As the Spindle Turns . . .

or in my case, the weary. We had to do an insurance "survey" of the property but I never got the original notice. Supposedly, I had two weeks to comply. Nope. I thought it was a scam because of the way it was worded. "Your insurance agent will have contacted you about this survey. This is just a reminder you have until October 11th to comply." The agency took its time in getting back to me. I had 2 days to comply. There was a mad scramble to clear brush, pull weeds, cleanup the back porch and dye studio. The front looked fine. The back, not so much. It was a lot of work. With my bad hip, it was quite painful. "Oh but we'll hire someone to come out and take pictures." Um, no you won't. They won't be favorable. So, that's behind me now. We'll see what they say. I know what needs to be done. I have a lot more clean-up to do.

After seeing the chiropractor, I went out and cut more pokeweed behind the garage. I found another ground hog hole. I am not amused. I videoed my progress on harvesting the potato bed. The potatoes were huge. Here's the link: https://youtu.be/rVJV8--930g?si=WxzfYOluahCsEc80

There is a chance of snow. Everything had to be dealt with immediately. I harvested the leeks growing in the cinderblock holes. I set up a frost blanket for the ones in the bed. Carrots were pulled. More grow bags were harvested with small potatoes. Celery came in. I think I'll be making more eggrolls for the freezer. Cabbage, leeks, carrots, celery, and some kind of meat, should do it. I find them very handy when I can't think of what's for lunch. Just pop one into the toaster oven.

Chrono harvested the herbs. All the basil came in. There will be pesto tonight. I cut catnip. Parsley is drying right now in the dehydrator. I have celery to chop later. It's like a giant bouquet, taking up much space in the tiny kitchen. There are still 3 pots of second growth potatoes in the driveway. Parsnips will get harvested after the freeze. They are sweeter after a frost. Garlic needs to be planted too. I found the grills to keep the squirrels out of the garlic. It's a start. The freeze/frost is on time but the plants could have used a bit more time. The eggplant is finally blooming. The pattipan squash is an inch big. I haven't even looked at the honeynuts. I planted honeynuts in July but they didn't decide to grow until September. Can you imagine how hard using a planter app is for me? I do what it says but the plants have minds of their own.

Oh yes, and we got a good harvest of figs. The picture is from a few years back. Today's harvest was double the size. It's too dim and stormy to get good pictures today.


Two garden beds are cleaned up for winter. I've several more to go.

No rest. First frost is 2 weeks away. Can you believe it? It's been almost frantic. The busy season continues. I planted the perennials that I bought at the Fair in the Park at the Phipps. They are native species. Two are raspberry colored Monarda (Bee Balm) and one is a heuchera (Coral Bell). They say the coral bell is deer resistant but since the deer ate my last six plants, I planted it inside the fencing. My goal is to plant less annuals, except for the ones the hummingbirds love and oh, the butterflies! (Red Salvia and Mexican Sunflower)

I also closed up the hole the deer created to get into my circle garden. I bought more fencing. I have soil amending to do inside the circle. Weeding and trimming is also going to be a daily chore. Tomorrow, hopefully, I will work on harvesting my potatoes. I pulled carrots yesterday. I'm very short of my goal for the garden but I'm at 114 lbs. so far. There are still leeks, more carrots, cucumbers, parsnips, sweet potatoes, and potatoes to harvest. And there is a huge pumpkin that the squirrel planted. If I get a chance, I'll harvest celery too. It's not an immediate need.

This critter left the dill to go make a cocoon. (Swallowtail)


It's been a week of canning produce from the farmer's market to make up for what my garden lacked. I made pear jelly and pear butter. There must be 14 to 15 half pints. I also pickled cucumbers. I did nine pints of bread n butter pickles based on Leisa at SuttonsDaze recipe. I still have 3 gallons of frozen tomatoes to process. In addition, I made mozzarella to freeze as well as the most lovely ricotta. That rounded out my week. The canning cupboard is decently filled. I'm still hitting up Sturgis Apples at a different farmer's market tomorrow. Chronographia is looking for beets to can. I also want Swiss Chard since the squirrels dug up mine.

