After 4 days of rain, today was a lovely, sunny day. You can still feel the chill in the air, despite the brightness. Most of the day lingered around 50, but it finally climbed up to 55 for a few hours. I've been watching the forecast closely and it looks like I'll get one more week out of my garden if they are correct. After that nighttime temps will be in the high 30's and I don't think much of anything will like that, except maybe the broccoli. Not quite freezing temps, but not veggie friendly, either, especially to the tomatoes.

Today's harvest was pretty small, as you can see:



Just 2 green beans and that was the last of it. Well, there are still blossoms, but I doubt they'll have time to grow into beans. There are 3 bunches of green onions still growing.

There is a bunch of heirloom broccoli coming on. I will be able to harvest one in about 3 days, I think. This one is as big as my fist:



All the other ones are smaller. There's not too much for color left in the garden, although the blueberry bushes are a brilliant red since their leaves have turned. And there are these brilliant orange lanterns everywhere:



Today's egg count was six chicken and 3 duck. Henrietta and Goldielocks, two of the Auracanas got out today. I've never seen them out before. Also out were Queen (of course, never met a fence that could hold her), Curious, and Pipsqueak (who is now, by the way, the 3rd largest chicken we own). A crow went after Henrietta today. Not to attack her, just to warn her off something the crow was eating. It it had been Queen she would have chased the crow off.

We've decided not to put in a light for the time being as they are keeping up with our needs just fine. We really don't need 15 eggs a day.

The ducks have been really happy with the rain lately. There are lots of puddles for them to grub in.



That is Patches with the green head and wonky wing, our only male. Next to him is Noisy. She is starting to get white feathers. Apparently Cayuga ducks turn white by the time they are four or something like that. Miz Len Tao is there behind Patches and all you can see of Lady Henry Inigo Montoya is her backside sticking out. Obviously the ducks were named well before we knew which ones were girls. But Lady and Miz never responded to their names anyway.

On the financial front, I gave DD $10 to buy a ticket to the Homecoming Dance. She was asked by a boy (her first date!) but I feel better having her pay her own way so there are no expectations. She is really excited. I am really nervous. When did I get old enough to have a daughter who was of dating age?

Today's harvest basket:



I guess that title fits the garden as well as me. Everything has slowed down with the onset of cooler fall weather, but much continues to grow. Today I harvested a big head of broccoli and a side shoot that I left to grow on the one I harvested last week, which was pretty big now. I had five tomatoes, a kohlrabi, a cucumber, and 2 handfuls of green beans. There are still blossoms on the green bean vines so I may very well have more if the weather stays mild.

I'm watching the forecast pretty sharply, keeping an eye out for the first predicted frost, as I will bring in everything that won't survive it. I am hoping it stays off for a while though. I could get a lot more harvested in the next two weeks if frost doesn't hit.

I haven't actually done my meal plan for this week. I need to. I know that I will make pork burritos in the crockpot to use up some of the tomatoes and maybe some salsa. I have about 8 tomatoes total now. I need to sit down and plan it out tonight. It's hard when 3 out of 4 people have sore throats, to make something that will appeal to all. Of course I could just hand out ice cream and mashed potatoes and be done with it. Not healthy at all, but very easy.

DS is 3 days behind me on the sick train. I'm letting him sleep a lot more, even if it means we get behind on homeschooling this week. We can catch up by the end of the month. So far we are not behind, we are actually ahead for the month so slacking on a couple of days while he heals probably won't effect much of anything. He wouldn't have gone to school today if he'd been in public school anyway. At least DD is almost well. I'm several days behind her, but there is an improvement in symptoms so hopefully I'll completely shake it off soon.

...or five prescriptions later... Well, okay probably not the actual flu, just Super Bad Sinues: The Sequel. And one of the meds is for sleep, because with the super cough (codeine cough syrup, I love you) I haven't been doing much of that. At least everything was generic and I only shelled out $17.81 for all five. Nice.

As for the chickens, well, we have had several escape artists as of late. They are determined to be free range all of the time, and not just part-time. But holes have now been patched in the fence, the gate has been fixed, and wire has been placed higher. Only two of them, Curious and Georgie, got out today. They are the lightest, smallest birds. They fly the easiest and the furthest and we will likely never be able to keep them in. Despite Georgie getting her tail feathers clipped by the neighbor's dog not too long ago, she is still determined to range, though she is sticking to the yard.

I suppose I won't complain too much about Curious and Georgie, since they are the two best egg layers in the bunch. Still, it's not like they have a small enclosure. I have seen yards that are not as big as their huge pen. But the grass is always greener and the bugs are always bigger and the slugs are always...sluggier on the other side of the fence. Well, thank goodness for patient neighbors who are charmed by them and like the free eggs they get slipped now and then.

We have been letting the ducks out a little bit to free range during the day when doing garden work, but they don't really seem to like being out. They like the fenced area and they like their miniature pond and they absolutely do not like the neighbor's dogs. They are too fat to fly and never try to escape, although Lady Henry Inigo Montoya does go off away from the other three quite a bit. She has very little tolerance for Patches and his romantic overtures.

Egg production is starting to slow down as the days get shorter. Well, the 3 female ducks are still laying pretty consistently, but we are only getting about five chicken eggs a day from twelve hens. We are thinking about putting in a light, but 8 eggs a day is fine for our needs and we will probably only do so if it slacks off to a lot less than that.

The garden is still plugging along, but the days are getting cooler. The forecast is looking in the lower 60's for the rest of the week, with rain on Friday. I can't remember the last time it really rained, June maybe, and we are in for a stormy weekend. The nights are still staying above 50 so the tomatoes are still going. Not sure how much longer I can expect that. There are tons of green ones just starting to turn color. I guess if I need to I can pick them and wrap them in newspaper and let them ripen inside. Not a big fan of green tomatoes or I'd just dehydrate them.

I have five ripe tomatoes sitting on my table that I need to figure out something to do with. Maybe I'll make chili this week. In the crockpot so I don't have to put out any effort. Or I suppose I could can a single pint. Just in a smaller pan, not my full-size canner.

I did up what I think is the last of the prunes and they are on a tray in the freezer. There might be a few more, but I'll need DH at the top of a ladder to tell me if there are anymore on the tree and he won't be home until Wednesday. I am too short to reach, but I think I still see a few up there. I was right and ended up with about 8 quart bags full (or will do when the rest of these get packed into the last bag).

I'm still getting a couple handfuls of green beans every three days or so. There are a couple of yellow zucchini struggling along and I may get two more cucumbers before the weather turns. I should be able to harvest another broccoli by week's end.

I really need to do up a meal plan for the week. I am kind of doing the whatever is easiest route right now, but that way leads to overspending. Dinner tonight was scrambled egg sandwiches and stir-fried green beans. Simple, easy, not too much effort.

DD is going to try to go to school tomorrow after being out sick for a while. Ugh. 7 a.m. Even the chickens don't get up that early right now. DS felt good enough to do all of his lessons today, though he is still feeling yucky. The nice thing about homeschooling is he is able to sleep in when he doesn't feel well and it's okay if we don't finish lessons until 7 p.m. I am not, nor ever will be a fan of Algebra, but it's really not fun when your brain feels like it is full of snot. Still, we beat it (the algebra, not the snot).

Today's harvest, about 50 Italian prunes, 2 big tomatoes, a couple of little ones (including one green one that got knocked off the vine), a little cucumber that the plant died on (death by chicken), another handful of green beans, and my very first broccoli. I also got brave and cut some grown chard. I am going to saute it. It is generally treated as an ornamental around here, but it does so well I decided it was time to try cooking it myself. I have had baby chard in salads and I've eaten it in soups, but I've been ridiculous about eating it any other way.

I am going to freeze the Italian prunes. The nice lady at Throwback at Trapper Creek told me how she freezes hers and I will use that method. I just really don't feel like canning and this way I won't be adding any extra sugar.



This was part of my mother's corn harvest. She didn't take care of it at all, basically planted it and forgot it and since it didn't rain more than twice this summer, her lack of watering majorly stunted it. Yet it's a testament to her soil that it still produced some tasty kernals (we ate it for lunch) even if the ears were tiny. If it hadn't we would have just tossed it to the chickens.

