Playing in the Yard

While home this hitch, we have been playing in our yard, just really enjoying the weather and the park-like feel of our li'l slice of heaven.  Here is a report on whas goin' on this week.

The strawberries are doing great producing a double handful of berries every day.  Seldom do any of them make it into the house though.  Peggy and I usually slurp them up fresh off'n the bush.

When we started picking the snap beans they made a small colander full, then 2 days later they produced this dishpan full, the next time we picked it made this dish pan crowned over, but this time its only a third full and tomorrow should be the last picking.  It was a good year and we now have plenty in the freezer for the summer plus we shared our bounty with our neighbor, Miss Annie.

As the green beans finish up, the cucumbers are starting their cycle, and soon 'pretty Pegody will be picking pickles by the panful'. She likes when I say dat.

While playing, we stopped to give the Wisteria that guards the front door a trim.  If we don't do this every month or so ya hafta crawl in through a tunnel to get to the door. This photo is while we were in the process of the trim job.

The Asparagus ferns have grown to be a big ferny lush forest which is a beautiful sight especially in the morning as the sun shines on the dew giving the whole shrub of greenery a silvery glow as they sway in the breeze.  Were it not for the pink survey support ribbon, they would spread out in a big circle over the yard looking like a bog oval cap. 

 

They are still puting out wonderful shoots of asparagus and we love them raw, chopped in salads, ligtly steamed or as ya have seen before, BBQ'd on the pit. 
Now for the bad news, The Birds got all of the pawpaws and cherries before they had a chance to grow.  Peggy plans to be ready with netting next year.  One of our citrus trees died so we plan to replant this week.

The figs should be ripe in a week or so.

The Yum Yum nectarines have turned a wonderful kinda purple color so we watching them closely. They are still hard to the touch, but we can't wait to try them on accounta this is the first year it bears.

Thanks to Bwacky, our adopted yard cat who stands guard in our grape arbor, we have several nice bunches of grapes ripening.  There aint enough to preserve or anything, but its very nice to sit under the arbor in the cool shade of the vines and snack on those wonderful lil purple seedless Concord grapes.

The pecans (top picture) and ping pong ball sized citrus (rain drops on them) are already getting ready for the big fall crop.  OH yea....and I almost forgot the Bananas.

I left more stuff out I'm sure.  The several varieties of mint growing around stuff like weeds, the small olive tree and pomegranate tree we added last Fall, but this post is the results of my morning stroll through the yard just now with a camera and cup of coffee.

Crawfishin' for Supper

Nowadays the Web is full of commercial Crawfishin' posts.  Ya can see folks fishing for a living, anywhere from reality TV shows, to the Food Channel.  But what ya aint seeing is how regular folks turn a $1.25 pack of chicken necks into a $40 boiled dinner for 2.  Sure, crawfishin' is a huge industry down here in bayou country, but us Cajuns have a way to have a ball crawfishing for supper.  If ya wanna throw a big party, buy crawfish by the sackful and boil them up in a huge pot in the yard.  It's lots of fun and for special occasions, we do that too.  But if ya only want 5 or 10 lbs for a supper boil or a sauce here's a fun way to do it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7S5Um_WuH4&list=UUe6CkaSkPG0EXROyp-xQkjw&index=1