Food, Food, and More Food!

 That sums up my August so far.  A great (busy) August it has been, with 10 days yet to go! Who can complain about too much food?

My big batch of broilers for the year were processed on August 1st.  My normal processor retired last year (without telling me!), and I was scrambling for a while to find a new one, as the other local processor I've used in the past told me on June 16th that they were booked solid until September with a 6-page waiting list.  Not good news when you have a brooder full of chicks that need to be processed in early August.

What at first seemed like a horrible predicament to be in--31 birds to be processed and looking like I might have to do it all by myself--turned out just fine, as I found an awesome processor only a 45 minute drive away that is a) cheaper than the local processor that wasn't available until sometime in September; b) very pleasant to deal with both dropping off and picking up birds; c) has an impressively clean and well run small facility.  Guess who will be doing all my poultry processing from now on!

Anyway, August first found me cutting and wrapping eleven chickens for the freezer, as well as bagging 12 whole for the freezer (roast chicken dinner, mmm), and handing over 8 to DH to deliver to a work friend of his who had asked me to raise some for him.

After that, the vast majority of my food-related hours have been devoted to vegetables, as the garden is doing amazing this year!  Best year ever.  Literally.  In 17 years of living here, this is the most productive garden I've ever had.  

The wild blackberries out in/near the woods were also prolific this year.  I managed to gather enough for a batch of blackberry jam for the first time in a long time.  I canned some in 4 ounce jars to give away as gifts; it seems like most people can't use up a regular size jar in a suitable period of time (unless they have kids that don't mind seeds in the jam).

I planted both bush beans and pole beans this year, partially as a precaution against crop failure (ahem, last year), and partially because I love the bean mix at Annie's Heirloom Seeds (a mix that of course I cannot find on their website today as I look for the exact seed offering to link to).  The bush beans started producing much earlier than the pole beans, as you can see in the above picture.  And just when we're about tired of the colorful blend, the pole beans (I always go with Kentucky Wonder pole, as that is what my grandma grew) start coming on to finish out the season.

Backtracking a little bit, the cucumbers really started before the beans.  They were hot and heavy for about a month, and now are almost done.  We're down to what I call the "ugly pickles"; the funky twisted or asymmetrical little cukes that the vines produce late in the season. That's okay, there are about three dozen quarts of dill pickles down in the cellar from this year's garden.

Currently it's tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes!  The cherry tomatoes were the early winners, and they've been our daily snack for weeks now.  It's hard to resist popping a few in your mouth as you are working in the garden, or passing by the ever present bowl of them on the kitchen counter.

Now my canning tomatoes are getting in on the action.  Just this week alone, I've canned 33 pints of tomatoes.  One more batch through the canner and I'll have met my quota for the year.  Then those lovely round maters will become salsa. I do have to confess that we've already enjoyed them as freshly made pico twice (this week!) and as margherita pizza (also this week, with basil from the garden).

The tomatoes I plant for making sauce and paste out of are just now ripening.  I've made 3 pints of sauce this week, all using Federle tomatoes (seen in the picture with the cherry tomatoes).  I love this variety, found at Seed Savers Exchange.  I also plant Amish Paste, but have had more consistent results through the years with the Federle.

It's been a great year for sweet corn.  We've eaten a lot of that this month too.  Mine is nearly finished now; I'm not sure if there's even enough out there to bother canning.  I might just treat the whole family (kids and grandkids) to one more meal of freshly picked corn and use up what's left on the stalks rather than going through the process to can it and only ending up with a few pints. Then again, if I can it, it will be as cream corn, which is an occasional treat here, so a few pints is enough for a year.

So far, I haven't mentioned zucchini.  Yes, I have zucchini too.  My track record with zucchini is either it all dies and I get only a couple of zucchini, or it all lives and I get way too many zucchini.  There is no such thing here as zucchini in moderation.

This year, it all lived.  Not only did it all live, but somehow I planted double what I intended!  I thought I had one row with four plants.  Turns out I had two rows--in separate sections of the garden--with four plants each!  Good thing that chickens love zucchini.  Any that have gotten away from me and become too big to be palatable went straight to the chickens. They magically turn zucchini into eggs. I'm so tired of zucchini; although I'm planning to try a new recipe this weekend: butterscotch zucchini blondies.  LOL.  I definitely prefer zucchini as a baked good than as a veggie.

Yarn Along: August

I'm hoping to link up with Ginny at Small Things for this month's Yarn Along.  I'm off by a day, as today is Thursday, but so far, so is she.    