This is my first year gardening in this climate since, oh, maybe 1989, other than fruit harvest, and while I gardened at the other house, we always had our first killing frost before October. The only things I ever saw there were pears and apples after September. The difference between a climate in the foothills of Mt. Baker and a maritime climate are quite wonderful to me.

I've definitely got some changes I will make next year if we are still living here, or ideas for whatever house we end up buying if we sell the old house and can buy before spring. It will be in this climate no matter where we buy, pretty much. Most of the houses on smaller lots in this town tend to have the best sun in their front yards. I have no issue with mixing vegetables in all the flowerbeds if that is my only way to do it. It is actually becoming quite common to see front yard gardens here these days. They are usually in raised beds, but they are there.

My biggest thing is to get the stuff into the ground sooner than June instead of letting it languish in pots, then putting it in the ground and hoping really hard. I knew better than this, but um...well, we all get lazy or sick or keep putting it off and these things happen. It just can't happen next year if I want to plant enough green beans for the year.

I also will have some diatomaceous earth on hand to deal with the slugs and I absolutely will not listen to my mother about using straw mulch. All that was in the rains of spring was perfect slug habitat and they decimated my cauliflower crop to the point that I didn't get to harvest any of it.

I need to keep my seeds in one location so that I am not frantically searching for them a month or two later when I am ready to plant them. I swear I lost my packets of green bean seeds no less than five times (bought more twice) and ended up planting starts instead, which is why I don't have any to preserve this year as they were close to sold out when I got the ones I have and so I only have had enough for about 2 meals a week.

So basically, the last week of April and the first week of May, I need to be organized, not get sick, and not get lazy. And also hope for a somewhat cooler, but still hot, July.

Well, I cancelled my dentist appointment for tomorrow. My ear still hurts too much and my throat as well, to sit through a cleaning and after having been on antibiotics for over a week with no progress, I'm sure this is a nasty virus. I didn't want to get them sick there, so I've saved or at least put off, the cost of a cleaning this month. I go three times a year due to some damage caused earlier in life and the third appointment is not covered. I've rescheduled to mid-October, which shifts the payment to a better month and hopefully that gives me enough time to get over this forsaken thing.

Oh, it is better than yesterday, though so hopefully that means I'm on the upswing. Yesterday was "oh my gosh, I think I'm going to die from this ear pain, will it never end," and today was "I think I'll live but I'm not going to enjoy it." LOL So a tiny bit of progress. At least I have my sense of humor back, right?

I have missed three weeks of seeing the woman who works on my leg due to her car accident, so that $90 a week has eased things a bit. She called me today and we've tentatively scheduled for Monday, but with the understanding that either one of us was likely to cancel depending on health or injury status. It was good to hear from her. She's become a dear friend over the last couple of years and we chat non-stop when we have a session.

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Homeschool has gone much, much better this week. We are getting through things better. Math and literature take more than the allotted time, but the other subjects go faster so it all evens out. Today we only put in a half an hour more than the required time and I can see that things are beginning to go more smoothly on DS's end as he gets into the swing of it. I am pretty sure neither one of us is going to go crazy now.

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The garden continues to chug along. Today I picked green beans, tomatoes, a kohlrabi, and some more prunes. The broccoli is getting bigger right on schedule and there are several tomatoes getting red and another kohlrabi that will be ready soon.

The pears on my table are now ripe so I will try to make and can the pear sauce tomorrow, though all I want to do is just bite into those lucsious things and eat them straight. Must resist. There will be more for that.

About half the tomatoes on the table are ripe, too. I hope the rest get there before I need to do something with the ones that already have because I don't want to make two small batches of sauce I want to make one big one.

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I am making chicken stock overnight in the crockpot. I've got 4 chicken carcasses and a bunch of vegetable peelings that I've been saving in the freezer as well as a fresh leek and some sad looking but still decent parsley and other herbs from the garden. In the morning there will be beautiful, delicious broth for mere pennies. I may end up doing chicken noodle soup tomorrow instead of pizza because of my throat. I have some diced, cooked chicken in the freezer I can throw in to make it pretty easy as well as some fresh veggies I can chop and let simmer all day tomorrow. If I have enough leftover stock I will can it, otherwise I will freeze it.

And I think that about covers it.

The garden seems like it really ought to be slowing down. The days are in the high 60's to low 70's and the nights have been in the high 50's. Still, things continue to grow and some things are just coming into their own. We are eating as much from the garden as possible right now. I am buying no produce this week. It is nice to keep the grocery budget lower by making use of the bounty, but not have to skimp on what I feed my family.

I will need to get on a ladder to get the prunes off the higher branches this week. I've pretty much picked the lower branches clean. So far my plan to can has been thwarted by the fact that everything is getting devoured fresh. Ah, well. Maybe once I get those tall ones down.

Here is today's harvest:



The kohlrabi will be eaten at breakfast and lunch tomorrow. I'm pretty sure the prunes are probably gone, consumed to the kids. The green onions will be used tomorrow in a lunchtime low-carb meatloaf and the green beans will be in tomorrow's dinner.

Over half of my table is taken up with produce ripening. I will be making pear sauce in a few days with these:



And I hope that these will be done ripening by the weekend so they can go into the crockpots for sauce and then to be canned.



I am hoping to harvest this broccoli by the end of the week:



And in the patch on the far side of the house I see that the Romanesco is finally heading up. It'll probably take more than a week for these to start to be ready, but at least they finally are producing.



I've never eaten this type of broccoli before. It's an heirloom variety I guess and supposed to be very tasty. Let's hope so because I have quite a few of them planted.

I still have quite a few tomatoes coming on. I pulled the blossoms off several of the plants so they could focus on sizing up and ripening the remaining green tomatoes between now and cold weather. Anything that is a blossom now would have no chance to become anything before first frost so it makes no sense for the plant to split its energy.

This lovely pink rose is growing up through the center of the blackberry brambles. It is a gorgeous spot of color.



There were only five chicken eggs today and 1 duck egg. The days are getting shorter, which means they may not lay as much, but they may be hiding their eggs again, too, since most of them can get out now.

Georgie has managed to get herself up on the roof of the house several times now. She flies to the top of the tall gate and then from there flies to the roof. It is so funny to see her walking along up there. Of course by the time anyone can get a camera she is back down. No one else seems to be following her example, not even Curious, the hen that is Georgie's twin and was always the adventure leader up until now. But then they are both mischief makers or they wouldn't be named after an adventurous monkey, now would they?

I have broccoli! I know that is a silly thing to be excited about, but I really did not think it was ever going to produce heads and what do you know, it did. Or at least two of them have and I think the others can’t be too far behind them. They have been taunting me for ages with big, lush leaves and were well past the 90 days it should have taken. Maybe the weird weather in July messed with it or something, but at least it looks like I am going to have a harvest.

I need to make some space in the freezer for some of it just in case each plant does actually produce. I planted an awful lot of it and I’d like to have some in the freezer for December to June when it’s expensive. It’s super cheap right now, even the organic, because it’s in season summer to late fall, but once the price jacks up it will be nice to have some frozen the day it was picked broccoli for meals.

When I was out watering tonight, I spied 3 cucumbers growing, 2 slicers and 1 pickling. The 4th plant is a pickling cucumber that has never even flowered. It was nice to see some cukes because I adore them and there is nothing like them freshly picked. I’ve only gotten 1 cuke so far this summer so I was really happy to see them.

I’ve got some red tomatoes that need a couple more days on the vine and I picked another kohlrabi
today. I also filled the harvest basket with Italian prunes and picked a few more handfuls of green beans. This green bean teepee has the little plants that could, I tell you. It will be ready to pick again in two days.

I’ve had enough produce picked this week that I haven’t had to buy anything from the grocery store except milk and pure maple syrup. And my mom gave us some lovely sweet corn that was delicious.

I am gearing up to do another major tomato sauce canning session this weekend. I am hoping to buy enough to finish our sauce needs for the year, but that may take another weekend as well.

I’ve nearly filled two big shelves with home canned food this summer and I hope to still do green beans, of which I’d like to have 52 quarts, total. That might not be possible, but it sure would be nice not to have to worry about our major low carb vegetable for a whole year. Canned green beans have gotten quite expensive in the store, to the point where it’s much cheaper to buy them fresh in season and do it myself. And it would sure make my future grocery budgets that much lower.

