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(Burgaw, North Carolina)
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Good Morning! I am actually
sitting this morning with the windows open! In JULY! What a wonder!
We opened them at 8 PM last night and did it feel good to get fresh air
in the house. We have had them open off and on throughout the summer,
but last night there was a cool breeze blowing through my house and it
felt wonderful! I've begun checking the hour-by-hour section of
weather.com and planning when to open/close my windows for the day. It
usually averages about 11AM to close them and they get reopened about
7/8 PM. That gives me a total of 15 hours without the AC running!
Who would have thought that that would have been possible in
southeastern NC in July? I am hoping to cut the AC off for the year in
September, but this does have a bad habit of being one of our more
humid months. July hasn't been a really good month for energy savings
so far. Some of my projects, such as no-dryer, hand-washing laundry,
low-AC usage; have fallen by the wayside with the increased time given
to gardening, harvesting, and canning. How did those pioneer women get
it done?
These cool nights have also affected the harvesting. My blueberries
have slowed considerably in their ripening, as have the tomatoes.
Although there is plenty of fruit on them, they are not ripening very
quickly. The 3/10 inch rain we received Monday helped considerably.
If we can get small doses of rain like that on a regular basis, the
gardens would do well. The drier weather has allowed our berries to
hold up well, some packages were still good 10 days after picking. I
was really glad to hear this as both times the berries were being held
by someone else for resale. This gives us breathing room in selling
also, as it makes it possible to hold some of Tuesday's pickings until
Saturday.
I got my first batch of blueberry sauce put up yesterday. I used some
of the berries that had gone soft before packaging. I got 4 pints from
12 cups of berries.
I also started a second batch of tomato sauce. I got the tomatoes cut
and cooked down, then put through the food mill, and finally reduced
down. Today I will can it up. I can tell that this will be a summer
long project (Yahweh willing), rather than a quickie like corn or
beans, etc. I'm thinking that if I take two days to do a batch, I can
get 3 batches done each week. With each batch giving me about 6 pints,
that would be 18 pints/week. I have no idea how much to put up. I
know we use tomato sauce in a lot of cooking, but I also wanted to try
homemade spaghetti sauce and tomato paste (did you know they put sugar
in store-bought tomato paste?) I really think 1 jar/week would be too
conservative an estimate, but would we really go so far as 3-5 jars?
Even at 3 jars/week that would mean 156 jars or about 8 more batches =
almost 3 more weeks worth. I guess I will go with the top estimate and
put up what Yahweh allows. My roma plants are currently loaded and,
since I added the land plaster, the blossom end rot has improved.
There have been some years where I have picked tomatoes all the way up
until the first frost in November. Two years ago, Ray finally pulled
up the plants in late September because they were in the way of the hay
shelter he was building. Last year, of course, they drowned in July.
It's all in the hands of Jehovah Jireh, the Lord God Our Provider. I
just need to make sure as little goes to waste as possible.
Our blackberry plants are really producing. We have over 1 gallon
frozen already and I think everyone is expecting a pie or cobbler this
weekend. Maybe we'll take the extra time to make some homemade ice
cream with fresh milk. Yum!!
I only got half of the blueberry's picked yesterday, what with the
canning, sheet washing, and grass mowing going on. But that was 2 5-qt
buckets worth. It was late afternoon when I got started due to
everything being wet from the rain. I'll finish that first thing this
morning.
We almost finished mowing our yard, only a few areas left to trim.
Once again, we got a late start due to the grass being wet from the
rain. We skipped both yards 9our's and our neighbor's) last week
because the dry conditions and cool nights had kept the grass from
growing very much. This week the grass has really grown and we are
having to mow a little slower than usual. I love the way the yard
looks when all of the grass is mown and the trim complete.
I am hoping to get my fall garden area ready this week for planting
next week. Brussel sprouts, broccolli, and cabbage seeds (I think) are
due to be planted. These will go into my square-foot garden and will
be planted at one-week intervals to allow for a spaced harvesting. But
this week I need to move some of the manure and compost into the area
to build up the soil some.
Well, as usual my list is longer than the day, so I need to get off of
here and get started. I'm hoping to get the tomato sauce canned before
anyone gets up.
