August 2012

Summer started with an early beach vacation, which I think we planned all of three weeks ahead. (Glad we took a vacation early.) When we came back, everyone spent a couple weeks sick, then we leaped into the county fair (probably Della's last since she's going off to college). Once the fair was done, it was time for me to go to Annapolis for a week and babysit Beren, then the next week Hannah came here. When they left, I had to get serious about the garden and chickens, and now here we are in August. Next week Della will be gone and Esther will be preparing to start her final year of high school. We are going to try to see a couple friends before the school year closes in on us, and I will have to work out a new schedule for housework and cooking. Sebrun has been with us since spring, but he's not always here for dinner, so I will be cooking for as few as THREE people. Strange!

The Next Step: Della's pile of bare-bones necessities for college. We take her off to American University tomorrow!

 The extra roosters are in the freezer, and the giblets and necks are now canned for winter soup stock.

The tomatos are almost finished. Though not a highly productive season, due to  early  heat,  I did can salsa and stewed tomatos. I'm back to canning in pints now that our family has shrunk.

The zinnias (which I started from seed I'd saved) liked the weather this summer and I have several patches in the garden. Here are
some flower heads that will be next years seed stock.

And last but not least, a picture of the venerable canner that I bought as a college student. It was 1975 and I lived in a trailer surrounded by blackberry bushes and the idea of Free Food was thrilling! So I spent $35.00 (a lot in those days), little knowing it would can food for a family of nine.