Take Joy!

Independence Days Update

For Sharon's Independence Days Challenge.

1. plant something: Cabbage, broccoli, collards starts in the ground. Still need to lay off rows for winter greens, but it's raining again . . . maybe later this week.

2. harvest something:  Tomatoes.  Bell peppers, hot peppers. Shallots. Greasy cut-short beans. Okra. Cherry tomatoes. Basil, catnip, dill. Chicken eggs, guinea eggs, turkey eggs.

3. preserve something: Canned 37 pints of corn. Dried basil, hot peppers, cutting celery. (Having to use the electric dehydrator, even for peppers—it's so awfully humid this summer.) Froze enough ripe bananas—given to me—for a dozen batches of banana bread.

4. reduce waste: The usual: recycling (plastic, cat food cans, milk jugs). Continuing to use clothesline instead of dryer. Saving cardboard/waste paper for firestarting this winter. Sorting through clothes for a trip to Goodwill, or the shelter. Weeded front flower bed and carted several barrowloads to chickens/goats, several more to compost pile. Gradually cutting weeds in garden for 'free' chicken/goat feed. They also got all the corn shucks, so they were happy this week. I am collecting buckets and whatnot for next year's container garden—so far I have a rubbermaid tub that's crunched a bit on one corner but is still watertight, a stack of six or so lidless plastic buckets that we aren't using for anything right now, and one nearly-empty cat litter container. Also gradually emptying flower pots as things are harvested; used potting soil goes onto a pile of fill dirt down in the side yard, where I am also putting chicken-house-cleanings and miscellaneous weedings in hopes of producing actual soil in a year or so.

5. preparation and storage: Added lamb neck to freezer, for barley soup later. Picked up two 4lb. (several meals from each one for just the two of us) nice pot roasts on sale for $1.98 a pound; they are now residing in the freezer. Added extra shampoo, dental floss, low-dosage aspirin to supplies. Daddy went to the auction on Friday and scored 'six or seven dozen' pint canning jars, which he will sell me for $20 (a deal, given that I paid $7.47 a dozen for jars to can corn, since I was out) just as soon as I go pick them up. I suggested next weekend; he suggested tomorrow. Guess when I'm going? These will be just in time for applesauce next month.

6. build community food systems: Shared homemade bread (besides what I sell). Patronized local tailgate markets. Bought 12 dozen ears of corn from our contact at the post office ($24 for all) to can for this winter. Took homemade bread and garden vegetables to John's mother's birthday dinner; some came home, but not much.

7. eat the food: Vegetable soup and cornbread. Homemade bread—in this case, sourdough rolls from leftover starter. Corn, beans, slaw from garden vegs. Peaches, until they run out . . . Pilaf, made with storage rice, onions and mushrooms. Corn (from tailgate) and potato (ours) chowder with thyme, purple basil and chives from my herbs. 

Notes: Have fall greens seeds ready to plant, as soon as it dries off again—rain in the forecast for the next couple of days. Potatoes are ready to dig, too, but need drier weather also. Corn is mostly laid over by wind last week, but still growing, so we might get some yet. Still some tomatoes to pick, too, and seed beans drying on the vines. The summer garden, though, is mostly over.

Need to get fencing to throw up a temporary barrier across the top of the garden before we turn the chickens in it this fall; they can weed and fertilize everything that has nothing growing in it. Need to figure out which plastic pans are still watertight, for watering chickens over the winter while they're in the garden. Need to cut deadwood out of blackberry briars. Need to buy a few extra bags of feed this month, to have extra for this winter just in case. Need to buy some more hay. Also need a few bales of straw and some more shavings to rebed chicken houses this fall. Need to finish weeding the area where I want to expand my container garden next year, and get some cheap mulch to decay in over the winter. Need . . . more hands, more  time, better knees!

Jerusale artichokes in the side yard.

Odds & Ends

(Before you ask—no, there was no independence days update this week. By the time I remembered it, it was Thursday . . . next week, for sure.)

Carolee Clark of King of Mice Studios is having a giveaway. She does gorgeous painted Halloween-y things, and this is a little wooden box painted with a black cat (who looks a lot like my departed Theo)—all you have to do is go to her blog and leave a comment on the August 17th post. And then wait until Monday . . . I can't afford her eBay things; wouldn't it be wonderful if I won this?

