August was a slow journey, but flew by.

 I still don't know how that happens. While we were experiencing August, every day slogged as slow as molasses in January, but upon reflection, was as busy as a hive before the first chill and flew by like that final weekend before school starts.

The storms were large, but coming at a much slower pace, requiring the irrigation system to aid in the watering. We were loosing more water through evaporation than was falling from the sky. Only on one evening, did a lovely cold front come through to give us a break from the dreadful humidity, and the dry air provided us a rare, clear view of the Milky Way in July.

August means the start of the fair season. Country fairs come first, but the thought of going in the heat and humidity was off-putting. I certainly had no plans to enter anything this year. I had already entered in our country and all adjoining counties (which is allowed in the rules) and won blue and red ribbons.  Between the challenge being old, the drive, and the weather, I was simply not in the mood this year.

Canning season was underway with a fury. The jar cabinet in the basement was bare, and there was always something in the pressure canner; beans, peas, beef, chicken, stew meats, corn, jellies, sauces, tomato sauce and purees.

Orange Jelly

The grapes came in finally towards the middle of the month and cooked up to the most lovely shade of rose jelly. It was then I had the brilliant idea to enter the State Fair, a four hour round trip. I dreaded that idea until I found out that I could mail my entry. Done.  I entrusted both a jar of the jelly and a jar of my plum duck sauce to the USPost.

More canning and Suzie filled my days of waiting.

Sometime in the month of July, Suzie managed to pull the tendon in her good back knee. In reality it wasn't good. The knee that she came to use with freshly repaired had been neglected so long by her previous owners that she weakened and wore out her other knee.  We still don't know how she did it, but she had surgery and was home on the same day, walking around and being pampered and drugged to the moon for three days, but wanting to play.  She was a little slower for a few days after that, but honestly almost back to her normal self within a week. Although we DO throttle her back and won't let her go on long walks or horse around like a crazy dog, yet. 

In the midst of the canning frenzy, there was, of course, a needed comedic moment. So again, enjoy at my expense.

I had spent the past week canning and have barely come up for air. I was getting 20 pounds of tomatoes every 2-3 days. The peas were done. The greenbeans were done. Plum sauce was done. And I was in in the middle of jelly. Chicken soup was done. Ground beef and stew meat was done. Chunk and shredded chicken was done. I still needed to do sweet corn (it's not quite ripe yet.) Beyond that it's just keeping up with the tomatoes until the frost kills them off. Then I'll just preserve up left overs as they come, spaghetti sauce and such.
Last night I did 10 quarts of chicken soup and this morning I noticed one didn't seal. So I wasn't thinking and dumped it down the drain. It was like that slow motion moment when you lock your keys in the car at the same time you are slamming the door shut. Ya. Shredded chicken down the drain. Of course it clogged the T-joint. I have to unclog it sooner than later, I have 40 pounds of tomatoes on the counter. I can't can without water. I have a cake to bake and dinner to do. SO.....

So here I am with 15 pounds of simmering grapes on the stove (it's a timed thing) and a sink about two inches deep in water, and I have to take the underside apart and clear it. grrrrr.

Then I take it apart only to find the 6qt bowl I've put under the plumbing isn't enough. SO NOW I'm sitting on the floor, with grapes simmering on the stove, a bowl filled to the brim dripping black chicken water onto the old towel I DID have the brains to put under the bowl, and using the flat of my hand to block the pipe from the garbage disposal. OK, NOW WHAT?! (Can you picture this?? It's funny as hell.)

My brain briefly pondered dumping the bowl in the sink. DUH, I can't lift it with one hand while my finger is in the dyke. and oh ya, that water would be going into the broken sink. OK NOW WHAT??? OK need another bowl, pot, anything. Hmmm... So now I'm holding back sludge with the flat of my right hand and turning my body around like some kind of sadistic version of Welcome to Adulting Twister, so that I can reach the pot cabinet opposite the sink on my left, you know the cabinet that holds all my CAST IRON POTS.

I can reach the knob to open the cabinet no problem, but I cannot reach the top of the slide out drawer to pull the 30 pound drawer of iron pots towards me to grab a 6 qt pot. So keeping my hand on the drain hole, I twist more and send my left foot around and up to the lip of the drawer. (God, I'm glad I'm still bendy.)The whole time the timer on the microwave is counting down to turn off the gas for the jelly juice. I snag the drawer, grab the big dutch oven and twist myself and it towards the sink again. Now where to put the damn thing? The other bowl is taking up the room I need and the garbage disposal is in the way. I have to hold the bowl with one hand long enough to get the other away from the hole, then I can two hand it. Geesh, what a smelly mess.get the whole thing drained, and the grey water (literally) dumped down the utility sink in the laundry, and clean the pipes, the cabinet and put the whole thing back together and sanitized. The timer on the jelly juice had 40 seconds to spare. I swept and mopped the floors and dealt with the juice.

What an adventure that was.

They boys took the month of July in stride. What else are they supposed to do?

