What I Did This Summer

 In honor of the old-school first week back to school writing assignment, I present to you my (more outline style than final copy style) report on What I Did This Summer. (Caveat: I did a lot more, but this post is pretty much just those things I did that I didn't really post about here during the summer.)

>Rode horses (Poetess and the LBM) 5-6 times each week, with the exception of a week or two where I only rode 3 times.

>Kept the garden weeded and watered.  YAY!  After having the last two summers where my health was s**t in one way or another and subsequently the garden went to s**t, it was a major goal of mine to keep up with caring for the garden this year.  I did it!!  Not to say there wasn't ever a single weed in the garden, or that there aren't some out there now, but I kept them under control and they neither went nuts nor crowded out and smothered my veggie crops.  Good job, Me!

>Visited a couple of the newer 'farm markets' that have sprung up in my area in the last handful of years.  Their schtick, mostly, is 'local'/made in Michigan products and produce.  While I didn't really buy anything at either one (kinda disappointed in the 'farm' product aspect and didn't see any veggies or herbs I needed--desperately seeking fresh dill heads being the impetus for the visits), I got a new perspective on how bougie DH and I live.  I mean, looking at the prices on the 'artisan' handmade breads, the 'gourmet' packages of seasoning mixes, the artisan pickled veggies, I  a) was surprised at how much this stuff that I make as a matter of course goes for at retail and b) realized that a lot of what we are so used to that we take for granted is unique and custom made to a whole lot of people.  I may work my tushie off, but I'm blessed.

>Finally (after years of failed attempts) kept flowers in containers alive at my front porch!!  Yay Me!  I have tried, every year for at least 10, to have flowers on/at my front porch.  And every year, I start off good, but somewhere along late June, I just can't keep up with remembering to water them (or, DH and I go away with grandkids on vacation) and, well, that's the end of that.  Fried, crispy, dead dead dead flowers.  Not so this year!  This year I DID IT! What's kind of funny is that some of the pots I didn't get planted with the flowers I'd wanted.  Somehow, instead, I found morning glories sprouting in them.  Morning glories are fine with me. And ironically, when I purposely try to plant morning glories I don't get much germination, but these, 'wild' seeds that fell into the pots of soil I had sitting awaiting me to put in flower transplants, they sprouted dozens of little plants and soon were trying to vine their way up the balusters of the front steps.

>Went strawberry picking for the first time in several years and without other family members for the first time ever.  It was way faster and more convenient (schedule-wise) than going with others, but I have to say it lacked in the fun factor a little.

>Went to five (or was it six) free local concerts with DH.  While it took some effort to get our dinner made and eaten on time, and the horses' dinner prepped and them in their stalls early in order to get to the concerts by the time they started, it was a nice experience to 'take the evening off' so many times.

>Made a couple of recipes I'd been wanting to for a long time, but kept putting off because I felt like I should 'save' them for when we would be having company (but then those company plans would get changed).  Finally, I decided to do them for me.  The first was summer-themed sugar cookies that I decorated with colored sugar before baking rather than frosting after they were baked.  I made (and saved because so much!) the colored sugar for these.  The second was Scotcheroos (no pictures of those).

>Picked (and ate, no preserving!)  mulberries, black raspberries, raspberries and blackberries growing around the property at this little place here.  They made a yummy addition to my typical breakfast of yogurt and granola.  I also made a batch of mulberry muffins which was basically taking a blueberry muffin recipe and substituting mulberries for the blueberries.

>Took random pictures of wildlife I happened by in my day to day living.

And that, with the exception of maybe one or two more things that will get their own dedicated post, is what I did this summer.

How about you?  What things that maybe weren't momentous or impress-the-world worthy did you do this summer?

Happy Things This Week

 While I may not have taken any days off, or gone anywhere that would be considered fun this week (I do not consider the grocery store fun), and I was incredibly busy all week, that doesn't mean it was a bad, draining, unhappy week.

Am I exhausted, sitting here typing this on Friday evening?  Oh heck yes, I'm ready for a twelve hour snooze (as if that ever happens, even on the rare vacation).  The heat and humidity are ramping back up, and I certainly feel that pressure on my body.  But, as tired as I am, I can still see things that made me happy.

