Wednesday, August 24, 2011

End of Summer

 The comfrey my friend Dominique gave me in the spring has grown from piece of root with a few leaves into this huge healthy plant with pretty purple flowers.  Notice the garlic just behind.  If you look closely you can see the very tips of the garlic is dry and brown which indicates it is ready to harvest which I did that afternoon. The sweet corn beyond will be ready to eat within the week.  Oh my gosh!  Sweet corn from our garden and probably enough to freeze some.  This has been a warm summer up north!
 The domestic raspberries in the yard are done for the year.  I found the last five extra ripe berries tonight when I went out to pull the last of the weeds in the potatoes. 
 Wood for the year is cut, split and stacked with a little extra this year.  We all pitched in, but by far, Dave does most of the work. Heating your house with wood warms you in the summer and the winter.
Thanks Honey!  (Selke and Lady are posing beautifully, don't you think?)
 Yes, I've been picking beans every day but they are very nearly done.  One of the many nice things about potatoes is that you can let them sit in the ground and dig them when you need them.  Karl requested Morrocan Lamb Brats and herb sauteed baby potatoes so I dug them up for his birthday dinner last night.
 The onions are still growing, it looks like we'll have a nice harvest this year.  The real trick is drying and storing so they'll be good all winter.  Last year we didn't get them dry enough and this year it looks like we'd better rake down the green tops, hope it isn't too late!
 We built a root cellar a few years ago so we'd have a place to store the veggies all winter.  Dave added another outer door this spring to help with the insulation.  The bushel baskets and boxes are airing out to be ready for this years harvest.  I'll never forget the summer Dave, Karl, Rose and I built this underground block box.  Hauling the blocks and cement every trip home from Duluth.  Mixing and hauling the cement by the wheelbarrow.  Placing the blocks and slathering the wet cement.  I can't remember how many days it took, but it seemed like too many!
Karl turned 19!  Yes he is growing a beard and will be off to the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota on the 31st.  He is rather excited about going as you might imagine. I think I am in for a bit of a shock as it will be the first time in 33 and a 1/2 years with no kids at home.  Yikes!  Good thing I started this blog!
ps  i thought i lost this blog post, in fact i was sure that i lost it while trying to use the spell check. i did not freak out, i took a nice hot bath instead, alright, i groaned and sighed a little when it first disappeared.  thanks Rose for helping me find it!

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