Dry Days

Hello, friends.  After a busy week of rental house work, not much got done at home.  It kicked both our butts, but we got it done, and saved several thousand dollars in the process.  We'll be doing more projects in the coming weeks, but the hardest one is thankfully out of the way.  I signed up for an online weekend class some weeks back, which kept me busy most of Saturday and Sunday.  I'm looking forward to a return to more of my normal schedule this week. We got a nice little harvest of muscadines, less than 3#.  Some bronze and some purple.  I haven't decided if I'll make juice or jelly.

The rabbits ate all but three of the cabbage and collards I mentioned last week.  That's the bad news.  I have two glass cloches, and put those in place, along with cutting the bottom out of a juice jug for the third remaining plant.  The good news is there are actually collards or cabbage, maybe both, resprouting from last year's plants, so I'll also try to protect them as jugs become available.  It's like a game, trying to figure out how to outsmart all the critters.  I expect we'll try to use some row cover, but the plants are pretty far apart.   We do have row cover over the patch with our lettuce and chard, close to the house.

From such a rainy start to the summer, we've gotten very dry.  Last week, we had to switch over to well water, which is extremely hard water.  I'm thankful to have running water, even if less than ideal.  There are a few chances of rain this week, and we're ever hopeful.  I harvested tomatoes, peppers, a few figs, pears, pawpaws and winter squash.  The squirrels knock many of the pears to the ground.  Ones I can grab without getting stung, and which are already starting to rot, get thrown to the chickens.  I froze more pear pieces, and dehydrated the peels.  On Saturday night's walk, I saw two wild turkeys in the back field.  I'm always happy to know they're still around.  Keep shining your light, friends.  It's obvious the world can use more of it.

City Traffic & Another Trip Around The Sun

Hello, friends.  Last week, leaves and inner portions of celery were dehydrated, along with pear peelings.  With the pears coming in, there weren't enough yet to make a pie, so I froze what I had.  I'd recently read about adding apple skin powder to baked goods, and thought I might try that with the pears.  If I don't use it, I figure I can always add it to chicken mash.  Last year was the first time we had a good melon year, but we didn't have a repeat this year.  The kajari melons rotted, with all the earlier rain, before we found them, as well as some others.  We've had one edible cantaloupe and one watermelon, though neither was great tasting, and the remaining melons were tasteless.  Chicken food.  There's one more watermelon.  We're hoping it's wonderful.

I turned another canister into a compost crock, and got it listed.  An order for a Berkey stand was painted and packed.  I celebrated another trip around the sun.  We had two gatherings scheduled, to meet others for meals, but both were canceled due to illness.  J & I did go to the first one ourselves, at a restaurant in Raleigh.  Goodness, we'd forgotten how awful traffic is, when we venture into cities.  Actually, it started two towns before Raleigh, and was stop and go for a half hour.  We won't plan that again any time soon.  Some more carrots were harvested for Guinness' dinners.

A week or so ago, I was looking for local little free libraries, to donate books.  None were especially convenient to my usual travels, but what should pop up this week in a group I belong to is a brand new one, just off a road I travel often.  I was happy to see that.  Three nieces have requested cookbooks I offered, and a neighbor took another.  We've got a big project, and some smaller ones to do at our rental house, which we'll start on this week.  The big project will be mostly spent on the roof.  Here's hoping our aging bodies navigate that well and safely.  Joseph picked up lettuce, chard, collard and cabbage seedlings, and we got those planted, as well as an oregano and the remaining three lettuce I started.  Wishing you a great week!

Bonus Day

Hello, friends.  I usually try to keep some notes for the week, and didn't do that, so we'll see what I remember.  I'd recently gotten a couple of canisters, to turn into compost crocks.  I drilled holes in the lid, sized a carbon filter for the lid, did a photo shoot, and listed them in my shop.  I receive emails from one of our state representatives, and it mentioned the website to check for cash owed you.  Though I didn't have any, I found ten entries for the capital credits of the electric co-op I belong to for my parents.  As they've been gone 11 years, we no longer had anything with the listed address, so I called the co-op, and they mailed something that should work.  It's not a huge amount, but will still be nice if it actually goes through.  A pair of leggings with a small hole were mended.  J pointed out this spiderweb one morning.  Isn't it lovely?  The universe tells us we are loved in so many ways.