For one,--and don't judge me for the first picture, which is partly a before and partly an in-progress photo--I got the master bath shower scrubbed.  It hadn't had a good scouring in about a year (and, honestly, not even a half-assed one in six months or more) and was looking pretty skanky. Gotta love well water, especially iron-rich well water (and yes, we do have a water softener but it can only accomplish so much. . . )  

Part of the lapse was because I was out of my go-to wonderful shower cleaner, and found out several months later that it had been taken off the market (it was pretty potent stuff, so probably not the greatest environmental- or health-wise, but dang it did a good job with hard water stains.)  A different brand was finally recommended to me by someone else who has very hard water, and I was able to get ahold of some of that to try.

Before/During

The after picture looks much more appetizing.  'New' brand did the trick, although it says no scrubbing needed, just spray on and wipe away and I most definitely had to scrub, even with a scrub brush in some areas. Now to keep it this way. Perhaps a monthly cleaning will only require a spray on and wipe away. . . 

After

 I didn't, technically, enjoy scrubbing out that nasty shower, but I am loving how bright, clean, shiny and generally more pleasant it is now!  (Do you think I can give myself a cash bonus equal to what it would have cost to pay someone to do this unpleasant task?)

Much more fun than taking a mineral deposited shower back to pristine brightness (or as close as it gets after almost 22 years of use), was cutting a bunch of black eyed Susans from the front flower bed and bringing them inside to beautify the dining room table.  

The 'vase' is actually an antique blue glass Ball canning jar that previously belonged to DH's paternal grandmother. When she died about 20 years ago her daughters divided up her canning jars and, since they knew I was the only one of this generation (the grandchildren) who cans and preserves food like they do, they shared some with me.  The blue ones I don't use for canning, but use them for display instead.

I have been trying to get DH (and myself) to eat salad of some type--not counting pasta salads-- at least three times a week all summer.  We had an especially colorful one with our dinner the other night (along with marinated and grilled chicken breast from one of our freshly butchered broilers).

After not being home enough the last three weeks to work on anything in the Finish The Tack Room category, DH installed the light fixture I'd bought for it.  It's LED and SO BRIGHT!  But I wanted bright, like full sun daylight bright, because 1) it's a 12' ceiling and 2) there's going to be a 18" or 24" wide shelf around three of the four walls at approximately 6-7' from the floor for storing totes of out of season or otherwise not used daily/weekly horse-related stuff and that shelf is going to kinda block light coming from above.

This is the light I got, with two moveable panels so that I can kind of aim the light 'under' the future shelf, which is where the saddles and bridles will be stored.

Last Sunday evening, DH and I had a small campfire (really to burn some brush and paper garbage we'd accumulated), and while sitting out there watching the fire, I was able to do some knitting.  

Back in March, when we'd taken K3 and Toad to Sedona on Spring Break for a hiking trip, I had started working on a new pair of socks.  It pretty much got a few inches knit on that trip, and then I didn't touch it on a regular basis after Easter.  However, it was to a point that two hours of knitting on Sunday brought me to the needed foot length for beginning the toe decreases. And once you start the toe decreases, well, you get kind of obsessed about just finishing the dang sock already!

I finished the toe and grafted it closed last night while DH was watching TV.  So now I have one sock knit this entire year! Woo Hoo! I'm hoping to at least find a half hour someday soon to cast on and get the cuff knit for it's mate; maybe by Christmas I'll have a pair I can wear.  The yarn is some Trekking XXL that I've had in my stash for probably 10 years.  So if I make it into socks, does that count as decluttering my house?

What 'simple' joys did you find in your week this week?

Hey, What, It's August?!?

 For the last several weeks, most days if you asked me what day it was I would tell you the wrong one.  Usually a day or two ahead of what it actually was.  This week, for example, Tuesday felt like Thursday all ready to me.  So on Thursday I was sure it was Saturday, and yesterday I almost put horses out an hour early so I could change my clothes and get ready for church.  Except it was Friday, not Sunday, and thank goodness I realized it in time before I got myself all gussied up. (Which, honestly isn't very gussied but does usually involve a dress or skirt, earrings, and not having my hair in a ponytail. LOL)

While yesterday may not have been Sunday, it was the first day of August.  All ready!  