My newest find is IBOL—Iraqi Bundles of Love. Run by a soldier in Iraq, it's a short-term project, aimed at getting fabric/sewing tools/yarn and knitting tools into the hands of Iraqi women. Clicking on the button over to the left will take you to the intro post. Here's a quote—[this project] is based upon my assessment that sewing fanatics and quilters and knitters tend to have stashes that far exceed their actual needs, and that sewing fanatics and quilters and knitters are passionate both about sewing / quilting / knitting, and about sharing with others. How true. I can't bear to get rid of any of The Stash, even though I will have to live to be about a hundred and seventy-five to use it all up (and, of course, that assumes that I don't add to it in the meantime . . . ), but I love the thought of some other woman using the cloth or yarn that I've bought and lovingly stored—for a number of years, in some cases. So I have two priority APO boxes ($11.95 shipping, no matter the weight) waiting to be filled and mailed this week, just as soon the Social Security check gets here. I have fabric and yarn, and some knitting needles that I'll probably never use; I'm planning to go to the awful Super WalMart (only because my money will get more there, in this case) and get some needles and pins, thread and tape measures and scissors and anything else my allotted amount will cover—maybe some snaps and buttons—to add to my boxes.

I finished the green and yellow baby blanket; I'm just waiting for less humidity so I can block it. (Tomorrow, maybe; the rain seems to have departed for the time being. Yay!) Here's a picture:

As soon as I get it blocked, it will go into a plastic box to wait for October, when the afghans for Afghans deadline is (unless they change it, which may happen). I've begun another one—a ripple this time, in a warm yellow, a honeyed orange, and a maple syrup-y brown. I think I can get it done in time. :)

I took part in a doll challenge over at Sew What's New (there's a button link to my page down in the right-hand column). We were supplied a pattern and told to make something (my favorite kind). Here's what I came up with:

Tomorrow we're planning to get up early and go down to the river (yes, I worship at the watery shrine of Our Lady of the Swannanoa); perhaps I'll have pictures.

Serena Helps . . .

I will keep your case warm for you while you sort things . . . because I am a Helpful Kitty!

First Day of School

Emma started kindergarten yesterday—she called me last night to tell me about the day. Apparently it involved police chasing some boys with pellet guns near the school, and a play in which she wore a long white dress ("all the way down to the bottom!") with many, many hearts on it. Sounds like she'll have a good time this year.

Summer Book Swap

My submission for Kai's summer reading swap: a favorite summer book, something handmade and representative of said book, and something bought and also representative.  Prodigal Summer is the one book I re-read every single summer. The little quilt piece is made from odds and ends of things I had lying around, and a fabric printed copy of a luna moth from the endpapers of my hardback copy. And the little butterfly is a bone charm from last year's gem show in Spruce Pine. These went to my partner, Cherie Day—and I'm safe in posting this picture, since she got them last week.

Independence Days #15

For Sharon's Independence Days Challenge.

1. plant something: Nothing this week, but John is in the process of clearing a space for fall stuff. We have starts for cabbage, broccoli, collards, and seeds for several new greens. And garlic bulbs ordered for later.

2. harvest something:  Tomatoes.  (The patio tomatoes apparently have the late season blight, so they are about finished, but there are still some in the garden, and scattered here and there in the flowerbeds. When it comes to tomato starts, we suffer from eyes-bigger-than-stomach syndrome.) The last pattypan squash. Bell peppers, hot peppers. Shallots. Greasy cut-short beans. (A bushel! I spent Friday on the porch with beans . . . ) Okra. Cherry tomatoes. Dill seeds. Blackberries. Shallots. Apparently there will be no winter squash this year, dammit!

3. preserve something: Canned 13 pints/11 quarts green beans, 12 pints spaghetti/pizza sauce (tomatoes, garlic, onions, herbs all from the garden). 24 half-pints blackberry jam. (This makes 42 jars altogether, 24 of which we've sold.)

4. reduce waste: The usual: recycling (plastic, cat food cans, milk jugs). WEEDING/feeding to goats and chickens. Continuing to use clothesline instead of dryer. Saving cardboard/waste paper for firestarting this winter. Used the rest of the tomato paste. Gathered up the 18 or so milk jugs I'd been using for watering the side garden, rinsed and strung on twine and hung them off the back porch; I'll use them this winter to tote hot water to thaw chicken waterers. Also gathered up several cat litter boxes (the big plastic ones) I'd been using to store various things outside, washed them and stored cat food in them. (Now we have a large tacky stack of cat litter boxes in bright yellow and blue down the hall. Oh, well. The living room is now known as the "room of orange buckets," after all. Fortunately, no one ever comes to visit; we go to see them.)

