July Jumble, #2

This summer, we had two litters of kittens born.  We did not discover either set of kittens until they were 2-3 weeks old.  One mama cat had 3 kittens, and the other one had 4.  

Anthony with the prized near-white kitten.

So cute!

Cat-hole into the shed.

Look at that little face peeking out!

Needless to say, the kids love it when there are kittens!

 The garden really began booming in July.

That is a ridiculous pile of cucumbers.

Shucking corn.

Beans headed to the freezer.

A pause for a week of Totus Tuus.  The four oldest attended.  Next year it will finally be Anthony's turn.

Performance at the Wednesday night potluck.

Who do you spy?

Anne front and center.

Back to the garden we go.

Scrub that corn!

Cucumbers and onions all sliced up and mixed in some salt.

Cooking in the big pot.

Bread and butter pickles.

July Jumble, #1

On the left: a normal large egg.  Poor hen who laid the egg on the right!

Our first green bean harvest.

Joseph liked the look of this fruit pizza!

Waiting in line for the Krispy Kreme special!

This little guy was attached to our front window one evening.

Girls' lunch out.

Look at all those beets!

Sorting by size.

Beets got boiled.

Rubbing off the skins.

Slicing with the mandolin.

Yummy pickled beets!

Sacks and sacks of cucumbers, oh my!

Pickled green beans, aka dilly beans.

All Over August

Kids shucking corn, lots of corn.

Catherine fixing a shirt for Anne.

My sister and her boys stopped by on their way to visit my parents.

Dan gave the boys tractor rides.

Matthew loved it.

Andrew thought it was pretty cool, too.

For some reason, it is fun to sit on the propane tank while waiting for your turn. 

A big batch of bread and butter pickles.

One day Anthony woke up like this.

It didn't seem to bother him much.

But it rather alarmed the parents.

After a trip to the doctor, we all figured it was probably a reaction to a spider bite or something.  Two prescriptions and a week later, it was back to normal.  Whew!

Ice cream treat!

Dan's stuffed jalapenos.  I ate several, but they were hot for me.  Good, but hot!

Garden in August

In early August, we had a sauerkraut-making day:

Tons of shredded cabbage...

...go into the crock for fermentation.

I slogged through mud in early August to pick the cantaloupe and watermelon.  The watermelon got washed off before this picture:

A full load.

These made our dining room table and chairs look small.

Watermelon Chocolate Chip Muffins.

Another big load three days later:

The cantaloupe were hit-and-miss this year, some really good, some really bad.

Only two days later:

Getting ridiculous!

The watermelon that got cut right out of the garden.

Okay, so this was posed.   :)

This was not.

The older three were enjoying their watermelon...

...while the younger two...

... just made faces for the camera.

Some of that watermelon made it into the house.

Beet jelly that I made in the middle of August.

And finally, pickled okra at the end of August.