I’d also like to do corn, but I can still get corn for .79 a can from Trader Joe’s and it’s a BPA free can liners so it’s pretty low on the agenda. Plus, I haven’t been able to source organic corn. Not that corn is on my list of things that should be organic. I just prefer them to be not GMO, and that can be pretty hard outside of places like TJ’s or food co-ops. One of these years I’ll start growing some heirloom Bantam corn, but that’s also pretty low on my list of priorities. I have potatoes for the starch gap so as much as we like corn, it’s such a space hog and needy feeder that so far it’s not been worth it to grow much of it.

We built a new duck den today. Mom and I recycled the box springs that broke (right after the warranty was up) from the new mattress set DH and I bought in January. We were able to expand their habitat quite a bit and they seem happier having more space. There were Bungie cords and zip ties involved, because we are women and don’t believe in “man tools” like drills and screws unless we have to use them, but so far it seems very serviceable. And I’ve never met a raccoon that can undo a zip tie, while I have seen the results of one that managed to unscrew a screw. Part of the fence still needs repair, but hopefully that will come soon.

Mom managed to do a face plant at the end of the day, tripping over a windfall apple. She seems to be doing okay, though, but I imagine she’s going to be one big bruise in the morning. This is one of the reasons I am going to worry about her when we move out. She takes a lot of tumbles. She seems no worse for wear afterwards, but one of these days she’s going to break something. Well, once we’re going all I can do is make sure I check up on her every day so that I know she’s not laying out there helpless. And eldest sister might just move back in when we move out. She’s 11 years older than me, on her own, and she gets lonely. I would feel better if she did come stay with Mom. Mom’s 73 now and she needs someone around, but I have two other sisters and I can’t do it all myself forever.

Remember that itty bitty spider plant start my chiropractor gave me a few months ago?



Well, now it looks like this:



Not bad for free. Not bad at all. I am going to have to transplant it into a bigger pot soon. I am trying to find a ceramic one amongst all of my mother's old pots. I don't like cheap plastic in the house or terra cotta inside, either. If she doesn't have one I will look at Goodwill. I don't want to buy a new one if I don't have to. I think my free plant should have a free or second hand pot to grow up in.

Here is today's harvest basket:



There are about 30 Italian prunes, enough green beans for a meal, 2 tomatoes that were on dead vines so I went ahead and picked them to finish ripening inside, the last bell pepper because it looked like something was trying to eat it, and a kohlrabi. Still no sign of broccoli on the big, lush broccoli plants. I'm still hoping.

It was cold this morning, 45 degrees, but we had a high of 82 at 4 p.m. There are more tomatoes ripening. I am hopeful tonight won't fall below 50 as it is 8:30 and only at 60. If it gets too far below 50 too many nights the tomatoes will be done. The squashes are doing well, the zucchini is slowly producing and I've still only gotten one cucumber from four plants.

We figured out where the ducks were getting out and patched the hole in the fence. Thankfully it is not them flying out or the gate, though the gate still needs to be replaced with something more substantial. We got 11 chicken eggs and 2 duck eggs today. They are really trucking along well.

DD has a severe enough sinus infection that the doctor put her on antibiotics for three weeks. Now if I can just get her P.E. teacher to quite defying me on the orders to keep her inside and not make her go outside during 1st period this week when it's 45. They are supposed to be doing basketball and volleyball only, inside the gym only, but this guy got it in his head to go off syllabus and make them play softball. She has too many health problems for outdoor P.E. I am so tired of school employees not listening to us. It was bad enough when their errors caused my son to be badly injured last June, but if they give my daughter pneumonia on top of it I am done with them and she can homeschool, too.

Oh, and Snafu asked for an update the other day on DS. Although he has healed from the majority of the symptoms from his brain injury, he still has balance problems and some minor focus problems. He cannot yet balance on a bicycle. And he's still jumpy as heck if someone comes up behind him unexpectedly like the boy who attacked him did. But homeschool is going on pretty well now that WAVA finally got its act together and we could actually start it. He's really enjoying it so far.

The ducks have finally figured out how to get out of the enclosure. I think they have been taking lessons from Pipsqueak (who thinks she is a duck). They are learning to fly a bit. They aren't very good at it yet, and they may be a bit too heavy to get much height anyway.



I have had to chase them back where they belong a couple of times. If they just stay in the yard it is okay, but if they wander much further they might run up against some dogs. I'm not sure how they are getting out. If they are squeezing through the gate or if they are flying. No one has actually seen them do their Houidini act.

The chickens get out all the time, but they don't wander far. The older ones have trained the younger ones where to stay and also they keep a wary eye out for the neighbor dogs. And they can get back in on their own, but the ducks can't seem to figure out how to get back in, only out. It means keeping the windows open and my ears open, too. Hopefully I can convince Mom to raise the chicken wire higher on the fence and to fix the gate before the weather turns cold.

I have several tomatoes ripening right now and the raspberries are still plugging along. One blueberry bush is finally done. The other has a paltry amount still on it. I should have several kohlrabi ready in a couple more days. Today I picked enough green beans for dinner and there are more sizing up. I also picked enough Italian prunes for dinner. The are ripening a little slower with this 68 to 72 degree weather than they were with the higher temps so I may not be able to can any for a week yet. Of course we are fresh eating a few every day.

Tomorrow I am going to pick apples and make some more apple sauce and can it. I have enough jars to do ten 8 ouncers, so I will do 12 apples. I am doing a different variety this time that is not so tart. DH will be around when it's time to adjust the sugar content to what he likes, but he was really happy with the last batch. He could definitely tell it was made with different apples, but he has liked both so far.

All of my diced tomato pints sealed. I have still not had a canning lid fail to seal, so I guess all tha attention to making sure the rims are clean has paid off. I have them all up on my shelves now. I love looking at my canning stash. All the pretty colors make me happy.

Next Saturday I want to buy more tomatoes for making sauce and maybe some pears, too. DS still wants me to make pear sauce. We are going to go out this week and check on the progress on the house and I will check our tree out there and see if the pears are any good. The tree has not been watered all summer so they may just be wooden. But it does rain more up there so it's possible they got enough water that way. I will also check on the apple tree, though if I remember right it is usually ripe at the first of October.

DH is home now and I totally caved on the no eating out thing. It was early dismissal at the high school and it already felt like a long day when we picked DD up at 11:15. After running a few errands we ended up getting pizza out. So NorthGeorgiaGal, you are not alone in not only eating out, but choosing pizza! We must totally be on the same wavelength. I don't feel as bad about it as I might. It's been about 4 weeks for me of no eating out and I plan to go the rest of the month without doing it again. I had to rearrange some money, and I'll pay it back on Friday. Progress, not perfection, right?

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WAVA finally has taken its head out of its backside and we should be able to get into the system within 24 hours. I'll believe it when I see it. If all goes well we could be doing lessons as early as Friday, but I am still not holding my breath.

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I harvested a pint of green beans, 2 strawberries, 4 blackberries, a handful raspberries, a half pint of blueberries and a half gallon bag of Italian prunes from the garden today. And there were 2 duck eggs and 9 chicken eggs.

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I've been looking for ways of using beef heart, liver, and tongue for when we buy our beef. It seems silly to me to pay for an entire beef and then leave several pounds behind just because we've never eaten organ meat. I was thinking we could just have it ground and I could mix it with ground beef and pork to make sausages. But then it occurred to me that even if we don't like it, the chickens are omnivores and can eat any meat but chicken and they would eat the ground beef organs happily, so it wouldn't go to waste.

I am also planning to get the fat for rendering so we have it for cooking and maybe for soap and candle making, too. But at least for cooking. It would be nice not to have to buy cooking oil anymore, although I'd still have olive oil for some things.

I'm still trying to track down a farm that will sell a whole hog. Most places seem to just do $300 boxes of pork. I'd like a whole one or at least a half, and the fat to render into lard. That's still quite a ways off, even further off than the beef, so hopefully one will turn up by the time I need it.

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This Saturday I hope to make it to the farmer's market so that I can buy the rest of the organic tomatoes I need to finish off our diced tomato needs for the year. I need 25 pounds of tomatoes to do 24 pints of diced. If I can get those put up next week then I'll see about making more sauce. The greater value for me though is in putting up diced ones.

