactly work, haha.
Anyway, the bags are compost and they each hold a small melon plant.

Oh, since K asked, I have not started canning anything yet. I don't have a canner. (Well, I have a water bath canner, but I don't have a pressure canner.) I need to get one and learn how to use it.
I've not used the water bath canner since the disastrous pickle affair a couple (few?) years ago.
What we don't eat, we either freeze or blanch and freeze right now.
I need to research canners.

I'm ready for summer to be over. Don't like summer temps so early. Oh well.

Hope you all have a wonderful week! ♥

Fat Lip

That's what I expect I will have by tonight. A fat lip. I was getting a box with some of my extra canning supplies out of the closet and it whomped me right in the mouth.
Tooth cut my lip. *pouts*
*sigh*
Thought perhaps I should give you an update on that pickle canning disaster. I suppose since it was my first try at canning anything, I should properly call it an exercise. Yes. A learning exercise.
Well, I guess they turned out okay.  I put a jar in the fridge for several days, thinking perhaps that cold pickles would be better than room temperature, and then opened today. They seem to be sort of okay. I mean they tasted like pickles...
I let hubby try some the end of last month and he said they were salty. I expected that and considered tossing the whole batch, but left them sit till today - which is very nearly as long as I read somewhere that they needed to sit after canning.
I had way more pickle stuff than pickle juice. Hard to figure out how to divide that stuff - not to mention messy. Ah well. Live and learn. :)

So I've learned something today

Read all the instructions on the pickling salt package several times. And then read them again.
I am canning today. For the first time ever. I wish my grandmother had made me pay closer attention. ;)
I bought my supplies at WalMart. Bought Ball's pickling salt because it had a recipe for Bread and Butter Pickles and my husband loves bread and butter pickles.

The part about reading them again? I used the whole bag of salt on my cucumbers and onions and wondered why it wouldn't dissolve. ;) It wasn't until after I was rinsing them out that I realized I was only supposed to use, like, a quarter cup.
Oops.

Second thing I learned? I need a BIGGER STOVE for canning. I can't keep the jars and lids hot, boil the cucumbers and syrup and heat the canner at the same time. :/ Just not enough space on the stove, or my counter either, for that matter.

Just how critical is head space, anyway? Is it okay to have a bit more, but not a bit less?

And another thing. How do you know the temp inside the canner, after you put the lid on?

Can you tell I am hopeless and clueless?

If any of these jars seal, and if the pickles actually turn out? I'll be really amazed. Do Bread and Butter pickles actually have to sit a month before you can eat them?

Oh, and the fan on my stove vent? It only works in high now, and it won't shut off. I suppose that's better than not at all?

Sorry for the quality of the picture. I didn't want to use the flash, and I couldn't figure out how to take a normal picture, haha. It's pretty sad when the equipment is smarter than the operator. ;)