Alien Life or a Unique Seedpod?

The trip home yesterday was quite the experience – 3 hours of downpouring heavy rain that nearly lifted us from the road and swept us away.  We are extremely happy to be alive and well and seeing all the flooded areas, it is quite clear we missed some heavy rains all weekend.  I believe the Chicagoland area broke records and it is said to be the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.  I can only image the winds and rains they had and pray for their well being.  While down south I did make a unique discovery and I am not sure what it is!

 Polka dotted seedpod?  At first we thought it was a little rubber ball, but where would it have come from? So we cut it open to investigate further…

 Looks very alien to me.  I tried searching on the internet but came up with no clue.  I will have to watch for more and hope the home doesn’t get invaded while we are gone!

Something else which I found rather interesting was … a Tomato Hornworm eating our Alma Paprika Peppers which at this stage are very, very hot!  When they are yellow (the initial stage) they are raging spicy hot, then they turn orange and mellow out a bit.  Finally, when they are red they are sweet hot.

These guys are so big and nasty looking!

 

I did find some very cool mushrooms and snapped a few shots!

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Baby Swans at 3 months old

 The baby swans are up front and getting almost as big as the parent.  The 2 birds in the background are ducks.

Now this next guy is not as huge as the swans but he sure has some great color – a yellow canary came visiting the bird feeder!

Some great color from the garden too!  I harvested my first Marconi Peppers and made stuffed peppers to bring down south this weekend .. looking forward to trying them out!

More tigger melons .. I have to admit there is more seed than melon to these guys.  I have saved seed for growing next year and will plant if space permits, but they are not high on my priority list – I am still looking for the “sweetness” taste.  They may do well selling at a farmer’s market since they are so unique.

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Dehydrator to the Rescue and Garden Wonders

This is the time of year when we have plenty of tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and whatever else we grew and it did well (how could I forget cucumbers!)  So besides canning and freezing the overload I decided to use the Excalibur dehydrator.  I purchased the dehydrator last year and have used it ALOT – all year long.  There have been plenty times when something is just about ready to be tossed into the compost since no one is eating it or I have purchased produce on sale and I dehydrated!  I have utmost praise for my dehydrator!

   

 Dried tomatoes which are just like sun-dried tomatoes you buy in the grocery store, not a bad snack!   Odd double tomato – twins!

Hey, the blue corn finally turned blue and my fall crop of peas I planted have emerged …

Work on my new website is going well – I am enjoying it!

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Aruba flowers, critters and ohhhh so glad to be Home!

Nothing like a vacation to make you realize how much you LOVE your home, state and country!  Our trip to Aruba will be a memory to remember … as the saying goes, Aruba…where it “never” rains – well, it downpoured two full days!  Rain, Rain….go away – we sang as we sat in the in bar drinking tropical drinks!  The start of the trip was good and I did catch some cool pictures from the plane …

  The flowers in Aruba were unique and I have posted some of them at DebsFlowers blog.  Palm trees were present and Divi trees which are an Aruban trademark – both lean as they grow from the tradewinds which are constantly blowing.

  

Iguanas bask in the sun and pelicans soar over the Carribean Sea looking for their daily meals ..

 

   

We walked daily along the beachfront early before it got toasty hot and on one trip we did save a life – a little cool looking fish was washed ashore and we tossed him back in the sea before he expired.  Something else that was interesting was happening also – sea turtle eggs were barricaded off to keep people from walking on them.  All along the beach … and one night some did hatch.  The kids were able to witness the little babies running to the sea (about 70 of them from one nest).  We hoped to see this, but didn’t.

  The fish we saved!

The trip home was suppose to be a 5 hour flight but ended up being a 2 day ordeal … our plane had mechanical problems and we were all sent to stay overnight and ……. I should thank United for not sending me home on a faulty plane, but no one had a clue what was going on – we were shuffled from here to there for 2 days.  Sometimes …. it dawns on you, how much you really do appreciate and love your home and your garden!  After spending the entire day today pulling weeds and pruning trees, I am SO happy to be home working my butt off instead of off in some far off land! 

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Growing the Luffa sponge

I grew Luffa last year for the first time and I am growing alot more this year – it was interesting, educational and I like growing something that has a “purpose”.  The luffa sponge grows in the garden and not the ocean like many people believe – I always thought that myself until I came across it in one of the garden seed catalogs.  It does require a somewhat longer growing season and quite a bit of space since the vines really take off.  I did read somewhere to cut the vine after a certain point (I think it was 10 ft) and let the energy go to the growing luffas.  I will experiment with that this year.  The seeds are hard so they should be soaked in water for at least 24 hrs. before planting and then nicked (or slightly cut) with scissors to encourage the growth to begin.

 

The actual luffa looks like a cucumber or zucchini and last year I let them just grow on the ground, this year we will be making a trellis for them to hang – they can grow 2-3 ft. in length.  When they are smaller, they can be eaten but I haven’t dined on any myself.  The practice is to let the luffa dry on the vine (turn brown) and then take it from the vine.  I ran out of time last year and brought them in when still green and let them dry inside.  It took a couple of months for this and then I peeled the skin off and found a luffa sponge inside!  I did soak the sponge and remove the seeds which I am growing this year!

 

The sponge can be used as it is or you can craft with it – I will be creating some more luffa crafts this year.  Luffa soap was my fun undertaking last year – just in time for Christmas gifts!

 

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Bat house & Blue corn !!

Today was Great!  We went to the Farm store and Stan purchased a brand new riding lawnmower and cart for our place down south … me, I browsed around and the first place that draws me in is the seed racks.  Yes, I have tons already and tons growing, but the lure of the seed racks can’t be denied and WOW did they have some cool seeds!  I picked up a Cactus Mix (my son finds them interesting) a challenge to grow?  The challenge last year for me was Luffa and that worked out – luffa sponge grows in the garden and I do have many started for this growing season, so you will hear all about that!  Now this BLUE corn I also purchased … it’s ornamental and miniature so we won’t be dining on it – I suppose I will use it for decoration or who knows … but how cool!  They had all sorts of gourd seeds but I have several types going already and plan to learn how to craft with those.  I can’t go overboard (although I think I already have) with seeds …

The Bat house … never thought I would be buying one of these!  Bat poop or more properly Bat guano is an excellent fertilizer and I know we have bats swooping around down south ,,, SO I figure they need a house.  The construction is unique and for $12 it was wiser to purchase it then try and make our own at this point.  It states that 20-25 bats will make this their residence and they eat TONS of insects.  I figure between the bat poop and the insect eating feature this was a bargain!  The inside of the house – can’t image hanging in there …

Oh…earlier today I went to the bookstore and purchased WordPress for Dummies – so I should start a Category for this as I learn for reference AND to help everyone else out…this internet blogging is nothing like digging in the dirt!!    Not sure who is more excited about their purchases today – me or him???

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