I still have a ton of green tomatoes, but I just don't think I will have enough of them ripe before the first frost hits. Anything is possible, but it's just been a weird year for growing tomatoes. We've had the heat, but...I don't know. And now nights are around 50 and if they drop much lower than that we won't see a lot of these making it to red, at least not on the vine. It's too bad June was constant rainfall. I think that is half the problem. Still if we don't frost until mid to late October I might get enough to put up. We'll see.

I barely bought any produce this week. The garden is doing pretty well. It has paid for itself about six times over now. All I bought this week was lettuce and melon.

Today was the first day I had ripe Italian prunes. Another couple of days and there will be a lot more ripe. They are all purple now, just not completely and they are softening nicely. They are beautifully golden on the inside and very juicy. I think these are probably the best of the plums/prunes varieties out there. Definitely time for me to start washing jars in preparation for canning.

The everbearing strawberries continue to chug along. They may not produce much right now, but what they do are very sweet.

I am getting several tomatoes a week, but no really big flush ever happened. Considering how much heat we had this summer, it surprises me. We still may, fall is still a bit off and it's looking like we may have an Indian Summer anyway.

My bunching onions continue to do great and have supplied all my green onion needs for the last few weeks. I usually use two bunches a week, so that's pretty good.

The green beans have produced enough for 3 meals a week for the last few weeks, so that's nice, too. But again, surprisingly, no big flush. I am thinking that maybe the spot I gardened in was just not rich enough in the soil department despite Mom's reassurances. There will be some major ammending next year as I am composting quite a bit right now and the chicken manure will have had plenty of time to mellow but give good results.

I'm still not sure what's going on with the broccoli. Huge, lush leaves, but it never made heads. It looks healthy, it's gotten enough water, and all I can think of is that heat wave in July just really screwed with it.

The Hubbard squash is chugging along. So is the kohlrabi. I have one pepper left that is turning red. The lettuce isn't sure what it's doing. The potatoes are ready to dig at any time now. Just a matter of getting out there and doing it.

There were 2 duck eggs and 8 chicken eggs today so all seems well on that front. All in all, though I could be happier with some things, there's been enough food produced to make it worthwhile. And I know what to change for next year.

I don't know what is up with this virus. One day I'm up, the next day I'm down. It's starting to get annoying. Yesterday I took the day off, didn't do anything but make meals. I put off just about everything I could.

Today I still feel out of it, but not nearly so yucky. I did peel up twelve windfall apples, cut them up, and throw them in the crockpot with 1/2 cup of sugar and 1 TBSP of cinnamon. Set it on low and after four hours I'll mash it with a potato masher and then can it. Easy peasy in comparison to most canning projects.



The nice thing about using windfalls is that you are using up apples that are bruised and wouldn't be used for straight eating and wouldn't be able to be stored for later. It's the ultimate in frugality, I think, to take something most people wouldn't even look at twice and make it into something nourishing to feed the family.

Even if you are like me and have huge textural issues with applesauce, you can put it into cakes, brownies, or cookies, and not have to deal with the texture. You will be cutting some of the fat and increasing the flavor. And apple muffins are really delicious.

I reckon this batch will net me 10 to 11 half-pints of apple sauce. Cost to me is about 25 cents for the sugar and cinnamon. Not bad. As for the cost of it in the store, I'm not sure. I think the last time I looked you could buy a quart of regular applesauce for $1.99. I don't know about organic applesauce. Probably twice that. So it's not the huge cost savings that growing organic berries and making jam gives you. But it's still 25 cents of ingredients versus $5 for non-organic and $10 for organic for the same amount. So for me, I chalk this batch up to saving $9.75 and I know exactly what went into it. That's peace of mind.

One of the ducks laid a doozy of an egg today. In the photo here it shows 3 duck eggs of normal size and the extra large one.



The small duck eggs are still bigger than large chicken eggs. I should have put one in the bowl for comparison, but didn't. You can see the mottling on the shell. It really makes them look more dirty than anything, but this is with them clean. We are getting 2 duck eggs about every other day and 6 to 8 chicken eggs every day.

Although it has been pleasant during the day, our temps are around to 67 to 70 degrees during the day with a breeze, and about 61 to 63 at night. I'm not so sure what my tomatoes are going to do with that kind of weather. I found 3 volunteer tomato plants in a place where I'm not sure tomato plants have ever been planted, but when you have escape chickens and cheeky squirrels running about the place, things grow where nature plants them sometimes. Two of them have green tomatoes on them and they are not the same variety.

A stupid slug ate my bell pepper that was almost fully red. I hope it got major heartburn. I mean, seriously, a slug in August? No fair. I am finally getting flowers on some of the slicing cucumber plants. Still no sign of actual broccoli heads on the broccoli plants though they are full and lush plants. At least it is a cold weather crop so going into cooler weather is not a bad thing for it. I think they may have been some of the longer maturing varities. I didn't pay attention when I planted them and obviously I should have.

The green beans from the first planting that I had thought were done, surprised me by producing a bit more and there are some flowers on it still. I left the plants in because they are good at fixing nitrogen in the soil and got a surprise second harvest.

Today I noticed some blackberries ripening. The blackberries seemed to have been done two weeks ago or so, but maybe there are two varieties in there. The birds planted them so we don't know. It's only on one end, so there won't be much, but a few for fresh eating. And the raspberries are putting out again. I didn't realize it, but Mom says they produce twice. A big crop in July and then a smaller crop of much bigger berries, but not so plentiful, in late August/September. Huh. I knew they had strawberries that produced two crops in the summer (even if they call them everbearing, it's more like two crops, really), but not raspberries. I doubt I will pick them, though. The kids will for fresh eating.

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I made a very large chicken today for lunch. 5.65 pounds. After we ate some I pulled all the remaining meat off the bones and threw the carcass in the freezer with another one from before for future stock. We will get several lunches off this bird this week. I ran across this blog post today of how to get 22 meals (well, servings) off one organic chicken spending a total of $49 (which includes the cost of the chicken). An interesting read and gave me some new thoughts. I'm good at stretching a chicken, but this certainly gave me some ideas. It's here if anyone is interested:

I went out to harvest a few things and check up on a few others, and ended up walking an entire loop around the property.

The tomatoes are starting to come a little faster and the green beans remain steady.



Believe it or not, we still have blueberries, but they are finally winding down. Did you know chickens can jump vertically? There is nothing funnier than a chicken trying to reach blueberries three feet up in the air. I think we have another week and they'll be gone, so I better hustle and get the last of them picked.



Two types of apples are ready to be picked. I think I will make a big batch of apple sauce this week and can it. I have also read about canning sliced apples so I might attempt to do that as well.

The Italian prunes are turning purple. I think maybe another week and they will start to be ripe. The tree is so loaded with fruit. After last year with barely a fruit to be seen this will be a very nice harvest. I will dry some and can some, but most will be consumed fresh and in large quantities.



Patches loves the little pond. I swear ducks are the filthiest things though. We spray that pond out every morning and fill it with fresh water. It doesn't stay clean long!



He loves you to spray the pond with water. You can see the water literally rolling off the duck's back here. I can totally see where that expression comes from.



The two female ducks and the other male duck do not like to be sprayed, but they love to grub in the mud. We keep the whole section muddy for them. The chickens enjoy grubbing in the mud as well. I am not sure how Ecru manages to stay so white when she is constantly in the mud scratching.



Silver and Patricia love playing in the mud, too.



Queen is feeling better today but she is not up for the mud and was hiding out in the coop. I gave her a few blueberries.

My bell peppers are starting to turn color.



And I think we have the fattest squirrels around. They know there is plenty of fruit and chicken feed to eat. Between that and the neighbor's hazelnuts, they will be well set this fall.

Last week when we had temps in the high 80's and low 90's the garden put on a huge amount of growth. Today that growth culminated in a pretty decent harvest.



I picked my first yellow zucchini, my first cucumber, 4 tomatoes, my first bunch of bunching onions (not shown), a quart of blueberries (not shown) and enough green beans from my second sowing for two people to eat.

