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| Our garden July 20th |
Well, here we are at the high point of summer. Our weather has been quite warm and at times, stormy. We haven't experienced any tornadoes or microbursts at our house, but they have been nearby. Last Monday we lost power about 6pm, just as I was finishing cooking dinner. The power was not restored for about 30 hours. Tuesday was very hot. We had no air conditioning, no power for cooking or to run the well pump (so no water or plumbing for you city folks). I would not open the refrigerator or freezers, so very little food, too. To cope with this, we made an impromptu road trip. We spent the day in the air-conditioned car, shops, restaurants and by Seneca Lake. We were able to keep cool, have food to eat, water to drink and access to working bathrooms, in addition to relaxing by the lake. We made an enjoyable day out of a very difficult situation.
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| Seneca Lake view |
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| Full garden on July 20th |
Our garden is coming right along.
We are processing chard, kale and cabbage for the freezer.
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| Cabbage and friends |
The peas are all done, as are lettuce and black raspberries.
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| Raspberries and Blueberries |
Bob picked all of the red and black currants that we wanted to freeze. The rest are left for the wildlife to enjoy.
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| Black currants |
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| Red currants |
Now the blueberries are beginning to come in. We have five varieties which ripen at slightly different times. This spreads out our harvest nicely.
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| A generous supply of dill |
I have dried our dill and am freezing parsley and celery leaves in small batches. I'm also drying Calendula blossoms for our fall and winter tea mix.
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| Calendula-a basket of sunshine |
Bob has harvested the garlic and shallots, which are laid out to cure right now.
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| Curing garlic |
The shiitake mushrooms are coming in, but we're not overrun by them yet.
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| Shiitake mushrooms |
The wine cap mushrooms had stopped producing because they had used up their growing medium. To remedy this, Bob got a load of free wood chips in Ithaca and has topped off the bed.
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| Replenishing the bed |
Once the mycelium has spread into the new chips the mushrooms will begin fruiting again.
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| Fire Blight |
One of our apple trees has developed Fire Blight. This is a very nasty disease. Bob has been dealing with that. Fighting it requires severe pruning, burning the trimmings and diligent monitoring to watch for any spreading of the disease. We hope to save the tree because this variety we use for eating out of hand and making applesauce.
Bob's been able to tend to a few of these things because my arm is slowly healing.
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| Starting to work again |
About two weeks after my accident, I was allowed to use my hand and wrist, while keeping my shoulder immobilized. I could begin to chop vegetables and do some needlework (hurrah!).
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| Finally, something to do |
After one month, the break was healing, and my sling came off. I could begin to increase movement and weight up to five pounds. This is where I am at now. It's still pretty uncomfortable and there's much I can't do. It's very easy to overdo and pay for it later. But I can now comb my own hair, dress and bathe myself. For all of this, I am very thankful! I will see my orthopedist again in two weeks (eight weeks post injury). He said that if all is well, it will be my last visit with him. Each day there seems to be some improvement, if I don't overdo the preceding day.
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| Bob's new car |
Just last week we bought a new car. We've never had a NEW car. We knew we'd need to get a newer car because our Honda is 20 years old and beginning to need more repairs. The Leaf isn't as useful to us because of its limited range. We've been saving for this, and our investments have been performing well, so we decided it was time to act.
We bought an all-electric Hyundai Ioniq 5. They offered a very good package of warranty and extras. It gets good reviews and has a great range. We really like it.
We are in the process of selling the Leaf, and once we get a few more errands done with the Honda, we will sell that, too.
I'll stop here. You can see that we are hanging in there and looking forward to more progress.
Enjoy the rest of your summer.
Till next time,
Kathleen and Bob
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| Black raspberries ripening |
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| Young Acorns |
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