Flowers of June & a Vintage Treasure

Hello, friends.  The flowers are in a patch of Twelve Apostles lilies, which J started from a patch he had at his house, which started from one bulb he got 35 years ago.  On Monday, I canned the vegetable broth that simmered on Sunday, and got 7 pints to add to the pantry.   I add a few pieces of reishi to the pot, for it's medicinal benefits.  I've continued chopping up goodies for the chickens... either summer or winter squash, mulberries, some greens, banana peels, sometimes mock strawberries or a boiled egg.  They clean it all up, except for a very small amount of greens.  Who needs greens, when you've got berries and more?   I've slowly started to decrease the scratch they're getting.  I'm still soaking it in water overnight, and giving it the next morning, as I'm not convinced fermenting is the way to go.  It does seem that it has also slightly decreased their layer pellet intake.  I gathered the last few peas, which were dried and added to the mixed vegetable jar.

After making a soap delivery, I stopped at two nearby thrift stores.  I didn't find anything at the first stop, but found a lovely old gateleg table at the second one.  It needs a couple of minor repairs, but nothing much.  I'd recently been thinking of looking for two narrow tables to replace a couple of very rustic handmade pieces, and this narrow table will work perfectly in one of the spots.  As my extended family continues to grow, the pulled out version will be nice to seat an additional six if needed.  I do love old pieces with history.  I bought beets at the co-op, which had lovely greens on them.  I bought the beets to make apple beet salad, but then sauteed the greens with garlic and broth.  I haven't always been good about cooking the greens.  Though they'd been added to the compost, as they're food we can eat, I'm wanting to decrease any waste I can these days.

I went to Harris Teeter, mostly getting produce, but also checking on some staples, and found they had sales on organic peanut butter and raisins.  I also stopped at Dollar Tree, got more bamboo toothbrushes and a lighter, and was delighted to find some seeds for my Garden soap sets.  I never know how many to get each year, but as quite a few have already sold, I wanted to replenish them.  I ran out of seeds before last Christmas, and would rather that not happen again if possible.  I've been looking in Dollar General and another Dollar Tree without luck, so was happy to find another 8.  They are a mix of carrot and marigold packets, so if they don't all sell this year, they are seeds I would use.  

The older chicks turned 10 weeks old last week, so they were moved into the main flock, and the littlest chicks are now in the outdoor coop fulltime.  That all went pretty smoothly, which is always a plus.  J & I strung up the tromboncino trellis, and the part of the bean row that has beans growing nicely.  Over the weekend, he checked on round 2 of butter beans and some green beans our neighbor gave us, and out of all of them, he only found one green bean beneath the soil.  We have no idea what's getting them, but he planted round 3.  He also planted yellow squash in some cells, instead of the ground, to see if we'll have better luck.  He worked hard on digging stumps and levelling the land in front of the solar panels.  After researching the Northern sea oats, and seeing that they can be quite invasive in some areas, I've decided to plant them in our beds out by the road, instead of by the panels.  If they behave themselves there, we may transplant some in the future.  

I was happy to be asked to add two days to my schedule, working at a pottery gallery in the coming weeks.  We now have little cucumbers, some peppers, and lots of tomatoes.  We're so looking forward to beginning the harvest.  The native milkweed has been covered with bumblebees, and smells so sweet each time I walk past.   As much of the country has already experienced, the heat dome will be arriving here this coming week.  There had been a forecast of 100 for Tuesday, but I see that's now been lowered a couple of degrees, thank goodness.  I'll be doing most of the outdoor chores early, then plan on working on things indoors for the rest of the day.  Stay cool, everyone!