The End is Near

It always seems like it’s the end of summer when all the young people head back to school. All of a sudden, the lazy care-free days of summer indolence turn into the fall frenzy, even though it isn’t really fall yet. There are still many weeks of outdoor-worthy weather to come. While I am looking forward to enjoying to cooler mornings and evenings, I’m definitely not looking forward to less sunlight/more darkness. Nor am I excited about actual cold weather. There’s so much that needs doing before that time arrives.

We’ve had the fun of lots of family time in the past month. First it was the arrival of our Florida girl with her two boys. During their visit, our Illinois granddaughter arrived to spend a week (it wasn’t nearly enough time). We crammed a lot of activity into those two weeks. After they’d left, it was our pleasure to have a couple weeks with Dennis’s baby sister and her husband here from Washington. They just left on Monday. Also here at the same time was our brother-in-law from Idaho. He left on Saturday. So now it’s just the two of us again.

I’m going back to more yardwork and gardening. Dennis is gearing up for the wheat harvest. We had a nice amount of rain last Wednesday. Dennis said we needed a quarter inch to get the crop to ripen faster, and we had twice that amount plus a bit. We could just about watch the ripening action.

I’ll be mowing the lawn as I did manage to keep up with the sprinkler such that the grass is again green and lush. It suffered a bit when the grandsons were here. We let them drive our old golf cart over it. Multiple passes over the same track caused some browning of the grass. The flowerbeds suffered from my neglect, but I just can’t get too worked up over that.

The garden was also watered enough. The drip system has really paid off over the years. The garden is producing lots of produce. The lone zucchini plant seems intent on inundating me with fruit. It’s working overtime, as those plants are wont to do. I need to dust off my recipes for sweets using that as an ingredient: I’m leaning more towards cookies and bars as I’m not wild about zucchini bread.

There will be more tomato and cucumber side dishes, too. I really like cukes sliced and marinated in Italian dressing, or cucumber and tomatoes in a vinaigrette dressing. I’ll throw fresh raw peas and sliced onions in with them, and sometimes chopped baby carrots for a different crunch.

I did make an error last week when I was talking about my potatoes. I have russets and the Russian fingerlings planted. But the third variety I planted isn’t a yellow one, but purple-fleshed. I’m sure they’re packed with more nutrients, but I don’t think I’ll be mashing those, or making a potato salad with them as I don’t think they’ll look too appetizing. We do eat with our eyes as well as our taste buds, after all. I had some white potatoes from last summer that had sprouted, so I put those in the ground as well. I just haven’t dug any yet. I am pulling the whole plant as I go after potatoes. I’m hoping I won’t have to store too many this winter.

The carrots keep getting thinned. Our oldest and I love fresh carrots, so I planted a lot of those. We’re keeping up pretty well with those thinnings. I picked my first full-sized red tomato today (Sunday). The corn is finally tasselling, so maybe I’ll get some ears before the first (dare I say it?) frost. I’ve thinned a few beets. I’m going to steam the beet greens for a side dish soon. I do still have some leaf lettuces I can enjoy, but only three kale plants grew. My row of parsley is finally big enough to start dehydrating.

As I said, there’s still lots to do before I give up on summer.