5. preparation and storage: Added 1/2 gallon jars of raisins and walnuts to storage. (Well, the walnuts are not precisely storage, since I used them fairly often, but I buy five pounds at a time so there are plenty.) Discovered five pounds of brown rice I'd not known we had, all still nicely sealed in airtight plastic; we'll use it now and store what I bought last week. Bought more olive oil, flour. Added a couple of pounds of ground local lamb to freezer.

6. build community food systems: Shared homemade bread (besides what I sell). Patronized local tailgate markets.

7. eat the food: Local lamb (rib chops—mmm!). Vegetables from garden—last night's supper: leftover pot roast, cabbage and onions (from garden), tomatoes (from garden), fried squash (from garden) . . . ) Peach/blueberry crisp. (We grew neither, but they were locally grown.) A big pot of vegetable soup. Corn chowder, made with local corn, our potatoes/onions, and a leek from the grocery store. Local beets—tiny, boiled, skinned and then slathered with butter and salted.

Notes: Need to sort through the fall seeds this week. We are (well, John is, actually; I am cheering him on from the relative comfort of the house) in the process of cleaning out the top of the garden in preparation for fall planting. It has reached the point where the goats just look at him when he brings down another barrow of weeds—oh, my, more green stuff . . . but we're full! The chickens, however, are continuously enthusiastic. We spent one entire morning last week down in the back yard, weeding and cleaning up. I uncovered several previously undiscovered St. John's wort plants, a few foxgloves, and found that the lilies of the valley have berries on them—who knew? The thistles have bloomed and gone to seed, and the female goldfinches have disappeared; nesting must have begun. The junior bluejays are finally quiet. The grackles arrived en masse last week, so I was forced to bring in the feeders with perching areas and foray down to Lowe's for a couple of tube feeders and a bag of safflower seeds, which they are reputed not to like. It seems to have worked; the other birds are still here, but the grackles' numbers have diminished from a hundred or so to half a dozen, poking around disconsolately in the bits of seed on the ground . . . they should be migrating soon. I hope.

There are actually figs on the tree! Maybe three dozen, various sizes . . . now if they will only get ripe. I could surprise Mom with them—for me, fresh figs are right up there with wet cardboard, but she loves them.

I've thought of a use for my old plastic cat litter containers. Another use, to be precise; I already use them for storing dry cat food, storing old seeds, storing various things outside . . . I'd been buying litter in cardboard containers, so as not to be buying plastic (except when I needed a container to store something), but it occurred to me last week that if I bought the plastic buckets, I could reuse them as planters next year. The new containers are shorter and fatter, which will work nicely if I take off the lids and handles (or maybe just the lids?). We buy a couple of boxes a month during the winter, and one a month even in the summer—the old ladies don't like to go outside and get their petticoats wet, and Earl is just plain too stubborn to go out if he doesn't feel like it—which would give me a dozen or so containers by next summer, and mean that many fewer pots to come up with.

We've had temperatures up near 90 this last week, and lots of humidity, so I haven't done a great deal. Some sewing—I finished one apron for Mom, and have another cut out and ready to sew—and I've been working on my baby blanket. Afghans for Afghans has put up their next campaign—baby blankets for the CURE hospital in Kabul, due in October—so I should have time to do another one, too. (I hope so, since I ordered the yarn for it and it arrived yesterday. Yellow, orangy-tan, and brown; I think I'll try a ripple this time.)

Photo from last week, when it was just a wee strip of crocheting.

There was a groundhog in the trap yesterday morning (which was unexpected, since it wasn't even baited; we'd just left it sitting in front of the hole). He (or she, perhaps) has now gone up to the Parkway, to do his part in making the area attractive to tourists by munching picturesquely by the road. What with that, and someone bringing in a live mouse at 4:0 in the morning and releasing it under the woodstove, yesterday was an exciting day. Hopefully today will be quieter . . .

We went to the quilt show at the Arboretum on Sunday, and had a good time looking at what everyone else has done this past year (and buying a little fabric, but just a little. And two patterns. And some silk ribbon. And that's all . . . ) We combined it with exercise; since we had to park in the far back lot, we walked up the trail through the woods to the exhibit hall. Half a mile, more or less, each way. So I felt virtuous. And sweaty.

And, for those interested in mayhem, here is a link to Brian's Facebook post about blowing up old computer drives with thermite. I am unclear whether you can see this if you aren't a Facebook member; if you can't, I apologize.

Pesto basil, which I bought at Herb Days primarily because I'd never heard of it. It tastes . . . well, odd, with a piny/resiny sort of undertone. I think I'll just cut the plants off and dry them (since it shows no signs of blooming any time soon) and see if it alters the taste any.