Time to head to the store. We're missing just one ingredient for supper.

Yes, it was time to give the herbs a haircut. Chrono and I grabbed the herb shears and went picking this morning. The dehydrator is full. I also picked basil and camomile but they aren't in the bard's song. I headed to the way back to cut more pokeweed. I'll be sore tomorrow. I excavated a bunch of potato containers. They are very wet and are now drying in the sun. We had our third or fourth gully washer rain storm yesterday. Another 1.5" to 2.5" fell. The South Strabane VFD had yet another sinkhole open up in front of the engines in the parking lot. A culvert collapsed. They are working to move the engines to support their community. There is no more money in the budget to fix this. We had several days of Emergency alerts - Don't drive or you'll die. I don't live on a flood prone hill. It did affect the Fair in the Park, making it close early on Saturday.

I also negotiated with the skylight people to get a replacement. They were paid today. New skylight comes in in two weeks time. Yay! We'll see if the other contractors I hired show up when expected. The squirrels chewed something on the solar panels. An entire array is offline. That could happen tomorrow. The window that was stuck open all last winter, well, the lady has some health issues but I won't be letting it drop. I don't want to have to tape plastic over an open window again for winter. The original window came from Canada. Alternatives are being explored. House repairs are on-going this fall.

So far, I have harvested about 98 pounds of food. It's nowhere near my goal of 400 pounds. I have learned a lot about yield and how many plants. The tomatoes were the closest to the goal I set. The sweet potatoes should have gotten me further along in meeting my goals. The latest garden video is out. You'll see what happened. https://youtu.be/Dc9AwjSg3eU?si=HuxQ1n7R2_7Vkf11

It's time to round up all the wayward pots and clean them up. They are everywhere. I planted over 300 plants from containers in spring. Most of them were flowers. A few were herbs. I have trays out with plants I never got into the ground. Madder, indigo, asters, and feverfew. The feverfew is a perennial so I should get that into the ground somewhere. But the plant trays too need a wash. The bigger pots had a few fall crops planted in them, beets and Swiss chard. Time to move them to the front porch.

The humidity has been outrageous. We had more storms. The internet has been out. It went from temperatures in the 90s to temps in the 80s but it doesn't feel any cooler. I have never had to mow grass as much as I did in August. August usually sees us with no rain at all.

Today I'll be cleaning the back porch. All the new sacks of soil for my raised beds are empty and the bags are waiting to be folded to be used as trash bags. I need to coral them. The dye pots need a rinse and to get put away for winter. My wooden pallet collection needs to be cut up and turned into a garden bed. There's a lot to do.

The potato pots in the way back need to be collected and harvested. The fallen tree trunk needs to go into the back to terrace the steep portion of my garden. The sachets of ground hog repellent need to be made up and distributed to various holes. The cement crack on the front porch needs to be filled in to keep mice out of the house. (If it ever stops raining).

If the rain continues, I may turn those wood pallets into an arc after I clean up the yard. Pittsburgh had cars floating down Route 51, Saw Mill Run yesterday. I bet I could find plans on the internet.

El Nino is coming. Climate destabilization is here too, making things worse. The ocean temperature is much higher than normal for an El Nino year. All that warm water affects the jet stream, bringing unusual weather to the continent. Despite El Nino arriving in fall and hitting us in winter, it will impact our ability to grow food. I expect temperature swings from mild to frozen, oscillating to fuck with the trees. It'll fuck with the maple syrup production for sure. Further south in Panama, drought will impact the canal. Its locks are fed by a fresh water lake. Big ships will not be able to transit the canal. Hormuz is still closed and will be for some time. A third of the globe's fertilizer goes through the strait. Diesel is already skyrocketing in price. The US will run out of the SPR (Strategic Petroleum Reserves) soon. Using the reserves is keeping our gas prices artificially low. The US beef industry has its lowest herd size since the 1950s. Drought impacted feed this year. Wheat crop is very poor as well. All of these things are going to hit us hard at the grocery store. Economists are saying to expect a 15% rise in prices over winter. We are already pinched.

