Friday - Saturday, Aug, 6-7, 2010 Lots of stuff...

Huckleberry pancakes ...

With Susan getting the first one of the morning. 

Our refrigerator is a blend of the commercial and home-grown.  The jar on the left is goat milk from our neighbor.

These are bunching onions we started from seed this spring.

Susan cut them and is ...

Cutting them up to dehydrate for use later in the year.

Celery from the garden being cut up for drying as well.

Our first ripe tomato.

Before and after pictures of Basil.  The leaves will be dried for later use.

We left the cat unattended one day (we were gone) and it got bored.  These were thriving pepper plants before we left that day.

The cat "guarding" the chickens.

We have peas coming out our ears.

I'm peeling carrots while Susan is cutting up the celery.  The carrots are the last batch from the root cellar.  Tomorrow morning (Saturday) Susan and I will dice and cook them prior to dehydrating them.  We need to get last year's harvest cleared out of the root cellar to make room for this year's harvest.

The cat looking over the seed catalogue.  "Any Catnip sold here!"

The cat brought her little firend into the house this morning.  We took this just before we evicted the (now dead) mouse.

This is a soft shelled egg.  The outside is soft membrane material instead of the hard shell you'd normally expect.  The egg is safe to eat as long as you eat it soon.  It won't keep long.  You'll never see these in the grocery store!

Susan made muffins with the raspberries we picked when going after huckleberries.

It's bath time.  First pour the water into the kettle. 

Now heat it up on the stove.  In winter we have a water kettle on the wood stove at all times.

Shower time!  We stand in the shower and pour the water over us with the cup.  Lather up then rinse.  Usually takes about 2 1/2 to 3 gallons.

We had clouds and rain on Friday so decided to not go berry picking.  I had an article rejected by a magazine so I did revised it some and resubmitted it to a different magazine.  They accepted it.  After that I went down to the shack and  reloaded some ammo.  Susan jarred the dried parsley, celery, oregano, and carrots that were ready, cut more celery, chopped it, and got it drying. We finished up peeling carrots from last year that were still in the root cellar.  Susan picked more peas and I shelled them while she worked on carrots then I worked on carrots while she worked on celery.  We got quite a bit done.

This morning (Saturday) we diced the carrots and Susan boiled them in preparation for dehydrating them.  We got the motorcycle out of the shed so I can get some things done on it.  I have anew battery and front tire for it.  I also need to replace the shock seals on the front forks.  I have the seals, I just need to get it done.  We've been going through some of our excess stuff and separating it into "keep," "discard/trash," and "thrift store" piles.  The carburetor is leaking gasoline on the Dodge 1 ton so I'll need to get a kit for it.  It has a ThermoQuad carburetor which is a pile of junk on it's best day.  They have a hard plastic body that goes "boing" when you take it apart and it's difficult to get them to seal right afterwards.  Back when they were popular on Highway Patrol cars the shop I worked at used to just replace them with a Holley when they needed work.  Of course that was spending the State's money and they seem to have more of it than I do.  Oh well!  Susan made Spanish Rice for supper using the solar cooker.  She also made biscuits then raspberry muffins for desert.  After supper, Susan picked more peas and I worked on the Cherokee.  It developed a decidedly un-funny noise the last few days ... a rattling sound when we had a light load on the engine going in forward or reverse.  I thought it was the flex plate to torque converter bolts coming loose and I was correct.  I pulled the flywheel cover off and tightened the bolts.  If they don't hold I'll have to replace the bolts and apply lots of locktight.  If that doesn't work I'll need a new flexplate.  I hope tightening them back up is enough.  I've worked quite a few years as a mechanic and I truly destest working on cars anymore ... especially my own!  After that it was bath time to wash the dirt and grease off that I got working under the car.  Now, if I can get the computer to cooperate I'll get this post fnished up and go to bed.