Oh, what a blog slacker I have been. Other more important things have been happening around here. And that's a good thing. As for the garden and food preserving, I admit to being a passive slacker. And that's okay. On the treehouse front, things have gone pretty well. G and S picked out crazy Brady Bunch material from Ikea for me to whip up into curtains. Above is the south wall with said curtains. The west window has the same (to the left in this frame). It's really lovely up there. Lots of light. You can see part of the roof on the above photo. For now, the walls only have single coat of white primer on. It makes my amazing, perfectionist (I say this with love) husband crazy that we can't make it as he sees it in his head (due to not being independently wealthy!)! He wants insulation, drywall, paint, window framing complete, proper furniture, etc... I keep saying, "Babe! It's a Tree. House. We've got years to make it how we want it!" It's hard to be patient with reality. I so get it.
Here's G balancing precariously at about 18 feet above the ground putting the roofing panels in place. My most stressful day of being his assistant. I kept wondering how the ambulance would make it's way all the way to the back yard... fortunately, no one fell off the roof!
Lacto-fermented pickles. FAIL. Okay, so actually this was the first time they stayed crunchy. I haven't tried counter-top pickles in at least 10 years due to soggy pickles. However, I clearly put too much salt in them. I rinsed a batch and tried storing them in a less salty brine, but then they got soggy. Damn. I should have just canned them. I know I would have wasted all that precious bacteria had I done so, but at least they'd be edible. Perhaps I can tie them to trees in the woods for winter time deer salt licks. Ack.
S dressed as a maid in a mid-summer production with the local youth theater group. Always fun there! This was her fourth (or maybe 5th?!) time acting with them. Love it!
Peaches! From our tree! This was the first year since we've planted this tree that we harvested peaches! Granted, not a whole lot of them, but still! Yum! We got a 9 x 13 cake pan of peach cobbler from this year's "harvest". Obviously there's other things in this basket that did not end up in the cobbler...
I've canned NADA this year. I processed and froze corn from a local farm. I've also frozen lots of cilantro, garlic scapes, and kale. I've dehydrated a ton of garlic, tomatoes, strawberries and currants. I made tomato glut this afternoon that is now in the freezer. I will likely make more sauerkraut when I harvest the cabbage. We've got tomatoes continuing to ripen out there, a lot of leafy greens, some beets and the entire potato patch to harvest yet. But that's it. See?
A very garden passive summer.
Miss S turned 12 on September 1st. Holy cow, I've got a 7th grader! A very wonderful, amazing, funny, helpful, sweetheart of a girl, So sweet she's letting her little sister help her blow out the candles on her cake! She also decided to cut off all her hair in a decidedly brave move a few days before school was to begin. I love it! And more importantly, so does S!
All 3 kiddos at the "fish park". Can hardly see E, but he's there. :)
I took the kids swimming at the local pool the day before Labor Day since Labor Day was going to be 64 degrees. Even though the temp was 70 or so, we were still the only folks there. The life guards were all wearing hoodies! I admit, I didn't get in either. It was windy and cold! The kids being kids, swam with blue lips saying, "Awww, Mom! It's not that bad! You should get in!" Instead I sat pool-side in jeans and t-shirt, wrapped in a towel!
Tree house. Windows are all in. Curtains hung. We just need to figure out how we're building the railing and then build the stairs. I love it. I'm thankful for a heck of a crafty husband. Ready though to start tearing down the garden and prepping for winter.
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