Summertime, and the eating is easy

Oh, I do love breaking out my favorite zucchini and other garden produce recipes, like Potato Zucchini Bake, tabbouli, pasta salad, chocolate zucchini muffins, zucchini chocolate orange cake, caramelized onion pasta, raw beet salad, Scarpaccia, Greek Salad, black bean zucchini burgers, zucchini brownies, etc., etc. I need to pick and use parsley – I sense another big batch of tabbouli – and basil – pesto, obviously. 😋 Yep, it's summertime, and the eating (well, at least the menu planning) is easy. On top of that, the prunes are ripening; every morning I pick a couple handfuls for Rick's lunch and my breakfast but very soon I'll need to 'pick a peck of prunes' and load our big hydrator a few times. After that it will be time to start on applesauce....

Last night's lunar eclipse was fun; it started while I was in Costco visiting with my cousin after shopping and continued well past the time I got home and could stand out on our deck enjoying it.

The Oregon State Fair officially opened today, but Rick's duties as fair veterinarian started yesterday. Twelve days of getting up early and getting home late take much of the joy out of it for him, but I am looking forward to my visits. You know I'll take photos to share. But in the meantime, here are some recent photos from around the 'farm:'

'tis the season; the Western Gray squirrels are busy putting up hazelnuts and walnuts

Bernadette and her flashy daughter Broadway

Broadway 'playing dead,' with Bernice, one of her twin daughters, looking on

a pretty start here the same day of the horrific flash flooding in Nepal/Tibet😢

The next couple months are starting to develop a travel theme. The last time I visited my mom was last September near her birthday, and I am feeling the need to visit her again soon. I'd get to see my sister and her family plus my friends in the Lincoln, NE area, too, adding to the draw. Next, a dear friend of mine who lives in Kauai has long urged me/us to visit. I was hoping we could make that happen back in June for our 42nd wedding anniversary, but there was hemming and hawing at this end (Rick seemed inclined to take our adult son along), then our friends put their house on the market, and I thought our window of opportunity to use their ahana unit had closed. Turns out we might yet be able to make that happen! It would be the first true vacation (with no continuing education or family obligations attached) Rick and I will have taken since our honeymoon, and the thought makes me a bit breathless. Then, at the end of October an Israeli acquaintance is traveling here to see the sights and attend the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. The weather has usually turned at least somewhat wet by then but we are going to get in some hikes through Oregon's natural beauty regardless; I am looking forward to the cross-cultural experience. Goodness, after that we'll be well into the lead-up to the holiday season!

Speaking of a fiber festival, I continue to play with fiber here. I liked the yarns I shared in my last post so much that I flick-carded some washed colored merino locks someone gave me so I could ply it with my remaining blue silk singles:

That's it for now from . . .

Summertime, and the living is hectic

'Tis the season for gardening and hay hauling and firewood acquisition and spinning along with the Tour de Fleece. It is hot and very dry and sometimes smoky. The days are growing noticeably shorter and fall is on its way, but there is much to do before then. So I'll throw a bunch of photos at you and get back to work!

our bright dining room light fixture after replacing all the bulbs

our entry light fixture with old bulbs; yes, there is THAT much difference!

getting the last of our hay

that should do us; the bit at the far right is all that remains of last year's

the morning of August 3

the evening of August 3

the morning of August 4

approximately half our fig harvest, my breakfast one morning

the morning of August 5

the evening of August 5, showing the first bit of improvement

my finished TdF yarn

enough contrast for Murano squares?

the morning of August 7

second planting of beets and beans coming up

oak to cut and split, but not dry enough for this winter

back to normal air quality and "the long view"

zooming in  so you can see the hot air balloons with Mt. Adams between

8g of silk singles on my wee Bee Hummingbird spindle 

two paintings given to us by the artist, a friend of ours

doggy yin and yang

That's it for now from . . .

More of a show than the 4th of July!

Yesterday was wild, weatherwise. Thunderstorms are rare here; we've never had literally hours of lightning and thunder before in the 37 years we've lived here. One of Rick's clients lost a horse to a lightning strike, which made me worry about our horses at home in a small pasture with tall trees on either side. Fortunately everyone was fine when I got home from work; even our dogs didn't mind the weather. There were some beautiful clouds around, even while thunder and lightning continued in the distance:

We got 1/4" of rain, too, so I took advantage of the softened ground this morning and pulled weeds, then planted more bush beans and beets in the gaps where the first planting failed to germinate. I picked a tomato, and admired the other ripening produce. It's been a 'cucumber year' so far; if I'd known, I would have planted enough to make dill pickles but usually they don't grow well for me.

already harvested and eaten

Maybe the pastures will get a boost from the rain, too. The sheep have eaten down all their paddocks on the neighbors' property so are home eating hay again; the horses are still picking at their half of the neighbors' pasture . . . most of the time. The first three days of this week they had to stay home where they have access to water, since I had to cover Rick's vet office and couldn't let them in for their afternoon drink.

I've been seeing quite a few mice recently. Natural ebb and flow of populations, I guess; we had a terrible infestation in barn, tack room, and henhouse before a few years of near-absence. I'm going to have to resort to deadly measures in the tack room, as they are destroying soft things like saddle pads and blankets.

In TdF spinning, I finished the first 4oz colorway, and am now working on the second. These are both part of the Inglenook Fibers Mushroom Blends:

second turtle of 'Rosy Bonnet'

first turtle of 'Truffle'

That's it for now from . . .