Just came in from tilling. I'm making a new Iris bed in front of the house. I received 122 + Iris in the mail today from my Daves Garden Co-op. I didn't think I would get them this soon, so I have been tilling like crazy.

It has been raining so the new ground was not to bad to work with. I need to add more dirt to the low spots tomorrow and start planting.

Tis morning started out with a walk on the trails, then the rain came. It was such a light rain soft on the cheeks so I did not hurry. These last few days have been just wonderful weather wise. I'm thinking of moving my fall decorating up soon.

In The Kitchen:

Canning all those cherry tomatoes in to tomato sauce.

Oh how they grow good but so many. Just got the right thing for em. A food mill. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half , let em cook to soften up the skins and toss in the food mill. Grind away

I'm thinkin my own version of V8 , yum

Back jars have whole tomatoes which I left the seeds in, I don't really mind the seeds. But I have seen some pretty jars at the fair that the tomatoes did not have a seed one, blue ribbon stuff I tell ya.

So more canning and freezing up thegarden harvest. I might make some pear honey this weekend, yummy

Butterfly & Bee Garden:

This I planted from seed and a new plant on the homestead. Seed givin to me from DG member.

Honey Bee Blue, Agastache. I also have some white but it has not bloom yet.

Summer heat has kept me from doing a lot of weeding so with the rains and cooler weather , its cleanup time in the gardens.

Brown bagging:

Yep sis and I are still bringing our lunches when we go into town, this is where we stopped and had lunch earlier this week. Its so peaceful and the ducks and geese swim along. The sounds of a motorboat in the distance. It makes for a lovely place to eat a meal.

Morning Dew:

Lots of heavy dews that helps from watering and lots of foggy morning to this season.

A couple of pictures I took, thought they were cool, first one is dew on the thinnest little weeds, almost hair like , so delicate with a tint of color

This picture is a dew drop on a rusted cattle fence. Why this? Well it reminds me of one of the stories my Dad would tell sis and I when we were little girls. He said that there was another world in a drop of water, one so tiny we could not see with our eyes. Little tiny beings all in a world of their own. I know it sounds scifi but back then he had us with our eyes open and looking at the smallest things with awe.

Heres a morning dew poem you might enjoy.

Morning Dew
by Robert Frost

How does it get there?
It just appears from nowhere
The morning dew comes down
And the sun starts to shine.

It's so thin and hardly moist
Like the air of a mountain
The morning dew comes down
And morning's officially begun.

It hardly ever comes
At the exact same time
The morning dew comes down
And clouds peak through the sky.

It never lasts long
Like the good things in life
The morning dew comes down
Meaning another gorgeous day.



All take good care
Many Blessings
linda

We had been planning on going to the mountains for a camping trip, but my Mom and Dad called last night and invited us to go to the coast crabbing with them...and who could turn that down..

It will cost us a bit more then we had planned, but I think it will be worth it... I love the coast... and if my family were not all here, I would move back there in a heart beat... So after tomorrow morning I will be out of touch until Sunday evening... Now lets see... pack suitcases, plan food... so much to do  lol.... See you later

Today's gloomy task was to clear all the dead and dying tomatoes from the polytunnel. Blight has got the lot, we bottled maybe six pints, and had a few salads – but now a mountain of promise lies rotting and brown. I could cry.

You don't have to let it get to you, but you do have to reassess, and when you start reviewing one thing, as you know, it tends to get into reviewing a few.

What I did wrong in the tunnel is plant things way too close together, and get too much in. I had seven or so of each variety of tomato – I would have been better with one or two. The yield would have been as good (well, better than the current zero!) and it would have been easier to keep everything in control, plus of course the plants would have had the requisite air and light. You see as a result of planting too much, I didn't have enough time to tend the plants as required.

I'd tended to rely on two bush varieties, which don't need pinching out and training – but of course in their happy rambling way, they are the perfect host for blight.

