I’ve finally gotten out into the woods to start on the firewood project. I used 3 tanks of chainsaw gas yesterday, and two today. I have a lot of wood down and cut into 8′ lengths. I plan to spend Sunday out there as well. Alice returns to work Monday, and I don’t like to fell trees unless she is home and we have some sort of communication. Hopefully Monday I’ll be able to start hauling the logs home and start the cutting to length, splitting, and stacking. For some reason I’ve had other projects delay the firewood project this year, but now I feel pretty good about the start I’ve made.
We’ve also begun the harvesting in the garden. All the garlic is in, bunched, and hanging to dry. The storage onions are also hanging. We have both hanging on the wood racks in the east entryway of the house, and it does smell good out there. They’ll stay out there for a month or so, when we’ll clip them from their stems, put them in mesh bags, and store them for the winter.
The cucumbers are doing well this year. We’re getting just about as many as we can eat plus a little bit. They are really good this year. Some years they get bitter, but we get used to it and keep using them until the frost gets them. We’re also getting lots of beans now. I say we, but it is really Alice that is doing the work. She’s been picking them every other day or so, and freezing them. They will taste so good this winter.
This afternoon after I came in from the woods, Alice and I rallied our spirits and picked a bunch of choke cherries. I found a recipe for choke cherry wine I’d like to try. We’ve had this nice tree for years, and besides a small amount of browsing on my part, we haven’t really done anything with them. It will take a couple of years before we know if it turns out or not. I had hoped to get the batch started tonight, but I lack one ingredient, which we hope to pick up tomorrow.
We also managed to fit in a nice dock-sit this afternoon. Franco enjoyed chasing his stick while we watched “Turdy” the turtle swimming around the dock. It was a beautiful with a nice breeze. We are seriously enjoying our dock again this summer.
We enjoyed your dock too! I was sorry to read about the blossom rot on your squash… I have been finding a little bit of it on ours as well, but have been culling them as soon as I see them. Sure wish the tomatoes would ripen, but we may already be having nights that are too cool for it to happen. Lots of green, but that’s it. At least the hot peppers are doing well… (although with no tomatoes to mix them with for salsa… well… *sigh*)
Hopefully you guys get some nice woodcutting/splitting/stacking weather for a while. 🙂
Comment by Mel Powers — August 20, 2011 @ 10:32 am