Friday, June 24, 2011

It has been a long week.  I’ve been playing a lot of catch up because I’ve been balancing a lot of projects lately.  The strawberry pick is in full swing, and I headed out and picked another 27 pounds.  So far, that means I have picked a total of 123 pounds.  I’m not done yet either.  I think one more pick and I’m done for the season.  I’ve got 90 pint bags in the freezer full of berries now.  I would have made it to 100 last night, but I am completely out of freezer space.  I am going to have to do some rearranging, because I should have SOME space, but apparently 3 freezers is not enough for me!

My rabbits, Thing 1 and Thing 2 both kindled again!  I’m very excited about it.  There are a total of 20 kits out there, and I’m confident that they will all make it!  These rabbits are reserved to be sold to our restaurant customer, Thistle.  The head chef there is very excited to have a source for a heritage breed rabbit.  The good news is that my does that were born in February should be ready to breed this month, so they will make it into the production line soon.  I also spoke to the person who bred them this week, and she told me that her does are due to kindle soon, which means I will have a source for two more does to step up my rabbit production!  I love these American Blues!

The weeds taking over the garden have started to bother me, so I’ve been getting up at 5 am to weed.  I weed just two rows and then call it quits.  It is actually really easy to do, and weeding at 5am is my new favorite time.  I am out where I can see the sun rise, and it’s just me and the birds.  The garden is doing well now that it is not being choked off by weeds.  I think I will even be able to harvest my first summer squash here in the next week or so.  I see fried zucchini sandwiches in my future.

I made it out to weed my new raised herb gardens.  The grass was threatening to take over, so Daphne and I got on the job and got it weeded and then we mulched it with a heavy layer of straw.  It looks so nice, and those plants will be very happy.

I got on top of it, and after a week of not being able to use the mower for various reasons, I mowed and mowed and mowed.  I LOVE the look of a freshly mown lawn.  Our place is really starting to look like something.  I am still playing catch up because no one took care of the property for two or three years before we moved out here.

We got some bummer news this week.  Just when we thought we were going to close on the loan for our house to officially own it, the bank denied the loan.  After jumping through various hoops to make other things OK (banks don’t like to lend to people who file Schedule F’s, we are also considered self-employed), the bank threw a fit that our property is on two tax lots with a road dividing it.  They denied the loan unless we could figure out how to purchase our lower lot separately.  We are not scrambling to restructure everything so that we can order a new appraisal and then they might be ok to close.  The buggers.  I’ve been a little bit down about this situation.

I spent the evening getting things caught up in my kitchen.  I had so many fermenting things that needed my help and attention.  The vinegar needed to be bottled, the wine needed to be stirred, the sourdough needed to be fed, the cheese needed to have the brine changed, etc.  I spent the whole evening taking care of all these things, so now I have no unfinished projects sitting in my kitchen.

Oh… my hen hatched out another 3 (so far) chicks, so it will be fun to see them wandering around the barn yard.