Bushels of beans, electrifying fencing, and pony perfection

Grab your Balls...it's canning season friends! Our first HUGE harvest of green beans has officially been plucked, canned, and frozen! Our family eats green beans like they're going out of style so every year in the spring I tell Dave to plant "many rows" of beans...and then every summer I regret my life choices 😂 It's an ongoing family joke that nothing makes me grumpier than buckets and buckets of beans from the garden...but there's also nothing more satisfying than pulling beans off the shelf or out of the freezer all winter to enjoy either. When my very sweet husband isn't building surprise horse fences and second stalls (he's a keeper 😉), he and the kids will harvest the beans and my job is to get them cleaned and processed. Unfortunately for me, this year his skills were needed elsewhere so it was up to me and my 3 tiny helpers to both harvest AND process all the beans. We picked for HOURS UPON HOURS in the heat and rain because when left too long, beans will get woody and stringy 🤮 Then we spent an entire day cutting off the ends and sorting out bad beans using what I call "the snap test."

Length of the bean is not always a good indicator if they've been left too long to grow, so I will break them to see if they snap or if they bend with a lot of resistance and pull apart with a string. Nothing ruins an appetite quite like eating woody beans! In all, I canned 22 pints of spicy dilly beans and packaged 20 quart bags to freeze. We will likely have one more nice harvest later this summer and I am planning to pressure can that batch. I personally prefer frozen green beans over canned but limited freezer space forces me to do both. Admittedly, it is nice to simply grab a jar from the pantry, drain the water off, and throw it in the microwave for a quick dinner side dish...added bonus, only 1 jar to clean up in the dishwasher too! When it comes to canning green beans, the only safe method is pressure canning because of the risk of botulism; however, dilly beans are a pickled bean and due to the high acidity of the vinegar, they are able to be safely water bath canned. Some people are intimidated by pressure canning but with new modernized canners it is very safe and in my opinion easier than water bath canning. I can pressure can 24 pint jars at a time AND I don't have to mess around sanitizing jars before packing. Any time I can pressure can, I do!

Aside from becoming the Jolly Green Giant this last week, we finished digging the trench and running the underground electric wire to charge our horse fence! That was another hot job (this heat wave is starting to feel a little too Fresno-esque for my taste) but we got it done in a few hours. Dave and I needed to put our brains together to figure out how to push the electric wire through the tube we installed because it would not pass through the bend to the barn no matter how hard we pushed. Dave came up with the great idea of tying bailers twine to one end and using a vacuum on the other end to suck the twine through...pretty creative. Unfortunately, one strand wasn't strong enough when he was pulling and I pushed on the other end and it broke. So, I suggested we tie 2 strands together and try again. A little gentler pulling, some Dawn dish soap, and the added strength from the 2nd strand did the trick! Gotta use what ya got laying around!

Polly the sweet and perfect pony has been a fabulous addition to our farm...she has even managed to wiggle her way into Farmer Dave's heart ❤️ She has the absolute kindest disposition and LOVES our family. Chelsea and Dave seem to have a special bond with her...I've seen Polly hugging them. For real. I didn't know horses could hug but sure enough she will wrap her sweet little neck around them for a big hug. Farmer Dave enjoys her so much he even hung a fan above her stall! There's a big ole heart in that tough farmer and he shows his loves with acts of service. Chelsea asked me to help set up 3 barrels so she could start walking the barrel pattern with Polly and their first few runs went well. Polly is in no hurry but she is more than willing to let her new driver practice steering around the obstacles. That little pony has brought a lot of happiness to our farm and has made all of the hard work worth it.

What's in store next? We are butchering the rowdy roos on Saturday (whoop whoop!), have 50 tons of fill dirt to move into the pasture, we need to build a run in structure, and second horse stall 😉 See yinz next week for more farm fun!

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