The past month has been super busy, so busy that I haven't written a single post since the July Yarn Along.  Much time has been spent between the garden (weeding, watering, harvesting) and the kitchen (cooking, canning, freezing).  I have managed to get a bit of knitting in most evenings, after dark and before going to sleep.

Little progress has been made on the final section of my Hue Shift afghan.  I think I have done not quite 2 squares in the past month.

    

Where I have lacked attention to my afghan, I've showered on a new knitting project. Which, of course, is a pair of socks.  (I bet nobody who knows me ever saw that coming. . .)  I've completed sock 1 of the Ephemeral Stream pattern, which is a free pattern by verybusymonkey, who is a favorite (sock) designer of mine.  Her patterns are so easy to follow, while giving you a finished project that looks really complex.

I also finished reading the book I talked about in last month's Yarn Along, and am about 2/3 of the way through The Edge of Eternity by Ken Follett.  This is the third book of his Century Trilogy, and I am enjoying it just as much as the previous two.

Yarn Along: July

If it's not too late, I'm going to link up with Ginny's Yarn Along for this month.

What a month it's been so far. . . That's another post for (hopefully) another day sometime soon.

For now, a quick update on what I've been knitting and reading since the June Yarn Along.

I finished the socks I was making for DD1's birthday, and apparently forgot to photograph them.  They have all ready been gifted, and looking back through my pictures since June 1st, I can't find a photo of the finished product. Oh well.  She likes them, that's what matters most.

After finishing the socks, I went back to working on my Hue Shift afghan, casting on for the fourth and final section. It's going slowly, because I have been way too busy with gardening, and chickens and family to knit much at all.  In fact, it sat untouched for two weeks before I picked it up again and spent barely a half hour on it before setting it aside.  Sooner or later, I will finish it.  I think if things go well, maybe even this month.

The library finally reopened three weeks ago, for curbside pickup of materials ordered online.  So I did manage to read a book; Tending Roses by Lisa Wingate.  Although I've liked every other book I've read by this author, I found this one somewhat annoying in the resolutions of problems in the story-line, and almost returned it to the library without finishing it.

Currently I am reading Hill Women: Finding Family and a Way Forward in the Appalachian Mountains by Cassie Chambers and really enjoying it. 

A Loss

Last week, someone meaningful to me passed away.  Not from Covid-19 (oh, how I'm so tired of that being the assumed cause of death for anyone in the last three months!!), but from the COPD that she had been challenged with for the last almost 20 years.  I may have mentioned her here a time or two as my 'dressage fairy godmother'.

Which is sort of true, but also at times so misleading, as she was quite a taskmaster who made me earn every single thing I gained from her.  She was a perfectionist, that's true, and yet she also was tender-hearted and wished to help others. But you had to qualify!

This post is in her honor. She never married or had children, and is survived by a small family belonging to her brother.  They are one part of her legacy. The other part, from whom her family members are totally separate, is the dressage world and those she touched via her importing and breeding of Holsteiner horses and those that were fortunate enough to have been her students.

Although I knew her for a long time (we met in March 1990), I was her last student.  And how honored I am to be able to say that.  Certainly not her best student, as I know my inconsistency in taking lessons and prioritizing my riding often frustrated her to no end.  But, I did have a family to raise, and a husband, all of  whom  had to come first before my horse(s), and there were times when I was out of the saddle for months at a time trying to juggle things.

It took many years for me to 'qualify' to be her student.  My first lesson with her wasn't until 2001!  She was pretty particular in who she would teach.  No children, and no beginners, for sure.  She preferred students who were devoted to the art of dressage and would take weekly lessons, if not even more often.  As the demands of her farm and her declining health took her out of the saddle, kept her home instead of away teaching clinics-- therefore out of the spotlight-- and eventually kept her from being able to teach regularly, other students moved on.  If I can be brutally honest, that's probably why I, with my on-again off-again riding pattern, even got a chance to take lessons.  First and foremost, she loved to teach.  And there I was, waiting my opportunity to learn.

Out of the saddle, through the years as a barn employee, I learned volumes from her on horse care, various aspects of farm maintainence and management, and horse psychology.  It was a valuable education in itself; one that has opened many doors for me at many other horse farms through the years. 

