Late August Skoolie Progress

Joseph has been working on the bus, but nothing is particularly photo-worthy.  He has installed the black and gray tanks under the bus, and hooked them up.  He's in the process of rerouting some air lines and wiring, so he can install the freshwater tank.  He cut an access door in the side of the bus for the black and gray drain handles.  So, progress continues.  I didn't want to go another week without a post, so thought I'd share a pillow I recently stitched up.  Now, I did not do the needlepoint.  I love the woodland theme, and found it in a thrift shop, with one end cut, and the inner missing.  I found a plain pillow that size in a thrift shop, so inserted it, and stitched it back up.  I believe this one will be for our bed.  Wishing you a happy Labor Day weekend!

August Homestead Happenings

Hello, friends.  We were blessed with cooler temperatures last week.  One morning, when I saw the forecast had lowered to a high of 75, I changed the days to do list, and ended up canning garbanzo beans and homegrown crowder peas.  We were out of crowder peas entirely, and pints of garbanzo beans, and I was waiting for a cool spell to can some up, so that worked out wonderfully.  It's been lovely having the windows open so much.  I found a misshapen watermelon in the pond garden, the only one that's made it this far, without rotting or being chewed on.  I cut it on Sunday, and found it was a yellow one.  Not the best tasting, but edible.  The chickens enjoyed the rind and scraps.

The hornworms and various other tomato worms have made a resurgence.  Curious about this hornworm having darker coloration, I researched it, and learned this is a tobacco hornworm, which has a red horn and black lines.  Apparently, the tobacco hornworm also eats tomato plants, and tomato hornworms also eat tobacco.  Though not exactly pretty, they're definitely interesting looking critters.  On a positive note, the rotting tomatoes have abated.  Interestingly, at a dental appointment close to an hour and a half away, I learned my dentist experienced the same thing in his garden, which was unusual for him as well.  Using my sister's link, I'm giving Fetch a try, and have scanned a number of receipts already.  

Joseph planted four o'clock seeds in the spring, and there are two plants in bloom now.  I've never grown them, and it seems they bloom early morning, as well as around four o'clock.  On another cool day, I gave the pups baths in the outdoor shower, and cleaned the chicken coop.  Mint was pulled, to add to the nest boxes and floor.  Saturday was a workday at a pottery, and I brought some paperwork to work on, as well as reading material.  I'm watering the house plants, mostly orchids, and looking after the chickens while I'm there, in addition to shop sitting.  She told me to take any eggs I gathered, and as we're averaging one a day, I took her up on that.  I hope you've been managing to keep your peace, in this tumultuous world.  Keep sharing your light.  The world so needs it.  

A Small Harvest & A Canning Fail

Hello, friends.  Last week, I foraged chanterelles and lamb's quarter.  Though the chanterelles were small, I was able to gather some most days, and dried them.  Chard, tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, apples, pawpaws, figs and pears were harvested.  There's one apple tree that the squirrels have mostly left alone, and now something else is chewing holes in many of them.  It always seems to be something!  I've been chopping up many of these for the pups.

Pineapples were on sale for $1.79 ea.  I bought two, and tried canning it for the first time, as I've read it tastes much closer to fresh than store bought.  J picked up organic fresh pressed pineapple juice, to use as the liquid, which should be yummy.  However, it didn't go exactly as planned.  Knowing pineapple can react with metal, I thought it would be the perfect time to use Tattler lids.  I had not used them yet this year, and somehow got on auto pilot, instead of using the specific procedure needed with these lids.  I realized it, when none sealed.  I recanned it the next day, and only two sealed, after using the correct procedure.  It may have something to do with the fact that I used the steam canner, which requires that you wait five minutes to lift the lid after processing, before I could do their final tightening.  For the third try, with the remaining four jars, three sealed with metal lids, and we'll use the other jar in a fruit salad.  So much for fresher tasting.  Ah well, that's why I like to try new things, and learn.  

