Weekend

There are some bizarre holidays that are supposedly celebrated today, such as "more herbs, less salt day",  "national whiskey sour day" (does anyone still drink these?), and my favorite, "According to Hoyle Day! This is a day to honor Edmond Hoyle who died on this day in 1769. In 1741, he instructed people how to play the game of whist, an 18th and 19th century card game. Needing a standard set of rules for the game he wrote A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist.  He published several versions of the book adding rules for other games such as chess and backgammon. The phrase "according to Hoyle" was used to describe the correct rules or procedures in any activity or game."
Who knew - I've only heard his name in reference to rules of bridge!  And sadly new bridge players don't use him rules much anymore..

Butternut

Picked some butternut squash. According to internet you are supposed to let them "cure" in 85 degree humid conditions for 2 weeks and then can store them for a few months. Well it's not 85 inside or out here, so not sure how you do that. We might get two hot days this week, but nights are still going to be in the 60's. So have moved them to the kitchen since am still canning and that surely makes it hotter and more humid. Plan to give these to one of my neighbors and will pick more to bring to FL. In looking this up, discovered that FL actually raises more butternut squash than any place else in US (according to Internet) ; makes sense if you have to have hot, humid weather to make them last.

what we think it Elderberry

Still not 100% sure about this bush/tree but think it's Elderberry. We have a number of them on the bank. The berries don't seem to be as dark as what I've seen in other pictures, but maybe not totally ripe yet. Doesn't matter, don't really intend to make any Elderberry wine this year anyway.. think I will wait until I am "elderly."   LOL
 
Saturday was a canning day -

Grapes after washing

Made grape juice out of these babies Friday and then made jelly on Saturday. Grape harvest isn't like last year, but this bucket full made 16  and 1/2 jars of jelly so think it will do. There are more out there that weren't quite ripe yet. So this week I will get more and make juice.  Also canned more tomatoes - every couple days have enough to do a few jars.

Froze some more green beans though those seem to be at their end and the second planting is just blooming. Luci and Butch will enjoy them I hope  after I leave. Also harvesting - eating and freezing Lima Beans, one of Nelson's favorites.

Brussel sprouts not really forming well, but Cathy, a neighbor, said go ahead and pick some and cook they will still taste the same so I tried that out.. She was right.. Of course, what doesn't taste good when cooked with a little bacon. I am seriously going to have to stop eating like this when I get back to FL.

Cathy has bees this year and harvested honey this week. I was one of the friends who scored a bottle for free. She plans to sell some.  Nice that she's kept Cousin Olive's name for the property!

Coming down the home stretch

Well two weeks from today, I will be driving home. Doesn't seem possible that summer is almost over. It was 52 degrees this morning though and getting quite cool tonight too. Of course was a beautiful 70 something today so was a really nice day.

tomatoes and apples

Sunday canned tomatoes and more today. Also froze some apples and canned some apples both of those days.

Yesterday went to Heartwood in Abingdon with my neighbor to look at the Southwestern Virginia crafts that was on display there.  Lost of beautiful things - pottery, weaving, southern musical  instruments (banjos and related instruments), weavings, sculptures, artistic clothing, woodworking items, etc. One of the men who plays tennis with our Wednesday group had several sculptures on display (and for sale of course) that are made out of old tools. Interesting and very different. Also stopped in the Olive oil store and tasted a lot of oil and vinegar pairings and in the craft store in north Abingdon. We bought a couple of things at each place.

This morning went with same neighbor to the farm (that for me is still called Brookdale, even though owners have changed the name) and learned how to milk a cow. Interesting process and amazed at the young lady's (who owns the cows) ability to milk it so rhythmically.  Guess when you do it everyday it become easier.  She only had two cows to milk this morning as one is going dry and another of her cows just had a baby, so is feeding, versus being milked. They have plans to expand and eventually will do it by machine, but right now continues to do manually.   Stopped on the way home to see another neighbor because the lady I was with is hoping to buy her chicken coop if she can figure out how to move it to her property. Had a nice chat with Deniese who we don't see much since she has two jobs and tries to keep up with her animals, mowing hay, and just general upkeep.

Goldenrod

More weeds (like goldenrod, hellenium, forget me not - among others)  than flowers this time of year, though have a few. The butterfly bush is still blooming; there are a few Hydrangeas still blooming, lots of sweet pea, some phlox, and the anemones are just beginning to bloom. I  cut all the other growth around them, to give them more room.

