Harvest Time means WORK

I don't know what I would do without my little wagon.  Those of you who have followed me for a long time know her as the JennyMac2000.  My friend, Jenny, was visiting me from California, and wanting to help me with my chores.  Before long she said this work was too hard, she was going to buy me a wagon.  I couldn't believe it, but she really did, and I am eternally grateful to her for this gift.

Today it has hauled a bucket full of pears to be made into juice and pearsauce for a certain Grandson.

And, a bucket full of Glowing Coal apples for the same purpose.  I have enough adult style applesauce on the pantry shelves to get us through the rest of this year.

Below is my new Steamer/Juicer that can be used for oh, so many things.  It's much easier to make apple juice with this than with the cider press.

Also in the kitchen today is a big pile of coffee beans.  My friend gave them to me raw, and I have been attempting to roast them.  Quite honestly, I don't think it's worth the time.

Now we will go outdoors.  Since the chickens have left, I finally get to eat the strawberries in my back garden.  Yum.  These are everbearing.

These are the new raspberry plants I acquired this year.  It is named "Ann" and it ripens the end of the summer.  They are ripe now, yellow.  Huge and juicy.  And once again, I do not have to share them with the chickens.  I have to say, my little venture with the organic chickens and turkeys was not a good one, and I count the days until all of them are out of my barn.  The pastures will be tilled and reseeded, thank goodness, because they are destroyed.

About those moles, do you think they could cause any more damage?

This is my friend and neighbor from the 'hood, Hunter, with the turkeys.  Hunter is 23 and is a special needs boy.  I have never worked with people with special needs before, so this has been a learning experience for me.  Hunter lives up the street in an
Adult Care Facility. One day we went blackberry picking together, and I was showing him how to do something, and he tells me:  "Slow and easy is how I go, Linda".   He is bored and wants to work.  He comes around here every day, and I try to find jobs for him to do.  Today he took me back to where the turkeys are kept and showed me how he had cleaned up the area.

He had done this of his own accord.  (the barn is a total mess)

So, I put him to work with JennyMac2000 spreading bark in my flower beds.

When he left he told me his arms were killing him.  Glad he did this for me.  Thank you, friend.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NOOKSACK

I was at the City Park bright and early yesterday to start preparing for the big celebration.  I established a "command headquarters" for myself in the gazebo, and provided a table and chairs for the musicians to use while not playing.  I got to work washing down all of the picnic tables with bleach water.

Being me, I had floral arrangements on all of the tables.

One of the posters on display

 Here I am with my friend Char and Pastor Bob.  Bob provided the sound system as well as sang in the Barbershop chorus, the Bellingham Blend.

This is the historical display that was set up in City Hall.  There was always a crowd in here, going over the papers.  I did not get a chance to see them, since I was busy at the part.  However, I heard they even had the minutes of the very first meeting of the Nooksack City Council.

This handsome pair picked up passengers at City Hall about every 20 minutes.  They pulled a large carriage full of people on a tour of my farm.  My place is really the only place to go in Nooksack to see and experience what it might have been like 100 years ago.  With the Homestead house and the 100+ year old barn, along with the crazy turkeys and two mules who were very excited every time the horses came through, it was a huge success.

The highlight of my day was getting to drive the team on the tour in the late afternoon.  What a thrill!  It's quite a sensation to realize you have two very large and powerful animals at your control with just a gentle movement on the reins.  I was totally taken, and I'm thinking of taking driving lessons.

 Here are my two dear friends from the 'hood.

 Some of the crowd milling about.  Those men in the vests are part of the barbershop chorus.

 The food table.  We served 350 hot dogs and 336 pieces of cake.

This is the bluegrass group I found at the last minute.  They had never played together before, but they did a great job.  Thank you Hjardar, Jane, Jordan and Angus.  You were spectacular.

I will be getting many more pictures from others who were at the picnic, so I will be posting more in the days to come.  Today, at church, we are having a big potluck after services to welcome all of those former members who came "home to Nooksack" to join in the celebration.

Time to Catch my Breath

I have been so busy lately.  Work on the Nooksack Centennial Celebration has taken a lot of my time.  You think I would concentrate on that, but, nooooooooooo, I see things I want to do and just do it.  I had this small can of green paint and decided to paint the front door.  I like this.  It goes well with the new roof.

My son and his wife brought my Grandson, Cadel, for a visit on
Saturday.

Cadel is such a happy little guy.  He is very busy with his arms and legs, but is not crawling yet.

I made Blueberry/Blackberry cobbler for dessert.

My DIL was attempting to eat hers while holding Cadel, but he caught the dish with his foot and it ended up on the floor, whipped cream side down.  That was okay.  A carpet can be cleaned, and there was plenty more cobbler.

The next day, a new friend of mine came over to help me in the yard.  We got a real chuckle at the duck's curiosity.

They followed him all over as he spread the wood chips in the flower beds.

I'm getting my yard spruced up for the Nooksack Centenial Celebration.  People will have the opportunity to take carriage rides through the town, and it includes a trip through my farm.  I want everything to look perfect.

After a long day of work, I took my friend over to visit my old alpaca herd.

The other night at our church's Ladies Night Out, we had the opportunity to hear Sherri Sheppard speak about marriage and Faith.  Our Pastor's wife requested that we all bring our wedding pictures.  It was her anniversary, and she thought it would be fun.

I chose this picture, because it included our best man, who was my Pastor's older brother!

Gordon, our best man, unfortunately died three years later while working on ski Patrol on Mt. Baker.  I have duplicates of this picture, so I sent one home to Pastor Bob.  What a small world this is.  I didn't start attending this church until last winter.  To discover this connection was such a surprise.  But, it is a small world, and these kind of surprises are popping up all the time.

