August Notes…

August hasn’t been busy in the sense most think a homestead should be. I haven’t got anything in the way of a garden, so there’s no mad rush to put by the harvest as things ripen. I do have a watermelon plant, lol. One watermelon rotted and split earlier in July, but we managed to save the other one (yep, 2 watermelons. be jealous of my garden.) and it was decently delicious. The tomatoes were killed in what I can only describe as a strategically planned attack by a crew of cut-throat tomato worms. We picked them off and disposed of them with the chickens (who were quite impressed, to say the least), but they kept returning with reinforcements. They finally prevailed and the tomatoes were lost.

Such is the life of the garden around here most years. What the intense heat doesn’t dry to a crisp under the deepest of mulch, or the dry, cracking clay doesn’t pull into its depths, there’s constant hard rains, flooding, and the handful of staunch scavenger bugs to kill. All in all I’d have to say Mississippi has a pretty fool-proof plan to ensure gardens are not very productive. My neighbors, the old timers anyway, all have large gardens and they do fairly well from my vantage point. Of course, they aren’t planting anything more serious than a small group of tomatoes really, maybe the handful of crookneck squash. Everything else is done up in greens….turnip, mustard, etc. That’s it. No corn, maybe a hot pepper or two, might even see a short line of purple hull peas, but that’s about it around here.

I miss my northern garden. Tomatoes, bell peppers, hot peppers, several summer and winter squash, onions, potatoes, corn, zucchini, cucumbers, beets, a variety of bush and pole beans, english peas… the list goes on. What we didn’t grow on the homestead there, we harvested locally…apples by the bushels for putting by into pie filling, sauce, jelly, berries of all kinds, peaches, more corn than I could grow on our place.

I miss that. I’ve tried recreating that here, but all my Square Foot Gardening, southern gardening, hugelkulture and other resources haven’t helped my clay crud much yet. I keep pressing on. I mean really, folks have always lived in in The Deep South. They have all been fed by their own resources. This clay crud has always been a part of that process. Just because I’m a *spoiled-with-rich-black-nutrient-filled-soil* northern transplant doesn’t mean I can’t learn how to grow a decent garden here in this *red-clay-stays-flood-stage-wet-most-years-or-ground-cracking-dry-despite-mulch-so-deep-you-lose-your-hoe-in-it* soil.

Right?

Sigh. Going on 12 years. If I didn’t have just enough stubborn in my DNA, I’d concede that the South has won in this effort. But, I’ve still got lots of forest composted leaves, barn gleanings, and chickens here to continue the battle.

 

 

And there’s been a few other things going on here…we’ve been roaming the mountain collecting the wild goodies for our tincture making and salves. I have some Mimosa tincture now (split the batches into brandy/honey, scotch/honey, and straight vodka), as well as a restock of our healing salve and some black drawing salve. The elderberry glycerite is doing its thing in the herb cabinet and will be ready in a few weeks. No Fire Cider yet, but I do need to get it going for the season. I ran out last year, so I need to make a larger batch this time.

I’ve been working on destashing some odds and ends in the yarn basket and what better way to do that than to replenish the dishcloth basket right? I have several of the standard Peaches & Cream/Sugar & Cream cotton cloths in there, but my hands-down favorite is made from Bernat Handicrafter Cotton thread (similar in style and weight to the Aunt Lydias threads for doilies and the like…but way nicer to work with!). I’m not a great knitter, so I’m doing these in a simple half double crochet. I use 2 strands of whatever colors I grab, and with the half double, the resulting texture and weight is perfect. Soft and drapey enough for tight spaces in glassware, but sturdy enough to offer great scrubbing power. Definitely my go-to dishcloth.

 

There’s been a lot of dehydrator action here as well. I’ve been clearing out the freezers and getting all the frozen veggies dehydrated and into the pantry before I restock. I love having dehydrated veggies in the pantry to add to just about everything we make, especially during the winter cozy comfort food season. Everything dehydrated nicely, from mixed soup veggies, to broccoli, to onion and pepper blends. I did attempt to do a couple bags of slaw mix, but dang…that cabbage scent is not what I want for my air space during the day, LOL. We did Egg Roll in a Bowl and enjoyed it “scent free” as it were, LOL.

With the dehydrated veggies, I also made a gallon jar of Cream of… mix. I found it, as well as several other recipes in my stash at 21st Century Simple Living. We use a lot of cream soups, especially during the cooler months between casseroles and other meals. Of course they are easy to make on your own when needed, but there’s nothing wrong with having a whole large batch ready at the waiting in the pantry for even quicker use. This is truly as convenient as a can or two from the store, but far more healthy an option. I did the Cream of Chicken option, but even with the bouillon added, I can turn it into several soups by simply adding this or that. I expect it to be made often and used a lot.

I’m about ready to make another batch of the concentrated castile soap for our cleaning needs around here. I made it simple…a couple bars of Kirks Castile, grated and slowly melted into several cups of hot water. I poured it into a half gallon jar, added some peppermint essential oil for scent and let it set up in the pantry overnight. The results were a thickened gel-like concentrated soap. We’ve added this to buckets of hot water for scrubbing the floors, counters, you name it. I think I’ll stick to the peppermint in these batches…we’ve kept the ants at bay this season quite nicely.

We also did up some homemade liquid laundry detergent. I used Fels Naptha bar, plus a bar I still had of the Kirks Castile (feel free to sub a bar or 2 of Zote, or even 3 or so bars of Ivory for a sensitive skin option), washing soda (not baking soda…though I do add that to laundry to help with the hard water here), borax, a cup or so of liquid OxyClean (for the powdered soap option you can swap the regular OxyClean powder), and some orange essential oil for a fresh, sunshine scent. I did a full 5 gallon bucket and poured it into several containers I had on hand from previous liquid soaps. I still grab a bar of Fels Naptha I keep at the washer for wetting and pre-scrubbing stains. When this runs out, I may give the powdered version a try again. It’s been several years since I’ve made any so I need to find my niche again.

Another recent adventure was traveling from the homestead to Kansas/Missouri line to pick up Matt’s girlfriend for a week’s visit. I made the 16 hour round trip one Saturday (ok, it was more like a 22 hour round trip. I was a zombie for a couple of days.) and then Dewey and I made the return trip the next Saturday. His run only took us 21 hours, LOL. In our defense, we did stop for a 3 hour visit with an online friend and her family. They drove down about an hour and a half to meet up with us for lunch. And we drove thru the mountains of western Arkansas, so plenty of slow-down, curvy windy roads. The views were absolutely beautiful. I say we live on a mountain, and technically we do, but trust me, Mississippi doesn’t know MOUNTAINS like western Arkansas does. I could totally live there among the Ozark and the Ouachita National Forests and be in heaven.

 

My future plans revolve around a lot of deep prayer for a good solid winter hereon the homestead. I want long dark days with snow and cold. Crazy thinking to most of you I’m sure, but after 2 full months of nothing but 105* temps, rain, mud, and more rain, I really need some deep cold and some days of snow. I’d even settle for the threat of snow…you know, where the sky gets that certain gray-blue hue and there’s a cold wind moving around. You just know, if you’re up north, there will be heavy snow before the day ends. I would love a few of those days here. It doesn’t happen often at all, but maybe this year, after all this heat and all this rain…maybe…

Long gray days of woodstove heat, pots of soup simmering slow all day, fresh baked bread and rolls, quilting and yarn work by lamp light.

Definitely the course my dreams and prayers will be taking. Call me crazy. It’s how I roll.