A Happy Surprise

Hello, friends.  The beautiful Fall days have continued.  Last week, I canned peas and lima beans.  I had small amounts of each, and canned them in the same load, to save water, time and energy.  Golden paste was made for the pups.  All laundry was dried on the line.  I made vanilla sugar, following Annabel's instructions.  The usual composting, shredding paper and cardboard, and adding veggie scraps to the broth bag happened.  From the garden, tomatoes, peas, eggplant, basil, oregano, green beans and lima beans were harvested.  The green and noodle beans have only been about a dozen a week, so I've been adding them to the broth bag.  Sweet potatoes that had been chewed on, or were damaged when digging, were sliced and dehydrated for pup treats, once the ugly bits were cut off.  I gathered marigold flowers for dyeing, and added them to the dehydrator.  

While in a town delivering soap, I stopped by a thrift store, and found a vintage cotton sheet for $2, and a gold frame for $1.  A friend happened to be there too, and it was nice to catch up for a few minutes.  I stopped by the feed & seed, and picked up some plants... two varieties of lettuce, parsley, and chicory, which caught my eye, it was so pretty.  I've never had chicory fresh, only in a coffee blend, but tried a leaf, and thought it would be great in salads, similar to how we use arugula.  This variety had a lot of purple in the leaf, and is a milder tasting one.  I love having lots of greens available, being they're so good for us.  I got them all in the ground.  J put the hoops over the lettuce bed, and bought row cover, so we're ready to set it up, when frost threatens.  He got extra garlic this year, and gave a pound to a neighbor to plant, who in turn brought us some apples from the NC mountains, one of which was used in wild blueberry cranberry sauce, which J requested not long ago.   

 

While gathering some numbers for the holiday season, I noticed I'd had 1,234 sales (in 16 years) in my online soap shop, a rather auspicious number.  It's a small amount of income for me, but I appreciate each sale.  Last week, I took advantage of the warmest day, by washing and vacuuming my car.  That always feels better, and will likely do until warm weather returns in the spring, lol.  Boxes of my cold weather clothes were brought down from the attic, and still need swapping out.  I was delighted to see my first orchid flowers.  I've been trying ten years, after inheriting my Mom's orchids.  In previous years, any buds fell off before blooming.  Two more plants have buds, so I'm hopeful.  They supposedly don't like wood heat, but we've added another air purifier, so perhaps that's made the difference.  Wishing you some happy surprises, and peace this week.  

Dreamers

 

Yes, we're dreamers, and I'm thinking that's a pretty good thing.  I was recently pondering how I could know that Joseph had run the ozone generator, and decided a magnet should work, next to the door.  I'd chosen several magnets I liked, and this was his favorite.  The idea is it will be upright, when it's safe to go inside.  When it's upside down, the skoolie needs to be opened up, and aired out for a couple of hours, before spending time in there.  It can cause respiratory irritation otherwise.  When I took the magnet over to the bus, I intended to do some cleaning, but the ozone smell was obvious when I opened the door.  I'd rather not leave it to chance though, so we'll see how this magnet system works.  I purchased the magnet on Etsy here.  

This week, he's been fabricating the hangers for our propane pipes.  I helped him to take the visor down for painting.  He's purchased primer, and our secondary paint color.  He wanted orange for the front visor, and possibly another detail or two.  I'm not a big fan of orange, but can handle a soft, orange sherbet, so he ordered that.  We're closing in on painting.

Fall Colors

Hello, friends.  Groceries seemed especially high this week, even with my 5% senior discount.  There was very little on sale, among the things I needed, much of it fresh produce.  I did find organic crushed tomatoes on the markdown shelf, for $2, and got four of those.  I do hope prices will not continue going up, as they have been lately.  As the green tomatoes ripen, I'm freezing them, until I have enough to can.  I caught up on some YouTube channels I follow, while wrapping soap for the B&B.  J and I went to town for early voting.  There was a steady stream of people, but we were able to get in and out quickly.  I've really been enjoying the Fall colors this week.  

Joseph readied the ground, and planted our garlic.  He also tilled up a plot for me.  It's late, but I planted carrots, beets, a small kale patch, and a blend of bird and butterfly wildflowers my stepson gave me.  In other spots, I planted a blend of shade garden seeds.  The carrot varieties included Tendersweet, Danvers, Danvers Half Long, and Scarlet Nantes.  Some of the carrot seeds were saved from our garden.  Beets were Detroit Dark Red and Golden.  There's no frost in the 15 day forecast, so maybe they'll at least have time to germinate.  Peas, lima beans, green beans and kale were harvested from the garden.  

With a forecast of 80 on Saturday, I decided to give the pups baths, as I'm sure it won't be long before we shut the outdoor shower down for the season.  As I hadn't seen any in several weeks, the hummingbird feeders were taken down and scrubbed.  We ended up getting 3/8" of rain Saturday night.  It wasn't enough to begin using it in the house again, but we're thankful it helped water in the seeds and garlic we planted.  Greens of dock and kale were gathered for the chickens most days.  A pot of small sweet potatoes was placed on the woodstove, to simmer for the pups.  It's beginning to feel like the cozy season.  Stay well, friends.

Bodywork

Hello, friends.  Last week, Joseph finished hooking up the electrical for the generator, and did quite a bit of bodywork.  He welded metal on larger holes, and filled in smaller holes with body filler.

