Summer, summer … where art thou?

The weather has been awful this summer. Perfectly awful. Just ask Felix and Robee. We've had NO days with 80's (until this week that is, but it's the end of August) and very few days in the high 70's and even FEWER days with sun. Our river swimming has been cut WAY back and I don’t see us getting to Jetty Island this summer as *gasp* school begins in two and a half weeks.

Gardens must have sun, must have warmth to grow. Even though last summer I got my garden in rather late (mid-June), it still had a great production by July. Not so much this year. However, as I said, we finally have had some good sunny days and here is the outcome:

I will have a few ears of corn in about a week.

These are rainbow "green" beans. I see blossoms and they should be getting on in a week or two.

First (and so far, only) pumpkin in the patch.

This is the saddest picture of all. See all the blossoms and leaves? This is not how a good producing tomato plant should look. It should have fruit on it. When the weather has not enough sun or warmth, the tomato plant pushes out lots of leaves first and then tries to get out blossoms. Too many leaves suck out what can be put towards the fruit and then when it finally gets blossoms, not enough warmth or sun can't move that blossom into a fruit. So either way, I, the fruit eater, loses.

BUT the good news is that there ARE a lot of blossoms and if this weather can hold out even a couple of weeks, I could be munching on Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes very soon. Mmmmmmm.

Oh ... and three zucchini which were given to Jen and Ang to make bread. Actually there were four, but Porter the Vegetarian Dog, ate one right off the vine. If he weren’t 91 years old, I’d pull out his teeth .. except that he’s already lost most of his teeth. I’m kidding of course; I do not begrudge the Old Man sneaking a snack once in awhile. Better him than the goats.

Benefits of water

There are so many benefits of water, I don’t think we actually appreciate the fact that we – here in the U.S. in Washington State – have nice, clean, safe water right in our homes.

After living in Thailand for the time that I did, I really did come to appreciate water. We were one of the lucky ones to have running water into our home and had a shower and toilet as well. Believe it or not, many homes did not have those luxuries 1975. Our shower and sink water, however, did not run to any sewer or septic. It ran right out of the pipe into the yard. Yup. There it was, draining into the grass and out to the klong - Thai word for reservoir. Yes; our “grey water ran into a reservoir which then grew water plants which fed water buffalo and the local people who swam and played in this klong. Sounds lovely, yes? No.

The problem with the running water in the house is that you couldn’t drink it because it came from the above klong. You could wash clothes in it (our clothes were washed outside in a hose) and shower in it (as long as you didn’t open your mouth while showering) and flush the toilet. That was pretty much it. You couldn’t brush your teeth or drink it or wash your food from the market in it.

Since I don’t spray the garden with any pesticides, I always feel really comfortable about eating the veggies without washing them. I will sit in the garden and munch on tomatoes, cucumbers, raspberries, blueberries, and corn without feeling like I HAVE to wash them. They don’t have wax on them; they don’t have spray. Why not? Perfectly safe.

Until ……… tonight. I was ever so grateful that I had running water in my house that was safe to wash my salad greens. Because I found a friend:

Yeah. That’s a slug. A tiny one to be sure but ……. ACK. I cannot imagine the pure awfulness of biting into that thing in my salad. *shudder*

I typically don’t care about little bugs or ants or things of that sort. But I think that finding a slug in my lettuce would absolutely put me over the edge.

I will still eat the veggies in the garden but for those veggies that have hiding places, I’m going to give them a good washing with clean, safe, fresh water from the house before indulging in a nutritious salad. Yup.

Siobhan in print

Sadly, she didn’t win overall in the fair. BUT she’s in the paper and in MY book, that’s pretty darn close. Here’s the story:

Felix’s friend Caroline really wanted to be involved in fairs and animals and such but lives in town in a rented house where you can’t have animals and her dad is not really involved with the whole animal thing so we’ve sort of pulled her along with our involvement with fairs – except for this one this year since Felix decided to take a break. Luckily, Caroline wanted to do the fair enough that she entered without Felix.

Last fall after the Evergreen Fair, Caroline bought two chickens (Jersey Black Giants) and they’ve been staying with our flock. She entered them into the Silvana Fair – first fair of the season - but didn’t do as well as she would have liked. So she invited a local chicken show-er/judge/owner to our coop and let her pick which ones she thought might do better in the Stanwood Fair. She selected our Buff (Siobhan), Rhode Island White (Trouble), and Barred Rock (Kiki) and told her to pick the best two. In the end, Caroline decided on the Buff and the Rock since they are a heavier breed and ours are pretty good sized.

(Kiki in her nesting box)

Side note: if the animal has a name, it doesn’t get eaten. It was the deal we made with the kids.

Well, after all the judging was done, Caroline and the chickens didn’t end up with a rosette (the best) but instead got a blue for the Buff (Fit and Show) and a red for the Rock (Type). Not great but not bad.

However, during the fair the 4H kids are encouraged to handle and show the public their animals. While Caroline was showing Siobhan and letting kids pet her, the pic of that made it into our local paper. Here’s the link:

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110806/NEWS01/708069931/0/frontzoom


THAT’S pretty darn exciting in my opinion. Congrats!!

Welcome Welcome, Month of August!

Welcome Welcome, month of August, favorite month from all the rest!

Welcome Welcome, month of August, I hope you know that you're the best!


Some facts:

William Clark, a leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, born August 1, 1770.

Francis Scott Key, author of "The Star-Spangled Banner," born August 1, 1779.

Maria Mitchell, American astronomer, born August 1, 1818.

The United States annexed Hawaii, August 12, 1898.

Lucy Stone, women's rights leader, born August 13, 1818.

Annie Oakley, sharpshooter, born August 13, 1860.

Meriwether Lewis, a leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, born August 18, 1774.

Orville Wright, pioneer American aviator and airplane designer, August 19, 1871.

Philo T. Farnsworth, engineer who discovered a system for electronic television, born August 19, 1906.

Amendment 19, giving women in the United States the right to vote, proclaimed, August 26, 1920.

More than 200,000 civil rights demonstrators staged a march on Washington, D.C., August 28, 1963.


What a lot of wonderful things!!! Welcome back August for the next 31 days! I hope to linger in your light all month.