May Yahweh bless you in this new day!
Laurie
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Posted by Laurie
@ 05:41 AM EDT
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Good Morning! Well, unbeknownst
to me, we had a pour down Monday night about 9:30PM. I didn't know
anything about it until I went outside to start watering yesterday
morning. Everything was soaked. When I looked in the rain gauge, we
had gotten almost 1/2 inch in addition to the previous rain.
YIPPEE!!! So I was able to skip the watering and go right to feeding
my bees and picking off Japanese Beetles. They have been horrible this
year! We put out bags and they fill up within two days. When I spoke
with Ray later in the day, he said that the city just south of us had
received 6 inches of rain in 3 hours. Thank you, Yahweh, for sparing
us that! If we had gotten that much rain, I would have just gone out
and pulled up all of my tomato plants and been done with it. As it is,
we have had just enough to perk everything up.
Due to the rain, it was fairly
late in the morning when I began picking berries. I was trying to wait
for them to dry, but it was so humid that it just wasn't happening.
Eventually I just had to go with picking them wet. I hadn't quite
finished when lunch was ready, so I left it until after. Then I had to finish picking because we had an order to fill.
Then it was on to trying to get my tomato sauce made.
I brought the tomatoes up to a boil then, working in batches, I put
them through the food mill. The sauce I put in another stainless steel
pan and the leftovers I gave to the chickens. Then I brought the sauce
up to a boil again and let it boil gently, stirring occasionally until
it had decreased by about 1/3. Since I like a thicker sauce, I will
continue to reduce it today before canning it up in pints. Who knew it
would take me three days to make tomato sauce? I still have the corn
to get put up before Ray buys another 3 bushels on Friday. And more
tomatoes are getting ready as we speak.
Well, it's long past time for me to be off.
May Yahweh bless you in this new day!
Laurie
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Posted by Laurie
@ 12:51 PM EDT
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Good Morning! The sun here remains
intense even though the temperatures are in the high 80's/low 90's. No
rain as of yet. Today's forecast is our best chance all week, so I'm
praying for some. They say we could get as much as an inch.
Yippee!!! I will still be watering everything this morning. Boy, is
it dry.
This past weekend was really busy. On Friday, I picked 26 pints of
blueberries, all pre-sold. Believe it or not, that took most of the
morning. I canned the rest of the corn from last week, just in time for Ray to
purchase 3 bushels from a friend's farm to sell at the Farmer's Market. Late Friday, we got
everything laid out and ready for Saturday's Farmer's Market.
Saturday, we were up bright and early, since Ray wanted to be at the
Market extra early. Turned out there really was no reason. There
wasn't a living soul around, except vendors, until well after 9AM,
maybe closer to 10AM. I guess everyone was sleeping in on the holiday
weekend. It did eventually pick up and we ended up with a pretty good
day. It was interesting watching the reactions to the sign I had
advertising my rabbit fryers. People would walk by, read the sign,
then do a double take, and inevitably ask "Does that mean what I think
it means?"
We returned home from the market late as they stayed open an extra hour
for the holiday. We unloaded, ate lunch, and jumped into gear again.
While Ray went to haul off our garbage (nope, no pickup in our area)
and check on his grocery stores, we set about straightening up and
husking/silking the corn that was left (only about 1 1/2 bushels) so I
could get it put up. We also needed to get our animals done early
tonight as we had been invited off. Usually on the Fourth, we grill
out hamburgers/hotdogs, etc, watch the Capital Fourth on tv, then do
some of our own fireworks. I
guess we like things quiet and simple. But this year, as I said, we
had been invited off, so we were trying to do our evening chores early.