Well, no wonder I'm starting to feel a) burnt out on gardening and b) like my house needs to be gutted and thoroughly cleaned and c) like I need to run away and go somewhere relaxing!  

As the sole caretaker of the animals and the garden as well as the person in charge of all things food at this little place here, summer is not a time when I laze around, take vacations, and generally wonder what to do with my time.  Summer is like full speed ahead, balls to the wall, hit the ground running every morning and don't sit down until dark every night.  Not that I don't hit the ground running every morning all year long (I suspect this is a habit I really should change to be a bit more relaxing and warm up to the new day kind of lifestyle), but in summer with it's long hours of daylight that's 14+ hours a day 7 days a week of not sitting down with the exception of eating meals (and church on Sunday).  And, like the hit the ground running morning ritual, meals typically are not a long time of sitting, more like the minimum seat time necessary for refueling and then I'm squealing tires out of pit row and back into the race.

You know, the fact that DH doesn't adhere to the same seasonal extra-work-can't-leave-home schedule and has been gone (*ahem* playing in the name of taking various family members on canoe and kayak float trips) most weekends since the middle of June probably doesn't help with my glut of work that keeps me from sitting and relaxing.  Or taking even a day off to recharge myself somewhere that I'm not responsible for making sure 36 mouths have enough to eat (20 young chickens, 9 adult chickens, 4 horses, 1 cat, DH and myself)  and that the garden isn't shriveling up from lack of rain/watering or getting overrun in weeds that smother my veggie crops and that the dishes get washed and laundry gets done and put away and bills are paid and the floors aren't too gritty or the furniture too dusty or the trash too stinky before it gets taken out to the bin. . .

I'm all for making hay while the sun shines, but you know, I need to include down time for enjoying while the sun shines, not months from now when it's chilly and damp and icky outside.  I like sunshine. I love sunshine.  That's part of why I practically live outside in the summer months; I can't pull myself indoors away from the sunshine so I go whole hog on outdoor work.  Do I need to raise our own meat birds?  Perhaps I could, in coming years, buy them from a local person raising them.  Do I need to grow as much as possible in a quarter-acre garden and tend it by myself?  And then be the only one harvesting and preserving the bounty?  While some of that is a yes because of my dietary needs (ie avoiding a lot of additives in food from the stores), maybe we should do some budget shuffling to procure the same good food from someone else.

And then there's the whole point b) gut the house thing. . . Housekeeping is not my favorite task.  And, when I'm outside all day, housekeeping is reduced to the bare minimums.  Which, by this time in the summer, means that the inside of my house is driving me nuts because no one else here takes care of it (lookin' at you, DH, who's idea of tidying is to every few weeks stack things in piles for me to take care of).  When the weather changes and I'm forced indoors in a few months, I really don't want to be in a cluttered mess of a place.  Housekeeping fairy, where are you? I could use a visit from your magic wand. . .

Which leads me to c) wanting to run away.  The urge to take a day trip is getting stronger.  I need to wait until after this week--broiler chickens are meeting their doom going to freezer camp--and find a farm care person who is willing to not just do feeding and turnouts but also clean stalls (DH adamantly refuses to help with stalls) and then I think I going to run a few hours away and do some beachside rockhounding.  Still outdoors, but no garden weeds or chores in sight, and while it's still August, i.e. summer, i.e. sun shining!

