Surviving July

A Typical Day's Haul

I've been thinking lately that July is pretty much just about surviving anymore, and August too for that matter.  Me, the plants, the animals, we are all just trying to get through the hot, humid weeks and make it to the other side.  I hear those of us in North Carolina are not the only ones suffering and maybe not even suffering the worst with highs in the upper 90's and into the 100's all across the country over the past few weeks, it's just brutal in general.  The only thing that's saving us here is a fair amount of rain keeping things alive.

It's been a while since my last post and we are just hanging in trying to stay on top of the weeds and the harvest and holding our breath till we leave for a much anticipated vacation to the Pacific Northwest where they are experiencing Junuary, with highs in the 60's. I'm so ready.  The idea of needing a fleece at night has me positively giddy.

In the meantime, here is a bit of what I've been up to lately.

This guy was so tall I had to get up on a step stool to take this picture.   It came up voluntarily in the veg garden and we enjoyed it for a few weeks until the wind blew it down and after I stood it back up, the squirrels pulled it down again to snack on the seeds. SQUIRRELS! The bums, they have been eating tomatoes and blueberries so we polished off the 22 and popped a few as they fed under the bird feeder. Think we got the worst offenders though there are always more and the wiliest ones are staying out of range.

It was time to harvest the last of the beets, not a bad showing for the end of the season.  About 8 pounds. We had them roasted, boiled and I pickled 6 pints for later.  Delish.

On a rare and horridly hot and steamy walk I encountered this handsome lad.  Just down the trail about 10 feet was a female.  Not sure if they were just about to find each other or had just finished an encounter.  Or maybe they were just minding their own business, I traveled on.

And finally, in the silly/freak vegetable category, the donut cucumber.

Other wise, we took a short trip to the mountains, missing a few of the 100+ days in late June, spent our time sitting with our feet in the creek or standing under waterfalls, dipping into pools, really a blessing. I went to the beach for a day trip with a couple of girlfriends, crazy: 6 hours in the car, 6 on the beach, but worth it to dip into the Atlantic and watch the waves roll in. 

So now we are just counting the days until we depart for the cool climes and hope that things will survive while we are gone under the watchful eyes of neighbors, family and friends who will pick and water and eat the bounty that we will be leaving behind.  Hopefully I can get a couple of batches of tomato sauce into the freezer before we leave and there will still be some figs when we get back.