Anemone

Forget-me-
not

Phlox

Sweet Pea

In the garden, of course there many green tomatoes, some don't look so good, but they are also good ones turning red (or yellow) slowly - hopefully most will turn before I leave.

Brussel Spouts Forming

Surprise Beets

Green pepper

 Some beet seeds decided to germinate very late, and now there are a couple of beet plants. I can see a little beet right at the dirt line but I don't expect these to be ready before I leave, but my sister-in-law will use them I hope.

Limas and string beans

Butternut Squash

String beans have slowed down, though the 2nd planting is flowering - not sure if will produce before I leave. Limas are beginning to be ready and we had some of those for dinner tonight. Still have a lot of Swiss Chard (and have deydrated and frozen some of that), green peppers, banana peppers, and some yellow squash.  Brussel sprouts are trying to form, but not sure  if they will ever get big enough to eat. - several of the neighbors tried these this year,  So far none of us have any.  Potatoes will be ready to harvest next week.  Have lots of butternut squash and the vines seem to be withering where the fruit of the fruit formed and grown wild elsewhere, so think there will be a lot of those - already promised to several folks in neighborhood. I seem to be only one who has them this year.  Still have some rhubarb to pick as well. Grapes are turning purple but birds are going after them quickly. Think I will get some, but nothing like last year's harvest!

Lots to do before I leave here, so will be a busy few weeks.

Today for me Is - "No canning day"

But officially today is mail order catalog day! Who Knew?   Here's what I found about this obscure holiday:

AAAAlthough Benjamin Franklin has a good claim to be the world’s first mail order entrepreneur, it is the anniversary of the first Montogomery Ward catalogue of 1872 that has provided the date for Mail Order Catalog Day. Over the intervening years, it grew from a single page of products to a monster capable of striking fear into the stoutest of postal workers!

Alas, the Montgomery Ward behemoth is no longer with us, having faded away in 1985, but stalwarts such as Sears still carry the torch, whilst the catalogue with the longest run to date, the Hammacher Schlemmer, still plies tools and building materials (no doubt including torches, should Sears ever drop theirs).

Celebrate the day in style by signing up for a few mail order catalogues and ordering some goodies. Running shoes are a great place to start, especially if your postman is not of a forgiving nature.

I've been looking at numerous things online today (and bought nothing) but try to get as few catalogs in the mail as possible, so hopefully am still in favor with the mail-persons. 

I've done very little today except pick some things from the garden. I've decided I cannot/will not can everyday for the rest of my time here. I should have done numerous other things today but didn't do those either.  But here's some pictures of the condition of things since last report.

West end of porch today

The Porch is on hold for the moment as the brake for doing siding is no longer available, but hopes are high it will get done before next summer. However it looks really great right now.

2011 picture of west end of porch

East porch with just decaying wallboard removed - see it on left?

East Outside new siding

East Porch Today

East porch after reframing

I need to get out there and do some scraping and painting of a few places on those windows that couldn't easily be sided.

Aside from the house, pretty flowers and  lots of stuff from the garden

Another gift from Dorothy-
it just got a major haircut

Side garden snapdragons-
thanks to Luci for starting 

Basket of snapdragons - thanks to Luci

Lots of fruit and vegetable processing last week. Continued with canning peaches - those are all gone now thank goodness; They aren't freestones so take a lot of work to use them. Besides canning made jam, peach butter, many peach desserts, peach chutney, spiced peach pickles, sauteed them, used them in recipes and gave a fair amount away.  Also continuing to make Apple sauce - one of my neighbors is anxious to get rid of some of their apples - think they have 7 or 8 trees - and I have some of my own. Since this is so simple to make, I always help them out.  This week my sister-in-law brought me Asian pears. Have been trying out things with those too - eating is good but also using in salads, cole slaw, pear cobbler, and made pear sauce (like applesauce but harder to do).  

Tomatoes about to be canned

Have pulled all the cabbage and have sauerkraut fermenting. Will can that at end of week. Also have a head tightly wrapped in refrigerator and one in the freezer that I hope to make cabbage rolls with when I get back to FL. Will be interested to see how that works out; many folks on the internet are doing it.  Eating lots of homemade cole slaw too.  

