Harvest, Construction, Fishing and Farm journals: a walk through August into September

I last updated this continuing saga almost a month ago. So much happens this time of year: this post is a bit of everything.

At the beginning of August Mama was still guarding her chicks.

The Favored Five still hang together, but they left Mama one day about the third week of August.

At the beginning of August I soldiered on with sanding wallboard mud.

I completed my mudding job on August 21.

Michael completed the primer coat today. The temptation is to paint the walls and ceiling white. I’m still engineering the trap door into the attic.

We began August making elderberry jelly.

Mid-month the plums ripened and also became jelly fodder.

They were so beautiful this year. Sneaking bites between picking and pitting whirled me back to the plum tree I plundered as a child.

Our first pear harvest began at about the time the plums ripened, but they spread their bounty over a couple of weeks. I finished making pear butter yesterday.

The sunflowers and winter squash: battle of the Titans!

I had to commission Michael to reach these for me.

We discovered the first ripe tomatoes on September 1. We’ve had tomatoes at every meal ever since.

End of August and time to dig potatoes.

The Red Pontiacs are not too scabby. The Russets turned out well too. We will have about 200 pounds of potatoes by the time we are done. We will give many away and the rest will last us until next spring.

The monarchs have been traveling through. This one insisted on sampling our duck harvest. We found five that were pin feather free. The sixth made us realize why we wait for the feathers to emerge. The remaining 20 ducks we need to process earned a brief reprieve.

The sun sets earlier every day. We have so much we need to do before winter arrives. We had some 90° weather, but all of our rain has been cold. By the end of August we started having highs in the low 70s and upper 60s. The soy beans are ripening, Sandhills are gathering in fields, the deer are losing their red summer coats, the maples are turning: fall comes early this year.

Okay, that last photo was too dour. We did get to take the Young People out fishing a couple of weeks ago. They caught more fish than we did. Hope to take them out again this weekend.