Late Summer Days

Hello, friends.  I'm sending prayers that those in Louisiana, Alabama and Florida are safe, as I'm writing this Sunday night.  This storm coming on the anniversary of Katrina makes my heart heavy.  It seems there are so many things, coming at us from so many angles, it can be tough to find the bright side some days.  A happy note is last week, I saw a new to me bird at the feeder, a hooded warbler, which is not uncommon here, apparently.  It always cheers me to see more diversity on this land.  

The figs, yellow squash and yard long beans are coming in well.  One day, I made fig jam and fig sherry bread, which J requested.  For a dinner, I made yellow squash soup, and pulled homemade bread from the freezer to go with it.  On Tuesday I had a slower day, which allowed me to pick up and put away things, and give some attention to things that often get missed.  One of the things I did was pull everything off the day bed, and clean and polish it.  The next day, I dehydrated lambs quarter, plus a chanterelle I found on a walk, and wrapped soap.  With days mostly in the 90's, I did the majority of my outdoor chores early, then enjoyed being in the house.  

I made zucchini orzo with the last of the tromboncino, and an apple beet salad.  The asparagus sent up some late spears after last week's rain, so I harvested a few in spots that had plenty of other spears to feed the roots.  I harvested concord grapes, and made juice with them.  The pond garden became a jungle this year, and the butternut squash did poorly.  Several vines died, and a few small, immature squash were harvested.  The sweet potatoes are also in this garden, so our expectations are not high for them.  While out and about, I went by the discount grocery, and got organic and natural peanut butter 2/$1, organic beans .60, organic soup .40, glow sticks 2/$1.  Our basement is also our storm shelter, and I thought we'd appreciate having those sources of light, if we ever had to spend much time there.  While at the store, I was told they're phasing out food, to become a hunting and fishing shop, which saddens me.  J bought pork chops at the local, small grocery store for $1.68/#, which he says is a very good price for here.  

On the way home from visiting my sister, I had a hankering for pesto, so I gathered basil and purslane when I got home, and we had it with GF pasta and sliced tomatoes for dinner.  I needed to order paint for our small business.  When I began checking out, I saw a banner for $25 off, for just a few more dollars than I was spending.  By adding one more to my cart, I got almost 2 free, which was a nice bonus.  While cutting the grapes, I cut the tip off a finger of my gloves.  I mended it with super glue.  I have small hands, and the gloves were longer than my fingers, so this should work just fine.  One of the hot evenings, I mended a napkin, a pair of shorts, 2 reusable grocery bags, 5 pairs of J's work pants, and redid an uncomfortable neckline on one of my homestead shirts.  J brought me this bouquet of local sunflowers on Sunday.  He went to pick up two more bales of organic hay, and the man also sells sunflowers.  J created a vacuum chamber to "can" our dry goods, which worked wonderfully.  We were having issues with our old method, and this seems to work a lot better so far.  

I noticed the tendril of one of the watermelons had dried several days ago, so I harvested it Sunday.  I may have jumped the gun, as the patch that was on the ground looks more creamy than yellow.  I guess we'll find out.  Neither of us feels very confident in telling when a watermelon is ready.  This coming week, I'm looking forward to seeing Paperhand Puppet Intervention, which we're taking our GD to see.  I've seen a few of their puppets at various local events, but have never been to one of their shows.  It's at a lovely, old outdoor theater in the woods on the UNC campus.  After the next few days in the 90's, we're supposed to cool down some.  I'm surely looking forward to that.   J cooked potatoes, squash, eggplant and chicken on the grill.  I've been gathering vegan ice cream recipes, and made the first one, Vanilla Maple.   I subbed almond milk for the oat milk, and sadly, it tasted more of almonds than vanilla or maple, and not much of that.  I put some of my amaretto pear preserves on top, which helped.  Stay safe and well this week, friends.