Another Good Day on the Homestead

After our welcomed rain yesterday, today was a beautiful late summer/early fall day full of sunshine. The temp made it up into the mid-60s although working out in the garden, it felt warmer.

I picked a little over seven pounds of cherry tomatoes, my huge colander full of lemon cucs, another of green slicing cucs, and one, plus another medium bowl, full of pickling cucs. This colander holds enough pickling cucumbers for seven quarts of pickles so that was quite a good harvest from the garden for this time of the season.

Before coming in to make dinner, I went to check out the apple trees.

These would look good if the tree bore yellow apples. But it doesn't. They need to be totally red to be ripe 'n ready.

This one is coming along a little better.

And these even better. But we aren't holding out much hope for a good harvest this year. They just got too slow a start in the spring. In September, we often get a frost around the time of the full moon. And we're facing a full moon this coming Monday. I'm just very thankful we're not trying to make a living up here with an apple orchard.

I love this Virginia Creeper vine that grows up against the house to the right of this window. Not only does it grow up to the roof of the house, but it grows to the right across our bedroom window and to the left across the bathroom window that you see here. When it dies down in the late fall (after turning a deep, deep red), the window seems so open and exposed. But it also let's more light into the bathroom again which isn't a bad thing.

Another good day on the homestead.

No Dirty Pictures

There will be no pictures with this post. I'm embarrassing myself enough by writing about this topic.

During the summer/gardening months, do you know who works inside my house keeping it clean, neat and tidy? Nubbuddy, that's who. And it drives me nuts. Don't get me wrong; I am not a neat-freak when it comes to housekeeping. But I do like things to at least look organized, tidy, and surface cleaned. Right now, my house is so deep-dirty, it would give Mr. Clean heart palpitations.

And I don't know how it happens. Roy and I are both relatively clean people. We check our shoes before entering the house. We both bathe regularly and put on clean clothes every day. I manage to get dishes done at least once a day and we immediately clean up any real messes we make. Honest, we do.

Can houseplants die from a really thick layer of dust on their leaves? When was the last time I washed the kitchen floor? Well, let's see . . . if this is September and I started working outside in early May . . . .

There is a corner of the bathroom ceiling that has a network of delicate gray fibers stretching from one wall to another. And there seems to be little . . . things . . . caught in the fibers. Not big things . . . just little, black . . . gnat-like things.

And can somebody tell me what is all that stuff in the bottom of the compartments of the silverware tray? And where did it come from? By my guesstimation, it looks to be about 1/4" deep right now.

I moved the toaster yesterday morning. Screeeeeam. Holy Batman. Crumbs, yuck, greasy-dirty-dust, a dead spider and a dime. (Haven't been hitting the corners much lately, have you, Mama Pea?)

When I designed our small kitchen, I opted for white cabinets because I thought they would give a light and airy feel to the minimalistic space I had to work with. Let me tell you about white cabinets. Don't EVER put in white cabinets. Do NOT do it. A big, bad, STUPID mistake. Every fingerprint and smudge shows Every little drip shows up like a flashing neon light. Every teeny-tiny indentation or lip or piece of molding holds dust, grit and grime with glaring visibility. At this moment, they have never been dirtier. Their only redeeming quality is that by having them I've come to realize that all other-than-white cabinets are most likely just as dirty; the lucky homeowners just don't know it. But I do . . . neener-neener-nee-ner. (Oh, that is so petty.)

I live in fear that someone will casually take a book from one of our shelves to peruse . . . poof . . . cough . . . sneeze . . . splutter . . . gag.

I could go on but this is getting too depressing. And let's face it, it could be a lot worse. (Oh, really?) I have a friend who was boiling down maple sap in a big pot on her kitchen stove, she walked away and kinda sorta forgot it. Yup, it boiled over and she had sticky, icky, gooey sap down in the burners of the stove, all over the counter, down between the stove and counter, covering the knobs of the stove, in one drawer and cabinet, all over the floor. Now THAT would be a real cleaning project. (When I related this incident to my daughter, she looked at me with a deadpan expression and said, "I would move.")

