It’s been a nice steady week. Not too busy and definitely not lazy. I worked out in the raised bed garden area for several days this past week.
Sometimes your garden can get the best of you and with all the rain, those terribly fast growing prolific weeds just don’t stop growing and multiplying. So I got the mower out and cut back the weeds in the walkways that I could mow and got out my well used leather garden gloves and started to pull out what I could not cut.
I found several volunteer squash looking plants so I left them to grow and I cleaned out the onion beds, leek beds, herb beds, pea beds, tomato beds, tomatilla beds, carrot beds etc….
It looks really nice again when I look out the upper back windows.
I could not have planned how the gardens went this year. Many interruptions and best laid plans….. and distractions, but it is still a wonderfully awesome garden. We had fresh corn on the cob 2 nights ago, oh my word, they were big juicy and sweet 😋 one of the best years growing it here on the homestead.
The weather was warm and sunny, the first part of the week, and then it got rainy Friday night and rained heavy all day on Saturday. The grass is so green, so thick and lush and that’s just gonna be crazy to cut on Monday. Hard to believe we are in the last week of August, doesn’t look like it or feel like it. With all the green everywhere you look, it is very deceiving.
The new chicklets are growing really well. Their “big bird” feathers are coming in, and they look funny with the fuzzy feather pieces just barely attached to the tips of the thr new feathers. They are skidish but very curious. Their blue footsies are really showing and it is gonna be soon that I can tell the difference in the boys and the girls.
I picked up my two boxes of peach seconds on Saturday, from my Mennonite friend, wow they look really good. They are nice and firm so I have a few days to figure out all the ways to use them. The firsts will be coming in the next week or so:) I think.
On Friday I knew it would be a wet weekend so I got my basket and I picked a few things from the garden to preserve and eat. I decided to pick some green tomatoes to add to my pineapple and make the green tomato pineapple chutney. The aroma cooking it today was incredible. It turned our pretty good. I canned it in my small half pint jars and the sauce jars with pop lids. So nice when you can recycle the commercial sauce jars for personal canning, I got 15 small jars and it one of Rusty’s favorites. It funny the first time I made the chutney it was out if necessity because we got got late blight on the tomatoes and the only way to use what would not rippen was green tomatoes recipes. We found the recipe in the 2014 canning magazine put out by better homes and garden… they have some really cool tried and proven recipes♡
The double batch, gave us another nice addition to the pantry.
Because it was a sleepy, wet, weekend it was a chance to work on our inside projects. So Rusty was able to get down to his shop, tidy things up so that he can start to finish the canning cabinet in the addition. He got the cleats on and the cut the shelves to size and put them in place. The fronts just need one last coat of varnish, I think he said, and then they are ready to be filled with my labor of love, the food I grow and preserve♡
It looks so different, and the progress on stuff the addition just blows me away.
I did fill the counters with garden produce, soaked microgreen seeds jars, and it feels really good to have this new space. The last part of the cabinets will be the doors, but I do have a plan in place until Rusty gets a chance to build them. They will have a heavy muslin fabric curtain to protect the jars from the sun.
I have been wanting to get a new hot water kettle but putting it off. Earlier in the week, I kind of boiled the old kettle dry, and so it is now time for a new one. I dragged Rusty out on Saturday after we went to get the peaches to charlottetown so I could shop for a new one. We went to home sense and browsed and shopped a few items. I ended up with a few kitchen gadgets, a new anti-fatigue mat, and a nifty fine chopper for garlic. It was kinda fun being out with farm boy and shopping around a little. I’m glad I didn’t have to drive in the rain as he did the driving. Those water filled ruts in the roads are crazy this year.
Well, I guess thats about all for those week stay tuned for new adventures and updates next week
All our love, Rusty & Nessie
Muddy Boots, Old Houses and The Farm 