I was surprised when the phone rang at 6:30 Tuesday morning.  It was the dentist's office, letting me know the hygienist was out that day, and they needed to reschedule my cleaning.  Thinking of it as a bonus day, I made the most of it.  (It takes me ~1.5 hrs. to drive there, and with running an errand or two, that would have been most of a day.) I'd made several loaves of fig bread for J recently, and decided the first thing I'd do is make a couple of GF loaves for me.  A batch of Garden soap was made next.  There were a couple pairs of slippers that have been needing attention.  The first pair needed washing, but as they had a pouf of feathers on top, they needed to be gently hand washed.  After that was done, I worked on a pair of suede slippers.  The suede had gotten badly stained, as I hadn't thought to use protective sealer on them, and pretty much live in them all winter, if I'm not outdoors.  I'd bought a suede cleaning tool with several options, and though they're still not pretty, they're better than they were.  I do intend to spray them before using them again. Though the day was jam packed, I'm sorry to say I've forgotten what the rest of it looked like.  That's why I need notes!  I just know I was tired and happy by the end of the day, which constitutes a good day, in my book.

J found this sweet birds nest, which must have fallen from a tree, on the roof of the skoolie.  The pears have started ripening, and I haven't done a good job of keeping up with them.  Maybe this week I can make a small batch of pear sauce.  The muscadines have also begun ripening, and we've been eating them fresh.  Other than that, the garden produced tomatoes, one eggplant, and a couple of peppers.  I harvested oregano and basil, and am still harvesting figs and pawpaws, though both are on the downswing.  Both figs and pawpaws were shared with my massage therapist.  While in that town, I stopped by my favorite thrift store, which is actually four separate stores.  I found a canister in one, and specifically went to one for flannel shirts, where I happily found two for $1 ea., a significant savings over Goodwill, where current local prices are $4.49 ea.  Before meeting my sister in town, I paid property taxes for our home and businesses, which was early enough to get the discounted price.  The cooler weather and open windows has been most welcome.  Wishing you a lovely week.  

A Skoolie Update

Hello, friends.  Since our first shakedown trip in the skoolie in May, a lot has happened.  Joseph is on several skoolie forums, and learned what a benefit an auxiliary cooling system could be, especially in climbing long elevations, as in our mountains, or driving in high temperatures.  He designed and installed one of these systems in our bus, which as you'll see later in this post, has already come in quite handy.  He created a bypass system for the drinking water, which significantly speeds up flow, so that issue is solved.  He decided he wasn't happy with the wood railings, and replaced them with aluminum ones, on the cargo deck, which you can see in the above pic.

He decided he wasn't happy with the free-standing telescoping ladder, and replaced it with an attached fabricated aluminum one.  He took another shakedown trip the weekend of the 4th, in Pittsboro, and found out the water pump didn't supply enough water pressure to operate the shower when we're boondocking (running on our own systems).  He has since installed a higher capacity water pump.  He also ran out of house battery power overnight, and has since doubled the battery capacity.  He did a mini overnight shakedown at our homestead, to make sure the power supply would last all night, with a/c running on the new battery system, and it did.  He also wanted to make sure there was plenty of power to start the bus, if we were sitting in cold weather or boondocking for days, so he added an additional battery for this.

He fabricated intake louvers to help channel air into the radiator intake (above), to assist in cooling.  He also mounted a louver on the rear engine access door, to help dissipate heat.  He did another shakedown trip to the eastern part of the state, to attend a family reunion.  When he got 25 miles from his destination, he began hearing an unusual noise, and stopped to find the cooling fan hub bearings had failed.  He removed the drive belt, and switched on the auxiliary cooling system, and continued to his destination.  He made it back home on the auxiliary system, by stopping several times to let it cool down, as it's not quite as powerful as the main cooling system.  We're so thankful it got him home, without needing a tow, which would have been quite expensive.  He's since rebuilt the fan hub.  We're now planning another shakedown trip for early Fall.  Let's hope this one goes perfectly, so we can venture farther.  

August Blooms & A Happy Ending

Hello, friends.   Last week, I made cashew parmesan, harvested basil, and made pesto.  As I won't be canning any tomatoes, I want to be sure we have plenty of pesto, so we can continue to have pasta about once a week.  Guinness had a much needed bath, in the outdoor shower, with homemade dog soap.  After the neighbor didn't respond to my messages regarding fruit pickup, I canned figs, and froze pawpaw pulp in muffin tins, for smoothies.  Two new bras were handwashed with homemade soap gel.  A little later than usual, I made my autumn soap, Pumpkin Chai.  It will be ready to wrap August 29th.

