... Harvesting. The sweet peppers produced lots of peppers, most of which had to be processed for the freezer. I managed to use some for trading in order to conserve space in the freezer for other things. The tomatoes have been going strong, although the plants have been battling various fungal diseases. To date I've harvested 53 pounds of assorted tomatoes. They have proven to be a good trade item. The pineapples have been ripening in dribs & drabs, giving me 1-2 a week. And the bananas are coming in on the average on one bunch a week. Usually they seem to ripen in groups, giving feast or famine. But this year they are spread out better. I'm not sure why. The veggie gardens are doing their thing, producing enough onions, assorted greens, root crops, beans and peas, and pumpkins to satisfy our needs and those of neighbors and friends. I didn't plant too much because I knew I wasn't going to be ready to be selling the excess. Selling is something I have in mind to do later, after the farm and house projects are more under control.
... Roof. The roof project is slowly coming along. The problem is that we have to work around the rain. As soon as the roof gets wet, it's too dangerous to keep working. Slipping off a wet roof is definitely not in the plans! So far we are about 3/4 of the way done.
... Woodstove decision. We decided to take out the woodstove for now. We've hardly fired it up in the past 3-4 years. Yes, it's getting warmer here every year. We'll store it away for now, but keep it handy should the winters get colder again. This means that we are putting on the new roof sans chimney. Having installed the chimney before through the metal roof, we could always do it again. No big deal. Of course this decision probably means that we will be experiencing 40° nights this coming December. Hahaha.
... Woodworking project. Got the little table finished. Worked on it a little here and there on the rainy days. I'll be posting photos of it soon. I think it turned out pretty good.
... Mowing. Yes, lots of mowing. I needed the clippings for mulch. Plus the grass is growing a lot due to the rain and warm weather. I still need to do some more mowing because the place is a bit shaggy looking. At least the mowing is keeping me in decent physical shape.
... Medical tests. Been spending a few days visiting various doctors, mostly for preventative medicine tests and vaccinations. Most of the results have told me just what I already know-- the body is getting older and wearing out, but is generally in acceptable shape. I still have some endoscopy results pending, but other than that I think I'm through with doctors for quite a while. Let's hope, at least.
... One of the farm dogs has an inoperable tumor, obviously cancerous. We agree that he's too elderly and emotionally fragile to subject him to extreme procedures. So we are spending quality time with him, keeping him happy and comfortable. It is emotionally draining to see such a good animal ending its life early.
... Pick up truck. The truck I purchased in June has proven to be a problem child. Unlike a real child, I can ditch it and get another without being arrested-- so I did. The transition failed twice and after replacing bits and pieces, the suspicion is that it was an electronic problem. I didn't like the sound of that, so I traded it back to the dealer. It cost me a few thousand, but I felt it was worth it. I didn't wish to deal with a recurring electronic nightmare. So I got an identical truck, hopefully without the transmission problem.
... I cleaned out one of the house catchment tanks, and ready to tackle the second. Using a swimming pool vacuum head and hose, I set up a siphon and suck up any debris and silt that accumulated on the tank bottom. Our tanks are situated so that the siphon method works. I'll suck the worst of the debris out one day, let things settle for a day, and repeat. While I have the cover off the tank I'm also treating any rust and repainting the tank. So it's a several day project. It's been 10 years since we last did this. Most of the debris on the bottom of the tank appears to be volcanic ash and dust, most likely due to the now defunct eruption. We're still seeing ash building up although not badly. The winds blow the surface ash around. So it's an ongoing issue.
... Rock gathering. No big news here. I'm always picking up rocks for the rock walls being build along the driveway. But I've been digging out a shallow hugelpit that I made 10-12 years ago, harvesting the organic material for my pallet boxes. When I got down to dirt level, I kept going in the spots where there were no big boulders. Yes I'm crazy. Perhaps I am a reincarnated gopher. But anyway, I harvested numerous 5 gallon buckets of dirt to add to my gardens plus lots of rocks. If I piled all the rocks into 55 gallon drums, I'd say I have 3 barrelfuls. To me, that's a lot of rocks, considering that they are all hand dug and carried. So now I've ended up with a bigger hole than when I started. It gives me a nice pit to use as a bio trash pit, hugelkultur style, for organic debris from around the house area.
... Once again I volunteered at the Advocats spay/neuter clinic. And I have a KARES clinic coming up next week.
As you can see, I'm keeping busy. Somewhere amid all this we take time to watch moon rises, sunsets, take beach walks, and take dogs to play dates with their canine friends. I can't complain.
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