Preserving The Harvest

Hello, friends.  I hope you've been doing well.  Last week,  Amazon digital credit was used, to enjoy two movies.  I harvested eggplant, lima beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, oregano, pawpaws and apples.  Books were requested from the library.  Paper and cardboard were shredded, and a full bin was added to the compost.  Produce scraps went into the dog or chicken meals, the broth bag, or compost.  Homemade soap and deodorant were used.  Cabbage was canned on two of the cooler days, which took care of most of what I'd harvested.  

 

At my last massage appointment, my therapist told me about her new herb garden.  She was very excited when I asked if she'd like me to bring her spearmint, chocolate mint and lemon balm.  I dug some, and potted them up.  She'll get herbs for her garden, and I'll save myself the cost of the tip.  I always check with her first, to see if she's interested in whatever I have to share that visit, such as soap, and garden produce.  It works out well for both of us. 

I've been spending lots of time on the tomatoes, each morning in the garden.  We've had more than the usual amount this year lost to rot and chew holes.  The vast majority were tomatoes on or close to the ground, which is mulched with straw, and pill bugs were often the culprit.  When possible, I raised the tomatoes and draped them over the lowest rung of the cage, and trimmed away lots and lots of leaves.  I'm hoping this will help, as we love our tomatoes, and have high hopes of preserving some of the harvest.  

Garden This & That

Hello, friends.  Last week, I harvested cucumbers, eggplant, beets, pawpaws, apples, lima beans, yellow squash and tomatoes.  A cabbage, onions and garlic were dropped off for a friend, and she shared a bag of tomatoes, which were much appreciated.  As I'm typing this, we've gotten just a few cherry tomatoes from our garden, a couple small ones, and a larger one that ripened because something chewed on it.  But more are beginning to ripen every day.  I made the first tomato sandwich of the year, with one of the gifted tomatoes.  So good!  Later in the week, I did harvest a few more tomatoes.  I harvested just enough kale to make a salad, which hit the spot.  The eggplant was retied to stakes, as they had grown.  

The latest round of green beans are coming up nicely.  Something has eaten all the new cucumbers off, so I've started another round in pots, along with two types of lettuce, chard, and cilantro (thanks, Daisy).  More zinnia seeds were planted.  Mulch was added to plants in the garden, and a flower bed was weeded.  Pawpaw pulp was frozen in muffin tins, and popped out, to use in smoothies.  Our cabbage was used in colcannon.  The small apple "drops" were made into fried apples for J.  Hummingbird food was made.  The wintersown hollyhocks had finally grown enough, and the ground was finally damp, with more rain expected, so they're now in the ground.  I'm pretty sure that was a record here, for wintersown plants.  

Same as last year, the squirrels have eaten all the hazelnuts, long before they were ripe, betrayed by all the shell pieces on the ground beneath it.   Grrrr.  We were able to enjoy some social things over the weekend.  One of the potter's sons, who recently finished his music degree, was playing classical guitar at our little, local wine bar, and we were able to attend that.  My sister and her husband rented a house at a nearby lake, and invited us Sunday.  I've always felt a boat ride makes all right with the world.  It's one of the quintessential pleasures of summer, in my book.  May you find pleasures of the season this week.  

New Roof Deck on the Skoolie

Between highs in the mid to upper 90's, and Joseph working lots of days away, things slowed down a bit on the bus.  But, he found cypress for the deck at a sawmill about an hour and a half away.  They sawed it for him while he waited.  He purchased it from a new family business he felt good to support.  He got the boards in place, and fastened them down, which is not shown in this pic.  He's fabricated our railings, which I'll paint next week, when I have the powder coat oven on for orders.

We needed a shelf of some sort near the bathroom sink, to hold toothpaste and soap, as there is no vanity counter.  I found a vintage shelf on Etsy, which fit into the small spot we had.  My makeup mirror was also hung.  It's like a puzzle, trying to fit all we need in a small space, but so far, we're managing.  

Homestead Goings-On

Hello, friends.  Last week, I made corn-free baking powder.  I realized it typically has cornstarch in it, so made my own.  The recipe I followed was 2 parts cream of tartar, 1 part baking soda, 1 part arrowroot powder.  I used it in making GF berry cobbler, which used our blueberries, blackberries, and some store bought blackberries.  J is always happy when there is dessert to be enjoyed.  As the temperature dropped early in the week, I canned vegetable broth one day, then pulled our green peas out of the freezer, and canned them the next day.  Most days, I found two tomato hornworms in the garden, which were fed to the chickens, along with garden greens.  I've been putting ice in the chicken waterer in the hot afternoons, and making little puddles for them, in places they've wallowed out for dust baths.  I'd read that their feet help regulate their temperature, so standing in water is supposed to help.  We still lost one of our hens, we assume from the heat.  She acted normal, when I brought their mash in the afternoon, but was gone when J closed them up around 6.

I harvested cabbage, cucumbers, basil, oregano, blueberries, blackberries, lambs quarter, zucchini, eggplant, and the first tomatoes.  The lambs quarter was blanched and frozen.  To mix things up, I made a different slaw with our cabbage this week, one that both of us could eat.  J planted more green bean seeds, as all our plants died, from either the drought or moles/voles, we're not sure which.  Interestingly, the lima beans are right next to them, and doing well.  As tomatoes have died, J has replaced them with seedlings I started.  We still have a few seedlings left.  There were a few tomatoes and peppers that needed stakes, which J placed, and we tied them up with twine.  We also ran twine on the trellis for the tromboncino squash.  