He bought a regulator and fittings to connect the propane tank to the piping, and installed it.  Onward.

Little Seasonal Chores

Hello, friends.  Well, we ran out of rainwater in the big tanks on Tuesday, while I was doing laundry, so we're on well water for the foreseeable future.  I made a nice batch of curry powder blend. This way, I can be sure there's no turmeric, which J is allergic to.  All the sweet potatoes were brought in to storage.  We had three nights with a frost advisory, so I picked the garden first... tomatoes, eggplant, beans, chard, roselle, and basil.  I also harvested a little parsley for a dish, and lettuce.  It turned out we had only the slightest frost.  I only noticed one affected basil plant, but everything else is doing OK.  I mentioned last year about gathering sweet potato leaves, to replace spinach in my smoothies.  As the sweet potatoes were in the pond garden this year, so less convenient, that didn't happen.  Many sweet potato vines will continue to grow, even after harvesting the potatoes, so last week, I harvested a bag of the leaves to use.  It saved me from buying spinach for the week.  

Early morning, with a full moon through the window

The last cabbage in storage was used, half in two different dinners.  A bouquet was gathered as well, the day I harvested the garden.  I had an errand in a town I don't go to often.  There's a branch of our library there.  I requested books before going, so they'd be ready to pick up.  I changed out the summer sheet sets to flannel ones.  The woodstove was lit for the season.  Batches of pesto were made with the basil.  The pup's coats were brought out for the cold mornings.  Seedlings of lettuce, chard and cilantro were planted in the ground.  Little seasonal chores.  Early in the week, I had small amounts of several things, all of which had the same processing time, so I canned a quart of tiny potatoes, a pint of fresh limas, and a pint and a half of peas in the same canner load.  Vegetable soup was made, using almost entirely homegrown veggies, including tomatoes, summer squash, limas, carrots, onion, garlic, peas, and potato.  I save small bits of leftovers in a "soup" container in the freezer, and this was added, which included jasmine rice and lentils.  It was an especially flavorful soup this time.  Tomatoes were canned over the weekend.  The season ended a bit better than I thought it might in mid-summer, and I'm thankful for that.  Take good care of yourselves, and have a lovely week. 

A Door & An Ozone Generator

 

Hello, friends.  Last week, Joseph finished installing the generator, and fabricated a door for the space.  He'd saved the hinge from the original door, so was able to cut it down, and use it in this project.  It looks so much nicer than the previous gaping hole there, and gets us closer to being able to paint the bus.  He's already purchased our primary color, Seaside Teal. 

 

Buses in general have a tendency to overheat on long upgrades, so he's bought a transmission cooler, and fabricated mounting brackets to place it in front of the radiator.  After he posted on a skoolie site about purchasing our mattress, someone suggested that an ozone generator works to repel mice and other critters, so there's now one of those on board.  We'll just need to air it out before boarding, whenever it's been less than 48 hours since running.  Next up... propane piping.

A Little Sewing & Another Garden Experiment

Hello, friends.  For the first time ever, we ran out of our drinking (rain)water.  With the skoolie project, a lot of maintenance-type things on the homestead have been neglected, including cleaning out the gutters to that tank.  I swept the shed roof while I was up there, and cleaned the muck off the gutter screens, which were covered with soil-like material.  It's no wonder there was no rain getting through, to fill our tank.  The forecast is showing little to no rain in the 15 day forecast, but in the meantime, we're able to use the main tanks to fill our Berkey.  As long as they last, that is.

One of our game roosters had a bad habit of flying out of the chicken yard, to explore other areas.  Last week, something killed him.  So, now our flock is down to 11, including three roosters, which truly is enough.  All but two of last year's sweet potatoes were used in a curry.  It's time to bring in this year's potatoes, as they should be done curing now.  All the houseplants were brought in.  Last year, we dug up one of the pomegranates, and brought it indoors in a pot, to see if if would bloom earlier once taken back outside, thinking it would have a head start..  It didn't.  In fact, this year it didn't bloom at all, so we're no closer to getting ripe fruit.  A few years ago, J placed a large rock in the backyard, to use as thermal mass, and planted one of our olives in front of it.  It didn't make it, so we're now trying the pomegranate in that spot, and hope it thrives.  Gardening is always an experiment.

Two of the roses started in the spring, from cuttings I'd pruned, were still looking happy, and were planted in the rose bed.  One even has a rosebud, which looks like it will soon open.  A volunteer borage was transplanted.  Three tomatoes were picked to use for the Amish tomato starting tip Stacy shares, and are ready to winter in the basement.  Last week's harvest included peas, lettuce, eggplant, tomatoes, lemon verbena, green and noodle beans.  I gathered zinnia seeds for saving.  Making new covers for the decorative pillows on our bed has been on my to-do list for some time.  I finally got around to sewing them, using the remaining quilt square, which matches the bed quilt.  As there was only one, I cut it in half, and used thrifted linen fabric for the remainder.  I've gotten to attend a couple of performances with a neighbor recently.  The first was Sense & Sensibilities, and was a very humorous take on it.  This week's was Constellations, which was a somewhat dark, more serious play, but also good.  My niece and I are making plans to volunteer together in Western NC in a few weeks, which I'm looking forward to.  I hope you have a lovely week!