Today the weather is perfect, by my definition. It is warm, but not hot. There is a wonderful breeze. The air outside is relatively fresh, no manure being spread on the surrounding farms today. The windows are open, it is lovely. Today Attila and I are “as happy as clams” living our best life, here at home, doing nothing but taking care of ourselves, and the cat.
There is a rhythm to the activities here at Mist Cottage. Attila still works full time, and for him time at home is all too brief. He has many projects he wants to accomplish in the limited time available. So when he is home, the pace is brisk.
During the week I am alone during the day, and my pace is not brisk. I do get a lot done, but less than I get done with Attila is situ.
During the week I mill flour, bake bread and muffins and squares, make switchel for Attila’s lunches, and cook most evening meals. I attend to the meagre needs of Ginger the cat. I tidy, and pay bills, and do all the administrative stuff in life for the two of us, and clean, and… the list goes on. During harvest season I preserve garden produce, this is a huge project. Recently I’ve been sewing, making an apron, a summer top, some bowl cozies, and now I am mending 11 pairs of work pants, mostly with blown out knees. But I move at a relaxed pace through the weekdays, stuff gets done, not everything gets done, but stuff does get done.
This past week I mended a pair of Attila’s work pants, milled flour, baked three loaves of bread on three different days, made two batches of zucchini muffins, cooked meals, paid bills, washed and hung laundry to dry, folded and put it all away, did dishes, swept floors, petted the cat… Ginger thinks the last task mentioned is the only task with merit.
This weekend Attila and I have been very busy. On Saturday we made Pesto with the second harvest of garden basil, enough for nine meals went into the freezer. I made three more jars of dill pickles, for a grand total of six jars of pickles this year. I do hope the cucumbers get going!
We have been enjoying green salads from the garden for over six weeks now, but the lettuce season is slowing down. Attila estimates we have enough lettuce for two more salads with our evening meals. Our salads are served with homemade croutons, made from my homemade bread, and homemade salad dressing, made with my home canned Cowboy Candy leftover brine, which was canned in 2021. When everything is homemade there is lots to do in the kitchen, every day.
Today we made over 60 sausage patties, grinding the pork ourselves, adding apple cider vinegar, spices, bread crumbs, and corn meal. Grinding meat in such quantities, mixing it with the other ingredients to make sausage, shaping it into patties, freezing it, then vacuum sealing it for the freezer, is very time consuming. It is well worth the effort, our sausage is sodium free, nitrite free, and relatively low in fat. Attila had to remove all of our vegetable scraps from the freezer to make room for the sausage patties. So, the steam juicer was setup on the back porch and a batch of vegetable broth is steaming away. Attila is currently out in the garden harvesting more basil. When the steam juicer had done its magic, the single electrical outlet on the back porch will become available for use to dehydrate the basil. Tomorrow I will continue the project with the basil, as there will not be enough time today to complete the task.
I did laundry today, and my predictions about the prototype apron I made came true. For the lining I used old cotton sheets, that had been used to provide shade on the back porch, for several years. The fabric had been degraded by exposure to full sun. I knew it wouldn’t last long, and when I began to wear the apron I suspected it would not withstand washing. I was right, the apron was laundered today, and the lining is falling apart. It will be dealt with by cutting off the lining, the apron will be functional still, but not very attractive.
I will make a new apron this winter I think, using viable fabrics. Maybe I will piece together pieces from my small bits of fabric collection, that might be fun to do.
Now that I know that I like the style of the apron, I’ll make another with viable fabrics.
Worldly
Weather
Updated on Sun, Jul 30 at 2:25 PM
24°C
FEELS LIKE 25
Partly cloudy
Wind 10 W km/h
Humidity 43 %
Visibility 31 km
Sunrise 5:52 AM
Wind gust 15 km/h
Pressure 101.4 kPa
Ceiling 9100 m
Sunset 8:35 PM
Quote
“There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power.”
Washington Irving
1783 – 1859
I am exhausted just reading all that you have accomplished. I also now have a craving for zucchini bread..lthanks Maggie! Lol. The weather here in N.J. has finally become comfortable and it is wonderful to be able to turn off the AC and open windows.
Eileen, I am glad that your weather is comfortable, and open windows are wonderful aren’t they! I have to laugh at myself, unless I am doing something new to me, I perceive myself as not doing much. In reality I do have busy days, with lots of breaks, where most of my projects are the same old, same old, that doesn’t get old… milling flour, baking bread, baking, making dinner, mending, cleaning, and communing with good old Ginger!
That sounds like a lovely, perfect summer day. We also had one of those, on Friday. Excellent weather, comfie temperature, gentle breeze.
We left for London in the late morning and spent a few hours at the London Rib and Craft Beer Fest. Such good food! We love good bbq ribs and Friday we found some great ones! And they also had a brown butter corn bread that was amazing. (I’ve made Johnnycake for years and their cornbread was very similar, but with a moist tenderness that I’ve never seen in a cornbread before, and then just a touch of smokiness from some time being spent in the smoker, I think.)
Teri, thank goodness for the perfect summer days! As a kid I thought most summer days were perfect, lol. Adulthood brings a whole other perspective on many things.
Your outing sounds like fun! I wonder what the secret of the brown butter corn bread was, I like corn bread, but we don’t have it often, usually it is too dry for me and I overcompensate with maple syrup… delicious but not the best idea for me.