Tomato Ripening Update

Two Weeks Ago.

We were out of town for the weekend, and when we got back I decided to check on my tomatoes hanging in the pantry. To my delight, they have begun to ripen! I see a lot of tomatoes on the dinner plates this week. Hurray!

This past Sunday.

Earwig Decimation

One of the few bugs that really gross me out are earwigs. I have absolutely no good reason for this, and blame it entirely on childhood fears. As a "grown-up" I certainly know that all those old stories we passed around about the little pinching bugs is false. Ear wigs like ears of corn, not people ears. Nonetheless I retain a hatred for the little buggers. For the most part, if they stay away from me and my house I can live just fine with some around my property. That is where this particular nest of earwigs did me wrong.

To my horror, as I went to water my (previously beautiful and now massively munched on) flowers in my large whisky barrel planters, I saw one of the critters run from my foot. It ran right under the planter. I suddenly realized what was eating my flowers, not ants, but earwigs. I set down the hose and summoned all my might to tip up the planter and investigate. Sure enough there was a nest of the nasty little buggers living under my planter.

I quickly set it back down and debated rushing to the farm store for insecticide the moment Junior awoke from his nap. But, I didn't want to wait that long. These earwigs wronged me, and therefore needed to come to a timely end, immediately. I did a quick internet search for how to kill earwigs with household items. Most of those items were either not in my house (yes, I was looking for household items) or the methods were complicated.

Then I saw it.

Someone said to use spray and wash. I quickly ran to my laundry room and sorted through miscellaneous bottles until I found a bottle of Shout. I was dubious that something which would remove stains would instantly kill earwigs, but I figured heck I'd give it a try.

I tipped my planter back up on it's side and started spraying. To my shock, it actually worked. The shout very quickly killed all of the earwigs. They died faster than they could scurry away.

The next day, still dead. Just checking.

Although I was happy that the Shout killed the bugs and it was an easy and immediate means to an end, I am now quite concerned as to what the heck is in Shout, and I am now rethinking my laundry stain removing process.

Hay Baling!

After returning home this afternoon, from a morning of toddler gymnastics and coffee with a dear old friend, I quickly got Junior down for his nap and headed to the barn to finish my current nap-time project of de-cob webbing the barn and tack room. To my delight, as I headed out the door I saw our hay guy park his truck in our driveway and head up to his bailer!

Moments later he was doing this:

Baling the hay!

I smiled, as I realized that I could stop worrying and we would finally have the rest of our hay for the year. I was really curious to see just how much hay we would get. As it turns out, we got 88 bales, which at about 50lbs each comes to about 2-tons. That is from about three acres of non-irrigated pasture, most of which is (some type of) bromegrass. 

Hubs happened to be working from home for the day, so once he wrapped up his work we hitched up the flatbed trailer and started collecting bales.

Post-nap, Junior watching the action.
He has become obsessed with tractors.

Bales ready to be collected.

Hubs, bucking the bales onto the trailer.

View from the cab as I drove the truck & trailer.
The dog was...helpful?

Even Gentry wanted in on the action.

We managed to pick up and stack all the hay, without any additional help, in two hours. Since Hubs did all the heavy lifting picking the bales from the field, Junior and I drove the truck and trailer. Well, I drove, Junior provide hilarious commentary. I even managed to back the trailer into the barn twice without running into anything! So proud.

Overall, I am pleased with the hay outcome. Although we have been getting dew in the mornings and the hay did get rained/sprinkled on twice during this week, it seemed pretty darn dry this afternoon when it got bailed. Hay guy was of the opinion that it has the perfect amount of dryness without being too dry and not enough moisture to risk combustion. Although I'd love to just trust an old timer's experience, I still think I may head on down to the farm store tomorrow and pick up a moisture sensor, just in case. I really don't want my barn burning down (no horses live in our barn, fyi), especially not after all the hard work of stacking 7-tons of hay!

Hay Cutting at Last!

I have been anxiously awaiting our hay getting cut. Yes, because I would like to have it all neatly stacked in our barn with the other 5 ton. Yes, because I am curious just how much hay we will get from our field. Yes, because I've never had a hay field to cut before. Yes, because I am curious to see if we have gofers before I put a horse in that field.

However, mostly it is because I want the hawks and owls to rid our property of the over abundance of voles and field mice!

At long last our hay guy finally fired up his swather and cut our hay yesterday. Now it needs to dry out for a few days (fingers crossed no rain), and then it will get bailed up and stacked in the barn. Since it was the first time I've ever seen my own hay field get cut, I thought it was photo worthy. Behold, the hay guy and his ancient and highly problematic (from what I've witnessed) yet functional swather.

Swather cutting the hay.

Swather close up.

Pulling Up Tomato Plants Before Hard Freeze

I live in Montana. Unexpected cold weather is just something you take with all of the glorious sunshine, clean air, and mountain views. Random cold snaps are just a way of life. If you can't deal with that, then you don't live here. Most transplants figure out within a couple of winters if they have what it takes to stick it out or not. If not, they return to warmer more populous regions. Though the cold snaps can derail my plans and through me for a loop, I don't mind them. I always revel in any excuse to don a nice big warm sweater and drink lots of hot chocolate.

On Tuesday morning we woke up to this:

I was ready for it though. On Monday I decided to believe the weather forecast and pull up my tomato plants. If it was just one night of cold weather, I might have been able to leave them in the ground, however the forecast was for several night of temps in the 20's. So much for a September killing frost, lets just skip over fall altogether and jump start winter with a hard freeze, shall we? Mother nature is humorous in these parts. For once though, I got a jumpstart on her.

I haven't ever grown tomatoes before, let alone in Montana. In my imagination they would have all ripened by August. Not still be on the vine and green in September. I planted this particular plant in late April for goodness sake! Due to my lack of personal tomato harvesting knowledge, I decided to do a little research and found that there are about as many ways to ripen tomatoes as there fish in the sea. What method should I use? I decided to try the simplest, and pull the plant up by the roots and hang it upside down in my pantry/root seller. Below are a few before and after photos.

Tomato plant, happily growing in it's container.

Just hung up to dry and ripen.

Four days later, leaves are drying and tomatoes slowly ripening.

So far, one of the tomatoes is orange (hidden in the back), and the others are still hard, shiny, and plump. A few dark orange tomatoes fell off in the process of pulling up the plant, and those are finishing ripening in my kitchen. I am curious to see how this method works. It would be nice if they all slowly ripened at different intervals so that I will have fresh tomatoes well into fall.