Thursday, September 01, 2011

September is "In" With a Near-Frost

Where did summer go?

I woke up this morning to a cold house (left the windows open) and a thermometer reading 37 degrees outside! Since yesterday's morning low was 54, you can imagine my shock. Hello, September.

I am so not ready for this.

Our 2nd (late season) bush bean patch has finally begun producing like mad! Roughly 2 rows of bean plants will fill a 5 quart bucket (which is what I generally use to hold beans), and there are more rows than I care to count (the entire patch measures about 40'x40'). I have been picking buckets of beans every day and still am not harvesting them all!! Beans out of the early 1st patch I flash-froze, but I have been pressure canning these late season beans. We'll see if they keep better texture-wise with canning.

Also been processing still more apples (I swear my pantry is composed of 50% apple butter and 50% peach preserves at this point!)...cooked down another 20 lbs, and have 20 lbs more still waiting for me. This time, I seasoned the batch as though I was making apple butter, but I will be spreading it out on cookie sheets and drying it in the oven to make fruit leather! So I will have my own homemade fruit rollups to snack on! I need to get this first batch in the oven early today, since you cook it on very low heat anywhere from 5-8 hours...I also need to get started on the 20+ lbs of tomatoes staring at me from the work room...so much to do during harvest season, and never enough hours in the day! And it feels like the weather is trying to give us an early Fall! Yikes!

Ryan and I met up on his lunch break yesterday for a brief date at the antique mall by his work. I found the most lovely 1940s dress there, and (unintentionally, I might add!) gave him the puppy dog eyes (which he claims he can never resist), so we bought it. It fits like a dream, and is made of a toasty beige knit rayon material with a belt and beautiful sheer lace bodice! VERY delicate and lovely, and definitely something I am going to need to find an appropriate slip for! (Pictures of that later)

I have a hat arriving today! YAY! A pretty 1940's number with a little birdie on the brim. I think I am going to name the bird "Isabel" after the milliner. We are so busy with B&B bookings this month that I will be unable to attend my beloved city-wide Jacksonville yard sale the weekend of the 10th. Since I can't spend the money I was saving for that, I decided to blow it on hats! I figure it's a win-win situation! ;P

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