The tomatoes will go in my spaghetti sauce tomorrow, and I'll save the green beans for later in the week because there will be more to pick in two days and then there will be enough for everyone at one meal. The zucchini I will eat with my lunch tomorrow and the cucumber I ate for breakfast with eggs from our chickens. Delicious. Even though it is a pickling cucumber it still tasted great eaten raw. And really, how do you pickle one cucumber?

The ducks have started laying eggs! I don't have a picture of those yet, but they look like longer chicken eggs that are kind of grey and mottled. They are really good, too.

I love the fact that today's breakfast was completely homegrown. You can't get more local than a zero mile foodshed! Not that that is practical for most days, at least not yet, but it was still very satisfactory.

DH and I are going to check out the new farm stand that proclaims to have both local and organic produce today. I am hoping for organic, local tomatoes, as I will not have enough to put up for my needs for the year. I'd like to start with about 25 pounds of tomatoes to make into sauce and go from there. I have a feeling I will have to do that a few times, but I don't want to overwhelm myself by doing it all in one go.

I am definitely going to triple my tomato plants next year. I really want to be able to grow them all on my own eventually since it is really hard to find tomatoes that are not canned with BPA in the liner. Since DS reacts badly to BPA it's not worth going through another year eating something we know will hurt him. We use tomato sauce at least once a week so it's one of the first things that is getting my focus.

It might cost a little more to buy and can them myself, but it gives me a bit more peace of mind. If I didn't need them to be organic I could do it for cheaper. I still might, just depends on what I find.

...or you know, I did more jam canning. I did one batch of apricots (the last!) and 1 batch of blackberry. I ended up with 3.5 pints of apricot (gave Mom the half pint) and 10 half pints of blackberry, 1 full pint of blackberry (which I gave to Mom) and then had about half of a half-pint that went straight into the fridge.

I am done with jam for the year. My stash does not quite take up the whole shelf, but it's plenty for our needs and with enough to give some away at Christmas. I will also be giving the chiropractor a jar of the blackberry next time I go in for letting us pick there.

New stash pic:



Hmm...I think I need to clean that one shelf wall.

I have strawberry, apricot, grape, blueberry, raspberry and blackberry jams and jellies. Plus mustard. I'd say that's a pretty good condiment stash.

As for the mustard, when I finish off this batch I am going to add cayenne pepper to the recipe. It is good as is, but I want a little more kick. Not too much though, so I will probably only add 1/8 tsp. I left it out thinking it would be fine. And it is. But I want it a little better than fine. Then if it's still not quite kicky enough, I'll add 1/4 tsp to the batch after that. Also, I think it needs a bit more in the way of liquid. It's a little thick so doesn't spread as well. Probably I'll just up the water and the vinegar by a few TBSP each.

Today the garden produced one very bright red paste tomato and a kohlrabi that were both ready for picking. When we get back from Tacoma on Friday I think we will have a few more ripe tomatoes. And if I don't feel dead on Saturday I will go to the Farmer's Market and see where the local organic tomato crop is at, because I just won't have enough for my sauce needs with what I grew myself.

I want to have 52 quarts of tomato sauce and 24 pints of diced tomatoes. I know 25 pounds of tomatoes equals a pint of diced. I'm not sure how much I will need for the sauce, though. Fortunately I won't have to buy it all at once and I can see how much whatever I do buy makes. I'm estimating I will probably need 75 pounds of tomatoes for 52 quarts of sauce and I will probably only be able to provide 25 pounds from my own garden. Next year I will plant a lot more plants.

I will also need a bunch of lemon juice, 2 tbsp per quart and one per pint so I can raise the acidity enough to water bath can it. One day I will have a lean-to green house attached to my home and it will grow a lemon tree. Hopefully.

I spent $45.21 at the grocery store today. It was a totally unnecessary expense, too. *sighs* My resistance was down and I did not want to cook. Not the best time to go into a store. With kids.

I've harvested quite a bit from the garden so far this year, but there is nothing like the satisfaction of picking that first tomato.



And my first bell pepper was ready:



The corn is starting to tassle. Most of the stalks never got very tall, about 3 feet, but they've got decent sized ears on them. This one is about 5 feet tall.



The Italian prunes have got some good size on them, but won't be ripe for quite some time yet.



The everbearing strawberries are getting ripe.



4 of the lettuce plants survived the heat wave. I will get a few more starts to fill in around them. Didn't get a photo of those as I haven't pulled the dead ones yet.

One of numerous apple trees that won't be ripe for a while yet, but the apples are well sized. We didn't thin them this year. Oops.



All in all the garden is doing pretty well this year. It's paid for itself twice over now and is close to three times. I am still picking blueberries and blackberries. I think I will be lucky to get more than 2 cauliflowers though. It's been pretty decimated though the kohlrabi and broccoli are doing just fine.

We got caught out in a surprise thunderstorm today. It brought with it about an inch of rain according to the rain gauge. It was nice not to have to water today and the rain barrels will have collected plenty from this hour of heavy rain.

The weather is supposed to go back to being sunny tomorrow but with more tolerable temps in the low and mid 70's.

I saw color on one of the paste tomatoes today, it's turning yellow. I was going to pick the brandywine tomato today, but didn't want to go out with everything still so wet.

I haven't gotten the second half of my garden photos taken yet. I was going to do that this afternoon, but even after it stopped raining the sky was dark so no good light for picture taking. But I thought I'd share some of the flower photos that I took the other day. These ones usually always have a lot of bees on them, and are great for drawing pollinators into the food garden.

You know how I thought I didn't have any more raspberries to pick? I decided to double check the overgrown canes just to be sure and underneath everything I found more berries. A gallon more. I guess it's a good thing I looked. Then I picked a little less than 2.5 gallons of blueberries.



My first brandywine tomoato is almost ripe. I think maybe by Monday it'll be ready for picking.



I've never grown brandywine before and everything I've ever read says they'll never get ripe here. But this one did and there are a few more darkening and there are lots of green ones, so maybe this is just the year for it. It's been hot almost every day of July and so far all of August, so it could just be this is a tomato year. I certainly hope so.

My paste tomatoes are coming along nicely, sizing up, if not showing any color but green yet.



I am very hopeful that I will be able to get at least two canner loads of tomato sauce from my own garden. I will have to buy some from one of the organic farms here to get my year supply, but at least some of them will be from my own hard work.

I have two sowings of broccoli. The one I planted first is smaller than the one I planted second. They are on opposite sides of the house. The bigger ones get the morning sun and the smaller ones get the sun from about 1 p.m. until sundown. They are different types of broccoli so that may make a difference, too.

Older plants:



Younger plants:



The cauliflower, which I still have to tie a few of them off to blanch, is doing well:



The biggest of the kohlrabi that I hope to start eating in a few more days:



The patty pan summer squash is starting to get fruit:



The hubbard squash is taking over its area. This is one plant.



The hubbard squash grows really well here. Most of the winter squashes do not like it here even though they are supposed to. The chickens will eat most of the hubbard squash. We will take a chunk of each one as we open it, but it is really hard to get through all of one before it starts to go bad and I do not want to can it. They love having the winter treat of hubbard squash and particularly like the seeds.

One of my yellow zucchini plants needs to be moved. It is not liking it's location at all. I think I can still save it if I put it in a better spot. It's been a tough one from the start, a rescue plant, but even with all the care I've given it, it may not make it. And it is hard to kill zucchini.

And finally the chard:



It is beautiful. This was planted for the chickens, but we are going to try cooking some for ourselves. I've never eaten it before. Growing up, pretty much the only vegetables Mom made were green beans, potatoes, pickles and corn. If we were having guests we would also have a plate of carrots, celery, radishes, and olives. Oh, and I would take peanut butter and celery in lunch to school. I have branched way out as an adult, eating all kinds of vegetables, but some things I have balked at. Chard and kale are two of those things. This year I have sworn I would try them. Kale I liked. Chard I will try soon. Since they are both so easy to grow here, pretty much fool proof, it would be great if I liked them both.

No photos of the corn, apples, Italian prunes, blackberries (which need to be picked tomorrow), green beans or bunching onions. My camera battery was starting to die. I will probably post those tomorrow, along with some of the flowers so you will know that it isn't just about veggies, but also the beauty that attracts pollinators, too.

