Summer Harvests

Hello friends.  We had a quiet 4th, which was just what I was hoping for.  I did animal chores and harvested lettuce, made lavender lemonade, watched a spiritual talk, read a little, helped J on the bus a few brief times, made a simple dinner of steamed potatoes with a large salad, and watched Outlander.  Speaking of Outlander- since the first disc, it's become quite a bit less tame, with significant violence, brutality and gratuitous sex.  I've pondered stopping the series, but then each time, there will be episodes with none of these, and for now, I've just fast forwarded through these parts.  I really enjoy historical fiction, and am intrigued by time travel, but just don't want to fill my head with those things.  I guess I'll see what future episodes bring.

For a dinner, I pulled last year's zucchini from the freezer, gathered herbs, and made Barbara Kingsolver's Disappearing Zucchini Orzo.  Having an abundance of bananas, I froze ten for future smoothies.  The banana peels, along with aloe bits, were blended, and a number of fruit trees were fertilized with the mixture.  I went through Swagbucks for an online household order, for 4% back, and used a 15% off code.  Lettuce, oregano, basil, thyme, lambs quarter, chard, blueberries, a few blackberries, and the first four figs were harvested.  With the recent rains, mushrooms are popping up all over.  The majority are species I'm not sure about, but I gathered the first two chanterelles, and a reishi mushroom, which I promptly dehydrated, and will use as medicine in some manner.  I haven't decided how yet. 

 

While in town to buy groceries, I dropped off four boxes of donations.  Savings at the grocery store were avocados .49 ea., pineapple 1.79, and dogfood $6 off.  An $8 reward went towards my total, and I earned another $5 reward.  Laundry was dried on the line.  A batch of golden paste was made for the pups.  The last of the store bought onions were used, and I began using our recently harvested ones.  We're eating lots of salads, trying to use up all the harvested lettuce.  I washed and prepped enough for a few salads at a time, which makes it easier to put together a salad.  Having heard about the USPS rate hike for first class stamps, I went to the P.O. when passing by, and purchased two sheets of stamps.  Over the weekend, I found 18 horn worms on the tomatoes, which is a record here, one I'd rather not have broken.  But, all were given to the chickens, for an excellent protein boost.  I'm finishing this post up Sunday evening.  Due to one of the pups, I was up somewhere between 3 1/2 and 4 hours last night, and am a bit muddled.  He is fine, and just made bad choices yesterday.  I will end here, and wish you all a wonderful week.