After my fall shows, I'll be going through the freezer and canning most things, from making cherry jam to canning those tomatoes as well as a batch of spaghetti sauce with meatballs in the pressure canner. For now there is finally zucchini. I may can some of that soon too. Every week, I'm picking up an extra bag of noodles for the pantry. I have a mason genie and am storing them in half gallon jars. It's time to fill that pantry. Other reports out this week expect more power grid failures over the winter. Food stored in jars is less likely to have to be pitched. (Using safe canning methods for sure) A meal in a jar is easier to heat in a fondue pot with a candle than to try to cook from scratch outside in the winter weather.



For reference, gas has been holding at $4.40 a gallon with diesel at $6.30. We have a high gas tax, in theory, to repair our mountain roads. In reality, the state police have been taking from that fund to buy high tech equipment and installing Flock cameras on the interstate. If your car breaks down in the mountains where there is no cell service, you are still fucked. Those guys won't be coming to your rescue. If you are lucky, you can making it to the rest area with an actual pay phone. AAA won't help you either, but that's a whole 'nother story. We'll see just how high gasoline goes this winter. We are already staying closer to home and only running errands on certain days. The Fed meets on the 15th of September. That is going to be an interesting circus. Almost everyone agrees that the BLS job report was way off. Yes, it is up due to teachers and staff heading back to school, but no, it was not as high as they estimated. It will be revised down next month. When businesses do not report in time, the BLS uses "historical" data to give an estimate. Another report from the ADP advises that the job numbers were close to zero except for those education folks. They list jobs by category. According to them, we lost manufacturing jobs. With no un-tariffed raw materials from Canada, a lot of manufacturing is folding, closing up shop. Side note: Canada also supplies us with fertilizer.

Interesting times.

I made all my phone calls. I got the phone bill down by $35 by dropping the iPad and getting a "Loyalty" discount. Switching electric suppliers will save me $12 a month. Switching gas companies will save me $16. Anything else means losing services. They were able to drop $6 off my water line protection. What they don't tell you is that changing your plans takes up to 90 days. We started walking to the post office again. No car unless absolutely necessary. Gas is just too high. No one is buying anything. My daughter's art show sales were down 70%. She can't afford to sell at a loss. Travel expenses, booth fee, parking fees, and material costs for her art all add up. The game plan is to explore new options, closer to home. Fingers crossed.

Meanwhile, I've been picking the popcorn cobs and drying them near the dehumidifier. I pick and process tomatoes daily. I cut out the cores and freeze the remains until I have enough to can another batch. I'm up to 65 pounds of food so far out of the garden. Eventually, there will be more beans, some carrots and sweet potatoes. I've some of the tomatoes drying in the dehydrator right now. I need to pick more herbs yet before long. I am still working my way through the pokeweed forest but I can see the fence now. It won't be long before I harvest the rest of the potatoes. First, I have to get to them. I certainly won't be hitting my goal of 400 pounds of food. (Not unless I can eat the deer that ate all my food)

From previous years:
Saving seeds


Drying racks


My favorite this year is the San Marzano Tomatoes from Brim's Seed which I bought for the 2024 growing season. It's my first time growing them. I adore them! I will definitely plant them again. The popcorn came from MI Gardener. I am a sucker for discount seeds. I already shopped for next year's seeds during their 40% off sale. Yeah, I'm already thinking about next year. I need some Johnnies 512 seed starting soil mix. That's about it for now. I'm mulching leaves to top off perennial garden beds for the next season. The four foot high chicken wire fence is making a difference. The shorter fence I have only works if I can cover the top with netting. It works more like garden row hoops. I'm already looking at simple changes I can make as improvements for next year. The fall crops are hit and miss. No peas, beets, and only a few carrots. Perhaps the cucumbers will catch up. Still waiting on summer squash. Just hoping the deer don't eat them. The giant doe likes squash leaves. Three deer come by daily. I've spooked them a couple times. They've bent my trellis wire, trying to reach into the garden.



