We get venison scraps in the fall for our dogs. They come packaged in the large banana boxes with 40-50# of meat in a box, frozen. So when we have room for separate packages in the “dog” freezer, we thaw it out and repackage it into daily portions. This was one of the morning chores today.
When that was done, I started another pair of short summer socks, because after counting, I need at least another 5 pair for this summer. One should not have to wash more than once a week and then sometimes, it is a tad longer. So rummaging through the scraps, I like this variegated red yarn and had this other yarn that had some of the reds along with whites and blues. I took time to go to the dentist and when I returned, I definitely needed something to sit and do. I have just finished the heel and picked up the instep heel. If this isn’t enough yarn (after weighing), I’ll look for another solid to go with them. Or maybe the blue-gray and white that I have would work.
How many of you are now knitting socks – even summer socks? And how many of you are mixing the yarn left from other socks to make a new pair? I’d like to think that I have company.
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.
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.
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.
It is quilted now and ready for binding. I’m really hoping to finish this tomorrow as well as transplant tomatoes and get some laundry done. Then there are meals to make for the weekend. Why do these other things get in the way? I guess it’s all a matter of priorities.
I am so excited about getting this barn door. It will make life when I need to work with the sheep. They won’t be able to escape their pen when trying to get one in. We were going to put up a new small barn, but we would have had to ask for a variance and then it would have cost more money than we wanted to spend. So after much thought, we have cleaned this old aviary out and had this door made. We will put in 3 lambing stall across the back a gate across the outside sleeping area and I will be a very happy person. And so will DH since it is so much less expensive.
These socks are finished. I got a little carried away and went to far on the toes, but I’m not going to take them apart as it doesn’t bother me when they are on my foot. So you can see in this photo, the two pair of short socks and one pair of regular socks from which I took the leftover to make this short pair. (ok, the lights are bad today)
And did I mention we picked up enough fertilizer for the next two years. The store had what we like to use and so often I can’t find it, that we just put in a supply.
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.
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.
It has been so dry this last month that the dark spot there is all the water left in our pond, which was full up to where you see the ring in the upper third.
weeds are just thrilled with this weather.