Canned my first tomatoes and some donated by my sister-in-law since our are very slow in turning red. Have made a couple batches of salsa when had a few ripe tomatoes, but never enough to make it worth canning tomatoes until got some extras. Also canned some hot pepper jelly and some cowboy candy (sweet jalapeno pickles). 

Yellow pepper and squash soup

Still getting yellow squash - making the squash with the stuffing as well as trying new recipes.  And get zucchini from various friends and have ma zucchini bread, zucchini chocolate cake, zucchini curry soup, and zucchini oatmeal cookies, along with zucchini casseroles.

Also made two different squash soup recipes and eating and freezing those as well as some vegetable soup I made. Also eating and freezing green beans. Nelson eating lots of white corn he's grown - I get an ear now and then. Have frozen some green peppers too - hope to make stuffed peppers with them once back in FL.

Been a busy few weeks...

And Ugh, ugh, ugh - I discovered this afternoon that there has been some rodent activity again that wasn't there Saturday.. so had to work on cleaning up everything that might have been touched..   I knew there was at least one up in the attic and put some "get rid of rodents stuff" up there last week, but hadn't seen any sign of them downstairs since beginning of July.  Seen none in person downstairs since then. Hoping to see no more signs.

Busy August Week

Went to Abingdon on Tuesday to the Highlands Festival Craft Fair. Seems like it gets smaller every year, but guess that is the way things go after being almost the same year after year.  Got just a couple things and went to the antique stores that are still there.  Didn't get there until the afternoon as was making peach jam in the morning.

Wednesday night played doubles tennis with my cousin, Mary Jane and a couple that she know from Wytheville Country Club - Rick and Mary Radman this week and had a great time. Very good players.  They want to play again next week and we hope some others will join us! Last week we had two other players and we changed partner often to keep it fair.

Made vegetable soup this week and froze some. Ate the last of the unfrozen today for lunch. Only veggie not out of our garden was the carrots- we don't grow those.

Canned Peaches

Been canning Peaches and dill Pickles (thanks to Butch - I have no cucumbers) all week! Today did some more peaches.  Alaso made peach chutney which we had with our roast beef tonihgt. Have to figure out why not as thick as I would like if I make again.

Peach Chutney

Yellow Squash & Peppers Soup

Also made yellow squash and pepper soup which is delicious and chocolate zucchini cake and zucchini pancakes.

Chocolate Zucchini dessert

 (thanks also to Butch for all our zucchini as I have none)!  Also froze some green peppers today which I hope to stuff when I get to FL. And picked some more green beans that we will have for dinner tomorrow night.


Finally a few of our tomatoes are turning red. Made some fresh salsa yesterday with a couple of those and a trusty Mrs. Wages mix!  And of course putting on sandwiches, under cole slaw and paired with tomatoes!

July Wrap-Up

Busy month. Lots of things in bloom throughout the month though many of the flowers are ending. 

Roses

 

 

Butterfly bush

Hostas

 

Another variety hosta

Allium

Milkweed

 

Rose of Sharon - needing pruning

The garden is now producing some items as well as "the orchard" (which consists of several apple trees - two of which produce very small apples and are very big- not pickable) and one peach tree- those will be ready in August.

Also A & HJ have apples and want me to use theirs too. Theirs are red and very tasty, so made more applesauce.   There are lots of "volunteer plants" this year. Extra potatoes, tomatoes (100's- pulled up most of these), and acorn squash which I have never grown (think came from my in-laws using the cold cellar).

Red apples - applesauce

Acorn squash

Butternut squash

Green Peppers

Jalapeno Peppers

 Peppers started out gangbusters but seem to be tapering out; not sure of cause of that. Banana peppers seem to be only one with new growth. Still several green peppers growing, but not seeing new ones.   Below is the new basket that Dorothy brought me! Love it.  Used it the day they left and picked multiple cabbages that are now fermenting into sauerkraut. Also picked peppers, yellow squash, bunching onions, green beans, and rhubarb.  Have planted more lettuce which is just about ready and some additional green beans which have a way to go.

Bringing in bounty in new basket from Dorothy

2nd planting of lettuce and green beans

Yellow squash

The porch project is moving along again!. It's going to look great, bit still quite a bit to get accomplish and some of it unfortunately is up to me to get done- scraping and painting the parts of the windows that cannot be covered by siding.  Not my favorite task but need to get to it! Major improvement all the way around!

Outside East End- siding replaced below window

Inside West End

Inside east end - post not yet done, but under window looks great!