Thursday, August 13, 2009

A Day in August

It was another one of those days where I felt it was just too hot to work outside. I am being more mindful of my health and it makes no sense to push myself to work unduly. Wearing myself down or pulling muscles because I've pushed myself too hard is just plain stupid. Working for myself lets me set my own hours, and I figure if I don't get some task done today, I'll finish it another time. Learning to work with the seasons is definitely therapuetic. I have decided to enjoy my life and "smell the flowers" instead of being worried about issues that tend to resolve themselves without any input from me. I think in these stressful times with the economy being what it is, that people need to just stop, take a deep breath, and look around them. Doing only that can many times break a person out of the rut they may not realize they are in, and waking up outside of the "box" of your life, can clarify what is "real" and "important".

That being said, I scrubbed the house down again today: washed the floors, dusted, vacuummed the basement and stairs. Tomorrow I'll do the laundry. I did get the chicken coop overhauled for winter. Boy, what a difference! The hens really like it. (I had 18 eggs today, hoo-ray!) I want to get a couple more bales of wood shavings to make the bedding at least 6" deep before the cold weather sets in. I re-hung the doors to make them easier to open, too.

Talked to Tom today about buying another freezer just for the butchered chickens and about getting insurance. I think I'll give Rural Insurance a call tomorrow and see what they can do for me. Allstate said they wouldn't give me liability insurance for either on-farm sales or sales at the farmers market. I belong to the Wisconsin Farm Bureau who advertises Rural Insurance, so hopefully they will be able to help me.

I need to go to town tomorrow and, among other things, buy a folder for the Special Olympics files I have. I want to get the athlete info into my online calendar so the due dates for all the athletes' medical information which is renewed every so many years will not be missed. I need to get a supply of medical forms to be able to give to new athletes, too, so getting that organized before school starts up will keep things running smoothly. Organization prevents a host of problems!

The Butternut Fair is this weekend and I've been trying to decide if I'll enter anything this year. I don't have any crafts finished -- crafting big time will definitely be on this winter's agenda -- so I think I'll enter some canned goods. I made some apricot jam that looks gorgeous in the jar, and I just finished canning some collard/turnip greens from Tom's garden. I think I'll collect a dozen eggs and enter them, too. It isn't much, but Lara loves it when we enter things in the fair. Maybe I'll make my lemon blueberry pound cake; that's got to be a winner. It's too bad I don't have my latest table cloth and knitted pioneer "boy" dolls finished -- now those dolls are going to be something! Fair time is always fun.

I have some Noble Spinach and common garden sorrel seed drying on plates in the kitchen. Lots of seed! The Paris cos lettuce is starting to send up seed stalks now, too. I am going to let half the dill in the field go to seed. I hope to bring some of the Danvers Half Long carrots and Bulls Blood Beets through the winter for making seed next year. I may not have much produce, but getting a seed harvest evens things out a bit. Speaking of seed, I cleaned the onions, potato onions, garlics, and shallots yesterday and put them in baskets. I think I will keep the potato onions and shallots for re-planting in October when I plant the garlics so that I will have a nice amount to sell and keep for seed next year.

Well, I've prattled on long enough for today. Take care, All!

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