Janet Versus the Turkeys

The currant bushes are producing abundantly, but it’s a race between me and two mama turkeys. They travel in a caravan with about a dozen poults between them and seem to believe that the garden is their own personal cafeteria. (Yesterday, I saw them head out of the garden and march across the pig pasture. The pigs did not care.) I harvested half the currants on one of the bushes earlier in the week, but when I went back to finish the job, the whole thing had been picked clean. I got most of what was left on the other bushes yesterday. Cathy suggested I prune out the bearing branches, which makes collecting the currants easier and also opens up the bottom of the bushes for better airflow. (And for better turkey access.)

I have about five gallons, which should be more than enough to try Cathy’s blackcurrant curd recipe. These were off the Belaruska bush.

I’m going to have to figure out how to keep the turkeys from hoovering the grapes this year.

I also brought in another half dozen zucchini and 22 cucumbers and made a huge batch of what my kids call “instant pickles,” or cucumbers in vinegar. The husband loves those. Processing all of this produce also means consolidating and moving things around the freezers. A couple of them desperately need to be defrosted soon. I am not going to make as much zucchini bread this year because we still have some left. And I need to count the number of jars of tomato sauce on the shelf. The tomatoes may be better used up making salsa this year than plain sauce, especially if we get the bumper crop I am expecting. Susan gave me half a dozen hot pepper plants, and those peppers would go nicely in the salsa, too.

The raspberries are delicious. The husband has been having a couple of handfuls every morning when he lets the pigs out. I beat back that raspberry patch in March but you’d never know it. The paradox of pruning.

The peas are done. The lavenders are in full bloom, although covered with fewer pollinators than I would like. It has been that way for the last couple of seasons. That’s troubling.

Even in a rebuilding year—when half the garden is covered with black plastic to kill stubborn weeds—we’re still getting quite a bit of food. I have lots of plans for next year’s garden.

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I am sure that Dave the rooster now thinks his name is Dave-Don’t-Be-An-Asshole, because that’s what I say to him every time I go out there. I moved the Buff rooster to the separate area of the coop for a few days because Dave would not stop hassling him. Dave is the one that really needs a few days of timeout, but I am not sure he would get the message. I might have to find a new home for the Buff rooster. We just can’t have this much toxic masculinity in one coop. It’s a fine line. The characteristics that make Dave such an excellent rooster—he does a stellar job taking care of the hens—also make him aggressive toward the other males. He steers clear of the husband, though.

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DD#1 sent a picture of another bear. The picture was taken from the safety of their living room:

I made some comment to the husband about how disconcerting it would be to walk outside and see a bear in the yard and he said, “Did you forget where you live?” LOL.

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I finished T-shirt #3 yesterday afternoon and #4 is waiting to be hemmed. I discovered that even though I am using the exact same pattern, the fit is slightly different depending on the fiber content of the fabric. T-shirt #3 was a bamboo/rayon/spandex blend (I think) that I got at The Confident Stitch in Missoula last summer. The fabric feels wonderful but it’s clingier than the cotton/spandex and the 100% cotton shirts. I’ve ordered a couple more lengths of fabric in fiber combos I can’t find locally just so I can see what I like the best. (Have you ever heard of Liverpool knit?)

I also looked at the Kensington skirt pattern. The construction is dead simple: a front, a back, and two yoke pieces. Interestingly, the pattern suggests using a sewing machine for construction rather than a serger. After reading it over, I can understand the designer’s rationale for that recommendation. The Janome should handle the ponte knit with no issues.