The pantry is slowly filling up. Five jars of home grown tomato sauce were added this week. I have more flour and sugar coming in with an Azure Standard order. I'm so tired of driving 20 miles each way to the food co-op only to find out that they are out of sugar again. My Azure drop is only 8 miles away. Yes, I do have to pay for shipping but at least they let me know if a product is out of stock. I can get what I need without the impulse items. With health and allergies, we eat organic. It isn't cheap but then again, I didn't have healthcare for over 20 years.

There are a lot of YouTube videos on plant disease and pests. I have yet to find anything that truly gets rid of deer or ground hogs. Yesterday I chased out a doe that was big enough to ride like a pony. She was eating the squash that grew over the top of my fence. Truncated. Today I went out to check on bed #3. I am going to rebuild that bed soon. I have too much comfrey. I was going to harvest some and dry it. While there, I decided to pull some weeds. There were a whole bunch of stems, no leaves, sticking out of the ground. Early in spring, I'd planted parsnips in there. Sure enough. That damn critter defoliated each and every parsnip plant. Why do they always leave the weeds alone? I pulled a few parsnips but I'll leave the rest in the soil until after frost. They'll be sweeter then.

Last night, after yet another rain and flood warning, I braved the mosquitoes to excavate a bit of fence I pulled last year. It had Phlox and Jerusalem artichokes growing through it. It's a 4 ft high piece and 5 or 6 ft long. I laid that on top of the sweet potatoes. The ground hog actually chewed through the jute mesh I had protecting the patch. Maybe they'll recover?

Besides me grumbling about critters, the succession planting of beans is looking good. First came the yellow beans, planted June 5th. I got them before the ground hog. Those are completely chewed up and overrun by a squash vine now. It wasn't intentional. I'd planted cucumbers, not squash. A squirrel had other ideas. The bed had been completely dug up by what I thought had been a skunk. The purple beans were planted June 20th. I'm harvesting those now. Those are in an enclosure. The deer eat anything leaving the fenced in area. On August 7th, I planted another crop of yellow beans and another of purple. Those went in the Mandala garden where several bushes had died. Each planting was only 12 to 16 seeds. I'm hoping to get seed for next year from these late plantings. I also planted peas by my blueberry bushes but the seed may not be viable. (or else squirrels) It's possible peas come yet come up but I am not holding my breath.

How do you tell when your popcorn is ripe? Well, the squirrels have no problem climbing the stalks. I caught one munching away and decided to start harvesting. I have the shucked ears on a wire rack, drying in the basement next to the dehumidifier. It was a fun experiment.

Either the pill bugs or the slugs ate my seed or The weather wasn't conducive to growing the spinach. More carrots had gone into Bed #2 with lettuce seed, cucumbers, beets and radishes back on July 24th. It looks like I could have a second crop of carrots. No lettuce or beets in sight. Cucumbers germinated as did some radishes. Swiss chard didn't come up either. With a lot of rain and mulch, the slugs are enjoying themselves, or so I believe. The temperature hasn't gone above a high of 82 and it has been cool at night.

With the rather wet weather, I've had to pick tomatoes early. They got heavy and broke their clips to the trellis. Being in overgrown spaces near the ground has cause a few to rot or else insects to invade. I have them in a sunny window to finish ripening.



Today I will attack more of the backyard jungle. There's a lot to do. My sewing machine needs to be picked up. I have to process this week's milk. I'm thinking about chocolate ice cream as well as making butter. A gentle reminder to stop and smell the flowers.

I've been busy processing the fruit from the farmer's market. I pitted and chopped cherries. Those will go with the wild black cherries I already froze. I'll do those later. Yesterday, I made blueberry jelly with a few black currants tossed in to make 6 cups of fruit. I used the Food Mill to leave the skins behind. This is what a food mill looks like:
https://www.acehardware.com/departments/home-and-decor/kitchen-utensils-and-gadgets/manual-food-choppers/62974

Today I did the plums. This time I used the immersion blender before using the food mill. Sadly in the process of this, short person that I am, reaching up on top the refrigerator, I knocked the weighted jiggler for my pressure canner. It rolled, of course, and found its way down the furnace vent. I am just talented like that. Once I get paid, I will have to order a new one. How annoying. Pressure canning was on my todo list.