Then I received a phone call from the couple (C&T) who had
purchased our bucks this year. She had already lost the oldest one
Saturday morning and had another that was doing poorly. From the
symptoms, it sounded like bladder/kidney stones. She was really upset
and couldn't seem to find anything to help. I made a quick call to my
goat mentor and yes, she had some ammonium chloride and some
electrolyte as well as some feed with ammonium chloride in it, and yes,
she would be around for awhile. So off I go for a 40 minutes one way
trip. Ray and I agreed that he would take the children on over to our
friend's house and eat dinner, I would swing by there on my way to
deliver the medicine and pick him up, and we would return there after
taking care of the buck. I am SO thankful for my mentor. She has
saved my bacon (chevron) more than once. C&T were almost a basket
case by the time I got there with the medicine and instructions. The
goats they had purchased were like pets and the loss of their first one
had really upset them. Now, with another one hurting, they were beside
themselves. They had researched everything they could and gotten
plenty of help online, but one problem is that you need to have someone
close by who knows the region and problems associated with it and who
usually stocks things you don't even think of. We treated the goat and
talked about what to do for the rest of them to prevent the same thing
from happening. Then we zipped back over to S&K's to finish our
evening there. By this time it was after 8PM and, then almost 11PM by
the time we got home and put up our own animals. At this point we just
sort of fell into bed.
Ray and I were both up at our regular hour for Sunday, 5AM. We
were really exhausted. Ray hung around until after the morning chores
were done, then I rode with him to the grocery stores so I could do my
shopping while he pulled his stock. When we got back we ate breakfast
and that was it. We never take naps in the middle of the day, but
neither Ray nor I could move, we were so tired. It was about 2PM when
we woke up and it took us both another 30 minutes or so to get going.
Our church fellowship was supposed to meet at 4PM for Bible study,
supper, and fellowship, but we decided to forego it and stay home to
get an early night. Which we did.
This week is also shaping up to be rather busy, but I'll let you hear
about it a little at a time. It's time to get going with the watering.
May Yahweh bless you in this new day.
Laurie
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Posted by Laurie
@ 08:02 PM EDT
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Good Morning! The heat! Oh, my
goodness! The interesting thing this year is that usually by this time
of year "hot and hazy" is the description most often used. The last
three days, however, have reminded me of October days. Not the
coolness, of course, but the clarity of the sky. Bright and sunny
without much haze at all. This has made the sun itself seem that much
stronger, without the humidity playing a very big part in the heat. It
also makes it seems cooler in the shade with a wind blowing, making
being outside during the middle of the day that much more tolerable.
It is also continuing to be dry. What was luscious and green is now
beginning to get that gray/brown tinge it gets when it's crying out for
water. The temperatures are forecasted to remain in the high 80's to
mid 90's, but there is no more than a 40% chance of scattered
thunderstorms in the next ten days. Most days have only a 0 - 10%
chance of any precipitation. Watering is in full force. My herbs are
watered morning and evening, especially my mint. The fruit
trees/bushes are watered in the evening, the tomatoes will be flooded
once/week, and the blueberries will be drip irrigated overnight 1 - 2
times per week until some appreciable rain falls. This is early for
our dry season and is bringing back bad memories of the previous
drought years. However, last year this time we ended up with 11 inches
in two weeks, which killed our tomatoes, so I guess I won't be
complaining.
Yesterday was busy with me in the car most of it. After morning chores
were finished and I had finished canning the corn from yesterday, we
headed over to a friend's house for Michaela and her son to work the
dogs in flyball. Unfortunately, the dogs considered it way too hot to
actually do anything other than pant, so they spent most of their time
indoors. My friend is very much into spinning and, in fact, owns her
own cashmere goats. She also purchases all kinds of fiber from all
over. Kelsey and I were looking at what she had. The most fascinating
was the silk worm cocoons she had. Mrs. M told us the process of
getting the silk into a spinnable state and showed us some she was
spinning with alpaca. She also showed us some yarn she had spun and
that is available in her shop, Yarn of a Tail, on Artfire.com. It is
so beautiful. She is so good at it. She uses both drop spindles and a
spinning wheel. I had just recently used some gift money to purchase
the double drop spindle kit offered by Maine Woods Yarns on Etsy. She
let me use her drop spindle and showed me how to start so that I would
be ready when it arrived. It was so much fun. I'm really looking
forward to getting it and getting started. Looking at her yarns made
me realize how much better knitted and crocheted items look with real
quality yarn. So much for Wal-mart yarns. I think I may be looking for some angora goats to add to our herd.
