Summer of 2012

So here are some of the vegetables I grew in the garden this summer.  I froze beans, extra squash and zucchini.  I made pickles that keep in the fridge, plus we bought some fruit and I canned applesauce and peaches.  I canned tomatoes and also made blackberry jam.

I am looking forward to eating the stuff in the freezer and what I canned this winter.  It will give me a clue what we like and don't like.  I have both strawberry plants and blueberry bushes in the garden.  I didn't plan to well but it should work out OK.  The strawberry plants are on the east side of the garden and the blueberry bushes are on the west side of the garden.  So the tractor will need to be careful to not dig or cover them but it will limit garden space for the next several years until we move the strawberry plants.  I am thinking both will need to be covered from animals and birds.

My garden experience this summer has been that I need to plant enough for both us and the animals.  When we dug up the sweet potatoes last week we found baby mice.  I noticed the tops of the sweet potatoes were eaten.  So then we found the mice . . .  yes, we let them live.

We hosted my family reunion this summer.  We actually need to call it a "gathering" for the Amish.  We cleaned up the garage and put the food, etc in the garage.  We had flies, but food shouldn't sit out for hours in the summer, so this made sure the food was put away after we ate.  We didn't have home made ice cream this summer, none of the younger people came and the older ones decided they didn't want to crank the freezer.  The ladies helped get the food put away and stuff washed up.  

The ladies played cards most of the afternoon and others played washers.  This takes 2 teams of people.  I practiced several throws and discovered I could hit the holes, so I played washers.
 

The Amish come early and stay late!  Since Ed and I are early risers, we were dressed and ready for company!  The day wasn't too hot which would have been hard to sit on the patio.  We have seats on the screen porch and people could sit whereever they wanted.  Everyone sat in the garage for the most part.  I got benches from the Amish.  I stopped in at my brother Emanuel's place to ask if we could use benches from him.  We had extra chairs to move around and the benches were mobile too.  Steve, my younger brother brought them and took them home that night.

All in all we had nice weather for the day.  Since we still had mounds of dirt it was nice that not many small children came.  One of my great-nephews sat on top of the stone wall with his feet dangling down the steep side so I called his mother!

I am so thankful for our large family and that we have these gatherings several times a year!  God has been good!