Mishmash

Heavy rains were expected last night and this morning so Papa Pea worked late into the day yesterday getting the grain we grew as fertilizer on the field garden and two other smaller plots mowed down.  

The green growth was high but he was able to get it mowed using the rotary mower on our Gravely garden tractor.  Good timing as seed heads were just starting to think about forming.  And we did get the rain that was forecast.

This is what it looks like today.  Amazing as last night it was a solid, deep green color.

Now he'll let it lie for a couple of days to watch the decomposing, and we'll definitely have to wait until all that material and soil dries out enough to plow it into the soil. 

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Way back near the middle of this month, I finally finished knitting a pair of socks for my daughter that I started (she admits shamefully) somewhere around the first of this year.

I call them the "sherbet socks" because of their color.  They remind me of when I was growing up and occasionally went to an ice cream shop in the summer with my parents.  Along with many flavors of ice cream, they also had a variety of sherbets and my favorite, which I chose every time without fail, was a triple dipper consisting of one scoop each of lemon, raspberry and grape sherbet.  Therefore, the "sherbet socks." 

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I've been making our supply of Stuffed Green Peppers to stash in the freezer.  

Here's a partial tray of them prior to packaging.

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It's also time for me to use the fresh veggies I have available to make our jars of kimchi for the winter months.  Simply put, kimchi is a fermented vegetable mixture, and there are hundreds of varieties of it.  The basic one of cabbage and spices may be most familiar with Americans.

It can be served as a condiment or side dish, but we eat a quarter cup each of it with our morning meal all winter long.

What does kimchi do for you?  It is believed to lower cholesterol levels, boost your immune system, may reduce inflammation, is linked to improving memory (I may start eating more each day -- if I can remember), and keeps the good bacteria in your gut thriving.

I've found a good combination of veggies that we both like (more than just cabbage), but am branching out a bit this year and trying a couple of new mixtures.  I may go a little spicier than I have been.  Pretty wild and crazy, huh?

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In my quilt room I've been happily creating a couple of fall themed small wall hangings.

This one is made up of six inch blocks that are a derivation of the Log Cabin Block.

The Pinwheel Block centers are two inches across and the strips representing the "logs" are 1/2" wide.  Overall measurement of the piece is 18" x 18".  I machine quilted it in a meandering pattern.

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Our weather has been delightful on days when it's not raining.  Or raining on and off all day (like today).  Nights are now cool and sleeping is wonderful.  I can feel autumn coming on full force, and I welcome it with open arms!

End of Summer Thoughts

Somewhere around the middle of August, our nights here in northern Minnesota start to be noticeably cooler.  In the late afternoon/early evening when we go outside to put away tools, protect on-going, unfinished projects and cover equipment we've been working on or used during the day, it usually causes one of us to comment that there's an autumnal feeling to the air.

Scarlet Runner Beans completely

covering garden trellis.

This can also fuel a feeling of mild panic as we realize our season of being able to work outside comfortably is, once again, coming to an end more quickly than we wish.

Forono beets ready to escape.

But it's not all bad.  All of a sudden I find myself thinking of and yearning for the comfort foods of the cold, crisp days of autumn and winter.

L.A., these are from the Winter Luxury Pie Pumpkin

seeds you sent me.  They are huge!

Oven meals, thick soups, casseroles, potatoes and gravy, baked squash, apple pie.  In less than two months, darkness will be falling at 5 p.m.  forcing us to wind down for the evening earlier than in the height of summer when dusk doesn't come until 9:30 or 10 p.m.  (Yes, we do work hard during our short summer season, but it keeps our muscles from atrophying and melts off the previous winter's hibernation blubber.)

Good, old marigolds.  Can hardly

beat them for blossoms and color.

Our fall rains have now started along with super-heavy dew (even after bright, sunshiny days) overnight that require rubber boots for any outside venture for the first couple hours of each day.

 This grain covering the field garden

 is standing nearly three feet tall.

The grain seeds we planted in our field garden as a green manure crop to be plowed under (soon now, very soon) have grown lush, high and healthy.  Not having this space to plant in this year has meant less garden work through the season and also less to harvest.

 Red cabbage perfection.

We're going to be having to secure potatoes and carrots from somewhere off ye ol' homestead for the first time in I-don't-know-long.  Among other things, no room this year for Brussels sprouts either, but even though we both like them, we'll just do without for this one year.

These aster's long stems

have given me bountiful bouquets

this summer.

Purposefully cutting back on the garden this year has given me personally more time to pursue my individual interests, and I know I've benefited from that time.  Still, I feel that I've somehow fallen short in my responsibility of providing as much food from this growing season as I normally do.  But it's not the end of the world that I did so, if I acknowledge there have been gains.

 Oh, all the nutrition those dark, leafy 

Swiss chard leaves give us.

