August Things.

It's August. That means the mild summer we have been so wonderfully blessed with has gotten a little more intense, but it will soon come to an end. A little bit of a rainy storm blew in last night, and it cooled off, but I expect the temps will climb back up today. The moisture was much appreciated. I may have walked barefoot in the mud with a smile on my face, but that was an accident, of course.

Yesterday morning we got up really early and headed up to a tiny town called Cottonwood to work at a beautiful vineyard located there. We harvested all of the Viognier grapes, and are due back in the morning to begin the enormous Tepranillo harvest. It will be a wonderful time for my family, for within a vineyard is an endless wealth of spiritual wisdom. Perhaps we can learn to grow grapes, too.

I am still working at the bakery, and have recently begun making artisan sourdough. I've had limited experience with sourdough in general, but I am grateful for this oppurtunity to hone my skills. Sourdough is such a wonderful project, and a great option for a healthy and frugal home.

I hope to start more sourdough at home this fall, for the summer heat makes a beginner like me a little less successful.

The gardens are doing okay - I'm sure they enjoyed the recent rains. They had become a little parched. We are brining in peppers, cantaloupes, tomatoes, herbs, beans, okra and the odd squash here and there.

Some things get lacto-fermented, but a lot of it gets eaten as soon as it comes in, and we eat a lot of stir-fry and grilled sandwiches in this part of summer. I already have a scribbled list of things we will be planting in the fall garden.

One thing out of the ordinary that we have been busy with is canning meat. We usually don't do this in the summer but a kind and generous friend of ours has given us a few pigs. We pick the meat up from the butcher in batches and can it as fast as it defrosts. I'm grateful that it is mostly ground sausage - we love pork sausage. There are also some pork chops and bacon. So we have been busy processing all of that to go into the root cellar, we should be done quite soon and it will be wonderful to have so much meat put away.

At the end of this month we will be venturing northward for a book conference in Atlanta, GA. I have already talked to my Amish friends and we will staying with them for a few days on the way home. I'm so excited to see all of them again, it should be a fun trip.

Well I had better sign off - I am supposed to be working on a secret writing project.

I can't tell you about it.

Because it is secret.

Blessings,
Tracy M