It hit 81 degrees today. There is a nice breeze though, so the only place it really felt like 81 degrees was inside my car and that was with the sun shade up. Fortunately the car's AC cools it off in about 2 minutes. Having open windows and fans going is enough to cool the house right now. I am glad. We don't tend to have AC in this part of the country except in our cars. But I would totally want to use it on a day like today.

We went swimming today (and my super thick, long hair, which usually takes four hours to dry is almost dry an hour later). Although it was a little crowded, the lap lane was empty, so I got my 26 laps in. The pool had one of those really screechy toddlers in it. You know the type that have discovered they can scream and it echoes like crazy in places like indoor pools or churches or McDonald's playland? And the parents have given up trying to even shut them up when they do it? Yeah, love that. Glad I was underwater for most of it. The lifeguard did finally tell the dad that if he couldn't make the kid stop they'd have to get out of the pool. That seemed to shut the kid right up. Wish she'd said something sooner!

I'm picking more berries tonight as soon as it cools off a bit more and the bushes are in shade. I cut my first broccoli today. It was the one that was accidentally in with the cauliflower and way ahead of any of the other broccoli. And I finally finished transplanting the rest of the everbearing strawberries. They now live in pots on the deck where the chickens cannot eat them and the rabbits will not come. I still need to get the last of the cabbage starts in the dirt. These are supposed to be good for overwintering. We'll see.

Day 8 of the No Eating Out Challenge went just fine. No temptation today at all despite going swimming. How is everyone else doing on the No Eating Out Challenge? Anyone else still going with me for the second week? Anyone else want to join in for the second week?

I spent $90 today at my appointment and then $14.43 at the grocery store. I also gave the kids their weekly allowances ($7 and $12 respectively). DS also got paid for mowing my mother's lawn. He got in two mows last month instead of 4 because he was still recovering from the concussion early on, but she pays him $5 per mow so he got $10 and was happy. He's saving up for some kind of fancy new game machine. He also, the little stinker, won a free Kindle in a drawing at the chiropractor. Of course I don't want to buy him anything to go on it so he'll have to use his own money for that, too.

He asked me if he could have the gutters when they took them off the house and put on new ones. I laughed because I knew what he was thinking. Aluminum! He already has his aluminum can business, but he figures the gutters can get him a tidy sum when he takes in the cans next time. I said he could have them.

DS will be helping me with the transplanting. He's such a help in the garden, hoeing and watering and digging. And carrying heavy stuff. He is getting so strong now. You should see the muscles on this kid. He's starting to get six pack abs at 12! And his biceps are pretty impressive when he makes a muscle. Where did my baby boy go?

Well, not really, but it feels like it. I picked a lot of berries today and I still have one and a half trees left. I know berries grow on bushes, but you haven't seen the size of these ones. Most definitely trees! I packed up several quarts for the freezer and then a quart bag full to take to my friend tomorrow and she will also get an 8 ounce container of blueberry jam.

This is what I am seeing right now when I close my eyes:



I still think I would have a lot more berries in the freezer right now if it weren't for the demands of this bunch:



The tub there is what we used for a brooder when they were babies. The plan is to dig a hole and sink it as a pond for the ducks. Right now they use an old, plastic turtle sandbox for their mini-ponds. Both the lid and the bottom are filled with water. Recycling.

This is Ecru and PipSqueak. Pipsqueak (along with Half-pint) was the runt, but you can see she is now bigger than the Leghorn. She's a black australorpe.



We are not sure, but we think Ecru (whose twin is named Eggshell) might be a rooster. We are hoping not since we can't have roosters in town. Personally, I think Pipsqueak might be a rooster, but they don't have combs yet and though they are loud they aren't exactly crowing yet.

Over here, Half-pint (black australorpe) and Henrietta (auracana) are napping in the sun after eating their fill of berries and finishing their dirt baths.



We are getting little eggs in brownish pink and white which means that one of the Leghorns (Eggshell or Ecru) is laying (the white ones) and one of the golden sex linked (the pinkish one) is laying. Not sure if it's Curious or Georgie.

Today we had four eggs (2 littles and 2 bigs). Queen is hiding her nest again, but I'm sure she's laying somewhere. She's not broody, she just doesn't like to give them up. In another week or two everyone should be laying. Then it won't be just chickens and blueberries coming out my ears, but eggs, too. As it is, we are no longer having to purchase eggs for this household, so yay. One more thing we can supply for ourselves and take out of the grocery budget.

Oh, I almost forgot! Silver will pose for blueberries now. She's our silver lace wing wyandotte and she's always been shyest. Not if there are blueberries at stake, though.

...because I picked so many blueberries today that they turned that way. And honestly, but for the 3 gallons of blueberries in the freezer, you would not be able to tell by looking at the bushes. It's like there is a berry multiplying monster out there somewhere. The gardener's soap is getting most of it off, but it won't be fully gone until I wash my hair tomorrow. Of course it will then come back when I pick more tomorrow.

I made chicken broth overnight in the crockpot last night with my stock scraps, a few fresh veggies, and some wings. I now have this in the freezer:



I would have done them all in pint jars but I ran out of wide mouth lids. I need to buy some more lids tomorrow. I have a coupon for $1 off two boxes of any size canning lids. See, I do use coupons, just generally not for food. I want to pick up the twist on BPA-free plastic lids that work on canning jars, too. Because those will work fine in the freezer and won't take unused lids out of service. The only place I can find them, though, is Amazon, so I will have to wait until I can make an order there. I wish I could find them in real life.

The quart jars of stock I will use for actual soup making, but the pint ones I will use for cooking rice in, or for recipes that call for broth. I would have pressure canned them, but it is too hot to heat the house up. But the freezer works, too.

This fall I intend to make several batches of broth and pressure can them. I plan to make some that have only low-carb ingredients in them, garlic, green onions, celery and parsley, as well as some regular ones. Then I can make some low-carb chicken soups, too.

DS and I planted more kohlrabi and lettuce. Tomorrow we will plant cabbage and transplant some more everbearing strawberries.

I really need to sit down and do a budget post. I used to be so good at those and I don't think I've done them in a couple of months now. I mean, yeah, it's great talking about how much I save on planting, eating, and putting up my own food, but this blog has been widely unbalanced lately on the other financial aspects of my life, mostly because they are on autopilot. I need to try and fix that.

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We went swimming today (I did 26 laps) and I really did not want to make dinner tonight. I am always so hungry right after swimming. Well, I didn't make dinner, but I didn't eat out either. We all warmed up leftovers and ate fruit and I opened a can of green beans. I didn't stick to my meal plan, but this was still a pretty good option. And the pork chops can wait until tomorrow, the pizza can be bumped to Saturday, and I'll skip the sandwiches originally planned.

I'm getting a little overwhelmed by trying to keep up with the fruit production right now. I picked a gallon of raspberries and 2 gallons of blueberries today. Actually, I probably picked at least another gallon of blueberries, but that went to the greedy chickens. I swear for every two handfuls I put in the bag I was throwing one to the chickens. With 12 chickens eating them it was a lot. I don't mind sharing, I just wish they could pick, too!

They are getting very friendly, coming right up to me and demanding berries. Some will even tap me on the foot with their beaks if they think it has been too long since I've dropped some berries for them, cheeky little birdies. I really should take out my camera when I pick because they get so close and I could get some great shots.

Anyway, I estimate I picked about $50 worth of berries today, not counting what I fed to the chickens. Everything is in the freezer. It's too hot in the house to process right now and picking is done either before eleven in the morning or after seven in the evening, when it is cool enough to do the work.

My biggest brandywine tomato is moving from orange to red now. It looks so good. I harvested a quart of green beans today, but I think that patch of beans is just about spent. Maybe another handful left that needs to size up a bit. I need to poke a few more seeds into the ground. There might be just enough time left to get a late harvest.

I have two kohlrabi the size of tennis balls and 2 about the size of golf balls. I think the two bigger ones should be ready in about a week. I am really looking forward to them as there is nothing like kohlrabi fresh from the garden. Some of the smaller ones are starting to swell now.

