A weekend at the farm

I’ve been working too many hours. I’m working on balancing work and fun, but I’ve never been much good at it. Because of that I’ve been spending my weekends pretending I know nothing about computers. I might look up something on my phone, but I avoid the laptop.

The garden is thriving pretty well–but I wish there were more things ready for harvest. The tomato plants are covered in fruit, but they are all still green. The cucumbers and squash are covered in blooms, but I’ve yet to see a cucumber and the squash are few and far between. Tons of honeybees out there pollinating though! The jalapenos have been pretty productive and I’ve been chopping them up and throwing them in the freezer for when the tomatoes are ripe. We didn’t can salsa last year and we are so ready for it. I’m trying to be patient though and just enjoying my daily walks through the plants. Next year I’m going to chance the frost and get everything out early.

I pulled the last of the lettuce this morning and cut it up for salads for the week. I filled 8 wide mouth jars and sealed them with the FoodSaver. We eat a lot of salads so that saves quite a bit of time during the week.

I’ve been experimenting with dog biscuits each week. Durbin will eat anything and Gurney is a picky eater, so it’s really hard to judge how good a recipe is or isn’t. I’d love to have a cut of venison to make jerky for them. My next experiment might be chicken or beef jerky (no salt of course).

The farm chickens have started laying! Mostly tiny little eggs and only one or two a day, but soon they’ll get up to speed. The weather and schedules have kept us from finishing the coop, but it’s getting there.

Mom and I spent all day Saturday trying to finish some things for Christmas Around Sabina Town. We’ve seriously been slacking and we need to get on the ball. My goal was 20 finished items (even if they were small/easy items), but at the end of the day we had 87! We hope to have a good showing in November and we’ll probably list some things on Etsy as well.

I’ve been trying to organize my knitting WIPs. I want to cast on a sweater, but I need to finish some socks first. I have pairs cast on for myself, mom, dad, and my friend in California. I’m also thinking about joining the Ravellinic Games on Ravelry this year. I need to decide on that this week though. (Because I need more things to do you know?) I ordered my Christmas yarn this week during the KnitPicks 10% off summer sale. That’s another three pairs of socks to knit as gifts. I also want to knit a few pairs of boot toppers for Christmas Around Sabina Town, but I can’t imagine those would take more than an hour or two a pair?