Where to Start...44º sunny/cloudy

The last two weeks have been crazy, busy...It started with a spur of the moment trip to Milton Free Water and Edward's Farm, where we bought 10# peaches, 40# of cucumbers and 125# of tomatoes...That is 220 miles, and we were back home around 1pm...After unloading the car and a brief rest, Herb carried jars & lids upstairs and I loaded them in the dishwasher and assembled all the other canning stuff...Our garden supplied the dill, garlic and grape leaves, needed for dill pickles...All was ready to start early Tuesday morning.

Two days later, we had 24 quarts and 14 pints of "Hot Garlic Dills, on the cellar shelves...One gallon of cukes in brine are set aside for 6 weeks, then I add sugar and make sweet pickles...With a few cucumbers left over and a couple of huge red peppers in the fridge, I decided to make a bread and butter pickle that I've named "Confetti Pickles."..Patty pans, zucchini, and onions from our garden made up the mix and the red peppers added color...Sugar, salt, and vinegar for the brine.

Cukes ready to scrub and trim.

Hot Garlic Dills.

Confetti bread and butters

Patty pan squash that took over the garden! 😀😀

Thursday was a day of rest, sort of...I had PT and Herb mowed lawns...Friday morning early, I had 25# of tomatoes washed, scalded and started to peel...Herb had been outside doing a little deadheading before he sat down for his breakfast of oatmeal and said, "My hand doesn't want to work and my face feels funny."...I looked at him and said, "Get your coat, we are going to the ER."...5 hours later we were back home, diagnosis was a TIA or mini stroke...Some of his medication has been changed and supplements added, to ward off a real stroke.

A week later, more doctor appts, blood pressure checks etc, and Herb is back to his old self doing my honey do's and getting things ready for fall and winter...Our first snow on the mountain tops appeared last week...I finished roasting all of the tomatoes, they are in the freezer ready for sauces, soups and casseroles...Life goes on here on Barton Heights...Hugs to All...OWAV:)

Ready for the oven.

Well Roasted.

Gloomy, Wet Day...55º

Looks like we have a week of rainy, cooler weather for the next week...Fall is in the air and we need rain...I hope it is a nice gentle, soaking rain, not the short, downpours that we had the last two days...Of course we will take what we get and make the best of it.

Yesterday, we took advantage of the warm, sunny day, Herb continued on his quest to cut down the spent perennials, caught up on the laundry, and picked the remaining gravenstein apples...I enjoy the process of cleaning, trimming and sorting our garlic harvest, that has been hanging to dry since early August...Sitting under the aspen trees on the deck, the 160 garlic plants took me all afternoon and are now ready to be shared or peeled, sliced, dried and pulverized into dry powder, to be used all winter and also shared with friends and relatives...Garlic is easy to grow, very dependable, (never had a failure) and brings joy to many.

Taking a break from cleaning garlic, I managed to make a fresh apple pie and fix dinner...Today with the rather gloomy day, fresh baked bread will warm the house and fill the house with that wonderful smell of  bread straight from the oven...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Before trimming and cleaning.

Beautiful.

Rustic apple pie, (it was yummy)

A fruitful week...54º

Apricots taken care of for this year, enough plums rescued from the marauding deer to make jam and a few to eat, we are looking ahead to roasting tomatoes and making pickles next week.

The last few days were spent in the kitchen, first making zucchini/pattypan relish for hot dogs and hamburgers...Then a messy job, dicing Santa Rosa plums, because they are cling stones...I got enough to make a double batch of the most delectable jam and since I had all the pots and pans assembled, it seemed like a good idea to make huckleberry jam as well...I found packages of HB's from both 2017 and 2018 in the freezer...They will now join the plum jam on the cellar shelves and be used for topping on pancakes and cheesecakes this winter.

I needed a break on Sunday, so when Pam text that she was joining John and Becky and company on the Lostine River, did we want to go along?..Herb opted to relax at home but I went along for the ride and a fun afternoon in the outdoors, sitting along side the river, drinking red beer, eating hobo dinners and enjoying their camping spot.

Yesterday H and I both had acupuncture and he a dental visit to fix a tiny cavity, that turned into a crown prep and hopefully not a root canal...Time will tell...I had a PT appointment and saw the MRI of my knee, no torn meniscus after all, just deteriorating cartilage, not sure if that is good or bad...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

The Girls cooling their heels.

Tater patiently waiting for someone to throw his a stick.

Yummy hobo dinner.

Seasons Bounty...45º

The apricot tree is the first to bloom in spring and usually puts on quite a show...That doesn't mean it will have fruit every year but about every 5 years we have a bumper crop...Herb and I diligently thin the apricots when they are tiny green orbs, so they will grow into nice sized apricots...We have to resort to climbing a ladder to do this...Since we now avoid ladders, except for the very lowest rungs, I've found that a long wooden pole, used in July, banging on the branches and clusters of apricots, knocks the fruit to the ground, thus thinning the crop.

2014 August 1st, 

mostly large green apricots...this

was before I figured out to use a pole.