The vines I did have were interesting. Unusual. Different colours ... but obviously not very blight resistant!

I'm seeing it as a painful metaphor! I try to get too much into life, as well, try to cram in more things, and then lack the time to tend them and do them properly. All my zones could do with a little more light and air! And more love and attention lavished on their development.

I feel as if I've just focussed on detail, like the pretty tomatoes, and not made sure that each of the areas of my life has air light and water, and preferably is blight resistant! In other words, the valuable things need to be kept going, and done with love, respect, and attention to detail.

This year I haven't given the garden the attention it deserves, and I believe that is because we took a year off from its being an income stream – it was nice, not worrying too much, but it hasn't made for a good garden, and I don't feel as if I've made my contribution – so I would like to get back to proper production next year. Running my own 'micro business' within our family enterprise made me feel stronger, more accountable – it kept lines of communication open between me and God as well as me and the community.

School preparation was muddled and clouded by our great hope of getting the girls into a lovely christian school – but that wasn't in God's plan for this year, and now I do feel I've made a good start on getting ready for another year's homeschooling. I am sad that they can't go to school, but obedient to God's 'no' (or maybe 'not yet'). I also think I've been more realistic about curriculum this year, I have stepped away from CLE and constructed something mostly Ambleside, but with big input from Galore Park – I hope that will leave air and light around our schedule, and protect us from the blight of frustration, when things don't go well, and we are mired down with samey work books.

I've given up being a Brownie Guider, for the time being, as the Brownie team is strong and needs to go ahead and develop the unit anew, so hopefully, that lets some air and light into the Guide Unit I still run.

The major work on the house is being done in the next few weeks (kitchen floor, then kitchen refit) so then I can hopefully schedule one small job at a time when it comes to smartening up the detail.

Church .... well if you don't mind, we won't try to deal with that right now. At the back of the polytunnel, the peppers are still going nicely! I'm sure I've done a few things wrong, and yes, they are a little tightly packed, but for now, they're doing OK. And they bear some fruit.

As for the two bush variety tomatoes – they demonstrate that finding a sparky, different, so much cooler way to do things doesn't always pay off. I am a great one for being too bored to do WeightWatchers or Flylady, convinced I'll have a brighter idea myself. So I sit fatly, in an untidy house, waiting for the fruit of my own brilliance to strike ..... !!!

Despite the sadness of a crop failure, this chance to reassess is a blessing. I know most people make new years resolutions in January – actually, we usually make ours after Easter – but maybe homeschoolers and gardeners should consider an after harvest rethink?!

The polytunnel in June - pleased as punch with all the healthy growth, I failed to spot the warning signs of overcrowded plants in a warm, moist atmosphere. The weather is the chief culprit when blight stirkes, but the gardener is not immune from criticism.

Learn about the Irish Potato Famine - which began with the Blight.

Learn about Potato Blight .

Our beautiful potato crop, before the blight took hold. You can see the flowers on the second earlies.

It all just comes tumbling down sometimes.

I've been reading Shane Claiborne's 'The Irresistable Revolution' and I haven't had time to hit the 'yeh but' phase, so I'm feeling like a complete sham. I love people like Claiborne – right out there, in Calcutta with Mother Theresa, in Iraq as the bombs dropped, the most amazing full on out there advocate for Jesus and His awesome love. Love Love Love. Love in action.

But they make me feel as if I've completely missed the point. And I'm here now, whether I like it or not, with two kids relying on me and a life to lead.

But the point is (yeh but is kicking in) we can't all be that person. Some of us are the ones who read the book, right? He talks about justice for the poor, struggling to get housing for poor families, well a couple of years ago, we were that family in just about liveable housing, so what gain by giving it up?

