Livin’ and Learnin’

Hello All!  It’s been a crazy busy month!

Al went to Georgia for some work detail and to also deliver some garden vegetables to family.  It was the first time since moving here (March 2020) that he was gone for multiple days.  Of course, we lost power and had no WiFi for a good part of a day and night. What are the odds?  But, me and dogs, we made it through.

I have been spending most of my days doing the daily chores then, harvesting and processing crops. (Well, if that don’t sound like a farmer I dont know what does! ) I’ve been canning A LOT. I’ve done some dehydrating as well.  Preserve, preserve, preserve. I think I’ve canned about 300 jars so far! Our make-shift shelves are full! I joined a challenge called the Every Bit Counts Challenge for the month of August.  The objective was to preserve something each day of the month.  Check out my list!  August Every Bit Counts Challenge

Our Spring/Summer garden is coming to a close.  We’ve harvested  around 30 pumpkins, 35 spaghetti squash,  a ton of green beans and over 135 lbs. cucumbers!  The tomatoes, green peppers and serranos are still producing while the brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes are still growing.

In preparation for Fall, Al plowed up a good part of the garden yesterday. We started the Fall garden this week. We planted radishes, cauliflower and lettuce.  We had planned on starting some seedlings too but, honestly, I need a break! I will be coming to Georgia once a month until years end for doctor’s appointments, etc. and, of course, to see my family! So, we decided to make the Fall garden much smaller. We are hoping to have the greenhouse completed by early November.  I will then be able to start tomatoes, cucumbers, beans and herbs for winter growing.

Al has been busy mowing and chopping wood for our winter fires. He tagged all the dead trees earlier this summer so he can harvest them even when the leaves have fallen off all the other trees.  It’s hard to tell at that point which one is dead or alive!

We’ve designated September for working on our long lost basement.  It has not been finished yet. Far from finished and I am so ready for it to be done!

October will be dedicated to our root cellar.  We can’t finish the basement until we get all these vegetables out of the hallway!! We had to regroup once we began harvesting from this years garden.  Last year our garden was less than optimal so harvesting wasn’t really an issue.  It seems with every year we are learning more and more which means bigger harvests!  So we see ourselves definitely needing a root cellar!  Also, now that we know pumpkins and spaghetti squash have a cure period we will be coming up with a better way to get that accomplished as well.  Livin’ and Learnin’. 🙂

All dogs and cats are doing wonderful! Bun got a new fan for her part of the porch.  Don’t tell her but, soon she will have her very own “Laboratory” and a nice new porch to lay on. 

I brought out some Fall decor this week.  I am so ready for Fall! I hope to have most of it done soon.  I’ll post some pics when completed!

Oh, I’ve had several people ask me for recipes of some meals I had posted on social media. Below are a few of them. If I missed one please let me know!

Cucumber Lime Ade

spaghetti squash enchilada boats

TZATZIKI SAUCE

That’s it for now!  Back to canning!

Thanks for reading!

XO,

Elisa