It's a skimpy garden year, but I'm thankful for what's trickling in.  My sister had taken the week off as vacation, but due to a family issue, ended up staying at home.  We took advantage of her time off, and had a thrifting day.  I found a canister to turn into a compost crock, a large glass garden cloche, a few kitchen items and frame for the bus, and work clothes for J.  I realized I didn't have any appropriate summer dresses for a funeral, and found one, to have on hand when the need arises.  Our eggplant, tomatoes, onions, garlic and basil were used in pasta sauce.  Onions, tomatoes, sweet potatoes and broth were used in a curry.  All the onions were finally braided, and are in storage.  I had a work day at a local pottery on Saturday, and brought some things to work on, between customers, including sewing.  That's been my week.  I hope yours was a good one.  

Cargo Deck Railing

 

This week, I powder coated the uprights, which Joseph calls standards, for the cargo rack/deck on top.  He used the same cypress used on the decking for the rails, after cutting them in two, and got it all mounted.  My sister and I went thrift shopping yesterday, and I found a few kitchen utensils for the skoolie, and a frame for a canvas our granddaughter painted for us, which we'll hang here.

The stained glass in the bathroom window is in front of a working RV window, which we want to be able to open.  He attached a handle I found to the frame, and mounted a cup hook on the ceiling.  I'm planning to macrame a short cord to go between them, which will hold the stained glass window open as needed.  I have several different hemp twines, used in my soap business, one of which I will choose to use.  I've not ever done macrame before, but am sure I can find tutorials online.  If you're aware of any good ones, I'd appreciate if you'd pass them along. 

Summer's Bounty

Hello, friends.  I hope this finds you well.  Last week, several bananas were getting very ripe, so they were frozen for smoothies.  Tropical Storm Debby brought us 4" of rain, which ushered in oodles of mushrooms.  Mushroom gravy and rice was made, using foraged chanterelles.  Elderberries and chanterelle mushrooms foraged the rest of the week were dehydrated.  A reishi mushroom was also foraged, which will be dried.  I canned tomatoes, including cherry tomatoes, and got five quarts.  One jar didn't seal, so the contents went into the freezer for the next round of canning.  Tomato skins were dried for bird suet or tomato powder.

reishi with a McNibs photobomb

Last week's harvest included apples, pawpaws, cucumbers, eggplant, figs, tomatoes, beets, parsley, as well as the elderberries and chanterelles.  The replanted green beans and butternut squash are coming up nicely, and the fall pea harvest is as well.  Many of the green beans are already crawling up the trellis.  Our garden produce was used in sauteed cabbage and onions, spicy cucumber chips, apple beet salad and pesto.  Hummingbird food and golden paste for the pups were made.  I wanted to give an update on one of the garden experiments, where I cut the broccoli back to the bottom 4 leaves when harvesting, to supposedly regrow larger shoots.  Most of the plants ended up dying, and the two or three that remain don't look like they'll be producing anything.  I'm thinking there wasn't enough energy left in the plant to produce more, so I'll go back to cutting it higher up, and at least getting small shoots.  Same with the cabbage.  There aren't any small heads forming, just random leaves.  I believe there are varieties of both plants that may be more likely to do better with regrowth, but for what I'm growing, it didn't work.

I spotted this butterfly on the dwarf Joe Pye weed, down at the pond.  It appeared something had munched on a large portion of it's middle, but it was still carrying on.  Perhaps there's a good lesson there.  At the grocery store, our dog food, and the blueberries used in my smoothies were on sale, so I stocked up on those.  I've been shopping more at Aldi, when I can, as their organic celery is only $2.19, compared to $3.59 for the same thing at Food Lion..  Considering I use 14-15 a week for juicing, that adds up.  They also have better prices on organic bananas and cilantro, which I use daily in the smoothie.  There was a frugal fail last week.  I was especially concerned about remembering to bring a cooler, when heading to a co-op and other errands 45 mins. away.  Well, I remembered it, and my phone, water and snacks, but when I got there, realized I had left my wallet at home.  The trip wasn't an entire waste, as I was able to pick up items J had ordered online at Tractor Supply, on the way home, but that was awfully silly of me.  

