Hello, friends. I hope you've been doing well, since I was last here. The summer weeks go by quickly. The niece I often speak about recently walked a portion of the Camino with a friend. She gifted me the little Spanish bird whistle above. Guinness is doing well. His head tilt seems to be gone, and he walks with me every day, other than when it's raining. There have been just a few days, where partway into our walk, I can tell he's not feeling it, and we turn around and head towards home. Some mornings, I've been adding a morning walk, usually by myself, to make up for it. I've now lost 6 lbs. It's coming off slower than I'd hoped, but I'm pleased to be making steady progress.
With woodstove season behind us, I scrubbed the brick hearth, which is 4' X 8'. When my ex and I created it, our woodstove and a wood cookstove were back to back on it, the woodstove on the living room side, and the cookstove on the kitchen side. Once J moved here, we removed the cookstove, and replaced it with an island. After I cleaned the hearth, J sanded and blacked the woodstove. Both look much better. I finished deep cleaning the bedroom, and organized the toiletries and first aid supplies. I put aside a box to give away. Speaking of toiletries, for many years I used a Personal Touch razor. Though I still had packs of replacement razors, bought for $1/pack at the discount store, the razor itself stopped holding the blades in. I researched, and bought a new type or razor, with good reviews. Despite myself and J working on it several times, it also would not hold on to the razor. So, I threw it out, put the extra blades in the giveaway pile, and found a vintage but unopened Personal Touch razor. In many cases, they really did make things better in the "old days".
In the garden, I've been harvesting blueberries, blackberries, cucumbers, yellow squash, zucchini, tromboncino and Korean zucchini, eggplant, lambs quarter, purslane, arugula, marigold flowers, chard, and finally tomatoes. I also harvest sweet potato leaves for my breakfast eggs. Though not a large amount, I'm thinking I may can some tomatoes soon. It'll probably be two pints, or if I'm lucky three, but every little bit counts, right? Many of the tomatoes are not thriving, so I'll take what I can get. As expected, our potato harvest was pitiful. Something, likely voles, ate most of them. With a 50' row, we ended up with less than 8#. We do still have the Amish potato rings J tried this year. They're still happy looking plants, but haven't bloomed (we planted them fairly late), so we're leaving them alone for now. I'm harvesting and dehydrating elderberries, as they ripen. Like much of the country, we had some really hot days, with heat indexes above 100, but they've lowered, and we've gotten some good rain, of which we're thankful.
I've been reading library books and free Prime books, plus one I got from the thrift store for .25. I went through Swagbucks for several purchases. Most were just a small amount of cash back, but the best deal was a 40% off Kohls sale with free shipping, plus I got $2.16 cash back from SB. I also received $10 in Kohls cash, but let that expire, as I didn't see anything else I needed. There are still repairs needed on both the skoolie and the Bronco, so no trips have yet been planned. Bread ends were turned into bread crumbs. Three past their prime bananas were turned into banana bars for J. Apple zucchini muffins were made with our squash. We've been keeping our a/c on 78 this summer, but open up at night, any time it's cool enough to do so. Laundry has been dried on the clothesline. We had a small amount of our hazelnuts, in the shell, that needed to be cracked. J took care of it, and they were vacuum sealed in a jar. I found that this years' hazelnuts were already gotten by the squirrels, all but the one I found, still intact among the shells on the ground. As I applied bone sauce to the branches in the spring, it's looking like it doesn't deter squirrels. It's possible I didn't apply enough, so I plan on applying it again, and give it one more shot.
J worked on tightening up our storm door frame. You could see daylight, in places around the door, and during the really hot days, you could feel how leaky it was. When my ex built that corner of the house, it was nowhere near plumb (I now know), so it can be a bit of a challenge in that area. The door is much better now. For the first time, the squirrels got into the garlic, drying on a rack in my carport. So, we set them up in the studio to finish drying, and I braided them and hung them in the basement. I saw where the squirrels had chewed on one of the drying onions, but it didn't look like much if any was missing, so I'm guessing they went "yuck". Ha! I canned up a batch of black & blue jam (mostly blackberries, with blueberries and a few mulberries). I'd been wanting to take a sewing class, to improve my skills, and recently took one for a quilted potholder. Though it was meant for beginners, it ended up being one other student and I, both of us having done sewing and quilting in the past. It was fun. I may end up going to some of the open houses she holds, where you can bring what you're working on. I stopped by a thrift store, on the way home from class. I was happy to find two matching flannel pillowcases pinned together for $1.50, one standard and one queen, which is exactly what we need. Well, I think that about catches things up for the moment. Please take good care of yourselves, until next time.
