A Skoolie Update

Hello, friends.  Since our first shakedown trip in the skoolie in May, a lot has happened.  Joseph is on several skoolie forums, and learned what a benefit an auxiliary cooling system could be, especially in climbing long elevations, as in our mountains, or driving in high temperatures.  He designed and installed one of these systems in our bus, which as you'll see later in this post, has already come in quite handy.  He created a bypass system for the drinking water, which significantly speeds up flow, so that issue is solved.  He decided he wasn't happy with the wood railings, and replaced them with aluminum ones, on the cargo deck, which you can see in the above pic.

He decided he wasn't happy with the free-standing telescoping ladder, and replaced it with an attached fabricated aluminum one.  He took another shakedown trip the weekend of the 4th, in Pittsboro, and found out the water pump didn't supply enough water pressure to operate the shower when we're boondocking (running on our own systems).  He has since installed a higher capacity water pump.  He also ran out of house battery power overnight, and has since doubled the battery capacity.  He did a mini overnight shakedown at our homestead, to make sure the power supply would last all night, with a/c running on the new battery system, and it did.  He also wanted to make sure there was plenty of power to start the bus, if we were sitting in cold weather or boondocking for days, so he added an additional battery for this.

He fabricated intake louvers to help channel air into the radiator intake (above), to assist in cooling.  He also mounted a louver on the rear engine access door, to help dissipate heat.  He did another shakedown trip to the eastern part of the state, to attend a family reunion.  When he got 25 miles from his destination, he began hearing an unusual noise, and stopped to find the cooling fan hub bearings had failed.  He removed the drive belt, and switched on the auxiliary cooling system, and continued to his destination.  He made it back home on the auxiliary system, by stopping several times to let it cool down, as it's not quite as powerful as the main cooling system.  We're so thankful it got him home, without needing a tow, which would have been quite expensive.  He's since rebuilt the fan hub.  We're now planning another shakedown trip for early Fall.  Let's hope this one goes perfectly, so we can venture farther.  

August Blooms & A Happy Ending

Hello, friends.   Last week, I made cashew parmesan, harvested basil, and made pesto.  As I won't be canning any tomatoes, I want to be sure we have plenty of pesto, so we can continue to have pasta about once a week.  Guinness had a much needed bath, in the outdoor shower, with homemade dog soap.  After the neighbor didn't respond to my messages regarding fruit pickup, I canned figs, and froze pawpaw pulp in muffin tins, for smoothies.  Two new bras were handwashed with homemade soap gel.  A little later than usual, I made my autumn soap, Pumpkin Chai.  It will be ready to wrap August 29th.

In the garden, I harvested tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, probably the last tromboncino, and peppers.  J started cucumbers a couple of weeks ago, and they're looking good.  It's questionable whether they'll have time to bear before first frost, but we thought it was worth a try.  I gathered hazelnuts and wild hickory nuts.  Last year, the majority of hickory nuts weren't good, when I shelled them.  I gathered around a dozen last week to see, and none were good.  Maybe the squirrels leave the bad ones on the ground.  I expect they have a way of knowing; perhaps scent.  I'm still trying new to us recipes that were saved.  Last week, we tried chickpea cucumber feta salad, which we both liked.  I like finding recipes that don't require cooking, for when temps are high.

On Saturday, I heard from the neighbor, and shared figs and pawpaws.  She gave us a Happy Camper sticker for the skoolie.  With the weather turning cooler, J & I enjoyed a lovely pond sit one evening.  We had a rewarding thing happen on Saturday.  While in the garden, I started hearing what sounded like "baa-ing".  I called J, and we determined it probably wasn't in our woods, but he could see a stopped car through the woods.  We walked out to the road, and found a man trying to release a fawn that was stuck in wire fencing across the road.  The man had been there several minutes, and wasn't having any luck, so J asked me to run and get his wire cutters.  A few snips, and it was released.  It did immediately run right into the fence again, so he lifted it up and over, where it quickly ran off.  The sweet thing did have some abrasions on it's leg and belly from the fencing, but J thinks it's old enough to be OK, even if it doesn't reunite with it's Mom.  I realized Sunday evening that I totally forgot about writing a skoolie post.  I'll try to remedy that this week.  Have a good one, friends.

 

Mid-August Days & A New Book

Hello, friends.   I've been noticing and enjoying how the slant and quality of the light is changing in the evenings, as we move towards autumn.  While walking by the solar panel array, I noticed quite a few puffballs.  They're the first mushroom I learned and ate, 20+ years ago.  I harvested a small one, and added it to several store bought mushrooms for a dinner side.  I made on online food purchase, with a 20% off code, and 4% cash back.  Figs and pawpaws were offered to neighbors.  One came by for figs; the other is out of town, and will come for both soon.

Last week, I harvested a cucumbers or two, a few tomatoes, and two peppers from the garden, as well as sweet potato leaves for smoothies.  While gathering flowers for a bouquet, I found some bonus potatoes that the rains had unearthed.  Two were very small, but one was of decent size.  In addition to the changing light, another sign that Fall is on it's way is the goldenrod that has begun blooming.  I wanted to say a big thank you to the friend who sent a card.  You know who you are.

