Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

 Many things negative can be said for social media; Facebook in particular.  But one thing it is good for is the memories feature. Last week, August 20th, Ellen started her last first day of high school.  So over the past couple of weeks I have perused my Facebook memories and saved the first day of school photos. I think for kindergarten I must have been so flustered that I forgot to get a first day picture and somehow I am missing first and ninth.  Ugh.   So here are all of the first days of school that I have been able to find on Facebook.  I am a terrible parent; I need to get prints of these and put them in an album.  I think I have them in the right order...if not, maybe Ellen herself can correct them for me some day.  (ETA: I've got a couple of them out of order, but don't have the oomph to go back and edit; you can figure it out.  haha) First Grade:  Second: Third Grade: Fourth: Fifth: Sixth: Seventh: Eighth:  Ninth: Eleventh:  Tenth: Senior:

 So my blogging got side-railed this week, and probably last week too, I didn't check to see the date of my last post.  I've not been getting much sleep lately for one reason or another, my back is trying to go out for one thing, so I've been in a bit of a haze during the day.   I also am trying to get things ready for a couple of vendor events coming up in the next few months.  A friend and I are scheduled to set up at the Celtic Festival on Sept 7th.  I always love going there.  The calling of the clans on Friday night is always moving.   I found some Pioneer Woman brand velvet yarn a few weeks ago, so I have made a handful of octopi: Ellen wanted googledy eyes on them, but I prefer the more traditional stuffed animal eyes.  Haha...  Ellen saw the googledy-eyed one and laughed and laughed.   The velvet yarn is a pain to work with.  It's workability, as it were, varies with the color.  The green on the left is much more slick than the blue.  The blue kind of drags as y

 It's mid August; I'm about at my limit of gardening.  The squash bugs are overcoming my garden, mainly because I don't have the patience or time to keep waging war on them, and I refuse to spray pesticides.   Glorious Autumn is on its way soon and that means random vendor events, which I enjoy participating in.  Here are a couple more octopi I created, with different eyes.  Ellen loves the googly eyes.  Haha...  I am working on a couple more in different colors.  I might make a few smaller ones.  Plus I'm going to create a couple more chickens.  I'd made 3 big hens to put in a friend's boutique.  They sat there for 2 months or so, but suddenly the 3 of them have sold just in the past 2 weeks.  I think people buy them for their fall decorations. I don't do these vendor events for money as much as I do them to be able to get rid of things I love to make, and to recoup the cost of the yarn.  Getting out and visiting people is also fun.  I am looking forward to

Or: Attempting to preserve my garden...as it were. But first a Marigold photo, because it is lovely.  These are so pretty.  I'm going to save a bunch of seeds.  Marigolds tend to reseed themselves spontaneously, but I'm going to save some extra seeds on purpose, just in case  Now. Here is the remnant of one of my nice cantaloupes.  It wasn't ripe yet.  The same night the diner, as it were, also went over and enjoyed a tomato. This was about a week ago, I believe.  The next night it returned and finished off the other half of the cantaloupe.  The next night it ate half of a smaller cantaloupe and duly returned for the second half the next night...along with another tomato. To keep any more of my choicest cantaloupes from going down the hatch before they've ripened I rigged up a cage of sorts for them. I had to carefully maneuver the vines around so as to not break them off prematurely, but I managed to get 5 of them in there.  I really ought to cover it with chicken wire

 Every year for the past few years I have had volunteer vegetables and/or plants come up.  Usually I know what they are; sunflowers, tomatoes, cantaloupe...etc.   Last year I had a couple of mystery gourds come up; one proved to be a cross between a pumpkin and a spaghetti squash.  One was in the actual garden bed, another couple of mystery vines were in the spot where I toss the kitchen scraps.  One actually was a pumpkin, but I think there might have been a gourd out there as well.  I am not sure, I didn't go plundering in the weeds very far.  This year I have this little fellow: It initially looked like a strange cross between a birdhouse gourd and a watermelon, and when I posted the above picture on Facebook a week or more ago it garnered much amused speculation. However, just a couple of days ago I noticed on the far side of it this lovely yellow patch.  From that I presume it is some sort of ornamental gourd. It is also out in the kitchen scrap area, so for all I know it may

  I plundered a few hills of sweet potatoes yesterday. I got a full 5 gallon bucket from about 6 of the 20 some slips I planted.  A few of them still don't have any roots formed beneath them, as I I have to be careful which plants I pull. ********* Here is what the pumpkin vines look like by now.  The vine borers have done their dirty deed.  You can barely make out the healthy ends of the pumpkin vines making their way through the sunflower stalks in the background there.  That's because the vines root themselves as they grow.  I water them, but the borers keep advancing too.  However, despite all the bugs I think I will have a few actual pie pumpkins. They look really pretty out there in the patch.  The stems are still super green, so I am just leaving them there to keep ripening. Next to the pumpkin patch is the cantaloupe patch.  I am going to get a few of those as well.  I think there are maybe three or four of any serious size.  The rest are runts.  I'm hoping the racc

  This gardening season has been the greatest for cukes and tomatoes.  The cucumber vines have gone absolutely nuts.  And it's not just mine, everyone keeps bringing their extra cukes to church to try and get rid of them.   I'm going to turn a bunch of tomatoes into salsa.  We love salsa...and homemade is better.  I think the banana peppers will give us enough heat.   We shall see.

 It has been hot and humid the past few days.  We use a deal of soap this time of year what with two showers per day.  Well, Ellen doesn't have time in the morning for a shower before she goes to work.  Plus she's just going to get sweaty all day any way.  But I get out in the garden in the mornings and get drenched in sweat just standing and watering.  So I shower when I go in. Then in the evenings I get sweaty again working in the garden.  Just standing out watering makes you sweat in this humidity.  Ugh.  So I have to shower again before I go to bed, because I can't sleep when I'm still sticky.   Today is August 1st and generally about this time of summer I am done with gardening...as in DONE, fed up.  But, as usual, in looking forward to fall and cooler weather, I took leave of my senses and planted green beans and turnips yesterday.      Tomorrow, or this evening, I'd like to get some zucchini and more yellow summer squash planted. The other day I cooked up oni