#100HappyDays :: Day 92

Thistles are a royal pain when you are gardening organically.  Since we do not use herbicides, we need to take them out by hand.  They come up everywhere and even the best of gloves are no great protection when pulling them.  They do come out fairly easily most of the time, but it is a never ending task, and even with the best intentions there are always areas on the property where they will grow with flourish, flower and at the moment they are creating thousands of seeds that I am sure we will see next year.

The plant itself is nothing to look at, but the flowers are gorgeous and do have a rich Celtic history.  When I looked out my kitchen window last night the sun was setting just right, and the thistle seed and web were both sparkling.  Proof that a happy moment can even come from a pesky weed.

#100HappyDays :: Day 80

Signs of later summer are upon us, the Queen Anne's Lace is prolific, and last night as I was walking across the yard to the sound of swimming kiddos, the air was alight with fireflies.  Perfection.

Re-Entry

Late August brings us not only an amazing shift in light, but also seas of goldenrod beginning to bloom.  The sun hitting this beautiful weed and the sound of cicadas greeted us when we returned home mid-week.  I was thankful for that glimpse, what with school and sports practices starting immediately.  My friend emailed me a welcome home, and said good luck with re-entry.  I'd never thought about it that way, but man is that true!

As much as we relished the special time away with family, we came back ready and eager to dig in and see how the garden had fared.  No surprise we had squash the size of pumpkins and loads of everything else.  The tomatoes delayed slightly for us and are just beginning to really produce. We planted mostly paste and drying tomatoes this year in the hopes of a good canning year.  It looks as if we may have gotten lucky!  I wanted to have a stocked pantry this year, especially so after I saw the latest predictions from the Old Farmers Almanac.   To top if off, our crocked cucumbers were perfectly ready for canning when we got home!

Of course since we have had such a mild summer, we have come back to hot and very muggy.  In fact after boasting to the family all last week that we had not seen a single 90 degree day this summer, it appears that is what is in our forecast over the next several days.  Between this and the almanac's thoughts on our upcoming winter, we stopped procrastinating and set the wheels in motion to replace our elderly heating unit and non working a/c.

And then there were three.  Yesterday morning we gathered our meat ducks and took them to the processor.  This was our first foray in to sourcing our own animal protein, and I must say that though we were somber, we knew it was right.  One of our goals when moving to the homestead was to teach our kids and better appreciate ourselves where our food comes from.  We knew that they had had an amazing life romping in large open spaces with room to swim, and weren't cooped up in some large facility.  The three remaining are mascots and hopefully an egg layer or two.

My mind is spinning after a week away, re-entry accomplished, now to write.