I've shared recipes here before, from Elspeth Hay.  Two that come to mind are whole wheat chocolate chip cookies, and brownies which incorporate winter squash. Both are fantastic.  Last month, her new book came out, Feed Us With Trees.  I'm reading it now, and it's so hopeful about possibilities not usually considered.  It feels like a paradigm-changing work.  

J did another shakedown trip, in the skoolie.  He had a family reunion, in the Eastern part of the state, over the weekend.  I honestly didn't feel I had the bandwidth to be around lots of people right now, and didn't feel it would be the best scenario for Guinness, with him being alone in the bus several hours during the reunion, when he's not been alone in it before.  Besides the reunion on Saturday, J invited classmates who have been interested and following the bus progress on social media, to come by on Friday evening, so I knew there wouldn't be much peaceful time the whole trip.  After our last stressful trip, with McNibs, I thought we could all use a peaceful one, this next time.  So instead, Guinness and I had a lovely, quiet weekend at home.  I was able to delve into some spiritual pursuits, gather a bouquet, and have dinners of things I love, but J not as much.  J did have issues with the bus, but I'll do a separate skoolie post about that soon.  He managed to make it home, but will need to work on a few things before adventuring out again.  May love and light surround you this week.

The Good Wins

Hello, friends.  I hope you've been doing well.  My freezer was at it's limit for bags of veggie scraps.  I was thankful the weather turned to cooler, rainy days for a bit.  The first day, I canned veggie broth.  I'd used the last of our lentils, so canned some of these the second day.  It's so convenient having beans/legumes ready to heat and eat.   I dehydrated the leaves and inner bits of celery, which I grind into a powder, and add to the chicken mash, and also dehydrated bread ends for bread crumbs.  Figs were preserved by dehydrating and canning.  In the garden, I harvested cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, carrots and eggplant.  Elderberries were harvested and dried.

cranefly orchid

As is often the case in life, there has been good and bad recently.  I'll get the bad out of the way first: 

- the kale patch I had made from volunteer plants was mowed.  In fairness, the stretch of mid-90's didn't do them any favors, and they were quite spindly at the time.

-despite planting 40 tomato plants, and replacing several of them early on as needed, there doesn't appear to be enough to can this year.  Plenty of rain has caused some rot and wilt, the leaf-footed bugs pierce them for their juice, which makes a soft spot, then rot.  I'm still finding worms and worm holes... mostly army worms, but the occasional small hornworm too.  

- the deer chomped the top out of my lone surviving roselle hibiscus.

- it's been the most meager harvest I can remember for August.  Some days, there is nothing to harvest.

-out of the five lettuce varieties I started, only one variety germinated, and no parsley did.

Now for the good: 

-we've picked up locally grown peaches, which were wonderful.

- it's been a great fig year.

- I've been able to freeze strips of sweet peppers, which was a goal this year.

- now that J is semi-retired, he's helping some with household tasks, such as laundry and food preserving, which is a blessing.

- J had placed some potatoes in the truck tool box planter in the spring, as back up plants, and harvested those this weekend.  We enjoyed them, along with tromboncino squash, and sweet peppers, which he grilled.

-chanterelle mushrooms have continued to show up.

-it appears we'll have a good winter squash harvest.

- I saved a monarch butterfly from a spider's web.  Looking out the window, I saw it struggling.  I don't usually interfere with nature, but it had only been caught on the tip of one wing.  I knew it would get further entangled, as it struggled to fly.  I figured monarchs could use some help these days.  It made me smile to see it fly up and over the house.  

- while filling the bird feeder, I noticed a new to me flowering plant close by, and found out it's a cranefly orchid.  It's not as showy as many orchids, but I love seeing another native plant on this land, and only yards from the house. 

- I've enjoyed watching the pollinators flock to the Joe Pye weed, golden alexander, and winged sumac.

anole lizard on Joe Pye weed

So, definitely more good than bad.  It was helpful to think about the good and bad, and realize the many things to be grateful for.  This is the first time we've canned whole figs.  I'm not sure how we'll use them, other than to try them in the fig bread I make.  I counted 22 jars of various homemade jams on the shelf, and was determined to get that number down, before canning any more.  If you can whole figs, I'd love to know how you use them.  We expect they'd be good on oatmeal, but that's the main way we plan to use the dehydrated ones, cooked with oatmeal, and we'll try them on salads.  I hope your "good" column outweighs the bad this week.  

Leave-Taking

Guinness & McNibs as puppies

Hello, friends.  I just wanted to give an update, for those who hadn't read my comment in the last post.  McNibs did leave us, on Wednesday night.  It was a sad time, but I'm glad he no longer has to deal with a broken body, and is in a better place.  Last post, I mentioned how Saturday, the day before he got sick, was a good day for him, between eating well, playing with his toy, taking our typical 1/4 mile walk, and seeming in his usual good spirits.  J and I went on our first date of the year that night, to our little local wine bar.  It feels kind of like McNibs gave us a last gift.  Early the next morning, he became ill.

I'm so thankful to have gotten 19 bonus months with him, since his walkabout.  He was a most excellent walking companion, and it'll take some time to get used to him not being near.  Guinness has always done his own thing, not terribly worried with staying close.  The pic at the top is from a post that mentions how he got his name.  If interested, you can read about it here.