I did vacuum and dust this afternoon. Darn near filled the vacuum cleaner bag, I think. And one of these days, after a good, hard frost has zapped everything in the garden, I will start spending time inside getting caught up on all the housekeeping chores I've let slide all summer. I should be done just in time to put up the Christmas decorations.

Pie-O-My

I love baking pies. I love eating pies. I could live on pies. (I once worked with a gal who was a tad overweight and she decided to go on a [yet another] diet. But this time she made the decision to restrict her eating to something she really liked so she could stick with her diet. You guessed it. Pie. I know it sounds crazy [and I truly don't recommend it . . . or do I? Hmmm . . . ] but she ate nothing but pie for a month and lost weight. Then she died. I'm kidding! About the dying part.)

I first dipped my fingers into the food business by making pies for a good friend at her restaurant. I would get up at 4 a.m. each morning, drive 15 miles into town, and bake pies before the restaurant opened. After I owned my own restaurant, I incorporated pies into my menu there. The best sellers? Raspberry-Cranberry and Chocolate Velvet, closely followed by Bittersweet Chocolate.

Our daughter tells a good story of going to school (she was in her early teens at the time) and complaining bitterly to her friends regarding the fact that she and her dad had had to sample three more pies the night before because of the constant experimenting with new recipes I was doing. Her friends looked at her as if she had a screw loose. Having to sample pies day after day? Omigod, what a cruel and evil mother she had!

What's my favorite pie? How long do you have? I guess it would have to be a fruit pie. (If I rule out Banana Cream Pie first which my daughter always makes me for my requested birthday "cake.") Rhubarb. Cherry. Raspberry. PEACH! Our good neighbors gave us some frozen peaches (from friends of theirs out of the area) last winter and I made a peach pie that was UN-BE-LIEV-ABLE! It wasn't my pie baking skills but rather those sent-from-heaven peaches. Mmm, mmm. Just thinking about them. 'Scuse me while I gain control of myself.

But, bottom line, can you beat a good, old-fashioned apple pie? Come fall each year, I get such a hankering for apple pie I can hardly stand it. I've been waiting for some newly harvested organic apples to come in at our local whole foods co-op and when I popped in there this last weekend, a friend and clerk alerted me to some with just the right amount of tang (we sampled one on the spot) for baking.

Here's what I baked with those apples this morning. And unless somebody drops in, Roy and I are going to eat the whole thing ourselves. Yessiree, we are.

Yarning and Yawning

At the end of each day, Roy and I try to take time to sit together to chat and wind-down before going to bed. Sometimes there isn't a lot of conversation, we just like being in close proximity while he reads (this man has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge often reading material that is highly technical and dry as dust --- or, okay, stuff I don't have the intelligence to understand), and I read (give me a good novel any day) or do handwork. During the summer when I'm so physically active during the day, I generally grab some handwork to do because within minutes of getting comfortable and sitting still to read, I fall asleep.

This is a new winter scarf I've been working on . . . and which last night came to a screeching halt. Ran out of yarn. I purchased only one skein as it's lovely, unbelievably soft baby alpaca, and was a wee bit pricey. But now that I'm well into the scarf, I just have to have more yarn to give me the length I want. The yarn shop is about 25 miles down the road but also on the way to The Big City where we will be going shortly (this week?) to pick up one of our vehicles we left there for repair.

Guess I'll have to rely on scintillating conversation to keep me awake for a few nights now until I can get more yarn.

Tour of a Tired Garden

I was going to title this "Tour of a Dead and Dying Garden" but when I started taking pictures, I realized the garden wasn't dead, just a little tired.

The canning and preserving onslaught has dwindled at last. Whew. Maybe (just possibly) another picking of raspberries. A lot of blueberries out there right now wanting to be harvested, but it's raining so they will have to hang on a bit.

