Corn and Metal and Peas, oh my!

Friday the 30th.

It has been too long since my last update or blog rant on anything, so here is one(an update, not a rant). I have been busy working on the house, trying to get the metal roofing on to protect the cellulose insulation we had sprayed in recently. I am very pleased with the performance of the cellulose. The upstairs is now almost the same temp as the down stairs at 3pm in July. That, my friends, is an achievement! So here is the roof covered in 1.5" rigid foam insulation and almost ready for metal.
That took a couple days to accomplish both sides of the house, and get the 1x4 lathe strips down that were to be the attachment points for the metal. then the metal-laying commenced.



Now with one side down, we (my dad has been helping me alot lately) move to the next side.

Now the metal is done. I know I don't have a picture up of it, but you'll just have to trust me on that. Done. Well, except for the ridge cap, but I ran out of money, so that is having to wait a week or two along with the drywall purchase. [Anyone who wants to donate to the housing fund for my needy poor little children, feel free, they will appreciate it and look at you with big puppy thank you eyes.]

Now that the metal was mostly done, I had to pay attention to the garden. It needed weeding(and still does) and harvesting. After checking on my field corn patch...
After making sure they weren't getting too tall, Dad and I proceeded to spend an hour or so picking from my "happy cow-pea" row. This is them prior to the pods being ready.
After a good bit of picking, we both had sore backs. But the bin was full of peas!


I forget the size of this bin, but it is half-full of dry peas, whatever the size(Update, Kara says it is an 18-gallon tub). It is alot, anyway. We planted a packet of Purple-Hull Peas that was probably around an ounce in weight, and this represents about 2/3 of the pods on the plants. Praise the Lord God for the increase! Here are the pea-shelling specialists holding the fruit of their labors.

I have set back about a pound of the very best pods for future seed, hoping to improve our stock. I unscientifically estimated the yield from our first picking at 8-10# of peas. That is amazing, because there is still 1/3 to 1/2 that amount yet to pick, and this from a 3' by 50' row. Wow!

I hope you enjoyed our pictorial life. I'm trying to get Kara to do a picture-rich post on her recent jam-making excursions. She made plum and peach, and they are fantastic. She will have to fill y'all in on that when she has a moment - which isn't often with 3 children under 5. Have a good day.

Ryan