Meanwhile, despite all the storms, the ground was quite dry today. I checked when I went out to look at the tomatoes. I am glad I brought a big colander. The number of red tomatoes was amazing. I picked from a number of volunteers as well. There was something like a store-bought tomato, a black plum, and sunrays, besides the San Marzanos, Romas and Amish Paste that I planted intentionally. Everything got logged and washed. It was hot and humid. I was dripping. The sun was starting to go down but I knew I needed to pick beans. I scared a ground hog earlier in the day. Yup, it nibbled on the yellow beans somewhat. The sweet potatoes were in worse shape. I also found damage that only a deer could reach. Amazingly, this woodchuck left the squash plants alone. Usually that is their favorite.

This is a weird ground hog. When I saw it, it was digging seed I had just planted. It went after my cabbage seeds. It also ate all the lettuce that grew on the outside of the fence. I set up a small fence on the planter bed corner with the most damage. Guess I need to be out there more often. I have a second set of beans in another area that is fenced off. They are purple. They finally started producing beans. I will be washing, chopping, blanching and freezing beans tomorrow.

I finally got pissed at the weeds and started yanking some. If the weather holds, a scythe and gloves could be in my future. The backyard is a frickin jungle. We actually have had a lot of rain. The grass was long. I managed to weed whack the driveway. We have a strip of grass, up the center. I'll need to sweep the hay up. It was thick. Dishes and bills also awaited me tomorrow. On that note, I'm going to get some rest. G'night.

I went back to the book. The thing is, The Hobbit was written in 1937. Tolkien had served in WWI. At the time, my grandfather had served in the Merchant Marine. Unfortunately, he passed before I was born. What was food like? The 1930s was the height of the Depression. I suspect the hobbit's pantry was a throw back to what so many people missed during that time frame. Shortly after the book's release came rationing (1940). The dream of a full pantry was real. Europe experienced famine during the 1930s. My own father was emaciated as a child and continued to look like skin and bones the rest of his life. However, he knew every edible plant and mushroom one could forage. When he came to America, you bet we had a big garden.

As I paged through my cookbooks, it occurred to me to go back to the Hobbit to read what the dwarves ate from Bilbo's larder. It started with afternoon tea. The first dwarf had seed cakes and tea. Later dwarves asked for ale, beer, and porter. Gandalf had red wine and hard boiled eggs. Once the seed cakes were gone, they moved on to buttered scones, apple tart and raspberry jam. Since their planning meeting would go well into the evening, dinner consisted of mincemeat pies, pork pies, cheese, and cold chicken (with pickles). Coffee was set on the hearth. Garden salads went with the meat pies. It was quite the gathering. In addition to meal prep and cleanup, the dwarves got out instruments and played music before getting down to business. It'd be great if every business meeting started this way.

I have several cookbooks that I enjoy much more than others. At the height of the Bed n Breakfast movement in America, a couple decided to visit a lot of Inns and B'n'Bs and collect recipes from all 50 states. Volume One is still my favorite. I do own volume 2 but it had a different focus. Volume one of The American Country Inn and Bed & Breakfast Cookbook by Lucian and Kitty Maynard stands out for breakfast, second breakfast and elevens's.
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-american-country-inn-and-bed--breakfast-cookbook-volume-i-more-than-1700-crowd-pleasing-recipes-from-500-american-inns-american-country-inn--bed--breakfast-cookbook_lucian-maynard_kitty-maynard/265641/?resultid=e08f5ce8-d740-4455-a35a-452d9e2301ae#edition=2304820&idiq=4952296

For us gardener's, it's sometimes hard to envision new recipes for all that produce or for produce that you may be growing for the very first time. Back in the day, Renee Shepherd wrote a cookbook to go with the seed her company produces. It was just as the garden to table movement was starting. It is called Recipes from a Kitchen Garden.
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/more-recipes-from-a-kitchen-garden_renee-shepherd_fran-raboff/364499/?resultid=d9345c9d-7da0-4f0f-8faa-ffc9580736a9#edition=1320812&idiq=20172



My canning books I've already written about. There are so very many bread baking books out there as well. Even the B'n'B cookbook has recipes. My favorite is The Bread and Bread Machine Bible.