Vampire Poozle

Solitude

Solitude is a human presumption. Every quiet step is thunder to beetle life underfoot; a tug of impalpable thread on the web pulling mate to mate and predator to prey, a beginning or an end. Every choice is a world made new for the chosen.
—Barbara Kingsolver, Prodigal Summer

Independence Days #14

For Sharon's Independence Days Challenge.

1. plant something: Nothimg. But I have shiso, toy choi, chard, salad burnet all coming up nicely in various pots, and some ginger sprouts that I intend to plant just as soon as I empty the pot that had the cilantro in it . . . 

2. harvest something:  Tomatoes.  Yellow and pattypan squash. Eggs, both chicken and turkey. Parsley. Blackberries. Peppers. Grape tomatoes. Dill, basil, mint, oregano. Beans, finally. Peppers, both hot and sweet.

3. preserve something: Dried cutting celery, raspberry leaves, dill. Oven-roasted tomatoes did not work; I forgot that yellow tomatoes aren't acid enough to do without pressure canning. Canned 12 pints green beans, 12 pints and 3 quarts spaghetti/pizza sauce (tomatoes, garlic, onions, herbs all from the garden). 18 half-pints blackberry jam.

4. reduce waste: The usual: recycling (plastic, cat food cans, milk jugs). WEEDING/feeding to goats and chickens. Continuing to use clothesline instead of dryer. Saving cardboard/waste paper for firestarting this winter. Used up several old cans of tomato paste from storage in making spaghetti sauce.

5. preparation and storage: Added beans and rice to storage (repetitive, I know; but you can't have too many dried beans). Bought ten pounds of dried soybeans at the farmers' market for $2! (Old, package shopworn . . . who cares?)

6. build community food systems: Shared eggs with my mother and brother. Patronized local tailgate markets.

7. eat the food: More local corn—silver queen—and beans from the garden. Tomatoes and cucumbers and squash.  Local cantaloupes. Blackberry pie, made by John. South Carolina peaches. Turkey egg salad. Vegetable soup, from garden odds and ends.

Notes: We've spent the week mostly attempting to keep everything from mildewing, with only limited success. I hauled all John's boots out of the closet; they will have to be saddle-soaped and cleaned up. Finally, the sun is out today—we have clean dry sheets and towels, with clothing to be washed tomorrow before it begins raining again on Wednesday . . . I'm trying to be thankful that we're no longer in a drought situation, but it's getting more and more difficult. We did have one day of sun last week, so we got some beans. There are loads of blossoms, if these two days of sun will turn them into little beans. Please! The squash and cucumbers are done; I believe they drowned. I have no idea whether we'll have any winter squash or not. If not, I suppose I'll buy some at the tailgate for storage . . .

I cut the black raspberries back this week, and [belatedly] realized that I could dry the leaves for tea. So I did . . . I can also tincture them, I think; I need to look that up. There is also epazote in the back; I know it's used as a seasoning, dried, but I believe it's also a vermifuge. Must look that up, too. I spent three hours out weeding in the back this morning, and found lots of little St. John's wort plants, anise hyssop, queen anne's lace, foxgloves, a clump of chives, and something I planted two or three years ago and have forgotten the name of—it has reddish-purple leaves in a rosette and spikes of flowers, and appears to be spreading. Trimmed the weeping cherry; cut down several privets and lots of pokeweed; pulled out many, many Spanish needles before they go to seed and Sam gets them in his coat where they have to be cut out, leaving him looking like the victim of a small child with scissors . . .

This morning there were three downy woodpeckers at the feeders; apparently they have raised at least one young one. It was doing the usual "oh, I'm pitiful, I'm starving, feed me" thing, but the older two ignored it and it gave up eventually and ate some suet before they all flew away. The grackles, unfortunately, are still with us in all their multitudes, devouring everything in their path . . . I've noticed, though, that the crows are beginning to drift back and the grackles don't seem to like them.

I've been working on my summer project—the doll I'm dressing for my parents' church bazaar raffle this fall. So far she has a shorts set, two dresses, some underwear, a dress-and-apron combo, and a crocheted hat and scarf. Pictures soon, perhaps; I have some, but they're pretty large. I need to put them together or something so they don't eat up so much room. Also, I have finished my project for Kai's swap (only a week late, but Cherie is late, too, and we are in agreement that things will be sent when they are sent), of which there will be pictures when it gets where it's going. And I'm crocheting a baby blanket for the next afghans for Afghans campaign, whenever it gets underway.

And it's August. Finally July is over. Fall is on the way . . .