Onward
1:47 p.m. - 2018-07-21


This has been an "interesting" year and not always in a good way. First was a health problem that spiraled down to surgery and recovery, all the while having to take care of lots of projects and fixes around the house. I have managed to get the kitchen sink fixed and it now drains like a champ, the roof has been fixed with the added advantage of finding a wonderful roof repair guy for use in the future, all the cupboards have been organized, we managed to beat out the front yard fruit thieves and harvest some of our peaches, and on and on.

Now that I am feeling better, I have started sewing and knitting again. I have made some fleece pajama pants for one daughter with matching hats to wear while camping, and knit pajama pants for the other daughter for lazing around the house. I am now sewing on a fleece vest for myself and knitting some lace to be turned into a sweater, also for myself. This week I got the knitting machine ready to use and knitted some on the lace sweater.

The garden this year looks pretty good at the moment. The husband got interested in the hugelkultur method so spent a lot of time digging out a huge pit in the Back 40. It was about 10 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 3-4 ft deep. You put in logs and twigs and other compost materials and then cover all that up with dirt. We also invested in many bags of garden soil to perk up our clay soil. So far, the tomato plants that are planted in the hugel bed are at least 1/3 bigger than the other plants from the same batch. The bed also holds more moisture and needs watering much less. Yesterday I harvested the first batch of basil and made lots of pesto for the freezer. Already in the freezer are the peaches.

This year also saw my daughter expressing an interest in learning how to make jam, so we spent one morning with a jam-making lesson using the Santa Rosa plums from the tree in our yard. For her birthday this year, she got a canning kettle, books on canning and other equipment. This inspired me to make some jam with the golden plums also from one of our trees. I also tried making pineapple jam, and it turned out to be too sweet for me, but luckily, if you mix it half and half with the plum jam, it is delicious.

So, lots of interesting things to do. Now I am going to go water the garden..