So, Saturday is the Celebration.  This week I lost three of my entertainers (Oh NO!) but serendipitously, found a bluegrass band to take their places.  It's going to be a beautiful, warm day, just right for a Birthday Party in the Park.

Catching up

I finally figured out that I have to make Google my browser in order to download pictures onto my blog.  Now where have I been?  I'm way behind, I'll tell you that.  Sooooooooo,

I'm going to try to catch you up on what's been going on here.

Below are the ribbons I won at the County Fair last week.  I still did not get a blue for my Raspberry Jelly, which was my goal.  They tasted it and wrote "Yummy!" on the scorecard, but also indicated I was to have 1/4 inch of space at the top of the jar.  I guess I had 3/8ths inch.  Afterall, I sew.

Here is the afghan I made out of my own alpaca yarns, together with a few novelty yarns for interest.  I was docked 2 points for the novelty yarns because "texture is distracting".  I laughed at that, because texture and color are my mantra.  In these competitions, the judges get very confused by artistic application.

I had to harvest my first potatoes early because the chickens that are residing at my place, owned by an organic farmer, get loose and are destroying all of my beds.  They scratched so much around the potato plants, the potatoes were exposed to the sun, so I had to save what I could before they dug to China.

Then, I canned some cherries.  There is a story to this.  My Grandmother, who lived across the street from us my first 10 years, canned cherries, and called them Cherros.  My brother and I loved them, and would have contests to see who could eat the most.  Since the pits were still in, it was easy to keep track, but my brother always won.  These are for him.

Now, due to the 1000 chickens on my property, causing me nothing but grief with the smell and the mess in the barn, and the destruction of the gardens, the owner is bribing me with a CSA box of goodies every two weeks.  I'm not sure what CSA stands for, but it is a program that you can subscribe to by paying ahead of time for boxes of fresh goodies every two weeks.  By paying for it up front at the start of the season, it gives the Farmer the collateral needed to plant and grow the goods.

The picture below is last weeks box.  I made juice out of the peaches and nectarines and canned the tomatoes.  I also made pickled dilly beans, but added lots of garlic, hot chilis, anaheim chilis, and small onions.

The Gravenstein apples are ripe, and I have made lots of canned applesauce and apple juice for my Grandson, Cadel, who is now 6 months and trying out foods.

I have several people coming to pick apples today, so guess I'd best get on the ball.

Anniversary

I have been trying to post here for a week now, but don't like to do so without at least ONE picture.  Blogger does not want to download any of my pics!!  I don't get it.  Does anyone have a clue?

So, writing seems to sooth my soul, and I have the need for some soothing.  Next Sunday marks the 40th wedding anniversary of my deceased DH and me.  I try so hard to be strong, and I continue to insist that dates and family traditions don't mean anything to me.  But here is the truth:  Your heart and your mind are in control.  I have been crying for three days now.  Even knowing why does not help.  I guess it's just another stage of grief.  I am so thankful for the support and prayers of my friends, and especially my friend Char who has been widowed for 6 years.  She's been here and can guide me.  Sometimes it hits like a sledgehammer, others it's just creeping in, lying below the surface.

I know this will pass.  I know I am strong.  I also know I am painfully lonely.

NOOKSACK CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION

Plans for the Nooksack Centennial Celebration are moving right along.  It is only about 7 weeks away, being held on September 8th.

I wound up handling publicity and entertainment, but I'm thrilled at how it is all falling together.

Above is one of the banners we have along Highway 9.

Here is the BIG banner, being carried by some kids I recruited the day before the parade for the Everson Nooksack Festival.

We will be serving hot dogs, ice cream and cake.  Afterall, it is a birthday party!!!  What else would you serve?

The entertainment includes two barbershop choruses, an Elvis impersonator, the Nooksack Indian Tribe with a drum ceremonial and dancing, and hopefully a Latina rock band.

Several businesses are having open house that day.

I'm hoping that Country Partners 4-H group decides to provide a petting zoo.

AND, we have a carriage drawn by draft horses that will give free rides through town and on my farm, past the homestead house of Mary Harkness and the 120 year old barn.  I'm really excited about sharing my farm for this purpose.  It is the only piece of agricultural zoned property left here in town, and it will provide a living history lesson to those who take the ride.

The Celebration will be held in Nooksack City Park on Saturday, September 8th from noon to 3pm.

Oh, I forgot to mention that my church, Nooksack Christian Fellowship, will be holding open house from 11am until 5pm.  Their building is also 100 years old this year, and they will be featuring on display the vintage quilt that I researched and traced back to this church.

Now, let's all pray for a bright sunny day!

Ducks in a Row

I LOVEMY DUCKS.

I never realized what wonderful personalities these birds have.  They are such characters!  I hear them each morning as I awake, and it reminds me I have animals to care for again.  They are pretty easy maintenance, but it's fun to go out and check on them.  If I can't find them, I just say "Here duck duck". and they will chirp back at me.  (being youngsters, they don't yet quack)  In the picture above they are on slug patrol.  Those slugs must be as good as a box of chocolates.  Oh, here's a big one!  Let's see, does this have a nougat filling?  They really know how to put them away.

Here they were following me so closely, I had difficulty getting a picture.

The other night I had my knitting group here.  We were sitting in the shade in the front yard.  The ducks could apparently hear the frivolity and came around to join us.  When the first person got up to leave, they escorted her to her car!!

Here is part of my back garden.  I decided to fill it with containers this year to give it height and interest.  I like it, but it does take more watering than flowers in the ground.  Good thing I have an irrigation well.

Last, but not least, here are the yarns I made this week.  I have been trying to rest my ribs so have gotten alot accomplished in this area.