It’s hard to believe it’s August already. Summer is passing so quickly and we haven’t much of it. I’m still waiting for it warm up – and so are the tomatoes and peppers. July was a chilly month and it doesn’t look like August will be much better. The transition from July into August was a wet one. It rained and was overcast and gloomy most of the week. Finally on Friday it cleared up warmed up and dried up for a while. Summer has felt more like spring and now I see the goldenrod is already blooming and that conjures images of autumn and I’m not ready for that.
Early on Monday morning I dropped Josiah off at Scout Camp over in McKean County. It poured rain on our drive there and it rained off and on all week. He got home on Friday night. Despite the wet weather he says he had a great time. He earned six merit badges. He’s just finishing up the paperwork to become an Eagle Scout.
On Wednesday evening we went to the Potter County Fair, just Stacey, Hannah, and I. It was a rainy day, but it looked like the rain was letting up, so we went. The fair is pretty much the same thing every year. The individual items, animals, food, quilts, produce, etc., may be different, but overall it is same. Because of the rain there weren’t many people there. None of the rides were running. There also weren’t as many entries. We didn’t enter anything this year. I didn’t have any produce to show, besides I’d rather eat anything I grow rather than win a ribbon for it. We walked our usual circuit through the fair grounds – through the display buildings then through the livestock buildings then up the fairway. We stopped, as we do every year, and bought taffy on our way out of the fairgrounds.
 |
| On the fairway at the fair. |
 |
| The canned goods entries. |
 |
| The quilts. |
 |
| The dairy cows. |
Friday morning I went blueberry picking with Kurt and Julie. There’s place just up the road from us that has several acres of 30 year old blueberry bushes. The berries are wonderful this year. I picked five pounds. When we got home, I made a batch of blueberry jam. For dinner dessert Stacey made a “Melt Away Blueberry Cake” that was delicious. We froze the rest. Julie made a blueberry pie and later in the evening we went over to their house and had pie à la mode.
I also made our first batch of pickles on Friday. The cucumbers have really begun to produce. In one picking I got 30 nice cukes. I made seven quarts of garlic dill pickles. I hope it is the first of many batches of pickles and relish we’ll make during the month of August. August is a big canning month.
 |
| Garlic dill pickles and blueberry jam. |
It’s also the month when we really start harvesting things in quantity. Garlic and onions are ready to be harvested and cured. I’ll work on that this week if things dry out enough to dig them up. Beets will be ready soon. I dug the first batch of new potatoes on Friday, a bucketful from the volunteer plants out in old garden #3 (now the orchard extension). Peas are done but now green beans are coming on. And despite the woodchuck and its insatiable appetite for brassicas, there is a cauliflower he didn’t eat (the only one I think) that we’ll eat this week and a few early cabbages.
I took some shots at the woodchuck last week, but I missed every time. I think the sight on the .22 isn’t aligned right. I brought up some rolls of old chicken wire from the barn and unrolled them over what remains of the cabbage patch hoping it will discourage the woodchuck. It has worked so far, but I don’t think it will deter it for long.
On Saturday Stacey and I spent most of the day showing our barn quilts at the Frosty Hollow Herb Fair. Frosty Hollow is a very nice bed and breakfast just south of Coudersport and every summer they host a fair where vendors who sell herb related items, art and crafts gather. This is the first time we participated and it was a very nice affair. We took several orders and several other people seem like to order later.
 |
| The Herb Fair |
 |
| Our setup at the Herb Fair. |
It’s warm and rainy today. I noticed as I was coming in the back porch door that there is moss growing on the concrete porch floor. With all this rain and high humidity things are getting mossy and mushrooms are popping up in the lawn. It’s better than having a drought, but it would be nice to have a few days of sunshine. I rode to too and from church with Kurt today and on the way home the windshield wipers stopped working. We could barely see for a while. Then they started working again. The Shillgs are coming over here for our Sabbath soiree this evening. We are getting ready for that. The week ahead looks busy. I have two new barn quilts to start and I think I’ll finally start painting the upstairs bathroom plus there’s still the usual weeding and mowing to do and other harvesting and canning. It will be fun.