In the garden, I harvested tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, probably the last tromboncino, and peppers.  J started cucumbers a couple of weeks ago, and they're looking good.  It's questionable whether they'll have time to bear before first frost, but we thought it was worth a try.  I gathered hazelnuts and wild hickory nuts.  Last year, the majority of hickory nuts weren't good, when I shelled them.  I gathered around a dozen last week to see, and none were good.  Maybe the squirrels leave the bad ones on the ground.  I expect they have a way of knowing; perhaps scent.  I'm still trying new to us recipes that were saved.  Last week, we tried chickpea cucumber feta salad, which we both liked.  I like finding recipes that don't require cooking, for when temps are high.

On Saturday, I heard from the neighbor, and shared figs and pawpaws.  She gave us a Happy Camper sticker for the skoolie.  With the weather turning cooler, J & I enjoyed a lovely pond sit one evening.  We had a rewarding thing happen on Saturday.  While in the garden, I started hearing what sounded like "baa-ing".  I called J, and we determined it probably wasn't in our woods, but he could see a stopped car through the woods.  We walked out to the road, and found a man trying to release a fawn that was stuck in wire fencing across the road.  The man had been there several minutes, and wasn't having any luck, so J asked me to run and get his wire cutters.  A few snips, and it was released.  It did immediately run right into the fence again, so he lifted it up and over, where it quickly ran off.  The sweet thing did have some abrasions on it's leg and belly from the fencing, but J thinks it's old enough to be OK, even if it doesn't reunite with it's Mom.  I realized Sunday evening that I totally forgot about writing a skoolie post.  I'll try to remedy that this week.  Have a good one, friends.

 

Mid-August Days & A New Book

Hello, friends.   I've been noticing and enjoying how the slant and quality of the light is changing in the evenings, as we move towards autumn.  While walking by the solar panel array, I noticed quite a few puffballs.  They're the first mushroom I learned and ate, 20+ years ago.  I harvested a small one, and added it to several store bought mushrooms for a dinner side.  I made on online food purchase, with a 20% off code, and 4% cash back.  Figs and pawpaws were offered to neighbors.  One came by for figs; the other is out of town, and will come for both soon.

Last week, I harvested a cucumbers or two, a few tomatoes, and two peppers from the garden, as well as sweet potato leaves for smoothies.  While gathering flowers for a bouquet, I found some bonus potatoes that the rains had unearthed.  Two were very small, but one was of decent size.  In addition to the changing light, another sign that Fall is on it's way is the goldenrod that has begun blooming.  I wanted to say a big thank you to the friend who sent a card.  You know who you are.

I've shared recipes here before, from Elspeth Hay.  Two that come to mind are whole wheat chocolate chip cookies, and brownies which incorporate winter squash. Both are fantastic.  Last month, her new book came out, Feed Us With Trees.  I'm reading it now, and it's so hopeful about possibilities not usually considered.  It feels like a paradigm-changing work.  

J did another shakedown trip, in the skoolie.  He had a family reunion, in the Eastern part of the state, over the weekend.  I honestly didn't feel I had the bandwidth to be around lots of people right now, and didn't feel it would be the best scenario for Guinness, with him being alone in the bus several hours during the reunion, when he's not been alone in it before.  Besides the reunion on Saturday, J invited classmates who have been interested and following the bus progress on social media, to come by on Friday evening, so I knew there wouldn't be much peaceful time the whole trip.  After our last stressful trip, with McNibs, I thought we could all use a peaceful one, this next time.  So instead, Guinness and I had a lovely, quiet weekend at home.  I was able to delve into some spiritual pursuits, gather a bouquet, and have dinners of things I love, but J not as much.  J did have issues with the bus, but I'll do a separate skoolie post about that soon.  He managed to make it home, but will need to work on a few things before adventuring out again.  May love and light surround you this week.

The Good Wins

Hello, friends.  I hope you've been doing well.  My freezer was at it's limit for bags of veggie scraps.  I was thankful the weather turned to cooler, rainy days for a bit.  The first day, I canned veggie broth.  I'd used the last of our lentils, so canned some of these the second day.  It's so convenient having beans/legumes ready to heat and eat.   I dehydrated the leaves and inner bits of celery, which I grind into a powder, and add to the chicken mash, and also dehydrated bread ends for bread crumbs.  Figs were preserved by dehydrating and canning.  In the garden, I harvested cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, carrots and eggplant.  Elderberries were harvested and dried.

cranefly orchid

As is often the case in life, there has been good and bad recently.  I'll get the bad out of the way first: 

- the kale patch I had made from volunteer plants was mowed.  In fairness, the stretch of mid-90's didn't do them any favors, and they were quite spindly at the time.

