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!