Meanwhile, let me offer you a sampling of photos of things going on at this little place here lately.  If it weren't for the fact that phones these days are practically never separate from our bodies, and that phones have cameras, I probably wouldn't have any pictures of my life to remember summers by.  Hence, this collection of things that caught my eye, or I thought about sharing as I've gone about my busy days.

the tomato patch, with grape arbor in the background

friendly neighborhood cat (not my cat, therefore not a mouth I feed)

visiting me while I was checking for pickle-sized cucumbers

the wild blackberries on the edge of the woods are getting ripe;

this was enough to enjoy with my yogurt and granola breakfast the next morning

Faline helping me hang laundry the day DD1 needed me to watch her for a while after VBS

blue swallowtail

reddish day lilies

little green frog

a brown garter? snake

(not sure, as I don't know if they come in brown; first brown one I've seen)

running some errands in Sweet Madame Blue and she rolled 3100 miles

(that lady lives a life of luxury and goes out in good weather only)

K3 having a riding lesson/helping me train the LBM

(owner wants 'anyone to be able to jump on and ride')

Friday Happies

Some things this week that made me happy:

*DH and I had all six 'walking' grandkids (to differentiate those who could get around under their own power from the two infant grandchildren) for a day.  It was complete and utter chaos when DH was in charge (I confess, I took delight in his exhaustion, mainly because this had been his brilliant idea and I'd tried to tell him six kids wasn't going to be as easy and fun as he thought. . .) but when he let me be the boss, there wasn't whining or fussing and everyone moved reasonably quickly when they were told to do or not to do something.  That was the 'happy' part: knowing I was right that it wasn't easy, and secretly enjoying seeing him be overfaced at times.

Part of the day was spent at a local park with a big playground.  When it was time to go (and DH was dragging his feet about rounding up the kids and getting them all into the two vehicles we'd driven), I simply called them all over, asked who wanted a package of fruit snacks --to which they all said ME!-- and told them that as soon as they were buckled into their seats I would hand out fruit snacks.  Five minutes later all six kids had walked willingly to where we'd parked, hopped into the vehicles and, if they were big enough, buckled themselves in.  No fussing, no whining, and all happy smiles.  (Something I learned while raising my four kids mostly by myself while DH's job had him working long hours and/or traveling out of state:  work smarter, not harder.  Be prepared with at least two plans for every situation. Corral the troops, keep morale good, and always be alert for signs of mutiny.)

Rascal and Faline

Buck

L to R: Buck, K3, Rascal, Faline, Sixlet, Toad

*I had a great ride on the Poetess the other day. We canter now during just about every riding session, and she is really getting the hang of transitioning back down to the trot when asked (rather than thinking she should keep on going if I didn't totally throw away the reins).  We've also started riding outside the fenced in area behind the barn, just little short jaunts out a couple hundred yards or so and back, keeping things calm and low-key.  This particular ride we kicked up a fawn while outside the fence, and Poetess did startle when it jumped up in front of her, but then she stopped and stood looking at it rather than wheel and try to run away.  I love this horse; she has a great brain.

*The broiler chicks (and the four little pullets plus our 'free' chick) have moved out of the brooder in the garage and into the grow out pen.  Hooray!  They were getting rather big and stinky for the brooder, and I was getting tired of having to try to shovel it out.  They will now live outside for 3-4 weeks before heading off to freezer camp (and the other five chicks move to the coop with the big chickens).  No more shoveling, just moving the pen to fresh grass daily.

* The long hours of daylight.  I am so solar powered.  And, honestly, I don't mind hot weather nearly as much as I mind cool and damp weather.  I find it much easier to cool myself off than warm myself up, so Summer is probably my favorite season (although I don't think I truly have a favorite).  

*I was able to get with my BFF since 8th grade whom I hardly ever see (but we text and/or message on FB fairly often) and we traded some iris rhizomes.  I gave her a couple that are super dark purple and a black/dark purple with pale lavender standards and she gave me a bright yellow, and a pink that I don't have, plus a couple mixed kinds that aren't exactly the same but similar color combinations to some that I do have. It was great to swap plants, and to see my friend of over four decades.  We're both busy with work, grown kids, and grandkids, so it's been somewhere in the realm of five years since we've spent time face to face.

*The lilies  and drumstick allium are in bloom.

* I found a teeny tiny baby praying mantis on one of my dahlia plants.  It was so small!  Only a little bigger than an inch long.

How has your week been?  What are some of the things you took delight in this week?

Randomosity

A bunch of random stuff from recently.

