Category Archive: food
Sheep wrangling
Today we
wrangled sheep. Well actually we held doors open and shut as needed, while the fellow who owns the sheep wrangled the sheep into his livestock trailer. Only one photo because it’s difficult to help herd sheep while trying to get uncooperative sheep into a trailer and keeping let the ones already on there from getting back off. So for the time being we are down to three sheep . We will be getting more sheep – sometime – either this summer or next spring.Thankful for a kitchen
Yes, that is where I spent today. In addition to the normal things that happen in a kitchen, I made
and canned 24 pints of split pea soup. If we had nothing else in the house, my DH would still be happy. He could eat this soup every day and be happy. Of course. he also wants some type of bread with it. This kettle can cook that much at a time – right up to the top, but the pressure canner takes a long time for each 10 pints.
So in between, I took the woody stems out and using a coffee grinder, ground up some of the dried herbs,
I worked with part of a fleece. I dyed it once, but when I started spinning, I realized it was too light,
so I flicked open the locks.
and used a darker color
Even though it always dries lighter, I think I’ll like this color better. And that is how I entertained myself today.
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY
Our daughter has the perfect kitchen for gatherings. So we usually meet at her house for our family gatherings/potlucks. This table is perfect. And Father’s day was the occasion.
Just a few photos to show how much fun we have at our gatherings. We have many cooks which means that I just bring my dish and enjoy the party. The girls and granddaughter take over. Come to think of it, once one gets past the teen years, daughters are pretty nice to have in the family.
I hope that each of you had an equally fun time celebrating today.
June 17 recap
I’ve pushed hard this week to finish two flimsies – one is 73″ square and the other is 59 x71″ And the report is in for the test quilt.
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Today there were two potato casseroles made – one for Father’s day and one for us, plus I cleaned 6 gallon bags of picked greens. Tomorrow, I will grab some from each bag and combine for a salad for the celebration.
The garden is doing good. The hoop house with 7 zones needs daily watering and the big garden will need watering after the rains cease. I let someone else pick the pea pods for their use as I just didn’t keep up – especially between the rain squalls. The strawberries are on their way out and the raspberries are coming in good. I didn’t get to the blueberries today, but they are just starting, so they can wait until Sunday and the rest of the lavender will also wait. The peppers need to be tied up – maybe Monday. I did plant carrots in the hoop house for a winter picking. The zucchini are so huge, I think they are trying to be tropical plants. There are 6 4-5″ zucchinis growing. And the cauliflowers are starting tiny little flowers in the middle.
The bees have been checked for this week. I added a box to their unit and set up two new hives if they would like to swarm – which doesn’t guarantee they will stay here, but as they are in the peak laying time as well as honey collection time with blackberries blooming, I don’t want to bother them.
The floors are mopped. Can I just say that I am collecting dust? That didn’t get done, but DH was good enough to clean the bathrooms, so we are ready for the weekend. Housework is one of those things that waits until it is so bad, I don’t feel I have a choice. But I am so thankful to have a roof and things to clean that it doesn’t seem like a chore – just a priority matter.
Today I had a man here to help with some of the larger and heavier pots that needed to be transplanted, but the rain got in the way, so he will be back to help on Monday. Last week he cut down most of the nettles and blackberries, which is a great help. At our speed, we can’t do it all by ourselves, so we do hire out the more difficult jobs. Knowing that moving and using our muscles keeps us younger longer, we do as much ourselves as time allows.
When I needed a break, I did knit couple rows on the socks. But 2 days this week, I didn’t get all my steps in so I will have to work harder on that next week.
These days so much of our time hinges around the gardens and soon will include saving the produce for winter. So even though we are constantly busy, it sometimes seems we get nothing done, because we start again the next day. I am very thankful that we are able to have the gardens with their produce.
This is what we found when we went into the hay building. Isn’t she a beautiful bird? Sadly for her, we took the eggs. We no longer have a rooster, nor do we want more chickens right now, and we do have someone who wants the eggs.
Daffodil flimsy and produce
I really need a better background to hang these larger quilts, but until then, I’ll make do with this. Here is the finished flimsy. The pattern is called “Summer’s Promise” by Ann Lauer. The instructions are excellent. I found it in the American Quilter magazine dated May 2016. It does a good job of showing off the focus fabric. In this case, I had the daffodil fabric hanging on the wall, just waiting for the right pattern.
This afternoon’s harvest was three lovely heads of broccoli. I had planned to pick berries and lavender, but after fertilizing the hoop house and getting it water, the heaven’s opened and it poured. So maybe I can pick berries tomorrow as there is only a 30% chance of rain. And that will give me a break from the housework from which I am way behind.