What I think it means, is, Take It Seriously. There is something you are here to do, so you have to seek it and do it, with all your heart (as unto the Lord) – and in our case, it's to do with food – rearing and growing food with which to bless the people around us, building relationships with them based upon the clean necessities of life – milk and honey (vegetables and eggs, too !) - and I think as a side issue, my kids and I have ended up with the horses. Some days I just wish we hadn't it feels like such a burden of guilt, such a pointless thing to do – but all my life horses have found me, and it doesn't look like it's going to stop now.

I love my horse – and we're having a bit of a moment right now – he's got a foot problem which may or may not be laminitis and I'm praying isn't something worse .... farrier's coming tomorrow, thankfully. I totally love my farrier. He's so cool – nothing's too much trouble, and he trades – we barter lamb for farriery services. His little boy is also the current caretaker of our mini mini pony, the Magster.

But Claiborne does eventually point out that in the early church, there were the wandering evangelists, and the settled support network – I guess the tendency is to read of the life and work of missionaries, radicals, and all those who get right out of their comfort zone for what they believe, and immediately and naturally identify with the central character. But there have to be support acts too, right?

So does it matter so too much what it is you're doing, as long as you're there, with open doors, to encourage the movers and shakers of the faith, welcome the struggling, and facilitate the fellowship?

Trouble is – I'm not so very good at all this open house stuff. I'm good at open garden, if that helps? And for a while, I've had that bustling, bugging, feeling that hospitality is a need - all our stuff, the veg garden, the sheep, the goats, the ponies – they fascinate people and draw them in.

What I think this book, and the surrounding events, have taught me is that I need to be less sniffy, I need to look for Jesus in everyone, and make them a cup of tea. What I hope it isn't about is the occasional guilt and burden I feel for having the horses, encouraging the girls to compete, watching them just get so wrapped up in it all ..... when other kids their age, in other places, cry themselves to sleep for want of food and die for need of clean water.

What I don't want to do is justify my own plenty in the face of my brothers' need.

What do you all think?

Well...for better of worse, my thesis ~ "The Biblical Basis for Homeschooling Christian Children" ~ has been turned in and I am waiting - w/frayed nerves - to find out what the grade - and reaction! - will be.

So, I have completed my credits for my Associate's Degree in Biblical Studies and am actually 18 credits into my Bachelor's! I attend a small seminary that does intensive degrees (and believe me...they ARE intensive!!). My pastor is the Dean...but that gives me no grace! lol

I'll be graduating on Sept. 13th. It's an odd date for graduation, I know, but a gentleman from Kenya was taking courses on-line and we raised the $$ for him to come and graduate w/us. I think the timing had something to do w/his Visa. But I'm excited!

I'm doing this, mostly, b/c I have no idea what I will be doing after we graduate our youngest dd this spring...our last homeschool graduate! WOW!! After 16 years, it just seems so unreal to think about. The time has FLOWN!

I'm hoping to still be writing and speaking. Maybe her graduating will open a little more writing time. We'll see.

But if you think of me, please keep my never level in your prayers while I wait for it to be reviewed. Thanks.

Blessings from Ohio, Kim Wolf<><

I was pulling out the dutch ovens I want to take camping with us this weekend and noticed that  they are rancid:<  I have not used them for quite awhile,   so now I am preparing to reseason them..   I use our gas BBQ to do all my burning off and reseasoning, it doesnt stink up the house that way...

They are currently in the BBQ burnging off which means I have it as high  as I can get it to burn off the old seasoning, that will take about an hour,  Once that is complete I will let them cool and then I will reseason them.. I will spread a fresh  coat of oil on them and  bake them again...    A couple of the things I plan on doing this weekend are  chicken pot pie,  biscuits for a B&G breakfast one morning , monkey bread,  maybe a pizza,  and very likely a pot of chile verde.   

The heat wave has finally passed and it is a comfortable day, in fact they are calling for rain tomorrow.. OH I do hope it rains... I LOVE the smell after a rain in the summer.. everything smells so fresh. 

I better get some laundry going.. have a wonderful day!