Ducks 4 in '24

[ducks4you]

Harvested 45 tomatoes in the last 2 days. DH was holding his breath. Can't beLIEVE you planted in July and got something!
Pretty good harvest, and the three 2023 volunteer tomatoes REALLY produced. They are the wrinkly ones...'cause they're old. I had to throw a previously harvested tomato out for lawn fertilizer, SO, it was time to can. I canned the less than perfect fruit.

 

[ducks4you]

I also harvested cucumbers. There were 2 Ashley's, 1, the first, Muncher, and several more Martini's. I had to eat One Martini bc it was growing through the chicken wire. THEN, I had to eat the Muncher bc it fell off of the DR table and broke in two. The rest went to DD's house, or made it into today's lunch salad, still several left over and they were 8-9 inches long.

 

[baymule]

What a beautiful tomato harvest.

 

[SPedigrees]

Gonna share my recent xrays. So Spooky...so Scary!!!
View attachment 68890

These look familiar. My right knee looks just like one of these; my left knee is a bit better. Being strongly right-handed, my "good knee" is of little use to me. Wearing a wrap around my bad knee when I walk out across uneven ground, or lift/carry heavy things keep pain away and prevent me from further damaging it. No bionic parts for me. I plan to go out with all my original ones, regardless of how shot they may be. I have "organ donor" ticked off on my drivers license, but pretty sure they won't be able to salvage much from me.

Best of luck to you though for your knee replacements. I hope they go smoothly.

 

[SPedigrees]

Usually GE seeds have heavy weight legal clauses attached to them such that you can't save them, which is why I asked. Maybe things have changed, but there have been several litigation cases in the past where people got into serious trouble saving seeds with GE genetics in them, usually corn because the pollen carries on the wind from one field into neighbouring fields belonging to others. The Percy Shmeiser case comes to mind.

Farmers’ rights advocate Percy Schmeiser has died at age 89.

Canadian farmer and activist Percy Schmeiser, best known for his battle against Monsanto over crop patent rights, died on October 13 at the age of 89.

foodtank.com

I've always wondered the relationship between the purple tomatoes and GE'ing, I've seen quite a few articles over the years about that. I have a lot of 'blue' or purple tomatoes in my seed hoard, some look like eggplant at full maturity but they're OP seeds.

Rest in peace Percy Schmeiser. Hadn't heard of him before, but good for him. Monsanto is evil incarnate.

 

[heirloomgal]

Beautiful harvest @ducks4you! I don't know what it is about white cucumbers, but I just love 'em. Easy to find in the vines too. I grew Boothby's Blonde this year. What variety is that sunny yellow tomato?

 

[Dahlia]

Harvested 45 tomatoes in the last 2 days. DH was holding his breath. Can't beLIEVE you planted in July and got something!
Pretty good harvest, and the three 2023 volunteer tomatoes REALLY produced. They are the wrinkly ones...'cause they're old. I had to throw a previously harvested tomato out for lawn fertilizer, SO, it was time to can. I canned the less than perfect fruit.

Yummy! I love garden tomatoes!

 

[ducks4you]

@heirloomgal , not sure what kind is the orange tomato, just tasty.
Gotta get to those fermenting seeds today and start some from one of the heirloom volunteers.
Funny, I was looking for advice on overwintering tomatoes a year ago, and it just showed up in one of my emails.

Can Tomato Plants Survive Winter? Yes! Here are 4 Ways to Do It

The answer to the question Can Tomato Plants Survive Winter is a definite yes. Here are four easy ways to overwinter tomato plants indoors.

savvygardening.com

 

[Shades-of-Oregon]

Interesting I had no idea tomatoes could be saved over winter. Thanks for the heads .
Happy tomatoes can survive longer . Kind of a semi tropical plant.

 

[ducks4you]

So, after griping about DD's sloppy beef dropoff last winter, (the 3rd steer that we have bought), I got proactive.
To remind you'all, DD's have a 7 cu ft freezer in their garage, I have a 7 cu ft freezer on my porch, I have a 7 cu ft freezer in my basement, and I have a 14 1/2 cu ft freezer in my garage, which we keep locked.
Beef lady surprised me and told me that my steer was going to the locker last January, early and only 9 months after we bought the last steer. This one was named, "Snowflake."
I had the locker help me load in the truck bed, DD's unloaded and didn't organize Any of it, even though I cleaned out my 3 freezers and separated the old hamburger in a cardboard box (below).
Jump to Monday, when they wanted me to bring them more 2 pound hamburger packages. I brought them 10. Tuesday, I decided to take an accounting. There were only 17 packages of hamburger left.
Basement freezer was bought for the expensive specialty meats, like the roasts and the steaks, but it was such a mess you couldn't find anything.
So, I took some time to find out just how much was left:
27 packages hamburger, 17 boxes (18 ct.) premade hamburger patties
Just when we were trying to come up with More ways to use hamburger...
This afternoon, I took down some empty gardening tubs to the basement, along with a pad of lined sticky notes and counted what and how much was left, which was actually a lot more than I thought.
I didn't think we had more than 2 packages (2/pack) of steaks, but we really have 21.
We are out of stew meat, but have plenty of roasts.
Eldest DD (Chef) has learned how to make corned beef out of the briskets and we have 2 of them, and 1 that is about the size of 2.
We will have to work to make the beef ribs, and the fillets, but we are still sitting pretty.
Every night, when I pray over dinner, I am grateful for our bounty.
I created Excel sheets to keep track, like I did faithfully with "Big Boy," and I made a word file for DD's to put on their fridge. I will also print the Excel sheets for them to keep track, too.
I also packed and took notes so that we can Find things in the downstairs freezer:
Basement Freezer:
Bottom of freezer is Brisket & Fillets.
Next row is Beef ribs & skirt steaks.
Next row is roasts.
On top are the Round steaks.
On the shelf (on top of the motor) are the Ribeye Steaks and Porterhouse steaks.
Basket has the liver & tongue.

Garage Freezer:
17 (2 lb) packages hamburger
16 boxes, pre made hamburgers
Soup bones
Bones

Porch Freezer:
1 box pre made hamburgers
(and other frozen food stuffs, just not beef)

I also pulled the muscles in my lower rib cage organizing the garage freezer, but I didn't know it yesterday.
Today, after making my bed, which requires pulling and straightening the fitted sheet, pulling up and folding over the top sheet with blanket, basically pulling and stretching, then I had to print something in my office in color, which meant I had to disconnect the printer cable on one printer and reconnect to my color laser.
I sat down at my desk with my laptop. Then...I couldn't breathe!!!!
Just enough muscle strain. Took some aspirin and a break and it was better.