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.  

Late July

Hello, friends.  Well, we did get some peaches to enjoy this year.  All but a couple were buggy, but I just cut the bad spots out, and used the rest.  Going through my recipes, I saw one for Peachy Cobbler, which had ingredients we could eat.  Once I prepped the peach portion, and was getting ready to start on the topping, I looked to see what temp I needed to turn the oven to, and realized it was a raw recipe.  I look over ingredients when saving recipes, but don't generally look at the prep instructions, unless it looks especially long or complicated.  We both thought it was good, though different from traditional cobbler.  We had one white peach from a tree our neighbor gave us, and J managed to harvest it Saturday.  We're looking forward to trying it.  I harvested cucumbers, peppers, figs, and tomatoes.  Not many of any of them, but we're thankful for all of it.  

 

I've still been working on going through recipes.  It's not been every day, and might be 30 mins at a time, but besides removing ones with things we can no longer eat, or just no longer sounded good, I had collected recipes over the years for what to do with the bounty of things we were growing, but the plants ended up not making it.  These included rhubarb, olives, and chestnuts.  Vegetables have their own categories... sweet potatoes, summer squash, winter squash, cabbage, eggplant, broccoli & cauliflower, beans, greens, etc.  Sweets... cakes, cookies, other desserts.  Fruits.  Non-sweet baked goods.  Then there were collections for family gatherings we had, for St. Patrick's Day, and hayride ideas.  And DYI recipes, such as ketchup, vegan parmesan, etc.  Though still fairly well organized, I didn't realize how many there actually were.  Several folders and some large accordion folders of them, plus a couple of piles that needed filing.  Whew, it was a lot!  I have been through them now, but still need to do some more organizing and consolidating.  I'll be glad to finish, and move on to other things.

One thing that really helped me work on things I don't usually get to is that J had 8 weeks of PT twice a week.  While he was in town, he'd often pick up groceries, which meant I could stay home, and was very thankful for that.  It finished just before my last post, so I'm getting groceries again.  I gathered another round of elderberries, and dried them.  It's the time of year I can substitute sweet potato leaves for spinach in my smoothies.  At least above ground, the sweet potato plants look quite happy.  Early in the week, I foraged for some chanterelles.  Instead of drying them this time, I tried the Cross Legacy method of putting them in a jar with a paper towel.  They kept great, and were added to potatoes and peppers, for a dinner.  Caprese salad was made with our tomatoes and basil.  Flowers were gathered for a bouquet.

I started seeds of lettuce, collards, kale, chard, and parsley.  I'd neglected the carrot patch the past few weeks, and finally got around to checking on them.  Some looked large enough to harvest, and I pulled a small basket of them.  Most were a bit gnarly, some with two legs.  Other than one I snacked on, I steamed them for the pups dinners, and put the greens in the broth bag.  I'd recently read how wonderful carrots are for dogs, both raw and cooked.  I learned another new thing, which is that hummingbird food straight from the fridge is perfectly fine, and may even be best in hot weather.  Too hot is a problem, and I probably wouldn't give it cold once the weather cools, but that's helpful to know, as I sometimes have a hard time remembering to let it warm on the counter.

I began this post on Saturday, and early Sunday morning, McNibs took a turn for the worse.  It's not likely he'll pull through.  He had a good day on Saturday.  He ate wonderfully, had a good walk, played with his toy, and was his sweet, goofy self.  If you're so inclined, please send him light and love, and wishes for a peaceful passing.  Thank you, friends.