The peonies here are nearly done for the year.  Last week, they were blooming in full bore, and I cut some for bringing inside.  They replaced the vase of irises that had been on the kitchen island, and infused my kitchen with that peony/rose-like aroma.

The vanilla extract I started in April (mentioned in this post) has now steeped it's minimum two months before using, and just in time because I ran out of the previous batch at the end of May.  This is how it looks now

compared to what it looked like in April when I started it

DH and I observed our 32nd wedding anniversary by attending a local free concert that evening.  We got take out Cuban sandwiches (he got chips and pop with his, I got a slice of cheesecake with mine), and ate our dinner while sitting in the park listening to the concert.  The band played 70s and 80s music, right up our alley.  In addition to the good music (all of which we knew and most of which I sang along to) the weather was absolutely perfect and there were no mosquitos!

Another night, I made a batch of pepperoni calzones for dinner.  It's been a while since I had made them, and we were also out of what I call 'lunch box food' in the freezer--homemade stuff I can toss in DH's lunch box for when he has to work in-office rather than from home.  So they killed two birds with one stone: a yummy dinner plus three days worth of lunch box entrees for the freezer.

DD1 had a doctor appointment, and asked me to watch Faline, Buck, and Sixlet for a few hours while she was at that.  DH wrapped up his work a little early, and went with me to their house.  The kids were surprised that he came too (they'd only expected me), and they put him to work.  Faline wanted to show us how she can ride her bike, but sadly reported she couldn't because the chain was off.  Well, DH had her get it out, and he proceeded to do a tutorial in bike repair, which Faline and Buck watched raptly.  Now Faline knows how to put a chain back on a bicycle (whether or not her little arms and fingers have the strength to do it herself next time remains to be seen).

Life's Too Short

A random collection of thoughts for a Friday:

Life's too short. . .

•  to wear uncomfortable underwear.  In recent years, I've slowly been switching both DH and my undergarments to more pricier brands than we've worn the 50+ years we've been out of diapers.  Shopping for comfort, not price, makes a world of difference in the underwear-wearing experience!

• to not have music while you work.  I've been looking, for almost a year now, for a radio to put in my barn so that I might have music while I'm doing chores out there.  Being that I don't subscribe to or stream music, my target is just a good old plug-into-the-wall AM/FM radio.  Finding one proved to be way harder than I thought it would be.  Most non-streaming type radios that I found for sale ran on batteries.  Now, anything that lives in the barn aisle, like my radio is intended to, is going to get dang cold in the winter months.  And we all know (at least, I think it's common knowledge) that cold drains batteries faster, even when not in use.  So I didn't want anything that was only battery powered.  I needed a grid-tied radio!  Last week, I finally found one on a chance trip to the local Goodwill.  For only $7.29 plus tax, I now have an old-school radio that plugs into the wall and doesn't stream a dang thing, LOL.  Bonus, it has a CD player!  I gave it a test run out in DH's shop while painting some more ceiling boards for the tack room on the day I bought it.

• to not have fun with work.  DH's sister and brother-in-law recently had an old, large hard maple tree cut down next to their house.  They offered us the trunk and large branch pieces for firewood.  DH went and got them on Saturday.  Big and heavy, they required use of the tractor to remove from the trailer he'd hauled them home on.  DH operated the tractor (and forks) while I was in charge of wrapping the strap around them and hooking each end of it to the tractor forks.  I also snuck in a few pictures while we worked.

• to not bring flowers into your house.  I have irises blooming all over the place currently.  Some were so heavy that the stalks were falling over.  Those, I cut and brought into the house.  Now my kitchen smells like root beer, yum!

• to not take time off now and then. My daughters and granddaughters and I are heading off to Shipshewana for a day and a half next week.  We're all looking forward to it; the granddaughters mostly excited about swimming in the very nice pool at the place we stay when we go to Shipshe and eating at the buffet at the Blue Gate, the adults have our shopping lists ready (birthday and Christmas gift buying ideas as well as household goods and a can't miss trip to E&S for groceries) plus are just savoring the thought of not needing to take care of our homes for a bit.