Cooler weather

The camera is not playing nice with the computer, so no pics for this post.  Just a quick check-in to report all is well here on our fourteen acre homestead.

Today was the older boys' first day of school, and tomorrow our youngest begins preschool.  I really am unhappy to see the littlest go, I will miss his late morning snuggle-into-bed-with-us's and his joyful smiles and kisses during the day.  He only goes to preschool three days a week, so it's not like he's leaving for college or anything, but it still reminds me that someday he WILL be leaving for college.  Sometimes I think my kids are growing up too fast.  Other days, when they are running around the house yelling like loony-birds, it feels like I've been a mother to three little boys for eighty-five years.

The weather has begun to cool.  Days in the upper 60's and nights in the low 50's.  The garden is starting to wind down as well.  So far this season I've canned about twenty quarts of tomatoes, seven pints of pickled peppers, twelve pints of dill pickles slices and four pints of pickled beets.  That's it.  I am a bit depressed about my lackluster canning activities this summer.  I am way behind for this year, especially in the green bean department.  Last year I canned twenty-seven quarts of green beans.  This year -- zilch.  My bean harvest has been dismal.  I chose the wrong variety, and pollination was hit-and-miss.  Most of the beans grew in halves -- one half of the pod began bulging with seed while the other half remained thin and limp.  Not good for canning.

On a brighter note, my sunflowers are looking good and the cooler weather has scared away the cabbage moths.  Maybe I'll actually get a few Brussels Sprouts this fall.  The scarlet runner beans are growing large, lovely pods and the pepper harvest is at an all-time high.  The summer squash has started to slow down, but we are still getting a good-sized zucchini every few days or so.  The older chickens have started their molt, meaning no eggs from them for two months.  The newer hens should begin laying early next month.

Last week I took my two young bucklings to the vet to be banded.  (That means castration via rubber-band.  Males, feel free to cross you legs and wince at this point.)  The procedure itself took about five minutes at the vet, then I loaded them back into the dog crate for the drive home.  It's a straight-forward process -- the bands cut off all circulation to that area, and in about three or four weeks the appendage falls off.  (Feel free to wince again.)  Sounds inhumane, but after the first fifteen minutes of discomfort the goats feel very little.  Or so I've been told.  So far my two soon-to-be-wethers are acting perfectly normal, with no care in the world beyond the usual -- eating, bleating, eating, half-heartedly chasing their herdmates, eating, drinking a bit and, well, more eating.

Tonight I harvested my basil.  I probably should have done it a few weeks ago, but better late than never.  I currently have a kitchen table full of basil stalks (you could see proof of this yourself if the blankety-blank camera cable was working properly), and that part of the house smells heavenly.  I'll hang some up to dry but will try to chop and freeze most of it.  I love the flavor basil gives to chicken stock and I might try to experiment with some pesto and bruschetta dishes this winter.  Anybody got a good basil and pasta recipe you're willing to share?