In the saddle, I learned not just riding theory, but also tons about the physics and mechanics of both the rider's and horse's bodies, and how best to unite them for the greatest results.  I also increased in compassion, as she had been a student of Chuck Grant (for you non-horse and/or non-dressage people, Chuck Grant is known as the Father of American Dressage, being one of the first in the US to train and show in the discipline) and when it came to training horses embodied his mantra of "Ask often, expect little or nothing and reward generously."  She instilled in me patience with my horse, and immediate and generous praise for the littlest attempt at doing what I was (trying to) ask the horse to do.  Because riders, as you know, it's always you that needs fixing first and a horse should never be punished for their unfavorable response to a confusing or incorrect aid.

I wish I had been able to watch her ride more, but in my earliest days of knowing her, when she was still riding and training horses, I was a worker bee, just a stable hand with a million tasks to achieve, and no time to stand around gawking when she was riding in the outdoor arena.  And if she was in the indoor arena, you better not disturb her, even if the world was coming to an end.  Any long-time employee of hers was equipped to deal with Armageddon without interrupting her ride.

The very few times I was able to actually watch her ride, ironically it was on my own horse.  During lessons when I was just so uncoordinated and fumbling and confusing my horse to the point where she would say "How about I get on?"

Now, if your trainer asks to ride your horse, you sure as heck say YES because this is going to be one huge learning opportunity for you, plus your horse gets some high level training that you're apparently not capable of giving right then.  

Every single time she mounted my horse, as soon as she settled into the saddle, you could immediately see the horse's demeanor change.  Not just it's attitude; the horse's body also changed.  Somehow, just by the contact in the saddle, the horse was transformed by her.  I always wished that I could have the same effect.

Many years later, I do.  People now see me sit a horse and are awed in much the same way I was awed.  My seat, my body, now has the feel that tells a horse "okay, listen up, this is what we're going to do!" and the horse is willing and obedient in a relaxed way.

What a legacy she gave me!  

She was brilliant.  Even when her health declined to the point she was housebound and could no longer make it to the arena to give me lessons, I would describe to her an issue I was having under saddle: what I did, what the horse did and felt like, and she most of the time could dissect the problem and tell me the cure. Without even seeing me ride!  

When it came time for me to move on to other trainers, and I wasn't sure how to know who was a good one and who was one not so aligned with the classical training I sought, she gave me some words of wisdom:

Take what you know to be true, and examine new teachers in light of those truths.

In other words, look at how they ride, look at how their students ride, look at how those horses they are riding react, and the proof will be in the pudding.  If you don't like what you see, if what you hear goes against what your foundation is, that trainer will not be the one for you.

While my mentor, my dressage fairy godmother, may no longer be here on earth, just a phone call or short drive away, she will always be with me.  She lives on in my riding.  Imbued with her wisdom of experience, I am also knowledgeable.  My task is to take that wisdom and knowledge, and use if for the good of every horse I encounter, as well as pass along that wisdom to another generation of riders.  

Yarn Along: June

I'm once again joining Ginny for this month's Yarn Along.

First, I'll confess that I have not read one single book.  I've read almost 200 pages of a book (The Nourishing Homestead: One Back-To-The-Land Family's Plan for Cultivating Soil, Skills, and Spirit) but I really haven't been reading hardly at all and am quite a ways from actually finishing the book.  There's been a whole lot more outdoor work going on lately.  Plus, the library is still closed!

I have, however, done a fair amount of knitting. I finished section 3 of my Hue Shift afghan.

This is so much fun to knit up, I had to literally remove my yarn, pattern, and needles to a different floor of the house to keep myself from immediately casting on the final section, section four.

Instead, I cast on for a pair of socks for DD1's upcoming July birthday.  She prefers shortie socks, so that is what I am making. I'm winging it again as far as a pattern goes, using the shifting rib chart from Socktacular for one repeat on the leg (after 12 rows of K2, P2 for the cuff), then an eye of partridge heel flap, shifting rib on the top of foot for as many repeats as I need for size and an easy rounded toe.

The yarn is some Knit Picks Chroma fingering in the Carnival colorway.  I was intending to make the socks match, but several dozen yards into the ball of yarn, it had been spliced, so even if I did measure out to the same color to cast on for the second sock, the color changes aren't going to be the same. Bummer.  I'm nearly to the heel turn on the second sock, and honestly I'm still not sure I like the big splotch of orange and muddy yellow at the top of the sock.  Might just rip this one out and start where the red turns to purple or the purple turns to blue, and then use the orange and blah yellow in the toe to finish if necessary. Somewhere that they're less in-your-face.  We'll see.  Because other than that color change, I really love the colors in this yarn.