I was very surprised this morning to see more green beans to be picked. When I harvested on Friday, I saw no more blossoms and just a few one to two inch long beans. It's been so cool that I didn't think they'd grow anymore. The bean plants still look good though.

Here's a shot of the first cucumber bed I planted. Its' still producing but starting to look a smidge tired.

Of the four cuc beds, this one went in last and, I think you can see, is still blossoming like crazy. Main problem is it outgrew it's bed (no foolin') and we can no longer shut the cold frame top to protect it from the much cooler temps we're now experiencing. Whoops. Who goofed there?

I had two trellises of Sweet Peas this year and they both gave us uncounted bouquets to have in the house and give away. You can see by this picture that the vines are pretty much done now. The bush zinnias at the base are still lovely. I'm gonna put in more of those next year.

Our experimental tomatoes in plastic wrapped cages are going great guns. I've severely pruned them at least three times but you can see how lush they still are. The cages are three feet high and most of the plants are way above that. Lots of green tomatoes. Only two (that's right, TWO) that have started to color up. Sigh.

An action shot of me gathering zucchini. Even in our now cool weather, they just keep on producing. Ya just can't keep a good zucchini down.

I threw the geese some too big zucchini Roy chunked apart with a shovel. They came running over, took a couple of big bites and said, "This doesn't taste anything like watermelon," and left.

I'm getting so much pleasure looking at our sunflowers. If we had just had a decent June, I think the heads would have matured for us. I'm 5'3" so the tallest must be about 8 feet tall. I planted a mixture of three different heights and they all did well.

Our poor, dilapidated potato rows. The plants have almost all died down and we could dig the potatoes but we're gonna give them a few more weeks for the skins to thicken a bit more. Sure am anxious to see what kind of a crop we get though.

I picked a really nice batch of pickling cucs off these slightly beat-up looking vines last Friday. And they have scads of blossoms yet. But how much more producing they will do . . . ? Depends on how much warm weather they require. I have all the pickles made that we need. Now my dear daughter has gone into production with any I have to share with her. She inherited the pickling gene from me. We both love to make pickles. She's much more adventuresome than I am and is doing some experimenting this year.

Here's a portion of the strawberry patch. We always cut our strawberry plants down to ground level when they finish bearing. A little late we were this year; they got mowed only about two weeks ago. But look at the growth they've made already. They'll be in great shape to go into winter.

My new-this-year pumpkin patch. Again, if June hadn't been so cold and wet . . . The plants are looking fantastic. Just don't know if the fruits will have time to mature.

Yes, there are pumpkins in there. Albeit a mite on the green side, wouldn't you say? Hey, there's always orange spray paint. And I won't hesitate to use it.

I have two beds of lettuce that are still doing great thanks to coverings of shade cloth in the past hot weather when lettuce usually gives up the ghost and calls it quits. This was the first year we used shade cloth and it proved well worth the investment.

My good ol' rhubarb plant. So many luscious pies and desserts this summer. And several bags of frozen rhubarb in the freezer for more treats this winter. It's been resting since I stopped cutting mid-summer and now it's looking a bit saggy and draggy. I think it's contemplating snow and hibernation.

Our day time temperatures haven't gotten out of the cool range this past week and at night it's been getting down into the 40s. Absolutely delightful weather for being outside, even if the sweatshirts have come out of the dresser drawers, and sleeping at night requires a few minutes of cuddling to get warm. Up here, we could get our first killing frost anytime in September (or August!) so anything we still get from the garden now is a bonus.

Evening Quilt Progress Update

Here's the progress I made in the quilt room this afternoon. Gosh, it felt good to be back in there creating again.

I thought I had a pretty definite pattern in mind for the whole design but as I worked and looked at the colors, I found new thoughts and ideas popping into my head. I guess that's why it's called "a work in progress." Need more length in the Flying Geese strips and probably one more strip set of them but I'm pleased at the speed with which it's going together.

And, no, the windshield repair guy neither called nor showed up. But I sure had a great day.