They spent a lot of time lounging in the long cool grass in the evenings, their afternoons napping in front of the giant barn fans, and their mornings in their favorite shady spots chewing their cud. What a life,eh?

The garden was still plugging along although the tomatoes were struggling. The large hauls of the early weeks of August came to a screeching halt, and became a trickle. I would harvest anything orange or red before each storm to avoid splitting on the day after the rains. My counter top was covered in smaller and smaller piles of tomatoes ripening, awaiting the mill and the simmering pot. Although, I'm sure the men were happy to not come home every day to the house smelling of oregano.

A couple of the beefsteak tomatoes threw me a few giants, which Chris was more than happy to eat atop hamburgers, on salad, broiled with cheese,or simply sliced and salted on a plate.

One of the gorgeous Prairie Grasshoppers. These
are the same species that are known for the great
black plague of hoppers of the prairie lore. In great numbers
they were known to eat anything organic, including tanned
leathers on their march through the countryside. Luckily here, the 
hens keep their numbers in check. 

The literal heart of one of the giant tomatoes.

As the end of the month approached, so did the opening of the State Fair.  A weekday visit was out of the question, as the dog couldn't go too long without company or a trip outside. Doc would be home one the weekend, and while opening day Saturday would be in the humid 90s, and Sunday would be only in the
low 80s and dry, I chose Saturday as other shops I wanted to visit would be open. So off I went to enjoy a couple hours at the fair.  It was a quick trip and a blur but it was a nice outing. Imagine my surprise when I went to the Open Class exhibit hall and came across this!

The Catawba grape jelly from our
vines came in first place, and the plum
sauce came in fourth. I'm happy
with that!

Dewy, hot mornings are August's trademark.

The month of August decided to not end on a quiet note. The thermostat decided to die on the final Sunday morning of the month and no one could come to replace it's digital goodness until sometime on Tuesday.  No thermostat, no AC. Mother Nature having the sense of humour that she does, cranked up the heat and humidity on Monday to feeling like 105'F.  There was no wind at all, and I couldn't get the house cool. That night, with lightning in the distance, we slept outside on the deck, which was only a few degrees cooler than inside the house. We abandoned the deck about 1am when the lightning became too bright and the mosquitoes found us.  Joker that she is, the day the thermostat arrived, was breezy, gorgeous, and only 74 degrees. 

The MidPoint of Summer

 July feels like it's smack in the middle of Summer. When in reality it is the downward slope. Our minds fight with the calendar perception of summer being June, July, and August, while the garden and crops are just getting truly in July, and while the sunlight hours of the day start to plummet.  While it does manage to get quite warm in June, July is the barometer for the impending heat in August. In which case, July was already telling us that August would be brutal. The rains and storms were still coming on a regular basis, but were slowing down.  The storms were violent, beautiful, and came mostly at night.

The heat index would routinely hit over 100 and reached 117'F on a regular basis. Smoke from Western wildfires hung in the air like a dirty yellow blanket. Day and night the skies offered only filtered light, and little clean oxygen to breathe.

After the 4th of July, we seemed to skip July altogether and go into the drought and oppressive heat normally reserved for August. Tomatoes and plants enjoy the warm nights but brutally hot days and ridiculously hot nights stunted them I was looking towards a lower than average harvest season in a year that had seemed perfect for them.  The grapevine was still going gangbusters and I was enjoying documenting their quick progression.  

The zinnias, cut flowers, and sunflowers took off and were enjoyed by not only the pollinators but also the local small songbirds.

By the 3rd week in July we brought in our first basket of tomatoes and the grapes were turning deep rose. Canning season had started!  

Last year I crossed a black corn with an orange corn and came up with the center corn. FUN!

Tomatoes and Blackberries

These are giant green June Bugs, and we
were up to our eyeballs in them in the 
chicken garden. They especially love to lay 
their eggs in poo, which the chicken garden is
planted in. The chickens LOVE to eat the tomatoes
AND the beetles.

The littles started sleeping inside, but didn't quite understand
they were to use the perches. Instead they slept on the nest box 
edges and the fan mount, which resulted in a few clipped feathers
and toenails.

The cutflowers including alfalfa, Queen Anne's lace, and 

Let the Monsoon Begin

 The rainy month of May continued into June. It was a LOT of rain. More than once it came fast enough, and hard enough to cause a river to run through the pasture. The storms came night and day, but luckily we missed all the hail, and the most severe winds, but the lightning was close and beautiful.

I was beginning to wonder if it would ever stop raining on an almost every other day basis.  The heat was creeping up and it wasn't leaving, not even at night. I started to wonder if we were in for a wet summer. I was eyeballing haying season and trying to figure out how to cut and dry hay with rain perpetually falling from the sky. Of course all the rain made for a banner hay crop. In all the years we've been here I'd never seen it so high and thick. I wasn't sure it would make it to a mid to late July cutting. If I cut it early enough, I could get a second cut out of it if I wanted to.  As I pondered over the passing days, the temperatures continued to rise. We went from comfortable to just plain miserable. Our temperatures were in the 90s and the heat index with the humidity was well over 100 every day.

