Summer days are either crazy or lazy

Around here they are mostly crazy, and that's why I have somehow managed to go two weeks without posting any updates. Let's see...

We have been picking tomatoes and making sauce. Last night we made some spicy salsa, which Brian claims is our best ever. Tuesday night Brian picked 10 (yes 10) five gallon buckets of tomatoes, but the plants are brown and dying off at the bottom, so we are probably nearing the end of our tomato season. I always look so forward to the first ripe tomato, but I usually am quite ready for the end of staying up until midnight or later canning and processing them after work! Still, it is a bit sad to see the season end because you really cannot buy a good tomato. At least we still have cherry tomatoes, so I won't be totally deprived yet!

I also experimented with a tomatillo salsa and plan to can some of that tonight. We also froze some sweet corn and are probably about finished with it for this year. Since we didn't grow green beans, I can't complain much about how much canning I've been doing. We did plant shell beans, and they are about ready to pick. Thankfully they are not "urgent" veggies...they can wait patiently in the basement until things slow down.

We continue to see all sorts of wildlife, and the deer seem to have a highway running behind the house. Here's a picture of one very nice buck I've seen a couple of times.

I'm pretty sure he's the small one we saw last year. So far I haven't spotted the big guy. Our neighbor thinks someone shot him last fall, but we know he's very wily, so I keep looking anyway!

The lambs and the pigs are growing and doing quite well. I need to get some current pictures. Should have done that yesterday because it has been dry and the pigs were nice and clean. But yesterday it rained and their pen turned to mud and now they are no longer clean. The storms have been the more typical on-again, off-again summer thunderstorms here recently. Besides fast-growing grass (what an odd year, it's greener in August than it was in June), this has provided us with many gorgeous sunsets like the one below.

One night last week I saw a red fingernail moon and a shooting star on my way back from putting the chickens in for the night. A couple of weeks ago, there was a storm in the distance at dusk, and from here the lightning looked red. It was eerie and beautiful as it lit up the sky over the mountains.

Brian has been wanting to try home brewing beer for as long as I have known him, and he finally got a kit. He and our friend Matt set up a batch of a red ale over the weekend. In about 6 weeks we ought to have our first home brew.

We have both been traveling a lot of late, two shadows passing in the night or something like that. But we actually went to Pennsylvania together for my sister's bridal shower, which was a great trip. We stayed with my brother and his family, the first time we've ever done that, and it was great fun. We even saw a flock of turkeys on the edge of their yard Sunday morning.

Here are the awesome cakes that Robin did for the shower. It was a fun afternoon and a good weekend spent with the whole family. I wish we lived a little closer together.

We also spent a little time with Brian's family, celebrating his Grandad's birthday and visiting with aunts, uncles, and cousins over breakfast last weekend.

It seems like we've done more than this in the last two weeks. Hmm. Either I've forgotten or it's like tomato sauce - looks like a lot before you boil it down!