I've mostly been harvesting cabbage as I could use them, but worried they might begin splitting,  so harvested nine of them Sunday.  The smallest ones were left in the garden.  We'll eat some fresh, and I plan to can some once the weather cools again.  Our eggplant, onions, garlic and one tomato were used in a dish.  We enjoyed watermelon with neighbors that were visiting, and sent them home with garden produce, as well as cat supplies, and a chicken book.  They brought us a cantaloupe, and a hydrangea bouquet.  Our potatoes were steamed for dinner, then potato salad made for J.  I just enjoyed them steamed, along with our sauteed chard.  We each got a cherry tomato to try, and look forward to all the tomatoes to come.  Be well, and stay safe out there.  

Garden Harvest & Interesting Times

Hello, friends.  I made no notes this week, so I'll see what I can remember.  Cucumbers, blueberries, two cabbages, a few blackberries, and basil were harvested.  A cabbage, onions and garlic were shared with my massage therapist.  The other cabbage was made into two slaws for J & I.  Onions were shared with a neighbor.  Cucumber salad was made.  Some blueberries were frozen, and some were eaten in a fruit salad.  Basil trimmings were made into pesto, and frozen.  Hummingbird food was made.  A double batch of cashew parmesan was made, in anticipation of making pesto.  Books and movies were picked up from the library.  

 

J & I finally got cages on almost all the tomatoes.  I mulched them, after he & I weeded them.  J also hoed some other parts of the garden for weed control.  The Japanese beetles remain minimal.  They and the tomato hornworms were fed to the chickens.  The deer found our kiwi vines.  At last look, it appeared that they ate all but one of the kiwi fruits.  It's been so dry, I can't blame beings for trying to find moisture wherever they can.  We've had a real challenge with wasps and yellow jackets at the hummingbird feeders, as well as wasps taking up residence inside the bottom of our storm door.  Both McNibs and I were stung, on different days, before J took care of them.  This is the waspiest place either of us has known.  We've been noticing deer in view of our house in the afternoons, something we've not seen before.  They've been munching grass near one of our asparagus beds.  Thankfully, they're no longer tender, so they're leaving them alone.

Though we had a weekend of rain in the forecast, as I started typing this Sunday evening, it hadn't panned out.  We received one shower Saturday evening, but not enough to register in the rain gauge.  We've had to go back on well water in the house.  However, I'm thankful I had to update this, as by the time we went to bed, we had gotten at least 1/2". Hallelujah!   A challenge this week was realizing on Friday that my debit card had been compromised, and there were six fraudulent charges on my account.  I'd stopped at Dollar Tree and two grocery stores on the way home from an appointment on the 4th, so expect someone "read" my card, at one of those places.  As soon as I get my new card Monday, I'll be ordering one of the RFID blocking wallets, to keep it safe in the future.  It's sad that so much of that goes on these days.  Despite the challenges, I believe these are interesting times to be alive, and I'm thankful to be here.  May your week be a good one.

She Got New Skirts

 

This week, Joseph continued working on the roof setup, attaching the skirting, to give it cleaner lines.  When he asked for my input, I suggested a curved leading edge, and we're happy with how it turned out. He also painted the area white, between the top of the bus and where the skirts end, as the original paint had been sanded, so needed protection.  

He recently met a man who created a mural at a place he often does work at, and we're thinking of asking him to help with our paint job.  We have no idea what we'd like, at this point, so we'll have to see if we can find some inspiration.

Late June Days

Hello, friends.  Last week,  I harvested figs, cucumbers, blueberries, eggplant, green beans, zucchini and yellow squash.  I also harvested the majority of the volunteer potatoes in bags.  I left a few plants that still looked good and green, as a similar couple I pulled up didn't have much on them.  So far, we've harvested ~82 lbs. altogether, which is great, as we eat a lot of potatoes.  I harvested cabbage, and shared one with J's business partner.  Cucumbers were prepared a couple of ways for J, and I used them in some of my cleanse meals.  I made J a potato and green bean salad my Mom used to make, with our veggies, and cabbage and onions.  The pups had baths in the outdoor shower, then ran around like crazy boys for a bit, because it made them feel so good.  

I picked up parts for J's business twice during the week, and made good use of being in town, by grocery shopping, banking, and picking up a book and movie at the library, though  I ended up stopping the movie, as it was too dark for my taste.  Japanese beetles were hand picked and fed to the chickens several times, and squash bugs were squashed most every day.  I weeded rows of tomatoes, and the asian cucumbers, and mulched them.  J placed stakes at the eggplant.  I secured the plants with twine, and mulched them.  Blueberries were frozen.  Once it was dry under the bathroom sink, I did a good clean and declutter, getting rid of some things we won't use.  Some were thrown away, and some will be donated.  There were several used plumbing parts that J won't use, which was put in with our metal, to go to the salvage yard.

As I'm working on this post Sunday, we are surprisingly still running on rainwater.  J did switch over to well water on Saturday, long enough for me to do laundry loads of his uniforms and dark clothes, and run the dishwasher, then switched back to rainwater.  It was so hot and dry, the laundry dried on the line quickly.  We haven't had more than a few drops of rain, but are praying we have some good showers tonight (Sunday).  Besides our gardens, the farmers in this state are really hurting from lack of rain.  Hummingbird food and golden paste for the pups were made.  I pulled two hornworms off the tomatoes, one tiny and the other fat and sassy.  Please look aside at my dirty gardeners hands.  Wishing everyone in the States a wonderful 4th!