This years apricots were thinned and the waiting game began for them to ripen...They turn a lovely orange color and look good enough to eat...Our neighbors start to worry that they will rot on the tree and try to help us by putting apricots on our porch, signaling that they are ripe...But only a few were ripe, the others are still rock hard and sour...So we wait and watch.

Photo last night thanks to Marsha.

Herb has been picking a few each day and we have them for breakfast and snacks throughout the day...I've shared some with friends that don't live close...I text Marsha last night, "I think the lower apricots are ripe," and she picked enough to make jam and took a photo for me to share...We have younger people (ladder climbers) that will pick for themselves and others as the fruit continues to ripen.

Our next project is the Santa Rosa plum tree, it is also loaded and sort of thinned...It is really tall and almost impossible to pick, so we wait for them to fall and pick the best ones off the ground to made into the most luscious jam and maybe a rustic pie.

Meanwhile the garden is running away with patty pans but only a few zucchini and an occasional cucumber...The green beans had a short season and were quickly packed into jars for "Dilly Beans," they now reside on the cellar shelves, for winter Bloody Marys'.

I've been having problems with a torn meniscus in my right knee, so am limited to what I accomplish on any given day...I still hope to get tomatoes to roast and cucumber for pickles from Walla Walla in early September...Wish me luck...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

That Peaceful Feeling...47º

Some 46 years ago, after living in the high desert country of Duchesne, Utah, for 7 years, the Forest Service moved us to Joseph, Oregon...I was in heaven, back to the same kind of country that I grew up in, in McCall, Idaho...One of the first places Herb took me was to the upper Imnaha River, where the yellow pines tower above everything else, grass grows lush and green and the Imnaha River, runs free and clear...Over the years, we tent camped there with our kids and later, Cienna joined us in our 5th wheel...Playing in the river, building the evening campfire, roasting wieners and smor's are now all memories but the peaceful feeling of that place is still very real.

The huckleberries had been calling for a few weeks now and Pam and I were ready for a day of idle chatter, recalling memories of grandchildren, hobo dinners, lazy creeks, yellow pines and the sound of huckleberries hitting the bottom of our picking jugs...Richard fixed us breakfast before we set off for the HB patch of the day...Some 7 hours later, we had survived the buzzing wasps, and assorted other "biting bugs," many berries picked, our picnic lunch eaten, and our voices now quiet, we left the yellow pines, knowing they will be there another day...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Beautiful Berries.

Quiet Week...46º

After all the hubbub of the past few weeks, we have settled into a quiet time...We still water, deadhead and weed...But mostly we rest, enjoy the view and watch the sauerkraut ferment and the garden grow...Thunder storms and rain showers were predicted for the weekend, but we got only the edge of the storm at our house...Sun has arrived for the next few days.

Our patty pans and zucchini have flourished and we have enough to share...I think they will slow down now as the nights are cooling...The vacant bed (after the garlic harvest) has been layered with chopped leaves, stalks from the comfrey plants, squash leaves, straw and manure...Now it has been soaked with water and a little rain, more will be added later, then all is left to decompose over the winter and ready for planting next spring.

The "fruits" of our labor appeared on our dinner table yesterday...Potato salad, (I robbed new potatoes) patty pan squash, stuffed with leftover chicken strips and topped with cheese, and fresh pulled carrots and onions all roasted, in the oven, on a cool Sunday afternoon...It has been a very good week...

A doe and her two fawns have made themselves at home in our yard, eating petunias on the deck, autumn joy, day lilies and clematis from the flower beds...We are left with shasta daisies, coreopsis, golden rod, cone flowers and bee balm...I guess we are sharing flowers as well as veggies...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Blooms in the yard.

Butterfly on the cone flowers.

Find the butterfly?

Volunteer dill and poppies, fading fast.

Yucca plant that only blooms

every few years.

Garden dinner.

Hot August days...60º

We had some relaxing days before Rusty arrived for a few days, on his way to Idaho and a visit with friends...I had renewed the "honey do" list...Of course his agenda also includes working with John...Yesterday we were outside early, he and Herb pulling garlic and hanging it to dry for a few weeks...The biggest cabbage was cut and grated/sliced to start more jars of kraut...The temp was close to 90º but we relaxed on the deck, in the shade of the aspens...Dinner was creamed potatoes and peas, alongside salmon on the grill...I have appointments today, Herb will be chasing water in flowerbeds and lawn, Rusty will be helping John...We will get together for dinner and Rusty will leave early Wed morning.

Last Saturday, we had visitors...Rusty's friends Randy and Justin, on a 14 day motorcycle trip, stopped for the night and camped in our backyard...We enjoyed visiting with them about their jobs and travels...Randy is a pilot and flight instructor, out of Bend and Justin is an aircraft mechanic, with  a home in Boise, Idaho and stationed in the Philippines...It was fun getting to know about their jobs and travels.

I should be in the kitchen making a huckleberry pie, so will include some photos and get up and moving before leaving the house until late afternoon...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

9 1/2 pound cabbage

Ready to grate

Rusty with the cabbage and garlic

Sauerkraut working for 3 days.

Sauerkraut made yesterday, 

trying a new way of fermentation.