Last Day of July

Well reported earlier that squash was rebounding; not so. Don't know what's has been happening, but it's not good. Cucumbers however, are flourishing.

Red pepper and celery

soaking veggies

Tonight made second batch of relish. This is very intensive process - have to hand cut most of the stuff into small pieces. Started with red pepper and then celery (see left). Then moved onto onions and cucumbers. Once everything is cut up very small, you soak the veggies in salt for three hours. Then rinse, rinse, rinse.  Last thing is to put all into a pan with spices and vinegar and boil for  about 15 minutes. They you put in glass jars, put on a two piece top and process for 15-20 minutes.  They just came out a few minutes ago. But you have to let them cool for a long time, before checking to make sure they are sealed well. That will happen in the morning.

During the day today, continued the outside work along Crawfish Road. The banks were overgrown with things that I would rather were not there, including sweet pea, poison ivy, milk weed, and Virginia creeper, among others.  Managed to get a "bracelet" of poison ivy on my right hand (and other places too), a few days ago. Yuck!

bank a mess

Front bank after weeding




Fruit cellar falling apart

Fruit cellar in process of repairs

 There's an old fruit or root cellar (also sometimes called a cold cellar) on the property, but it's been deteriorating greatly. Thanks to Butch, my brother-in-law it's on the mend! He's doing a little at a time - needs to put on several layers of cement to cover it up. Now we need to get more cement!

Tomorrow- maybe a round of golf. This is supposed to be a fun place - right?