More Decluttering, New Recipes & a Busy Dehydrator

Hello, friends.  Last week, I began laying cardboard down in the enclosed berry patch, and covering it with shredded cardboard and paper.  J has weedeated in there, but it would be nice if it wasn't necessary, and more pleasant to work in, without tall weeds.  I took advantage of a 30% off sale, and 4% cash back, to stock up on regularly used items in the kitchen.  Cucumbers, tomatoes, an eggplant and peppers were harvested from the garden, as well as figs.  I've left the remaining blueberries for the birds.  McNibs loves to eat the dropped apples and pears.  I've grabbed a few before he got to them, and have been cutting them up in their breakfast.  Figs that were not quite ripe have been shared with the pups and chickens, and chickens got the large cucumbers.

praying mantis on elderberry

I began harvesting elderberries, and dehydrated them.  While the dehydrator was going, I threw some GF bread in, for making bread crumbs.  While gathering the elderberries, I noticed a praying mantis on one cluster.  Though the peaches are not quite ripe, and are less than perfect, I've gathered the ones that easily let go, to see if we can enjoy some this year.  I fed many plants with fish emulsion.  It appears ants may have killed the witch hazel we planted last year.  Boo.  I weedeated the enclosed asparagus patch.  I've long wanted our printer out of the bedroom, which sits right next to the window that night air comes through, whenever we're able to have windows open.  Which means on summer days, the paper is constantly getting jammed from excess moisture.  I rearranged some things, and we moved the printer into my studio.  That will hopefully stop the jamming problem.  Another benefit is when I'm working on orders or soap when J is asleep, I can go ahead and print without bothering him.

I've continued going through recipes.  There were hundreds, and I'd say with all the things we can no longer eat, I've shredded a good 3/4 of them.  Besides decluttering, another good thing that came out of going through them was the new recipes tried.  There was Broiled Zucchini and Potatoes with Parmesan Crust, Pasta With Zucchini Cream Sauce, and Green Rice with Grapes and Pecans, a good summer dish.  This last recipe is by Mollie Katzen from The Heart of the Plate.  With the first recipe, I intended to do the vegan parmesan crust, but totally forgot it, and we still thought it was good.  The second recipe is Medical Medium-friendly, by glowingthroughit.  I'm also getting rid of about 2/3 of my cookbooks.  There are yet more recipes to go through, but I'm staying with it.  I've been keeping in mind Swedish death cleaning, and truly don't want to leave this for anyone else to have to deal with.  I plan to keep going, once the recipes are done.  I needed to make space for this year's garlic, so worked on getting last year's prepped and dried.  J helped me finish the prepping.  Much of it needed to be composted at this point, but there were still several trays cut up and put in the dehydrator.  I finished filling the dehydrator up with bread for crumbs and chanterelle mushrooms.  The garlic will be put in the pantry, and ground, when garlic powder is needed. 

I noticed this lizard while exercising in my studio

Believe it or not, we finally strained and bottled our pawpaw wine, after 2.5 years.  J had been assuring me that it would be OK, and indeed it is.  He made wine for several years before we met, so I deferred to his knowledge, as I've had no experience in winemaking.  The descriptions were pretty accurate.  It definitely tastes fruity, with peach most prominent, and I also get pear.  No banana, though, as some say.  I didn't know what to expect, and though it's not what I would have thought, it's good.  It's too sweet to enjoy with dinner, but a small glass, especially during the warmer months, will be nice.  Better late than never!  Wishing you a week of simple joys.

Ups & Downs In The Garden

Hello, friends.  I hope you've been doing well.  The usual things have been happening, on the homestead.  J pulled the garlic.  I began harvesting the grow bag potatoes, and he joined me.  We had a good garlic harvest.  The potatoes, not so much.  So, the final potato tally, from the long rows that should have given us 200#, gave us a little over 20#.  From the 25 grow bags, which should have yielded 4-5# per bag, we got 9# total, so basically 2 grow bags worth.  I've since read we could have put several plants per bag, which we didn't do.  Oh well.  We'll keep trying.  