After we left, we went for a picnic lunch at a local Revolutionary War
Battlefield. It was really too hot for much besides eating in the
shade, so our visit there was short. It was also later than planned so
we headed home to get the youngers down for naps. This heat really
takes it out of them and they seem to need more rest than during the
winter. While we were at home, Michaela checked on the beagle she
wanted to rescue from the animal shelter in a "somewhat" neighboring
county. Yes, it was still available, so back into the car we go for
the hour ride down there. It closes at 4PM and we pull up at 3:57PM.
As we are getting out of the car, someone walks out with a beagle on a
leash. No, it couldn't be. After we go inside we are first told that
they were closed, 3 minutes early. OK, the day was catching up with
me, and I'm trying to remember that this lady could have had a really
bad day. I made a comment under my breath about having driven an hour,
arriving 3 minutes before 4PM, only to be told they were closed.
Another woman spoke up to ask if we had wanted to adopt a dog and we
said yes, one named Poker. And yes, that was Poker (who comes up with
these names?) who was now going home with a new family, but not ours.
The drive down there had been long, but the drive back was much longer,
as I now had a very disappointed 15-year-old.
By this time it was supper and chores. Then bedtime. It seems as if
lately these two have run together too often. Ashley made a wonderful
pasta dish that wasn't too heavy for a warm night. I only wish my
lettuce was still coming in. I would have loved to have a fresh salad
to accompany it. Some friends had mentioned an indoor salad garden
contraption that sounds like just the ticket. I think I'll research it
and see what it'll do.
Another busy day today. Blueberries that were too soft to sell need to
be made into sauce, tomatoes are ready to also be put into sauce (I've
never done this before so it should be an experience), more blueberries
to be picked, etc. I guess I had better get cracking.
May Yahweh bless you in this new day!
Laurie
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Posted by Laurie
@ 06:09 AM EDT
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Good Morning! Another fairly warm
but not extremely hot day in SE NC. The wind blew a good bit which
kept you cooler, but also dried out everything. Beginning today, I'll
have to get back onto my watering program until more rain comes our
way. According to the forecasts, there is no appreciable chance of
rain until next Thursday. The hot, dry days of summer.
I FINISHED THE BEANS!!! I was able to pressure can the last three
loads of green beans yesterday. I have 2 12qt. canners, which hold
about 7 qt jars a piece. A couple of years ago I was looking at
getting a new canner and almost bought one of the large double rack
ones. On thinking more about it, though, I decided to just get another
one the same size and use the two for a double batch. The main reason
for this was that I have a hard time lifting the one I have now, and
I'm only getting older. I was afraid that the bigger one would be too
much for me to handle. The system works fairly well. I load one
canner and get it processing. When it has 15-20 minutes left on the
timer, I load the second canner so that it is ready to begin as soon as
the first one comes off. By the time the second canner is almost ready
to come off, the first is ready to open and be unloaded. When I have
nothing else going on I can get a lot canned in a day. I don't usually
have nothing else going on, so sometimes there is more lag time between
batches than the ideal would suggest.
We were also able to get the corn given to us shucked and silked.
Because this corn was somewhat wormy, I decided to can it off the cob.
So we cut it off and canned it in pint jars. This corn will be used
mainly in soups and recipes. I got one batch of 10 canned and will
finish it up this morning. Ray is planning on purchasing some corn
from a friend of his and trying to resell it at the Farmer's Market on
Saturday. Whatever doesn't get sold, we'll put up.
While everything was canning, I was able to try out a new pattern for a
crocheted washcloth. Boy, was that a lot easier and much quicker. I
completed the cloth in less than an hour. I'm much slower at knitting
and can only get one cloth done in a day. This will make a nice
alternative during the hectic summer days. I'm trying to get 3 done
for Saturday's market.
I ended up with 22 pints of berries. Boy, it sure looks like more in
the bucket. Ray had 12 presold and then we partially filled an order
for another 36 pints. I have everything I can pick on Friday sold as
well.
We just started to put our tomatoes on the market and they are going
fairly well. We were a little concerned about shifting our focus to
selling from the house as a man just recently opened a produce stand a
little over a mile from us. But evidently he is charging exorbitant
prices and is not known for his honesty in dealing. I think, also,
that people prefer to buy from the actual farm where things are grown
so that they can see it. It makes them feel more involved.