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-bread-and-bread-machine-bible-250-recipes-for-breads-from-around-the-world-made-both-by-hand-and-in-a-bread-machine-with-traditional-classics-and-new-ideas_christine-ingram_jennie-shapter/11329754/?resultid=3599a7ff-890f-4479-8fc0-f57be393197c#edition=10834920&idiq=16852265

I think it is possible that family recipes are be best. My sister-in-law gave us a spiral bound copy of her recipes one year. She went to a place that specializes in your photos on calendars to print it, complete with pictures. It's simple and very sweet. Try to collect recipes before the elders in the family pass away. I have mom's cousin Irma's bread recipe. Irma died last year at 100 years old. Aunt Joyce was know for her German chocolate cake. Grandma's favorite was date nut bread. These recipes date from 1920 to 1950. It takes us back to a time when growing up to 40% of your food at home was the norm. Everyone cooked from scratch. I'd like to think the larder was packed and company was always welcome. Dad always kept beer and pop in the fridge for company.

I've been counting all the stock. I should finish up today. Then I need to wind a little more linen for the etsy shop. While I will not be at Pennsic, my merchandise will be there. It's consigned to Gwen Erin's Fiber Shop in the same location as always, 166 Fleet Street.

There will be luscious superfine alpaca (sport) from Peru



Then of course the usual hand dyed linen in thread weight and lace weight


There will be a limited amount of hemp yarn. It is great for string bags and wash clothes.


And of course, some fun wool boucle.


While the straw hats will be there, the signpost won't. Look for Gwen Erin instead. She'll be opening on Monday.

Chiropractors are miracle workers. I was able to move today. The patio has been cleared. I've a huge pile of compost, including a walnut tree. The irises are happier. I worked on bookkeeping too. That actually hurts my back more. Dishes are done. I even started scrubbing some really nasty corners in the house.

My daughter is making dinner. She sent me out to the garden to find vegetables. The first picking of yellow beans!!! I also had my very first ripe tomatoes. One was a volunteer which I neglected to plant this year due to space. I am so thankful for the volunteers. My fallow garden is also full of tomato plants. No idea what kind yet. I harvested another grow bag of potatoes. They were beautiful. I'll keep some for seed potatoes after they cure.

The cucumbers are not doing well. At this point, there is one plant and it may not even be a cucumber. The heat, the rain, too much for them. Do I have time to plant another batch? Most of my seeds have been put away already. I'll have to look. I did grab 3 purple basil plants, still in little pots. They are now in a more permanent home. As I pulled the onions, I amended the soil and transplanted them. I also planted lettuce seed, carrots, and some beets in bed #2. I can make it sound grandiose, but in reality, it was just a 2' x 2' plot. At least it was something.

I am way behind (due to our heat waves) in my food preservation. The wildfire smoke hasn't helped either. The air quality was in the maroon color, never seen before in our area. Then it went down to purple. After the rain, it was red fading to orange this morning. We might be as low as 68 particles right now. Typically, that's what it is nearer the steel mills. The first day smelled like a tannery. This morning it smelled like melting plastic. That isn't just a forest burning. (Poor Thunder Bay) I wore my mask.

I revisited a series on "A Limit to Growth". The results for the Yale 2023 model were compared to the original. Part one is the history on how the report came to be. Part 2 is what I just watched.
https://youtu.be/2VTvnWE0oJc?si=krZMpmbsPr17AA-3
I'd say that the discussion is so true based on current circumstances in the Persian Gulf. You'd think the guy had a crystal ball. It motivated me to get up off my @$$ and start planting. Tonight will be cool, down to 53 degrees F. I have more things to get into the ground. But first I need to clear the jungle that has become my yard.

The critters were here. My sweet potato leaves have definitely been munched. There is a tomato plant that has been chopped at a 2 ft height. We came home from the farmer's market to find 2 baby raccoons drinking from the bottom water trays on the porch plants. The smoke made it overcast so they were thirsty and out. The previous day, a baby squirrel had fallen asleep between a pot and the lilac bush. And yes, the skunk still lives under the front window.

If I am able, the removal of pokeweed is next on my list.