I'm not sure what's going to happen with the cauliflower. It got hot at the wrong time. I am going to tie the leaves over the small heads tomorrow, at least on the ones that the slugs have not eaten the leaves too far down on, to see if they will blanch. Cauliflower is not one of my favored veggies. I will eat it, but I only ever make it because DH and the kids like it, so if it doesn't survive, eh... The broccoli is coming along nicely though.

I harvested the last of the old lettuce today and pulled the plants. The chickens were happy to get those, too, the greedy guts.

The garden has paid for itself about three times over now, plus paid for all the canning supplies and sugar I have bought this summer. I am happy about that. I will be even happier when I start picking tomatoes.

I am thinking about getting some sweet corn to put up at the end of August. We did plant some, but just enough for fresh eating. I just need to decide between freezing or canning if I buy some. I would freeze if I had the freezer by then, but I don't know if I will. So it may be canning by default. It would be nice to buy local corn when it is 10/$10. I guess it will depend on how well my tomatoes do, because if they don't do well, I will spend my grocery money on organic tomatoes to put up.

I can at least buy good canned corn from TJ's at a decent price all year around, but I can't do that for tomatoes. And also, with the corn being killed in the middle of the nation from drought, there may be a higher demand for Washington state corn and I might not be able to get it so cheap, either. Well, a year without much corn won't kill me, if it comes to that. Now a year without potatoes, that would be hard. But those are growing in our garden just fine. I may not even have to buy potatoes at all from September to May if they are as productive as they look like they are going to be.

I don't think we are anywhere near being able to provide all of our produce needs for the year this year, but we'll have grown a good enough hunk of it to take a major bite out our grocery budget, which will make it easier to save up for the protein in bulk from sustainable sources. I would love to get my grocery budget down to $400 a month if averaged over the year, even if it means buying a large portion of it up front.

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I redeemed two $5 amazon gift cards from swagbucks today and will do the same tomorrow. I wish I had done it yesterday, so I could have gotten 4 this month. Oh, well. Live and learn.

I emptied my purse and DH's wallet of ones and change today and added $17.59 to the coin jar.

I updated my July budget spreadsheet and created my August spreadsheet. I entered in all of the medical spending for the month so far into the HSA tracking spreadsheet. Ouch.

I have a deposit of $48 ready to go into the Freezer Fund tomorrow from my coin jar savings. The Freezer Fund is currently at $409.68 so that will bring it to $457.68.

I did not make jam. It was too hot, even in the morning. I will see about making it tomorrow. I bought a food mill for $70. It has three different plates and is a high rated one. I think one and a half batches of jam will cover that. I am looking forward to not having to peel apricots. And having the seeds out of the blackberries or raspberries.

My English cucumbers finally have blossoms on them and my brandywine tomatoes are starting to turn a very pale shade of yellowy/orange.

So after our lovely day off yesterday, and it really was great despite the traffic mess, today it was back to routine after a good sleep in.

Today I baked bread:



These are by far my best loaves since I started baking bread again. A lot of the time they do not end up so nicely rounded on top, but I've been letting them do their second rise a bit longer and it seems to be helping with that. No more fallen (but still tasty) loaves.

My pepper plants are doing amazing. It's July and look at the size of this one already:



There are six fruits on this plant of decent size, though this is the biggest and there are tons more blossoms. I have never successfully grown bell peppers so I am thrilled at how well they are doing. It helps that most of the month has been pretty hot with only a few days of cooler temps.

I picked green beans today. I filled half a quart baggy. I don't think I will get much more off these plants, maybe the same again. They didn't get into the ground soon enough and sadly have stopped blossoming. But I've got more beans coming in a different area of the garden so that is okay. And at least the other bean plants are fixing nitrogen into the soil.

I filled a gallon size baggy with lettuce leaves and picked another pint of blackberries and two pints of blueberries. I need to pick raspberries badly. I think there is at least a gallon of berries in need of picking. I hope to get to them tomorrow. Of course I need to pick more blueberries, too, but there is only so much time in a day and I had a lot of laundry to do today and had an appointment that took me two hours, so didn't spend too much time outside.

The squash plants are coming along well, except for one, which I may need to move. The tomatoes are looking very nice and hopefully the weather will continue and I will get the harvest I am hoping for later this summer. Broccoli and cauliflower are coming along nicely and there is some gorgeous kohlrabi that might be ready in about a week. Looking forward to that a lot.

Tomorrow I am planning on making jam. I am making apricot jam, blackberry jam, and blueberry jam. I just hope it isn't too hot in the morning to do it. I won't do it during the heat of the day and if tomorrow is anything like tonight, doing it in the evening isn't an option either. We need to keep the house as cool as possible without air conditioning.

Since the heat wave was pretty hard on my lettuces and they are close to bolting and starting to taste a tiny bit bitter, I picked up some new lettuce starts from the food co-op. I spent $3 for 8 organic lettuce starts. They are really pretty. Instead of going with a red and a green this time I went with a green with red spots. Pretty, isn't it?



We've spent some time clearing some space for a late fall/winter garden. It will mostly be brassicas like cabbage, broccoli, and kale, but we also will be putting in garlic and onion sets in the fall. In doing so we pulled up some potato volunteers:



And we finally had some green beans ready for picking today. It was a massive crop:



But they were really getting too big to leave on the vine. I will probably just eat them raw.

And we found where Queen has been hiding her eggs. We gave them the sink/float test to make sure they were all okay. They are. I think she is broody.



Now that we've found her nest she won't lay there again. She'll find a new place. She's not going to be very happy when she finds them gone, but it's not like she can hatch them anyway. We have no rooster.

We got our last tomato plant and our pepper plant transplanted the other night and they seem to be thriving in their new locations. There are three fruits on the pepper plant and they are starting to size up and about ten fruits on the tomato plant. The squash and zucchini plants are thriving and flowering like crazy now. Two blossoms were open today and they were almost as big as my hands.

I'm going to poke some more green bean seeds into the soil and hope for the best. If we have a mild enough fall they'll grow and if not, it's only about 25 cents worth of seeds.

I still want to pick up more kohlrabi starts. They will go well into fall and it is one of my favorite low carb veggies for raw eating. I am starting to see some kohlrabi at the farm stand but it is so tiny. I think they are selling them more for the greens than the vegetable. The greens are okay, but I really like the vegetable part of it. They will size up in another couple weeks. I just hate waiting once I see it available.

I picked 3 pints of raspberries today and a pint of blueberries and a handful of blackberries. There will be a lot of blackberries in two days or so. I could have picked more blueberries today, but I was really tired. I think there is at least another pint ripe.

...but I won't be giving them to the birds and bees. I harvested another pint of blackberries today. I now have a pint and a half of them in the freezer and there are tons more that will be ripe in about two more days.

The raspberries will need picking tomorrow and I'll get at least 7 or 8 pints. The blueberries will also be ready for picking tomorrow and I should get about 2 pints.

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Speaking of things that are free, I signed up for the free store card at the place where we bought my son's very expensive but only shoes that would fit. Not everything in the store is expensive. There are quiet a few reasonably priced items. That card came in the mail today with six cards for free items. Of course the trick is that each free item is only good for a month, so they want to get you in the store once a month for six months. But you do not need to fall for that trick.

The first month is a free t-shirt, the second free shipping if you get something off their website (I'll skip that one), the third month is a free 3-pk of socks but only if you spend $25 that month. Well, that month is September in which I will be buying my daughter new shoes, so I can put up with that one not being "entirely" free. But she had wanted to buy shoes there anyway, so it works to my advantage.

Month four is a free pair of shoelaces, no strings attached (ha ha). Month 5 is a free shoe cleaner, again with a $25 purchase. I figure that one I can skip unless DH is needing shoes that month. But the last month, the one for December is a $20 gift card (with some exclusions).

At the very least I will get a free t-shirt and a free pair of shoelaces. Pretty good for making no purchases.

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The massage therapist who works on my leg on occasion so I can continue walking normally moved offices recently and had two really nice computer chairs she was getting rid of. I took them both. One to replace a ratty old chair my son has been using and the other I gave to my mother to use since her chair was falling apart.

I think I'm doing pretty well with the free business lately.

I spent a good hour harvesting berries today. I am having to pick about every 2 days so that nothing goes to waste.

