A day off???

I had a day off today since I worked last weekend at my day job. What is it about days off that I seem to work harder than I do at work? But I guess that's typical of those who choose the lifestyle we do. There is always so much to do, especially this time of year that there aren't enough hours in the day.

But before I regale you with the day's adventures, a few pics of from Wednesday evening. We had a HUGE storm come through. Well, it wasn't that big of a storm in terms of length but it RAINED!!!! The creek flooded and washed our new bridge off it's footings and caused lots of erosion. The sun came out shortly after the downpour. Here is our little creek:

Our placid little creek bed is probably 2-3 feet deep and a foot wide.

It was well out of banks.

We went out in the downpour for a while to look at the run off. It was quite impressive, and of course, we all got soaked!

Wet boys after the storm- in dry clothes.

We had 1.75 inches in about 15 minutes. On top of the several inches we have had in the past few days and more rain today. It has been WET!!!

But on to the adventures of the day. First, I slept in until 6:20!!!! Wow!!! The kids caught their buses for the second day of school. K has said he has made a few friends. And I12 said that Jr High isn't as bad as his sister made it out to be.

V and I had a lovely day to ourselves in the house. We had a lovely breakfast for two, I made a quick foray into the garden before today's rain arrived, then we ran errands in town (home improvement store, tracking down a few more school supplies and grocery store run) and had lunch. After lunch, I got busy in the kitchen.

Hmmm, what am I making with my morning harvest???

It doesn't seem like much for that much work!!!

I ended up with tomato sauce (5 quarts and 4 pints) and 4 pints of tomatillo/tomato salsa. I have some more tomatoes that I'll have to deal with tomorrow and lots more ripening on the kitchen table. I'm really glad that we kept my old table in the kitchen even after we moved the dining room table into the house. It is nearly covered with ripening tomatoes. I've discovered that we are having trouble, not only with mice but with opportunist Black Soldier Fly larvae that are getting into some of the tomatoes that have been gnawed. If I don't catch them early enough or if the tomato is too green, the tomato will rot from the inside out from the larvae burrowing into it. I think we're having this trouble because there was so much horse manure lying around and supposedly these fly larvae live in poorly decomposed manure or in decaying plant materials. Grrr. Just what I needed, more competition for my tomatoes.

Then, there is the even more exciting news!!! We had a new harvest this evening.

Our first sweet corn!!!

Yeah, I know, I could have let it grow for a few more days to develop a bit more but it was so tasty and we've been waiting so long. There is more out in the garden and we've still got my heirloom variety that is just tasseling now. Since I got it into the ground so late this year we're getting ours much later than most people around here. I'm still excited, this is the first corn I've ever grown in my own garden. Oh, I grew up with sweet corn by the bucket full and Roger and I occasionally planted a bit of ornamental corn, but this is my first real harvest of corn on my own- ever!!! We've never before had enough room for corn as well as everything else we wanted to grow so I'm quite pleased with myself. I think some of my impatience in harvesting it is that I'm so worried that the raccoons will find it and destroy it before we get much. But we've never seen much evidence of raccoons here. Rabbits, mice and deer but not raccoons. Hmmm, I'm sure they're out there and they worry me.

Now, I've still got a full weekend of work ahead of me. I've got laundry, gardening, cleaning, canning, and the continued work on the house and unpacking. Sheesh! It will be a relief to go back to work on Monday.