Well, it's time to get busy. There's the canning to do, we are
visiting with another family today so that the dogs can train in
flyball afterwhich we are picnicing at the local battlefield, and
finally, Michaela wants to try to visit a neighboring counties animal
shelter and rescue a dog about to be put down. With the 4th coming up,
there's plenty to do.
May Yahweh bless you in this new day!
Laurie
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Posted by Laurie
@ 06:18 AM EDT
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Good Morning! While the heat
continues here, it is bearable. The 3/4 inches of rain we received
over the weekend are about gone and we will probably be picking up our
watering again in the next day or two. The blueberries, blackberries,
and tomatoes are coming off full force now and are starting to get hard
to keep up with. That, in addition to the corn coming in bushel on top
of bushel, is keeping me really busy. I'll warn you now that, in the
next few weeks, as canning gets in high gear, I may miss a few days. I
am working on posting on my canning, picking, etc. with pictures, but I
really don't like using pictures since it takes me about 3 times as
long to make a post.
Yesterday was long and busy. I am still working on
canning the green beans. They are holding up fairly well in the
refrigerator considering how bad off they were when we got them. Most
of the morning was spent cleaning out the pantry. I had been planning
on doing this, as my in-law's still had a pile of stuff in it that
needed to be cleaned out, and I had a pile of stuff that needed to be
cleaned out. But I had really wanted to do it slowly and clean and
repaint while I was going through it. That was not to be. I am up to
almost 70 jars of green beans and had absolutely no place to put them.
We've been eating in the den because they were sitting on my kitchen
table. Finally, I had had enough of that and broke down and just
started cleaning it out. I found enough room for the beans and I WILL
finish them today.
Ray brought home about a bushel of yellow sweet corn yesterday, so that
will have to be put up today. I can't decide whether to leave it on
the cob or go ahead and start working on canning off the cob. Ray will
be purchasing another 2 bushels this weekend so, whatever I am going to
do, I'd better do it. We don't have enough room to grow some of the
large crops, like corn, etc. Next year we are going to try to rent
some acreage around here to put some of these. Right now, with the
exception of those green beans, what we have purchased has come from
friends/family. This is like the next best thing and I know they will
return the favor with the blueberries and tomatoes.
I picked about 36 pints of blueberries yesterday evening. I don't have
an exact tally yet as they had to be allowed to cool off overnight. So
they have to be packaged up and delivered. I am currently working from
a waiting list on my blueberries. Which is a good thing, except the
children are eyeing me wondering if we will actually get some put up
for ourselves. The way I think I'm going to have to work it is to take
whatever is left from the Mon/Tues picking and put it up for ourselves
as the Friday's pickings are all sold, between our farmer's market and
the state market.
Joshua had his first 4-H workshop yesterday. Mom let her little man
ride into town with his older sisters and be dropped off at the
building (with an older sister). I gave him the lunch he needed and
the money for the class to pay the receptionist. He is so grown up,
even at 7, and I find myself being more stretched at times than him.
He is learning to handle so many situations by himself so well. It's
hard for me to step back and let him take over. Boys are so much
different in this respect and I find it much more difficult not to
think of him as "only 7". I also forget how much he has watched his
older sisters do and learned how to handle various situations. It's
almost like he was born knowing. He really enjoyed the fact that he
was going to get to go to the workshop "without a sister, even
Samantha". He was so excited when he got home and could tell
everything without any competition from others. I think he grew 2 feet
yesterday.
The olders were invited over to some friends' home for the evening, so
after chores they left. Ray and I still had a bunch left to do and it
was quite late when we finished up, especially since we were met with customers several times. It was after 8PM when we
finally ate supper, which is unheard of around here, then after 9PM
when we fell into bed. I really don't remember the last time I was
that exhausted. I am so thankful that Joshua and Samantha were
satisfied to have a sandwich and a movie. I was too tired to think,
much less talk, and ended up leaving the kitchen just as it was. Now
that has to be straightened before beginning today's work.
Speaking of which, I had better get started.
May Yahweh bless you in this new day!
Laurie
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Posted by Laurie
@ 06:09 AM EDT
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