Brewing Prickly Gooseberry Wine - D Buddy, Ms J (D Buddy's Daughter), and Me - July 2010

Word of the Day

Symbolify - The act of relating something to something else.

I haven't blogged in ages! Sorry about that. I just haven't felt like blogging. Blame it on the new Kindle that I bought. Every spare moment that I've had in the last few months has been spent reading.

Highlights for July? Sarge, D Buddy, and D Buddy's daughter came to visit over the 4th of July. Sarge and D Buddy hired a U-Haul and moved all the stuff that they'd been storing in our basement. D Buddy's daughter spent a lot of time playing with Kylee. She also picked out some yarn for an afghan which I've started to crotchet for her. I'm hoping to have it completed by Christmas. I hope.

We had fireworks off the dock. D Buddy, #1 Son, #1 Son's girlfriend, Sarge and D Buddy's daughter all participated. I sat in relative safety on the deck. The operative word in the last sentence was "relative". However, due to all the rain that we've had this year....nothing caught on fire. I've been picking up bits and pieces of fireworks that the wind blew all over our deck and yard since said firework display. We're going to have to be more careful when it comes to the direction the wind is blowing next time.

While D Buddy, Sarge and D Buddy's daughter were here, we went out to pick the wild gooseberries. I'd already picked and juiced the black currants and the red currants. I promised D Buddy's daughter (my step-grand-daughter) that I'd save a bottle of the gooseberry wine that we started while they were here...along with a bottle of each of the wines that Sis and I have started this year. It's tradition. I gifted bottles of wine for each of my grandchildren that Sis and I made during the year that they were born. I couldn't do that for D Buddy's daughter because Sis and I hadn't even started our little (growing out of hand) hobby at the time she was born. However, I decided that I could save a bottle of each of the wines that we brewed this summer for her (to be enjoyed on her 21st birthday)to commemorate the summer that HTP and I finally got to meet her.

My garden is NOT growing well. I've had a couple of meager picking of green beans and peas. The weather has been ideal for blight. I've been spraying my tomatoes on a semi-regular basis but I've lost a couple of my tomato plants to the blight. Some of my tomato plants have only produced tomatoes with blossom end rot. *sigh* For all the hassles of growing things out here, I've decided that the only tomato plant that really works out here is my First Lady tomato plants. Oh well...next year. Tomorrow I plan to spray all my tomato plants AND my zucchini plants for blight and mildew. Sadly, my zucchini plants have been suffering from the heat and humidity. I've harvested only two zucchini from my plants. Maybe I'll just have to buy zucchini at the farmer's market from now on. Ditto when it comes to cucumbers. I've got LOTS of cherry tomatoes but even those plants are suffering from the blight.

This summer has been a fungi summer. Lots and lots of wild mushrooms. Sis gave me a huge sack of wild oyster mushrooms which HTP and I have been enjoying. We also harvested a nice giant puffball. And today, Sis and I harvested six pounds of something they call, "Chicken of the Woods". Unfortunately, I'm afraid that I'm one of the few people who end up with gastric distress when they eat "Chicken of the Woods". So...after cooking up my share of the fungi, tasting it, and finding myself with gastric distress...I'm going to give Sis my portion of our find. Maybe she'll give me more of those wonderful oyster mushrooms that only seem to grow on her side of the lake.

Meanwhile, Sis and I racked and blended all the wines that we started this summer. We're collecting and recycling wine bottles so we'll be able to bottle Dandelion Wine, Rhubarb/Strawberry Wine, Rhubarb Wine, and Wild Gooseberry Wine. And...today...the UPS guy delivered my order of corks. We're set for years to come when it comes to corks.

Tomorrow? Tomorrow is another day. Will I blog? I'll try. Habits are a hard thing to break and a harder thing to form. I've got company coming to visit in a bit more than a week and I haven't made up the beds in the guest rooms.

Meanwhile, Kylee has finally learned (knock on wood) that it is better to "do her thing" outside. In other words, dare I say, Kylee has been housebroken. Knock on wood. She is one exhausting dog. She's been spayed. She's up to date on all her vaccinations. And...I've only had to dose her twice with hydrogen peroxide....so far. She weighs 21+ pounds. I think she's full grown, but she's a bundle of dynamo energy.


Random Thought of the Day

Do Chinese people get English sayings tattooed on their bodies?

Noteworthy Quote of the Day

And so faith is closing your eyes and following the breath of your soul down to the bottom of life, where existence and nonexistence have merged into irrelevance.