Shortly after my last post, I began finding squash bugs on the Ronde de Nice zucchini, along with the yellow squash.  As of today, all the zucchini are dead, and two yellow squash are still hanging on, but not blooming.  So, the pest resistant qualities of the Ronde de Nice didn't really pan out.  The good news is, I harvested our first tromboncino, which will hopefully take the place of the other summer squash.  Also, the lima and green beans have got tiny beans on them.  I gathered flowers for a bouquet for the house.  I was happy to see a monarch on the milkweed.  I recently saw a tip to cut the milkweed down by half, after finished blooming, to allow for fresh growth of leaves, so they'd be much more tender for the caterpillars to munch on, so I did that.

From the garden, I harvested yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers, basil, oregano, and tomatoes.  Blueberries and blackberries were gathered, and frozen.  I'm still going through my recipes, which has resulted in lots of paper to shred. Some of the shreds were used, after cleaning the chicken coop.  Some went in the compost bin, and I've begun using it as mulch in our enclosed berry patch.  I'm finding hornworms most days, on the tomatoes.  Two of them had been visited by parasitic wasps.  They remained in place, but all others have been given to the chickens.  I was happy to see Food Lion again had organic black olives on sale, basically half price, so I did another stock up.  I've been intending to do another skoolie post, and hope to do that soon.  Take good care of yourself.

Peaceful Days

Hello, friends.  I hope you managed well during the heat dome.  Last week, I cut some rosemary, and made rosemary lemonade..  I harvested all our onions, which was a quite pitiful harvest.  Blueberries, blackberries, and a few mulberries were gathered and frozen, except for some included in a fruit salad.  Also in the fruit salad were the first two figs of the year.  I found more kiwis, hidden among the vines, so all told, there are around a couple dozen.  The deer have been grazing on the vines, but I'm hoping the fruits are hidden enough that we'll finally get to enjoy some of our kiwis.

In the garden, I harvested yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers, and our first tomato.  J & I got cages around the remainder of the tomatoes.  I recently pulled out a tomato plant that appeared to have some sort of blight, and J replaced it with a volunteer.  Basil and purslane were gathered, which I made into pesto.  When I was tasting it to see if it needed any adjustment, it tasted so good, I changed dinner plans to pasta with pesto, lol.  I'd originally planned on bean burritos.  The happy news is I again tried to make GF tortillas, with J's pan, and they did well this time.  It's possible it's the pan, but I'm wondering if I just wasn't patient enough in turning them the last couple of times, so will attempt one of the other pans again at some point.  The tortillas are on the counter with tea towels separating them, and I plan to use them for tomorrow's dinner.

The pups are doing well.  They were my garden assistants, the morning I took the photo.  I did work with an animal communicator, shortly after I mentioned it a few weeks ago.  A couple of McNibs' supplements have been tweaked, and a couple new ones added, ginkgo and a homeopathic remedy.  He was adamant that he doesn't want surgery.  He has some discomfort, but no pain.  He asked for cheese, and instructed I not be skimpy with it, lol.  Guinness also had his supplements tweaked.  Those silly boys add goodness to my days.  Like others I've seen online recently, I've felt the desire to back off a bit from social media.  Though I'm not offline, it's been good to spend more time in reflection, rather than listening to so many other voices, while I work in our home.  So, please don't be concerned if I should miss posting some weeks, but know I'm in a good place, enjoying peaceful days.  In this crazy world, I expect we can all use more of them.  I hope this week brings you at least a few peaceful days.  

Wildflowers & Chanterelles

Hello, friends.  With all the recent rains, the chanterelles have been popping.  I harvested some one day, to add to the fried potatoes and peppers we were having for dinner.  The basil has begun to want to flower.  I cut it back, and what wasn't used in pasta sauce, was frozen in cubes, to use in future sauces.  The first blueberries have begun ripening, and are being gathered, along with some blackberries and mulberries.  The shade bed was cleaned up, and areas of the garden were weeded.

