Swan song

This daylily doesn't bloom for me every year, (too much shade from the big Japanese maple, I think) so I was delighted to see its fresh face. Sadly, it may never bloom again, if the varmints continue their activity in my island bed.

dead dahlias above, disruption among the daffodils below

Most of my dahlias are already dead, tubers apparently eaten by whatever is burrowing. I won't know if they've eaten my daffodil bulbs until next spring. Seems strange that the bulbs and tubers are edible; the plants themselves are two that deer avoid.

The prime suspects:

California ground squirrels. This youngster showed up on our deck earlier this summer, no doubt looking for the black oil sunflower seeds that I stopped putting out. It might have been orphaned by my varmint-hunting son, and I felt bad for it at the time. However, given the spreading destruction, my sympathies are growing cold . . . just don't ask ME to look down the sights of the .22 at a cute little face. (There's more than one reason I'm a vegetarian!)

That's it for now at . . .

Sheepy Sunday

This morning after finishing chores, I decided to sit down and play monkey – picking as much of the VM out of baby Babette's fleece as possible in order to get a cover on her lovely locks. Of course, that meant I had as many as four other friendly faces crowding around, hoping for attention!

Then Rick and Brian came down to tackle the big job of cleaning out the Sheep Sheraton; woot! Since I had to switch to first cutting hay, they have built up a deep pack of "straw" – all the hay they deem too coarse for food. If we had waited much longer, the girls would have been able to hop right over the half-wall. Still, I haven't been asking, because we had not yet picked up a bale of straw with which to cover the floor. No matter, I guess; they will soon generate their own.

While the men worked, the girls got to go to the center pasture, no longer the booby trap of nasty grass seeds now that it's mowed. There's not much to eat, but they were all delighted with the opportunity to check for themselves. Poor Babette was restrained for awhile longer while I finished monkey-picking her, admiring her fleece, trimming her toes, and fitting her with a coat. Finally she got to join the others.

As you can see, nothing more has been done to the neighboring lot since they stripped it of its young forest, so it is growing a thick crop of weeds. :-(

That's it for now from . . .

Fresh on Friday

This morning I decided to pull all the onions, as the tops were drying up and laying on the ground. None of them are very big, but they'll be tasty and provide for our onion needs for awhile. The only other thing in that row was a single, solitary little carrot, so I pulled that, too – and then I et it. ;-)

I also harvested the first two cukes and zucchini, which are destined – along with snap peas yet to be picked and some of those onions – for a big pasta salad I'm going to make for tomorrow's church potluck.

I think I'm going to pull all the turnips and feed them to the sheep; I'm "turnipped out." I have plenty of kale as well as some beets for greens (and like those better), and pulling the turnips will give me more room for my first ever fall garden – woot! A neighbor has promised me garlic, I have more carrot seeds, and I'm going to look for Chioggia beet seeds. Wish me luck; I couldn't find any last spring.

That's it for Fresh on Friday from . . .

Catching up: The Cuisine

Summertime, and the livin' is easy. Ha. Summertime is full of watering and weeding and harvesting and preserving . . . but one's gotta eat in there sometime!

The day before my folks arrived, we picked 60 lbs. of blueberries at the farm of one of Rick's clients. Most of those went in the freezer, but we also put some in the fridge to enjoy fresh. Oh, how my folks enjoyed those – and yes, they are were as big as they look in that photo!

We also ate from the garden – snap peas, turnip greens (we also froze some), a handful of green beans, a sample beet, the first two ripe cherry tomatoes. I told them they needed to stay another week or two, because there was a whole lotta this,

and this,

but not yet this:

Actually, Rick did pick up a lug of our favorite variety of peaches (Canadian Harmony) at a farm stand so my folks could enjoy one of the season's greatest pleasures, but we didn't get a call from the owner of our nearby orchard that his Canadian Harmonies were ready until a few hours after I dropped my folks off at the airport. So we picked up three more lugs Monday evening, and have been freezing and eating peaches ever since – except for a few I stashed in the fridge, and this:

MmmMMM!

Even though I didn't get a fresh peach pie made while my parents were here, I did make my dad a birthday cake. His birthday was Saturday, but since we went to the beach that day, we celebrated on Sunday.

Mom made homemade gluten steaks, mashed potatoes, and turnip greens; I made cabbage ramen salad, three bean salad, and a German chocolate cake (from scratch and frosted all over; that's the only kind that's worth the calories!).

Now that peaches are done, I need to start canning sauce and pie filling from our LOADED apple trees. I'd better hurry, because these

won't be far behind!

From bountiful . . .