Today's bounty:



Yes, that's 7 pints of raspberries, 1 pint of blackberries, and 1 pint of blueberries with at least another 1/2 pint in the Ziploc baggy. And that doesn't show the half a pint of blackberries I picked and ate for my lone high carb of the day. And there are enough blackberries out there to fill another pint container, but I had filled up all of my containers and once I had them inside didn't want to go back out and pick anymore. I'll get them tomorrow. I will freeze what I pick tomorrow so I won't eat them all and will eventually have enough to make jam by saving them over the next week or so. Plus hopefully enough to freeze some extra for the year as well. It's a small stand of blackberries, about 4 feet wide by 8 feet long so it may not produce enough. The blackberries I picked today are for tomorrow's fresh eating. They are so delicious.

We were inventorying the freezers and we found about three gallons of blueberries (from our yard, so organic) from last year and some sugared strawberries (not organic) so I think I'll be making blueberry jam this week, too and Mom will be adding the frozen strawberries to her smoothies.

I wonder if there is something like freecycle (maybe tradecycle or something) where you could barter your fresh fruit you don't want more of, like extra raspberries for the fresh fruit you do want, like blackberries. Or maybe I could give away raspberry jam in exchange for fresh blackberries. I do intend to give away quite a bit of the raspberry jam I make anyway. If I can get enough blackberries I will make brambleberry jam, too, which I like an awful lot more than straight raspberries and that will help use some of them up.

I now have 1 full gallon of raspberries frozen, plus enough in another gallon baggy to make jam tomorrow. I was going to do it earlier in the week but it was just too hot. The weather has broken now, though.

We will not have to buy jam this year at all. We won't have to buy any berries for eating as we will have plenty frozen.

Yesterday we put in more romanesco broccoli on the cool side of the house, which we fenced because the chickens were trying to eat the greens before we even got them in the ground, some more yellow zucchini squash, some green pole beans that may or may not make it, but I can put some bean seeds in under their foliage to protect them from the chickens, and some green bunching onions. I have some new lettuce starts to plant in the windowboxes as those lettuces are bolting fast. The chickens will appreciate those when I pull them.

I have a large pepper plant and a large tomato plant that I rescued very cheaply from a store that was clearancing them. I think I am just going to cut the ends off the plastic pots, dig a bit down in the soil and sort of just set them in and put the dirt back around the bases. Root shocking them at this point might do more harm than good, especially since they have fruits of decent size on them.

I have broken even on what I've paid out for gardening this season if I include the fruits and pretty close even if I don't.

I am buying very little in the way of fruit at the grocery store. I did buy a Washington organic nectarine and some Washington organic pence apricots, but I will be canning apricot jam and one batch of that is enough. I have been tempted by the melons, especially the canteloupe and also the kiwis and pineapples. I hate buying outside of my foodshed but some things just don't grow in my state. Or not well. I swear I am going to buy a hardy kiwi first thing after we move and plant it, weather permitting.

Anyway, now that harvest is in full swing on the berries, I can cut about $100 out of my food budget that was going to buying fresh fruit and put it in the Freezer Fund instead. I know I will have enough berries to get me through a year by the time I am done. I know we will want other fruit throughout the year, oranges, bananas and lemons come to mind, but those will be supplemental fruits along with what I can (like Italian prunes and pears, and apple sauce). It should still cut by 3/4 my fruit portion of the food budget this year.

I would eventually like to get my fruit portion of the food budget to where we only have to buy 10% of it and the rest is all free from what we grow. I want to do that on a permanent basis, but I will have to start all over with berry canes and bushes. Oh, I can still harvest at Mom's, but I want to be self-sufficient in this area. I should probably take some cuttings now from her blueberry bushes and start rooting them. I can get a piece of willow bark or birch bark from the neighbor to make a rooting solution. Her blueberry bushes are 75 years old and are the best tasting ones out there, so I want to have those same types when we move again.

I will, however, order organic thornless blackberries from a catalogue. And plenty of them. I'm not sure I'll bother with more than transplanting a few canes of raspberries for DH. The kids don't like those ones enough to care. To them raspberries are only good for filling out smoothies when there isn't enough of the other things. And then of course I'll buy strawberry plants but that is all way in the future. I want to find out what type it is that the guy from Fir Island was growing. Those were the best I've tasted in a long time.

After my fruit is up to speed I want to start planting in sufficient quantities to get my veggies to where I can freeze and can a lot of them and root cellar the rest and make it last a year. I know that's a way's off. I don't have the soil for it here and I'd bring in good soil if needed when we move. If I am very lucky I will get my tomato supply up to where I need it with what I am growing. If not I will get a couple of bushels from one of the local organic farms. Much cheaper than buying organic sauce.

We'll see how it goes. All it takes is one more health crisis for me and my gardening goes right out the window. So let's hope that doesn't happen.

After having to come up with $500 unexpectedly for my son's medical treatment at the end of last month, it meant that after paying all bills we had $450 left to get through the next two weeks. Well, today is the last day of that two weeks. Tomorrow is payday. It was harder than I thought it would be, because I have gotten used to the ability to buy little things pretty much when we want them. Big things we save up for of course, but if I wanted to buy a bushel of organic apricots, normally I would have been able to just go and do that. If I wanted to go and purchase a couple extra garden stakes, I could do it. With that extra $500 missing from the budget, there was no way.

I had to really remember how we used to do things back when things were super tight, but fortunately it's not been that long ago. So we all did some belt-tightening and we've made it through. And with $49 still in the checking account, so clearly it's doable. The kids had a few cases of the "I wants" but I just kept reminding them of the medical bills. We don't believe in hiding the truth about finances from our kids. They are old enough to get it and we want them to live in the real world and not understand the truth about money, budgets and bills. This month I have budgeted for the extra medical and although it will still be a little tight, it won't be so much of a challenge as being blind-sided by it.

It has shown me though that there are places I could tighten the budget so we could pay off a little bit more or save a little bit more, so I think I am going to keep that in mind for the future.

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Tonight for dinner we had roast chicken. There was a lot left over (I got a five pound organic bird). We will be eating it for lunch for the next couple days in one form or another. I picked all the meat off the bones and I've finally got enough to make stock. So tonight before bed I am going to throw the chicken carcasses I have been saving in the freezer and all the onion skins and tops and bottoms, garlic skins, and carrot peels that I have been saving along with a whole fresh onion, some carrots that are getting to the end of their life, a bunch of celery leaves and the innermost stalks no one likes to eat, some crushed garlic, peppercorns, turmeric, marjoram, sage, sea salt, basil, thyme and parsley into the crockpot and cover it with water. I am going for some major flavor. I will let it cook on low overnight and in the morning I will have beautiful chicken stock.

Then I will strain it, pour it back into the crockpot, saute fresh carrots, onion, and celery and cook them until they are soft. I will add some of the chicken and then I will pour it all into quart jars and pressure can it. The recipe I saw recommended you put your chicken and vegetables into the jars first so that it fills them about 2/3 of the way and then add your hot broth. This way makes sure that the heat penetrates all the way to the center of the jar, very important in canning. I might do 2 pint jars of just broth, too.

We will then have homemade shelf-stable chicken soup and broth ready on the shelf. All I will have to do in the future will be to heat it, add some noodles if I want them, simmer until they are soft and there you go. Homemade, healthy, organic soup and you can bet it won't cost what it does in the store, especially when half the ingredients in the stock are things you would have thrown away or composted anyway.

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I picked three more pints of raspberries today, another quarter pint of blueberries and 10 blackberries. In a few more days I think the blueberries will be in serious business and another week and it will be the blackberries turn to explode.

And I'm pretty sure we're going to have grapes this year. I just am not sure when. Does anyone know when grapes get ripe in the Pacific Northwest? They are Concords.

This is Patches (so named because of how his feathers came in). He of the wonky wing. You can see the dark green mottling on his neck here. The newbies are getting more and more used to me now and finally letting me get near enough to take some decent close ups.



I can't believe how much the cauliflower has grown in the last few days.



One of the brandywine tomatoes. This is the biggest.



The blackberries are not going to wait until the end of August. Most of them look like this, but I did see a couple that were black.



And...one of these things is not like the other.



Three more pints of raspberries and a quarter of a pint of the first blueberries.

In June I never thought summer would get here. It rained almost the whole month. July is making up for that for sure.