In the garden, I harvested yellow squash, zucchini, cabbage, cucumbers and broccoli.  A new broccoli salad was tried, and the remaining broccoli was frozen.  Some of the cabbage was used to make a new to us slaw.  J has been brainstorming some new garden ideas.  If any of it comes to pass, I'll let you know.  A young couple moved into the community a year or two ago.  They've set up a farm, which uses lots of permaculture principles.  After the fact, two weekends ago, I noticed they had set up at the local bakery, which the wife opened.  This weekend, when I saw that they were set up again, J & I went to check out their farm stand.  I bought beautiful salad greens and some beets.  We're happy to support them.  The bakery goods look amazing; not just sweets, but beautiful quiches, breakfast biscuits and other delights.  I'd be supporting the bakery too, if I wasn't gluten-free and vegan these days.  

the wildflower patch

For several weeks, we've been enjoying organic strawberries from Aldi, and cherries for $3.99# from Food Lion.  It's really nice to have them both available and reasonably priced.  Late spring and summer fruits are one of the pleasures of seasonal eating.   The pups were bathed in the outdoor shower.  They were both such good, cooperative boys.  I'm sure the treats helped.  My main concern was a wasp that was staring me down the whole time.  Thankfully, it left us alone.  I repotted a geranium, and fed it and a number of other plants with liquid seaweed.  Like a lot of the country, we're experiencing the heat dome this week.  Take good care, and stay cool out there.

Gardening Challenges

 

Hello, friends.  J and I have been discussing how gardening might change as we grow older, and with recent garden disappointments and challenges, we're pretty sure we won't be gardening as we currently are, with two large row gardens, in future years.  We're not sure exactly how it will look, as we've tried most of the possibilities... raised beds, hoop house, containers, and many ways to improve the soil... compost, manure, ash, biochar, natural fertilizers and teas, chop and drop, with less than the hoped for results.  We are considering building a walapini, attached to our old root cellar, but would only be able to grow certain things in there.  Certainly no large, rambling plants.  But, it's a possibility.  Growing a large portion of your food organically is a lot of work, and with multiple challenges each year, we're looking for alternatives to what we're doing.  We both really enjoy gardening, and having fresh food, but the amount of work, and the many challenges we're up against, are making us rethink things.  

We pulled a few onions, all of which were small.  I harvested zucchini, cucumbers, yellow squash, a cabbage, basil, rosemary and broccoli.  Much of the broccoli looks like it's close to bolting, so I harvested the largest heads, and froze enough for quite a few meals.   I plan to keep an eye on the smaller heads, and harvest them when needed.  It turned out there was a little over 20# of potatoes harvested.  I cooked up some of the "need to be eaten" batch, and forgot to weigh those first, but the harvest was better than what we initially thought.  The smallest potatoes were canned.  I found and transplanted another kale volunteer.

Dear McNibs has been having more issues.  The most concerning one was when he just keeled over, looking just like someone who passed out.  I was right behind him, heading to the mail carrier's vehicle, when he fell back, then onto his side, like a sack of potatoes.  He seemed alert as soon as I got to his face, and not in distress.  Thankfully, where he fell was a shady spot on grass, as it was a hot day, so I just grabbed a chair and water, and sat with him.  He sat up in a few minutes, got up in 30, and hasn't had a recurrence, which I'm thankful for.  There were also good things.  On one of our walks last week, he trotted/hopped up the hill (due to his mass), trying to keep up with Guinness, when he had just been doing a slow plod for the past few weeks.  I'll take the good wherever I can get it.  

first hornworm of the year

I cleaned and decluttered the floor of my closet, after getting another shoe rack to help organize.  I've started going through my recipes, of which I've got entirely too many.  I'm shredding any with ingredients I can no longer have, like eggs or dairy, or just don't sound as good as they used to.  I hope to get them organized again, so I don't have to search through a large pile to find what I'm looking for.  Two quarts of hummingbird food were made, and golden paste for the pups.  The gardenia bushes are blooming, and smell so sweet.  The lilies too.  The coming week ushers in the summer solstice, with the longest day of the year.  Wishing you peaceful, sweet days.