Independence days- the return of summer

Summer returned for one last hurrah this week. It was near 90 this afternoon- and humid after the rainy weekend we had. It is supposed to be warm almost all week. A good time for shutting down the pool since we have to get into the water to clean the pool.

It has been busy here. V has been frantically busy framing in the basement. All the subfloor is down and he has all but two walls framed. Woo Hoo! Next trip to the home center we will be ordering drywall!

Monday is my usual day to do an update on my Independence Days Challenge- not that it's really a challenge- I see it more as a summary of the accomplishments for the week. Here goes.

1. Plant something- nope- I got a shipping notice from some of the plants I ordered for fall planting but they haven't arrived yet.

2. Harvest something- cucumbers, eggplant, squash, tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, edamame.

3. Preserve something- pumpkin butter! Froze the last of the edamame. I've got some extra pesto (sans cheese) in the fridge that I think will be frozen for the winter.

4. Waste not- This hasn't officially happened yet but tomorrow one of my co-workers will be stopping by to pick up our old stove that has been in the garage for the past year. I didn't want a glass top electric stove so we put in my gas range. I've been meaning to list this stove on craigslist but have never gotten around to it. Now, it seems that it was fate. My co-worker M is in the process of getting a divorce (long story- and not mine) and for some reason, yesterday, her husband came and took her stove. He initially said he would bring her a different one but then refused, saying he can't afford it. This, of course, left her and their 4 children without a stove (I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around how he could do that). I happened to mention that I have this one that I want to get rid of so she and her brother are coming by tomorrow afternoon to pick it up. It does good for both of us. She gets a stove to use and we get to reclaim room in the garage.

Other waste not stuff is that V has continued to recycle the lumber from the demolished basement walls to frame the new ones going up.

5. Want not- I stocked up on pasta over the weekend. The local store was having a 2 day sale of the store brand pasta. 2 one pound boxes for a dollar. By the time I got there on Saturday afternoon, most of the shelves were empty. But I did get a few boxes of linguine and some penne and rigatoni. It's all good, and for that price, I couldn't pass it up.

My other score over the weekend for stocking up was a major purchase. J16 and I went out yesterday and purchased another chest freezer. It is still in the box in the shop for the next week or two since we're waiting to deploy it until V has his desk moved out of the room (his new workroom is framed but not drywalled yet). But I wanted to get it now. The store was having a big sale- that ended today- and I got the energy star rated one for over $100 less than any other local store that carries it. It's not entirely an impulse buy. V and I have been talking about getting a second freezer for a while. Now we can separate the meat from the non-meat items. We've been talking about getting pork from one of the vendors at the farmer's market who sells by the whole, half or quarter. And, this will give me more room to stash garden produce.

6. Build community food systems- gave away pumpkins and garden produce.

7. Eat the food- We had roasted pumpkin cubes tossed with onion, garlic, olive oil and rosemary, served over pasta with parmesan cheese. Heavenly! We're still eating tomatoes and cucumbers, although the tomatoes are slowing down. I've also noticed that they aren't keeping very well. It seems like the day after I bring them in they're already going bad. Usually they can sit for a day or two if we don't get to them right away. Who knows- it's late in the season.

All in all, not a bad week. Now, if I can get through this week I'll be set. I work this weekend so I'm on 6 days straight at my paid job. I'm still waiting for my little kiwi plants to arrive (and some day lilies We're hoping to cover the sand filter for the septic with day lilies and iris since we need something with not too deep of roots. And I like both of those.

I hope you all have a productive week as well.