Hey! Hey! Is anybody still here? I am! We have been super busy the past couple of weeks. I’ll update you on everything that’s been going on. So my last post was almost two weeks ago. I’ve been reading a lot of books! YAY for that! I have tons of book reviews to share with you. I might do one long book review post. That might make it easier. Or I might stick to doing them individually. They are mostly Young Adult books. I’ve really been getting back into my groove with the YA genre. And I’m loving it.
We’ve also been spending a lot of time on the river. Which has been really nice. All the pics above, with the exception of the tomatoes, were from the past two weeks. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve probably seen them before. We borrowed a camping grill and cooked chicken and veggie kabobs. That was so fun! We’re looking to buy a boat grill for ourselves now. How fun would that be? Floating down the river, enjoying the scenery, and cooking out? I can imagine all the things we can cook! One of the trips down the river was with another uber fisherman. So I sat in the back of the boat practicing my selfies, because what else do you do? I usually bring my knitting with me, but I messed up one of my projects and didn’t feel like knitting in the boat that day. It was fun though!
I am slowly putting the garden to bed. I harvested a few tomatoes and there are still some slowly growing. All the brussel sprouts and broccoli had to go since they were infested with cabbage worms. It was time for them to go. I also harvested all the basil since it’s starting to bolt. I’m letting the dill heads dry on the plant and then cutting them off. All the cucumber and squash plants have been pulled. Overall my garden grew really, really well, but didn’t produce very well. Probably because of all the rain plus my containers weren’t big enough. But I had fun. And I had a garden. So I’m happy. The chickens get all the plants I pull. They are mostly not interested but I throw the plants in the chicken run anyway.
Speaking of chickens. They’re hanging in there. Little Girl is now consistently laying internal eggs. I had to put her on antibiotics because she had a soft shell inside her too long and infection set in. She’s fine now. She will still go in the nest box and act like she wants to lay an egg, but she doesn’t actually lay any eggs. It’s been at least 2 weeks now. Maybe 3 since she last laid an external egg. Elsie started laying eggs again as is par for the course with her. She laid for her normal 2 weeks and then started laying internally again. I believe she’s done with that business and now is back to pre-molt. I expect to see her molting very soon. As will the other girls since we are heading into molt season. It has been a really hot summer without much relief. Which is really unusual here. It was hard on the girls too. But they have been getting a lot more free range time because of it. So I’m sure they’re happy with that.
I’ve been mowing the lawns at the fishing lodge. I love it! I get to use the big tractor. That has taken up a lot of my time. It takes a few hours (5-6) to get all the mowing down if I am mowing everything. Normally we just mow the lawn and the two fields next to it. And the parking lot. That takes about 3 hours. I can do that all in one day. If it’s time to mow everything else it usually takes me 2 days. It’s a lot. And it’s fun!! Apparently I’ve graduated to helping with other things now too. Mowing fields, helping till, helping plant food plots, etc. I. Am. SO. Excited!! I’ve literally been waiting my whole adult life for this.
We had a very special event at the fishing lodge this past weekend. Again, if you follow me on instagram, you’ve already seen some pics and heard some details. A dear friend of ours is a breast cancer survivor. And an uber fisherwoman. She wanted to give back and started a breast cancer fishing program. The first event was this past weekend. And it was a smashing success.
I also need to update you all on our No Spend August. I have to go through all my receipts and tally those up and see how we did. I have been spending a little more money in September but not a lot. And I’m really starting to think about how to reduce and reuse. That has been fun. And I’ve been canning! Oh! I bought 30 pounds of cucumbers for $5 and canned 39 pints of bread and butter pickles. I need to update you all on that too! And I took about 600 photos this past weekend. I am in editing mode with those. I’m hoping to get about 50 useable photos from those 600.
I have also been applying for jobs. I interviewed for 2. Heard back from one. Didn’t get the job but they sent my resume to another job that was asking for qualified candidates. We’ll see what happens.
I think that’s it for now. I have a lot of thoughts running through my head that mostly deal with the more negative side of things. But I’ll leave us here. On a positive note. I’ve also got a million things to do and to update you all on. So look for more posts coming soon!