Next year the field garden and two other small areas in which we've been building up the soil will be in production.

Plus, the crew of six I'm lining up for next season to help around here (I wish) will alleviate my work load so I'll still have time to pursue my creative outlets.  

Another Unfinished Project Is Finished

Where are all these unfinished baby quilt tops coming from?  And why didn't I finish them in the first place?

Well, the answers are simple.  They've all been hiding away in the box marked (appropriately) "To Be Finished" and I didn't finish them before now because I kept encountering dead ends when trying to figure out the best way to quilt them.  (And you know what they say:  Quilting makes the quilt!)

This one I'm showing you today had to hang on my design wall for a couple of weeks before inspiration hit.

I've also been slow in getting it completed because I had originally intended it to be a baby quilt, crib quilt size, but when the top was finished it didn't look to me as though it was appropriate for a wee one.  And I still think it might be better suited for an adult female who would appreciate a lap quilt to use in the chilly part of the year.

The size is 45-1/2" wide by 49-1/2" long.  The quilting I did on it is primarily straight line stitching by machine.

Although, I did put in a little fancy work with these cables running down both sides.

For the backing I used the over-all floral print that is featured on the front.

The floral print was the only fabric I purchased way back when I started making this quilt.  All the other coordinating materials were pulled from my stash. 

Now, believe it or not, I still have one baby quilt top in that darn "To Be Finished" box.  And I already know how I'm going to quilt it.  So, theoretically, it will also join the other completed ones in the not too distant future.  Hooray!  (Am I on a roll or what?!)

Bears Repeating

I just finished putting a Freshy's Blueberry Pie in the refrigerator as a treat later today.

Look good?  If you want to give it a try, I posted the recipe way back in 2009.  (Good grief, was that actually ten years ago already?)

I've been so very pleased to see the amount of blueberries we've been getting this year considering the problem we're facing with the 
Witches' Broom fungus.

There's a lot more of it showing up on our bushes during this growing season and as soon as the berries are done bearing, I'm going to remove every speck of it I see and hope for the best.  

We sure will be sad if we lose any more of the bushes as we both love blueberries and eat them year 'round for the antioxidant properties they have.

In the meantime, I'll keep taking care of the bushes as best I can and today will enjoy one of our favorite pies.

In The Poultry Yard

Our chickens and ducks can tell time.  Every afternoon they start lining up at the gate waiting for their treats.

"Look, look!  Here he comes."

"Follow that man with the goodies!"

 (Can you spot the three little ones in the foreground?)

"Num-num-num . . . "

These are the three chicks and a duckling with their Muscovy mama who hatched them out a few weeks ago.

They grow so fast.  The chicks are growing a good crop of feathers already.

Our other Muscovy hen hatched out this healthy batch of seven ducklings exactly one week ago today.

The two duck hens have both proven to be consistently broody and wonderful mothers.  So, so much easier (and healthier, we believe) to raise birds this natural way!

A Little Logging Operation

Late last week, the Pea Family did some logging.

Our good neighbor is putting a road in the woods on their property.  He left one birch tree, smack in the middle of the new road, for us thinking we might want it for firewood.  Absolutely!  Never turn down free firewood. 

Despite Papa Pea knowing how to make the cuts for a tree to fall where you want it to fall, this tree refused to come down.  So to be on the safe side, while daughter and I stood watch a safe distance away, he went home to get our tractor to give the stubborn tree a little push. 

That was the prod needed and the tree fell in the planned spot.

Papa Pea then limbed the tree while daughter and I loaded the trimmings into the back of our pickup.

While the man with the chainsaw cut the bigger branches and top portion of the tree into stove lengths, the two gals on the crew drove the truck up onto our ridge where we and our neighbor share a dumping spot for wood debris in a ravine.  Here daughter is demonstrating that the branches come off a lot easier and quicker than they go on!

We loaded the cut pieces into the bucket of the tractor for transporting back home.

Lastly, all that remained to be cut was the main trunk.  We planned to work it up on site.  Cutting a log lying flat on the ground isn't a good idea because the chainsaw inevitably hits the dirt and that dulls the chain right away.  

Daughter said she would lift the end while her dad slipped a piece of wood under the trunk to hold it up off the ground.

Plenty strong gal that she is, she couldn't budge it.  Trees are heavy!  (We agreed this not very flattering shot is graphic proof of how limber she is.)

Bashful Papa Pea didn't want to show his face.

Daughter and I drove the pickup home after unloading the last of the branches in our designated area while Papa Pea hooked the big log to the tractor and pulled it home.  He jury-rigged it to the front of the tractor because he didn't want to pull it behind the tractor thinking it would make a gouge in the ground dragging it all the way. 

It was a hot day and a hot chore, but worth it.  With our crew of three mighty-muscled workers (!), it went well.