August 2024

We had our family gathering on August 10. All of Ron's boys and their families came for the weekend, and most of the 23 cousins enjoyed playing in the lake, camping, hiking, playing badminton and volleyball, and more. 

Cash, home from ranger training in the Army resting and recuperating. 

Martin, the youngest grandchild loving the fairytale book.

It was a strange month weather-wise...beautiful - even hot for 10 days, then we had a big storm. Fierce wind took down one tree and left debris covering everything. Then unseasonable cold and relentless rain for a couple of days.

But with rain in summer, we sometimes get a bounty of Chantrelle mushrooms. And harvest begins in earnest.

Cabbage did well this year, so a crock of saurkraut is fermenting away. I realized that we don't actually use much applesauce, so I've been making apple butter for the past couple of years.  This year, I decided to make apples into something we really use: apples for smoothies. We make smoothies nearly every day, so why not cut the apples up and freeze them to be ready? If I get more fruit and berries ready for smoothies and dedicate a shelf in the freezer to them, it will be easy to send Ron out to the freezer for smoothy fruit without him having to look for it.

So now I have nectarines, cherries, berries, apples, and peaches ready in quart size bags. Organizing a freezer is much like everything else...life is easier when you know where things are!

It's also fig harvest time, so I have a dehydrator working on figs, and some fig preserves on the pantry shelf.