Squeaky Frog

Loofah vines coming on strong this year. If you've got space for them to climb somewhere, they're a fun crop to grow every few years. They last a pretty long time in use, so a couple vines will provide a few years' worth of sponges, which store indefinitely once dried. We just let them dry on the vine (not a problem in our hot summers), but they do take a fairly long season to grow from seed, fully ripen and dry, 120 days or longer. Once dried, you simply peel them, slice them to the desired size (a serrated bread knife works great), and shake out the seeds. On first use, you'll want to rinse them out thoroughly, as they can retain some residue from their former life as a gourd. I've been told some people give slices of the dried sponges to rabbits as chew toys, as well. We don't raise rabbits, so I can't verify that. They're also just an attractive vine in their own right, with lots of bright yellow flowers. It wouldn't be a half bad ornamental even if you didn't collect the gourds. #garden #homesteading #plantstr #flowers

Pickled peppers are one of the easiest things to can, and they are such a great addition to the pantry. These are Mariachi peppers, one of my favorites. Good mild heat, great flavor, and very productive plants. Highly recommended. The brine I use is dead simple, and works for any kind of peppers: 1¼ cup water 1¼ cup vinegar 1 tablespoon salt 2 tablespoons sugar (optional) That's generally enough brine for two pints of pepper rings; multiply as needed. Just cut the peppers into rings, place in jars with a clove of garlic in each, pour boiling brine over the peppers and put on the lids with 1/2 inch headspace. If you want to eat them soon, keep the jars in the fridge. If you want to put them up shelf-stable, process them in a boiling water bath for ten minutes. #canning #preserving #prepping #homesteading #garden #foodstr

This is my new favorite band (for now). If you like Southern style rock, like Drive-By Truckers or Lynyrd Skynyrd, you owe it to yourself to get Whiskey Myers into your life. If you walked into a tar-paper shack bar in the middle of the desert and saw that the bartender was a rattlesnake with an eyepatch, odds are the jukebox would contain only Whiskey Myers music. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0aJHieJ3vcM #rocknroll #music #grownostr #southernrock

This crape myrtle tree has been putting on a heck of a show this year. All of the crape myrtles around here have been impressive this spring, but this one drops those delicate white flower petals like snow into our backyard. Beautiful! #garden #flowers #bloomscrolling #bloomstr #grownostr

Look, he's not saying you *have* to rub his belly, he's just saying #dogstr #dog #rubmybelly #grownostr

The easiest message in the universe to communicate is telling a dog you've dropped something edible on the floor. You tap your toe near the item, and the dog eats it. This is universal; no dog, regardless of its intelligence level, fails to understand this. Even people who have never been around a dog will do this instinctively. It's *the* core element of the 60,000 year old cooperative agreement between humans and dogs. It is, on the other hand, utterly impossible to convey the same information to a cat. It would be easier to construct an entirely new language based on prime numbers to communicate with alien gas orbs from the planet Zargon than it is to get a cat to understand you dropped a small bit of chicken and it's RIGHT FUCKING THERE. #dogstr #catstr #grownostr