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Summer socks again
This bit of unused yarn from a pair of socks is a very soft yarn from Lorna’s Laces. I made a full pair of socks from this yarn which I absolutely loved. However, last winter when I washed several pair of socks, the pair vanished. I have looked everywhere for them and they haven’t shown up. So, I will see how far I can get with the yarn left and finish with another yarn. I understand a single sock disappearing, but a pair of socks, where ever could they have gone?
Today I picked the first head of cabbage out of the hoop house. It’s a small one, but was really good in
the stir fry we had for lunch. This included pea pods, Swiss chard, and garlic scapes from the garden. From the store we added onion, cauliflower and celery which needed to be used. It was delicious!
Suzie homemaker
I guess I’ve been a bit lazy in this department lately and nearly forgot how much time can be spent in the kitchen. I picked about a pint of pea pods,
some garlic scapes, and another pint of strawberries. I baked wheat bread and zucchini bread. Then I used some of the scapes with white beans to make a hummus. I stemmed and sliced the strawberries, made cashew cream and milk.
Then it was time for lunch which was potatoes (These are larger than a softball) and cooked Swiss chard along with bread and hummus. The bonus here was that all the kitchen work caused the step counter to record 5000 steps by noon.
Daffodils revisited
At last I was able to work on this daffodil quilt again. I love the colors! My goal is to get the top done this week.
2 quarts of strawberries picked last night are tonight’s treat.
This is the most beautiful kale I have grown. Not an insect bite anywhere on any leaf. They just looked so perfect. You’ll notice that I picked a huge bowl (fits on the lawn chair). I washed and froze it and it will crumble beautifully after frozen, so it takes very little room. Then it will be available for many dishes this winter.
An ordinary summer day
Watering takes priority when it’s hot, so as soon as breakfast is over, the watering started in the hoop house. While watering, I found the first zucchini. Yes, it was small, but it was part of our lunch salad. There are 2 more out there half this size and I will let them get a bit larger. But as you know zucchini are prolific, so I’m getting a head start on them. I worked on the tomatoes for some time, taking off suckers and put the ties around them so they don’t crash. Many of them are now in bloom.
(Oh, yes, a load of laundry was started before going out to water – can’t have a dryer adding heat to the house later)
Yoga is on our Monday morning list to do, so we went to that. We went to bed sore, so I couldn’t believe I wasn’t sore from all of yesterday, however, I’m very happy about that.
After Yoga was lunch time. And then we both took an hour nap which is not normal. I think yesterday was a bit strenuous. DH fertilized the outside hill garden, and will water it later this evening. And I can’t forget that we get our steps in each day. 10,000 steps takes a bit of time.
Finally a time for crafts – sewing etc. I finished this box stitch wash cloth and sewed a little.
Then it was supper time and after that supper and bed for the animals. That brings us to our on-line Bible study after which I will put some lettuce seed in the hoop house to get a new crop. Oh, and then I get to water the front yard. (And some days we get to water grapes and blueberry bushes, which we are so blessed to have.) I really like the rain to come about twice a week.
By then we are exhausted and as I look back through the day, it doesn’t seem as if we got much done, because the next day, we start all over again and do most of the same things again. Does this sound familiar to you. If it does, know you are not alone. Even so, I love summer time.
STRAWBERRIES
It’s our annual strawberry day. This means we pick up the strawberries we plan to put up for the year. They are a full month early according to the grower. We ordered 25 half flats which is 200#. I’ve been getting 20 half flats (8# each) in the past, but we used them all, so decided since DH likes them so much to get a few extra. I think I was trying to kill us both. I washed them as we were ready to stem them.
Then we both stemmed them and I sliced them when we had a quantity. This is about 70# waiting to be bagged. I put them in the refrigerator and we had lunch of potato salad and a green salad. Then we went back to work.
Mid afternoon it was time for our dessert. This is cashew cream over the berries. Then back to work again
We bagged them with about 6 cups to the bag and ended up with 50 bags. So he can pull out one bag a week. They are all safely in the freezer and since we have some berries in the garden, we will be eating those and leave these until the garden ones are done. By then we will have forgotten how much work was in them.
All 25 boxes are now empty and the clean up is done. We are exhausted! We started on the berries at 10.30 this morning and took about an hour for lunch and animals, finishing at 7.30. I am so grateful someone else did the backbreaking work of picking them And that we’ll not be too stiff for Yoga tomorrow.
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