How has the past month been for you?  Reading much?  Knitting anything?

Planning Ahead For Grilling

Do you use a charcoal grill?  Do you know how many bags of charcoal you go through in the average year?  Do you know the best time to buy charcoal in your area?

For us, several years ago, when we went back to using a (small, for just DH and I) charcoal grill when our gas grill finally bit the dust after almost 20 years, I figured out that we averaged 7-8 bags of charcoal in a 12 month period.

Around us, charcoal always goes on sale right before Memorial Day weekend.  And pretty much doesn't go on sale again until the same time next year.

So, it has become my habit to stock up on a year's supply of charcoal when it goes on sale in late May.

Last week, the cheapest price I could find was $23.99 for a twin pack of two 20 pound bags.  Counting on it being on sale this week (and because we still have most of the 8th bag I had bought in May 2019), I didn't buy any.

This week, that same charcoal is on sale for $16.99 per twin pack.  I stocked up.  We now have four twin packs (8 bags) of charcoal.

My year's worth of charcoal cost me $28 less than if I bought it willy nilly throughout the next 12 months, whenever we had an empty bag.  We've got room to store the charcoal, so why not use that $28 for something else (I confess, I ordered a new saddle pad for Camaro) and take advantage of the lowest price of the year?

How about you?  Need some charcoal?  What's the current sale price in your area?

My Camaro

Late last summer, I said goodbye to The California Horse and within two weeks I bought a horse of my own.  I blogged about it here, and since then I haven't talked about him much, hadn't even given him an official name for his blog persona. From now on, he shall be called Camaro.  Partly because I referred to him, when I bought him, as my little sports car of an Arabian.  And partly because I'd dreamed that, when I 'retired' from active motherhood, I would trade my kid-hauler Suburban for a real Camaro.  I talked about that here, but it never happened.  I'm still driving the trusty rusty Suburban--currently closing in on 265k miles, and I doubt a motorized Camaro is in my near future.  So, my four legged sports car gets that as his name here.

For the sake of brevity, I'll say that I had a big mental adjustment to my new horse and new boarding barn.  I'm the only dressage rider there.  And almost the oldest rider, period.  I do love the barn owner; she's a friend of mine that I met over five years ago and have kept in contact with despite her leaving the barn where we met (and buying her own facility--YAY) and me riding warmbloods mostly while she rides a lot of Arabs and Quarter Horses.  However, when The California Horse went home, I was separated from all my great older (three of them in their sixties) dressage barn friends who had become my support system through all the family drama of 2017, 2018 and half of 2019 (hardly any of which made it to be discussed here on the blog.  Rough time.)  It was kind of like moving to a new home and I had to learn a new neighborhood, new people, and make new friends.  Traumatic in it's own way.

I rode Camaro a bit in the Fall, and had intended to do quite a lot of riding over the winter.  Which didn't pan out.  My allergies/asthma flared up as winter started, thankfully not as bad as they had been the previous winter, but still enough that I just didn't have the stamina to both clean 11 stalls and work my horse 5 days a week.  Turned out well, though, as it gave Camaro a chance to lose the muscles he'd had, some of which were wrong for a dressage horse (ahem, underneck muscle), and it gave us time to build some trust between us via short groundwork sessions and the occasional ride.

This Spring, we are back on track for getting a good regular riding program going, he is building muscles in the right areas (yay, over the back and through the topline!), and his 'spooking issue' he had with his previous owner has pretty much disappeared (trusting me rather than worrying about bogeymen in the arena).  I'm very pleased with the direction in which we are moving.  He seems to enjoy our sessions together, and I know that great things are in our future.

Getting decent pictures of him is difficult.  He seems to understand what my phone camera is.  Selfies haven't worked so far, as you can see by the terrible one below. He kept bumping my arm just as I was taking our picture, and this one is my favorite horrible one.  He looks like he has the head of a moose (he doesn't, his is a petite shapely Arabian head)  with a pom pom for a forelock (he actually has a forelock that reaches his eyes) and my head just somehow doesn't attach naturally to my neck (I assure you, in real life my neck isn't crooked or have the texture of dryer hose).

Even when I try to be sly and take a picture of him out in his paddock, he's on to me. Like here, where he dropped his head into the water trough and watched me with his eyes just level with the rim.

Apparently this is what he thinks of my efforts to get pictures of him.