Between the work load, the aches and pains, dawn's early light, and parental worries, my sleep deficit is growing. Not sure what to do about it, so for now I just try to avoid looking at my FitBit dashboard. :-/
So what evidence have I been collecting for you? Well....
The garden is still
cranking out snow peas and strawberries. As of tonight, there are 34 pints of strawberries in the freezer, and there is a packed gallon bag of peas in the fridge. I'm finding all sorts of good ways to use those peas; I made
this recipe (pictured above) for supper, using snow peas for the green beans and our first sweet banana peppers for the bell peppers. I've tossed them with whole wheat spaghetti and pesto made from my first harvest of basil. I've served them steamed with homemade teriyaki sauce, strips of fried egg, and ramen noodles, we've snacked on them raw, and I'm thinking about getting the
Shockeys' book on fermented vegetables; pickled snow peas, anyone? We've also been enjoying lots of lettuce, and I'm going to pick our first cucumbers and make a salad with them for tonight's supper. The temperatures lately have been perfection, but everything still needs regular water and of course weeding.
The fence around our garden is protecting it from hungry, nursing mothers,
but my hostas and several of my potted plants are getting mowed down regularly:
The pansies keep trying, though; I recently got a photo of their smiling faces (on a morning I really needed a bright spot) before they were munched again. (Lord, help me to be like my pansies!)
I finished spinning and plying this 'Red Maple' colorway:
We've got the first small load of new hay in the barn; it's the greener stuff at the back along with a couple bales on top of last year's hay. It's very fine-textured second cutting orchardgrass, and the sheep clean it up completely, instead of leaving behind all the 'straw' in the first cutting from last year. They all stayed in fine flesh in
spite of that waste, as evidenced by....
That's Vienna, the last of my sheep to be sheared this year (and NO, she's not pregnant 🙄). I got her and her moorit granddaughter Bernadette done yesterday, and Bree's musket daughter Bette last week. Now to skirt six fleeces and get them advertised and sold to buy more hay! Here's photo documentation of the last three (let me know if you see something you want):
I forgot to take a photo of Vienna's fleece parted at midside, but at eight years old now her fleece is very consistent from year to year and I have a photo taken last year.
I'd like to do a sort of 'family tree' post of how my sheep are related one another (
everybody is related to
somebody here). We'll see if I can make that happen soon!
That's it for now from . . .
7 comments:
Your garden looks lovely, Michelle, as does the food you're making from it. Love those snow peas! Fermented or pickled sounds good to me. Mine are maybe 5" high now, but haven't started to climb on their trellis yet. You're still getting a lot done during the day even though lacking sleep and the energy you would get from it. Isn't it hard to turn off the worries and happenings of the day (and what's to come the next!) so you can get a good night's sleep? Yes, it is!!
A family tree would be super fun :-D.
Mama Pea, I plan to stop by the independent bookseller's tomorrow to see if they carry the Shockeys' book. As for sleep, I have long had trouble falling asleep and sleeping soundly, and since I tend to wake up when it gets light, the nights are very short this time of year!
Sara, I can't figure out how to draw it because there isn't one main "trunk," so we'll see how it works out.
Ahh, sleep. I remember when I was under a great deal of stress in a job that almost consumed me totally - I could get to sleep, but I couldn't stay asleep. I would wake around 2-3 and if I let my mind engaged AT ALL - I was sunk. Don't know if it would help, but the way I would turn my mind off was to have paper and pen at bedside. I would write down everything that kept me wakeful. Somehow the dumping on paper all that was keeping me awake, allowed my mind to let go and let me sleep. It wasn't full sentences or complete ideas - just phrases, nuggets of info that I would know the background of - sort of a night time journal book - page after page over weeks and weeks - it helped me. Just storing it somewhere else instead of my brain helped. It didn't change anything, of course - except that I could sleep.
I do think we need to have a Non-Sleepers' Support Line - we can call each other in the wee hours, since all of us are up, no matter what part of the country we live in. Your food prep looks amazing! I might try snow peas next year. I did not get the garden beds set up early enough this year, but they sure look good and I love them. My lilies are coming and I will enjoy the beautiful blossoms - for about a day. My deer regularly mow them down, too. Hugs to you, my friend.
Your garden looks lovely! Our small patch of strawberries produced enough for us to enjoy fresh eating, but are all but gone now. If you have more than your family needs, I'd be happy to buy some for our freezer. :)
Elaine, that sounds like an excellent method to cope when your mind is running wild! My problem just seems to be tossing and turning, and a generally busy brain (but not engaged on any particular thing).
I'd be all in on the support line, Susan, but for the other two people in the house I might disturb. Sometimes I lay there and fight jealousy while listening to Rick snore (fortunately not loudly)....
Oh, we'll use every pint, Lorie, especially because we won't be getting any raspberries or boysenberries to stock our freezer with. (Pouty face, because I LOVE frozen raspberries.)
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