Let the Good Times Roll

It was a pretty wet week. We had rain off and on most of the week, several times it was a downpour. A few thunderstorms moved through. It was warm and humid and I loved it. We live on a dirt road and the dust from traffic on the road coats everything (in the garden and in the house), so it’s nice when the rain washes the dust away. Everything looks so fresh and clean. The daylilies along the road, with all the dust washed off, are at their best right now. In the woodland garden, the very fragrant yellow woodland azalea bush is in bloom. The poppies and larkspur are thriving in the warmth and rain to the point where many have toppled over under the weight of their flowers.

Daylilies along the road.

Yellow woodland azaleas.

One of my favorite poppies.

Last week I was determined to tackle at least one of the things on my Big Summer Project List. I had extra motivation to get some things done – summer is passing quickly (sad) and family is coming to visit (happy). I settled on repairing and painting the back porch door. I had to remove all the glass panes, replace the broken ones, paint the door, and then put the glass back in, including several panes of brand new glass. The painting was not a problem, but I discovered very quickly that I do not like glazing windows. With a new coat of paint on the frame, some of the panes of glass were reluctant to fit. The glazing points were difficult to push into the wooden frames and I cracked one of the new panes while trying to insert a point. And the glazing putty was miserable to work with. It was sticky and uncooperative. But it’s done now and it looks okay – if, like the front porch screen door, you don’t look too closely.

The refurbished back porch door.

As long as I had the paint out, I thought I would do some touching up inside the house next. Some of the trim around some of the windows is cracked and peeling and the wainscoting in the dining room needs painting. Now, I paint all the time. My barn quilt business keeps me painting pretty steadily all year. But I when it came to painting indoor trim, I realized immediately that there is a big difference between painting barn quilts in my workroom and painting walls and trim. And the differences were discouraging. Sanding makes a big mess and the dust from it goes everywhere. And I have to mask floors and cover furniture and be careful not to drip. With company coming so soon, I decided not to undertake the task just yet. I’ll wait until visitors have gone and a big mess won’t matter as much.

I also spent time doing my ever-necessary daily and weekly tasks – mowing lawns, weeding gardens, and doing the barn chores. I had an extra and unforeseen Big Yard Project. During one of the storms, a huge branch fell off of one of the maple trees in the woodland garden. It was crushing smaller trees and plants and blocking the pathway. I enlisted the help of one of our Amish friends, Ervin Gingerich, and on Friday morning he cut it up and I stacked it for firewood. While we worked we tried to be careful not to damage the flora in the woodland garden, but there were some necessary casualties – some ferns and woodland asters got trampled. It was unavoidable. They’ll recover next year.

The fallen limb.

The resulting firewood.

I harvested the first picking of fava beans last week. Remember, this is the first time I’ve grown them, so it’s all new to me. I had to do a little research on how to prepare them. The pods are big with thick, meaty walls. First I shelled the beans out of the pods. The beans have a tough skin on them, so next I had to parboil them and then squeeze the inside cotyledons out. They are the edible part. We ate them with dinner on Tuesday. They tasted great. They are worth the extra effort it takes to prepare them.

Fava bean pods.

The beans inside (unpeeled).

Our big July family time begins this evening when the Thayns and Miriam arrive. They spent the weekend down in the Pittsburgh area looking around. They will be moving there in September. They should be arriving here soon. They will be here until Wednesday when we’ll all head down state to the family reunion. We’ll be there through Saturday and then all my children and their families, and my parents, and my niece Emma will come up here for a few days. It will seem like too few, I’m sure.

While we’re away, Julie offered to do my barn chores. I appreciate her offer. I know she doesn’t really like the chickens. But I think I can arrange it so that the chickens will have enough food and water while I’m gone so she doesn’t have to do anything. I will do the chores on Wednesday before we leave and fill the feeders extra full. I have an extra waterer that I’ll fill too. I’ll be back in time to do the chores on Saturday, so the food and water only need to last through Thursday and Friday. We’ll just let the eggs accumulate. I would have Julie collect them, but I have three broody hens that won’t get off their nests and she’d have to reach under them to get the eggs. The hens will peck her hands if she tries (I have the hen-pecked hands to prove it). So they can keep their eggs until Saturday. Maybe if she wants to, Julie can go down and throw them some scratch. The chickens will like that.

The Hill Cumorah Pageant is under way now. Our branch received an assignment to have people there yesterday morning and afternoon. Stacey loves to work at the pageant, so she volunteered to go up with one of the other ladies in the branch for the afternoon. I did not volunteer. I do not like to work at the pageant – way too many people for me. She got home at 8:00 p.m. (she didn’t stay for the performance or she would have gotten home at 1:00 a.m.) and said she had a great time.

Speaking of great times, we are very excited for our reunion this week. I will give a full report next week and include lots of photos. There are some fun times ahead. It’s going to be great.