-despite planting 40 tomato plants, and replacing several of them early on as needed, there doesn't appear to be enough to can this year.  Plenty of rain has caused some rot and wilt, the leaf-footed bugs pierce them for their juice, which makes a soft spot, then rot.  I'm still finding worms and worm holes... mostly army worms, but the occasional small hornworm too.  

- the deer chomped the top out of my lone surviving roselle hibiscus.

- it's been the most meager harvest I can remember for August.  Some days, there is nothing to harvest.

-out of the five lettuce varieties I started, only one variety germinated, and no parsley did.

Now for the good: 

-we've picked up locally grown peaches, which were wonderful.

- it's been a great fig year.

- I've been able to freeze strips of sweet peppers, which was a goal this year.

- now that J is semi-retired, he's helping some with household tasks, such as laundry and food preserving, which is a blessing.

- J had placed some potatoes in the truck tool box planter in the spring, as back up plants, and harvested those this weekend.  We enjoyed them, along with tromboncino squash, and sweet peppers, which he grilled.

-chanterelle mushrooms have continued to show up.

-it appears we'll have a good winter squash harvest.

- I saved a monarch butterfly from a spider's web.  Looking out the window, I saw it struggling.  I don't usually interfere with nature, but it had only been caught on the tip of one wing.  I knew it would get further entangled, as it struggled to fly.  I figured monarchs could use some help these days.  It made me smile to see it fly up and over the house.  

- while filling the bird feeder, I noticed a new to me flowering plant close by, and found out it's a cranefly orchid.  It's not as showy as many orchids, but I love seeing another native plant on this land, and only yards from the house. 

- I've enjoyed watching the pollinators flock to the Joe Pye weed, golden alexander, and winged sumac.

anole lizard on Joe Pye weed

So, definitely more good than bad.  It was helpful to think about the good and bad, and realize the many things to be grateful for.  This is the first time we've canned whole figs.  I'm not sure how we'll use them, other than to try them in the fig bread I make.  I counted 22 jars of various homemade jams on the shelf, and was determined to get that number down, before canning any more.  If you can whole figs, I'd love to know how you use them.  We expect they'd be good on oatmeal, but that's the main way we plan to use the dehydrated ones, cooked with oatmeal, and we'll try them on salads.  I hope your "good" column outweighs the bad this week.  

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.

Blooms & Garden Bounty

Hello, friends.  The garden has been getting busier.  Last week, I harvested yellow squash, zucchini, blackberries, mulberries, oregano, cabbage, broccoli, lambs quarter, and the first cucumbers.  Laundry was dried on the line.  A dozen kale volunteers were transplanted to their own patch in the garden. Volunteer tomatoes were transplanted to bare spots, mostly where I had planted chard, with no luck.  J put up string for the tromboncino squash, and a trellis and string for cucumbers.  New blooms in the wildflower patch include plains coreopsis, and black-eyed susan whose petals turn rust-colored towards the center.

I redeemed 2150 Swagbucks for a $25 GC, taking advantage of a GC sale and a 50 SB discount.  A double batch of hummingbird food was made, as I'm seeing more at the feeders.  As I'm typing this Sunday evening, there's none left in the fridge, and I need to make another round.  I used the Merlin ID app several times, and was surprised to see so many birds I had no idea were here.  Some new to me birds were different flycatchers, red-eyed vireos, and though I've seen indigo buntings in the area, usually along the fencerows, I've rarely if ever seen one on this land.  Now I understand the excitement people have over this app.  

I spent time in the pond garden Sunday morning, weeding around the orchard trees, and harvesting lambs quarter.  I noticed most of the potato plants were dead, and dug a couple of mounds.  After J got in, we dug the potato patch.  The potatoes hadn't thrived there.  There were fire ants in a couple of places, who love to eat them, as well as the usual roly poly's and other assorted critters.  I spread the potatoes out on the porch to dry, and believe we got something over 10#. I plan to weigh them before putting them into storage.  Our Sunday dinner was produce from the garden... broccoli, yellow and zucchini squash, cabbage and cucumbers.  We were noticing, while digging potatoes, that the onions looked like they'd soon need harvesting, so they may be next.  May you have a most bountiful week.