Grab a cup and 'set a spell'........

 August 24, 2023

You might want to sit down and grab a cup of tea...this may take a while!

We've been keeping busy, the root cellar is coming along, garden is growing, blackberries are starting to ripen, pickling is in full swing, and apples are starting to fall.

The root cellar has been wrapped in tar paper, hardware cloth and topped with heavy duty plastic, vented, and is now being buried...a bit. Hubby is still working on the framing for the entry way, and the doors have to be made as well. I will be so happy to see the end of those weed covered piles of earth. It will be an ongoing chore to get those weeds under control once everything is buried and smoothed over. I hope to get clover growing all over the hump.

We got out on the lake for a lovely relaxing day. We are careful about checking the weather, as Round Lake can get beastly pretty fast, being so open. The surface was so calm and the clouds were marching across the sky, reflecting prettily in the water. I was surprised my little camera captured it a bit.

 

 

Those clouds marched on and grew and grew until they covered the sun. We came home and just as we finished putting things away, we had a downpour that filled the gauge to the half inch mark. 

My red and white glads are opening, and the Hummingbirds keep trying to stick their beaks into the tight buds that are just emerging from their sheaths. The white guys are a little slow.

Looks like I will have a modest crop of acorn and butternut squash, 

and quite a few pumpkins. This one is the most colourful so far.

I did an amble around the best spots for blackberries earlier today. I managed to find a few, and there are lots more coming along. I am hoping to get enough to make a batch of jelly. It is just brutal picking them though. One must practically don armour. 

Thirteen quarts of dill pickles, two batches of bread and butters, one cooling on the kitchen counter as I write this, (did you hear that satisfying "snap" just now?) and two batches of 9 day pickles, one still with 4 days to go. My cucumbers this year have been amazing. They are growing so well climbing the old fencing. I'll be done pickling before they will be done producing!

The pepper patch is doing so much better now, after a slow start.

The garlic and onion harvest is spread on screens in the barn, drying, and the Kelsae onions I left in the ground are certainly growing larger. They are so sweet and juicy. That is baby white clover growing where I pulled the onions.

The plan was to plant turnip seedlings where the garlic was pulled, but the seedlings refused to grow hale and hearty in the heat of the summer. Only 4 were even possibilities when it came that time. I just dug out spots in the new perennial bed, filled them with compost and popped the few little turnips in there the first of August. Look at them now!

I do believe I will have a few turnips after all. I'll leave them through the first few frosts to make them tasty.

Tomatoes are looking good, and we've harvested a few ripe ones already...so delicious. 

  And lastly.....

There are at least 5 watermelons the size of the biggest pictured here, as well as many more smaller ones. I have nipped the ends of the vines to encourage them to fatten up.