We did savor the lone peach I spoke about last week.  Too bad there weren't lots more.  There were many tiny apples, probably 25 or so, and I wanted to do something fairly easy with them.  I researched suggestions, and decided on apple butter.  I cored them, and cut out any bad spots, but left them unpeeled.  After steaming, I ran them through a food mill, then they went into a slow cooker with sugar and spices, which is cooking as I'm typing.  I think I'll can some up for presents.  Though I'm not taking part in the Everything Counts challenge, I'm happy with the cooking and preserving that's happened this past week.  Are you finding good ways to use summer's bounty?

Hooks, Solar Meters & A Visor

 

This week, Joseph hung our bathroom hooks.  The one above is for our comfy home clothes.

This one will be for our bath towels.

As in our home, he's hooked up a bidet on the bus.  I'm a little concerned about the water usage, but he really wants one on the bus too, so we'll see how it goes.  

The solar meters were hooked up, which tell us how much solar power is being generated.

He fabricated a visor and banner board for the front of the bus.  I got on top of the bus to help him place it.  In his years of driving semis, he found a visor helpful to keep rain off the windshield when still, decrease frost, and keep more sun and glare out of his eyes.

This week, I made a punch list.  It's possible there are things we forgot, but I'm excited we're far along enough to have one.  Onward!

A Single Peach

Hello, friends.  As often happens at the height of summer, there were many things to harvest last week.  There was not a lot of any one thing, but a wide variety.  There were elderberries, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, figs, apples, basil, purslane, oregano and chanterelles.  The elderberries were dehydrated.  The first couple of chanterelles were used in fried potatoes and peppers, along with purchased mushrooms, which I like to add in, if I have them.  The purslane and basil were turned into several batches of pesto, and frozen.  Another day, four chanterelles were dehydrated.  

We're still having issues with rotting tomatoes, pretty much getting some every day.  I'm beginning to work on this Sunday evening, and there were sadly seven found today, plus several that had been chewed on.  We still have high hopes that the Italian pear tomatoes I started will come through.  They're a great canning tomato, being very meaty, with very little seeds, and also make great tomato sauce.  We've gotten one so far.  I was able to can six quarts of tomatoes last week, so very thankful for that, though it doesn't begin to fill the shelves with the amount we need.  I canned them in the steam canner I asked for, and Joseph gifted me last year.  It takes the same amount of time, other than the time it takes to bring the canner to a boil, as it uses 2 1/2 qts., instead of the gallons the water bath canner uses.  Using less water is also a plus.

I forgot, but I also harvested lambs quarter twice, and blanched and froze them.  J tilled up an area, and planted peas.  In the past, we've only grown them in the spring, but want to see how they do in the late summer.  Gardening is always an experiment.  He has been asking for my Mom's Fresh Fig Bread with Sherry, and on Sunday I made two, with one to freeze.  The tomato skins from canning were dehydrated.  I'll probably use them in bird suet.  Sunday afternoon, Joseph was looking out the window, and saw a beautiful peach on a tree.  The squirrels left us one!  Which is lovely, because the last two kiwi remaining on the vine went missing over the past week.  The vines are heavily deer-browsed, so I suspect they're the culprit.  Ah well, you win some and you lose some.  But, sometimes a single peach is all it takes to brighten your day.  

Seat Belts & Tank Progress

Hello, friends.  Joseph has been hard at work on the skoolie, any chance he gets, which is hard this time of year, with gardening, mowing, and plenty of paid work.  I can't remember if I told you he got my seat mounted.  He now has installed our seatbelts.  

He's hooked up our tank meter, which lets us know the levels in our fresh water, gray and black tanks.

It turns out the plastic black and gray water tanks he got off the salvaged RV won't work, in size or configuration, so he set to work fabricating what we need.  He designed it as one divided tank, as large as possible to still fit into the space, which will buy us a little time while on the road.  We've come to the realization we won't be ready to attend the Fall Skoolie Swarm in late September, as we'd hoped, so we've scheduled a few days away instead.  Once we're up and running, we plan to make up for our missed vacations, with plenty of adventures.