PUTTIN' SUMMER IN A JAR

Today was another garden day. With very real threats of strong fast moving storms in the area I took to taking care of the outside chores early. (I took to takin' care? Such a musical ear I have to pick up the subtle word usage of these parts. You should hear and watch me speak Argentine Spanish. As it is an Italian spiced dialect I am tongue tied unless I use my hands, BOLU.)

 

 

There are a couple of ailing critters on the farm. I assisted first with some of the injections. In Maine last month I had learned to maneuver a goat. Grabbing a goat by the neck does not work well at all. You need to use their forehead and shoulders as steering wheels. Those lessons have come in very handy the last couple of days of DOING NEW STUFF at Journey's End Farm in West Virginia.

In the morning before the big threat of rain I de-beetled and de-bug egged the broccoli and squash patch and pulled up a lot of beets. Oh the big pig was happy today when he was fed all the beet greens. Nothing goes to waste at the farm. I had asked yesterday if there was a compost pile. “Nope - we have the big pig but coffee grounds we keep for the garden.” I still haven't figured out what to do with all the paper that I have peeled off the garlic cloves. As for the garlic, I chopped some up and added it to goat cheese with chives and basil. DARN that was GOOD. Gwen loved it.

I did manage to get into the library for an hour to answer some emails, upload photos and post on the the blog and still make it back to the farm before the rain, the rain that barely came. No matter. I was happy under the backyard canopy with a farm cat, listening to an audiobook and peeling garlic. I am only half glad that I finished that chore today. I really enjoyed the chance to be outside, listening and getting cat love all while being a productive member of the household. Plus to me garlic smells simply beautiful.

When Gwen came home it was time to do something really new for me - canning or jarring AKA: PUTTIN' UP. It was time to prep and jar them old beets and them beets were weird. They are half white and half red in a spiral pattern and real purdy. Being only half red and all I thought that my hands would be saved from being stained pink from the peeling. Hmm, well they are sort of kind of saved. They aren't red or pink. They are stained like DIRT. I need some LAVA soap. I don't know if they make LAVA soap anymore. If I had internet at the farm I would Google it but I don't have that service here. Perhaps I will check when I go into the teeny town of Harrisville tomorrow. I will upload this blog post at the library then check at Riteaid. It think Riteaid will be my only store choice. Harrisville is pretty darn small.

So that's it for now. Tomorrow (which might be today when I post it or you read it) I plan on pulling all the broccoli and then weeding the space real good and all. After I will be topping the soil with goat poop and old hay. Why? So that after I am gone and the weather cools spinach and lettuce can be planted in that spot. A DO NEW? Well the goat poop and hay is new, the other stuff I have done before.

I am tired. It is time to go to sleep. That really is a DO NEW, going to sleep at 10:00pm. But come to think of it it isn't. Last year around this time (August 16th to be exact) I began getting up before dawn, drinking a cup of black coffee and eating a piece of stale bread, strapping on a way too heavy backpack and walking, walking, and walking until I couldn't walk much more. I was walking The Way of St. James, EL CAMINO DE SANTIAGO in Spain. And yes, at the sleeping houses along the way lights went out at 10:00pm. I didn't know I was going to be walking EL CAMINO until destiny put me at a refugio's door shelterless and needing a place to sleep. This year I looked for my early to bed, early to rise experience. It isn't walking for hours, it's small scale American family farming and it's priceless, plus I get to sleep in until 6:30.

G'night. :)

Happy NEW DO Dreams!

Morning update. I finished with the mulching and pulled up all the onions. I wasn't sure what I was to do with them so I found a work table and brushed off most of the mud and laid them out like I saw at my COUCHSURFING host Lydia's suburban home in Maryland. Now I might be wrong in doing that. I maybe was supposed to wash them off first as the rain we had overnight made the bulbs pretty muddy but WHATEVA. Gwen is coming back early from her in town job today and I can re-DO if necessary before or after we go to pick up some new breeding chickens. Photos for sure to come tomorrow... :0)