Well it has been an eventful weekend here in paradise. At least 1 deer has discovered my garden and the girl dog Trip got skunked again. On the good side the deer did not get much, just the tops to the carrots and some beans I was letting go to “seed”. The area the deer got into was where I was going to put in some winter plants so I cleaned out that bed today and put in some cabbage. Of course I did cover the bed with wire fencing so hopefully that will detour Bambi. We shall see. Trip only got a “little” skunked, if there is such a thing. The way she was foaming at the mouth I would say she got it mainly around the muzzle. I did not feel or smell any on her shoulder which is where she usually gets it and today while she still has a scent of essence de la pew it is no where near as bad as it usually is. I had her foamed up with dawn dish soap less than 5 minutes from the “attack”. Damn dog.

I took a good portion of these tomatoes and made

these jars of goodness.

These were not quite ripe enough to use today

I spent much of today canning 8 quarts and 2 pints of tomatoes.

It was rewarding in that I grew, harvested and canned the tomatoes but the economy of this is subjective. I spent ½ to 1 hour harvesting the tomatoes, 2 hours cutting and pealing them, another ½ hour putting them through a hand cranked food mill and then hours of tending the pot as they cooked down into a thick-ish sauce. Add to that cleaning the jars and lids and then watching the pressure cooker cook, it turns out I spent all day putting up what on a bad day might have cost me $20 at the store. Now don’t get me wrong I’m glad I did it and this will save me on my food cost but preserving food is not as easy or as “cost” saving as the books make it out to be.

Oh and by the way…. I know that I can use a water bath to can the tomatoes but I have found that at my altitude it is quicker to use the pressure cooker.

It is already August, the days are getting shorter, the trees are starting to have a yellow tinge to them and the garden is just about shot but that’s OK I came to the mountains to experience the change of seasons and I have loved every minute of it. I still have a lot to do before winter; I have an old locus tree that needs to be cut down and split into fire wood. I want to get some fall & winter “crops” planted this week. There are still tomatoes to be caned, apples and pears to be preserved and the second crop of black berries will be happening soon. I said that after the very active July I had I was going to “take it easy” this month. Staying home and getting ready for winter that’s taking it easy in my book.

The last three weeks have been quite busy. A friend of mine’s daughter got married, Floyd Fest X happened and I spent a few days in Abingdon VA.

The wedding was beautiful, Floyd Fest was hot in more than one way and Abingdon was a nice mental and physical cool down.

I will post photos in the next day or so