Tomatoes loves the warmth at night, but what they don't like is the endless hard heat all day, and they do prefer their roots to not be soggy all the time. I started watching for blight, fungus, mineral deprivation, fruit setting issues, and end rot.  I had pre-treated not only the seedlings but the garden for end rot, but with all the rain, the treatments became moot. Vigilance was the name of the game. The garden as a whole went from seedlings to jungle in a flash. 

Early May

Mid May

Late May

Catawba Grapes

In fact, everything around us seemed to be really enjoying all the extra moisture. The new cottonwood tree and the river birch grew almost 6 feet this spring, which is incredible.  The willow trees went crazy, although they are kept in check by the alpacas. 

Arapahoe Blackberries

Oodles and oodles of Mulberries. I didn't make any into jam this year. I left them all for the wildlife and the hens. 

The first of the gorgeous sunflowers. Dwarf Scarlet

The bulging hay field.

Wisteria

 About the third week of June I started watching the weather patterns very carefully. I needed a full 3, preferably 4, days of wind, sun, heat, no morning dew or rain to make hay. I had already watched the local farmers take in the first round of alfalfa, but it was still too early at that point for me.  At the very end of the month I could see it coming, a TINY window. Doc and I moved all of last year's hay to the barn and I cleaned the hay shed in preparation for making hay. I could do everything alone, but the loading and stacking so I had to time it so the men could help me there. 

Rain at night, an high dew points, meant foggy and 
dewy mornings. Terrible for drying hay.

With the hay shed clean, all I could do was wait. Then I saw it a small window of nice weather. It would put the final day of drying and baling on a weekday, and as always, up against impending rain, but it would have to do.  I cut, tedded, turned, waited, turned it again, raked it, and baled it and we all loaded it in the shed.  Last year was a good year, and this year's yield beat it by 30%!  We filled the shed to the brim on the same day we STARTED using our first bale from last year.  I decided not to do a second cutting of hay and just allow the whole field to rest while the rains were coming and supporting seed development and reseeding the field.

With the garden plugging along and the animals all taken care of and the hay in for the year, I took the opportunity to hide inside. Since the Grad was home and needed the space I had my sewing equipment in, I decided to give the whole room to him for his home office. I collected everything and scrounged craigslist for a large table to use as a cutting table and set up shop in the partially finished basement.I hung a couple of inexpensive curtains from the ceiling to block the view of things in storage. Of course after I set everything up for maximum ease and efficiency, I closed my etsy shop. It was driving me insane. The customers were amazing and I do miss it, but the policies that were constantly changing had me loosing money on each transaction, and I had no identity of my own. Think about it, when you get something on etsy, and someone asks you where you got it, what do you say?  Do you remember the shop name or the creator without looking? Nope, you say, "I got it one etsy."  I decided to stick to a small local shop that supports local sellers and craftsmen.  

June being her adorable country self.

The boys waiting for me to hold the hose and cool 
them down.

May- The Lovely Month Of May

 The glorious, mad, merry month of May. I love it. The still cool evening, the moisture in the air, and the warm days before the bugs get going. The atmosphere gives way to towering thunderstorms the fully saturate the waiting soil.

The focus of the early portion of the month was taken up with weekly baking for a local shop, and moving the items in the overflowing seeding shed to the greenhouse.  The increase in warmth and direct, real sunshine was heaven for the plants.

Whole Wheat Challah and Whole Wheat Sugar Cookies 

Mother's Day Plant Sale

The warming month was welcome to everything on the ranch. 

Sunbathing Suzie

Sunbathing Chickens

We did find time to have a new college graduate. 

Surprisingly enough, graduation day was only 40 degrees, howling winds, and threatened rain, but picture day was glorious!

The lilacs and the iris' bloomed right on schedule.

The weather was simply glorious this May. We had plenty of rain and after the first weekend of the month, it warmed up considerably, but not to the point of having to try to keep the alpacas cool before the sheering team to get to them.

  

This year the team was coming at the end of May instead of June. It's a good thing, because they were thick, and woolly, and crazy.

Yup, that's the same critter.

By the 25th the soil was warm enough and wet enough to get the garden in the ground. Row after row of tomatoes with zinnias (for the hummingbirds) and marigolds in between. Green beans and decorative corn with a patch of dill especially planted for the Swallowtail butterflies filled out the rest. I made room for sunflower giants for the song birds in the fall. (Blackberries and Horseradish are permanent residents.)

It always looks so clean and happy before the weeds try to invade.

By now the babies are 8 weeks old and actually look like chickens. The big girls would invade the grow out pen during the day and visit. By the time I was sick and tired of cleaning up after them and the mess they made of the shop, they were just fine when I decided to chuck them into the main coop for good. No fuss, no muss, no fights.

As we slide into June, the maintenance month, I leave you with a real live, red, 6-spotted Ladybug.