cucumber salad and ginger beer

I often describe the weather, because it plays a major role in my ordinary life.

But complain? No. What could be more pointless?

There are times, though, when just describing something can sound very much like complaining, so I think I'll not write about the weather at all right now!

~~~

A goat note:

I want to thank my readers who have sent good wishes about my poorly goats. Campion is back to his usual self, which is a huge relief. The digestive system of a goat is a lot more sensitive than we are led to believe by the cartoon goat eating tin cans. It is critical that the system remains active, and a goat not eating at all is a goat heading for a dangerous situation. Happily, Campion's digestive system is very, very active again :)

Tansy (left) and mama Tsuga, in front of the fan

Tansy's lameness is a mystery. She is slightly favoring her near fore, and I can't even determine if the discomfort is from the foot, leg, or shoulder - when I gently examine her, she doesn't react as if any point or any movement is painful.

We are now soaking her entire leg, from hoof to elbow, in a warm epsom salt bath for 20 minutes daily, and I'll tell you what: this is a perfect example of why I take the time to collar and tie my goats for their daily feed buckets. No goat wants to keep a leg in water for even 20 seconds. If simply being tied was also an unfamiliar thing, the entire experience would be that much more stressful for the animal. For both animals involved, really. As it is, Tansy is being very good, and we are having long, quiet conversations about exactly how good she is.

I am hopeful the soak is helping. It's certainly not hurting.

~~~

summer menu 2016:

Ever since my cucumber plants began producing, there's been a quart jar of cucumber salad chilling in the fridge. It started with my blog-friend Tipper's post about cucumber salad, and the helpful comments her readers left with their own favorite recipes. 

I've enjoyed cucumber salad for breakfast, lunch, supper, and insomniac snacks. By itself, or with cold tuna added, or with a few cubes of very sharp cheddar on the side. First, I made it with the Suyo Long cucumbers from Sow True Seeds, which, coincidentally, Tipper sent me back in the Spring. Thanks, Tipper!

Suyo Long

The current batch was made with a combination of Suyo and Poona Kheera; the Indian cucumbers grown from leftover seed (I just checked: the seed was from 2013!) planted for the heck of it and now producing madly.

 Poona Kheera start out green and yellow, then turn beautiful shades of brown:

I haven't yet figured out the ideal stage at which to harvest them. But as with summer squash, if I let cucumbers grow so long they develop tough seeds, it's the work of a moment to scoop out the core and present it to the delighted chickens. And both Suyo and Poona Kheera have lovely edible skins - no peeling, extra texture, and not a bitter bite so far.

Pretty tasty!

The other staple of summer 2016?

Ginger beer.

Fever Tree, when possible.

With ice.

Lots.

I drink water all day long anyway, but many afternoons this summer I've enjoyed a cold glass of ginger beer. So refreshing!

It's the little things that help us along, isn't it?

~~~

What are your favorite foods and beverages to help you through seasons of unspeakable weather?

~~~~~

listing

The trouble I find with not writing a blog post until something is "over," is that sometimes things go on and on. Meanwhile, other things are happening. Soon I have a choice: either write a novelette-length post or wipe my brain-slate clean and post a photograph with no words at all. Helloooo, Wordless Wednesdays!

I'm going to try a middle-ground approach today: a sort of illustrated bullet list of things not mentioned in recent weeks. Let's see how it goes, shall we?

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Goats: two worrying health issues. Tansy, recurring and baffling lameness with no other symptoms. Campion, shockingly off feed for a full day due to apparent mouth pain, now - I hope - resolved.

Little Tansy, Having A Think

Campion (My Champion)

Nothing wrong with Vinca.
Except an inability to believe a pocket can be EMPTY.

~~~

Piper: recovery from dental surgery going beautifully when suddenly a mysterious cyst appeared on near foreleg. My vet aspirated; after two extremely long days, lab reported no evidence of cancer cells. Whew.

Piper at the pond today

~~~

Me: saw doc mid-July for joint pain review. Two hours of standing/sitting at her office generated severe upper back pain, leading to a headache which lasted 8 days before I broke down and saw chiropractor. Note to self: next time don't wait 8 days, you eejit. Also: whew.

~~~

Gardens: the incredible lack of rain all season has been a challenge for plants. Currently harvesting cucumbers; watching squash and pumpkins. Yesterday something caused the entire center of my popcorn patch to fall over. It is hard to see plants on the brink of pollination...downed.

suyo long cucumbers

~~~

Tech updates: liking the free version of Zoner Photo Studio! Also, new laptop now communicating with both goatcams! Tiny laptop sent for repair, came back yesterday with totally new problems! Back it goes.

~~~

Me again: a person who cares about me and did not mean to be hurtful said, "If you didn't have those animals you'd be living in a chair by now." You know, I often say the animals are the reason I must get up and out and get things done, every single day, no matter what. It's a fact. It's my life. I am grateful. So what that person said was just another way of framing the same thing, I guess. But I spent the next few days trying very hard not to feel upset about those words.

~~~

DrawingAugust2016: been making an effort to play at drawing every day, for a little while, either working outdoors or from a photograph. It's a bit magical to do a simple pen sketch:

then add watercolor pencil:

then a wet brush:

As "magic" goes, this is inexpensive, portable, and fun.

I highly recommend it.

~~~

Well, that's it for the Illustrated Bullet List.
What say you...better than a novelette?

I hope your week is going well :)

~~~~~

bye july

Intermittent light rain today!
I am so grateful. Heat and humidity have been almost relentless since May, and it's been dry, dry, dry.
So dry that in the week before July 4th, I called the police four times to report that thoughtless people (a bit of serious editing there, readers) were repeatedly setting off illegal fireworks near my place. Curmudgeon? Maybe. But the forest didn't burn and my barns are intact.

Speaking of barns, a couple of weeks ago I went out before dawn - the best time to do "extra" chores in this weather - to set up a big fan in the goat barn. The fan is part of a large haul of goodies bought at a farm sale last Autumn. It had been stored safely out of goats' reach in the little stilt barn, hanging from two nails in a rafter. Retrieving it meant teetering on a stepstool while keeping one eye on LeShodu, Betula and Acer - the three biggest goats in the herd - who had been sleeping in the stilt barn til I showed up to entertain them. Each was capable of bumping me off that stool with a gentle "whatcha doin'?" nose-nudge.

Do you find it a bit unnerving when you need all your strength to wrestle with something that's over your head? That big box in the loft, that suitcase jammed onto a closet shelf? It's like a dog chasing a car: when you finally get hold of that thing, will you really be able to control it?

I managed to hang onto the fan and get off the stool without mishap, mostly because even in the relative "cool" before sun-up, the goats were too lethargic to help. This endlessly muggy weather makes the goats either lethargic or cranky. Same here, goats, same here. I move even more slowly than usual, if you can imagine it. And there's been a lot more swearing when things don't go smoothly. (Please don't imagine that second part.)

In the big barn, I attached a piece of stock panel at an angle across one stall to keep the goats away from the fan, then opened the west door of the barn. Campion was the first to investigate:

Followed by Dara and Vinca. By the way, these are both goatcam shots. I kept an eye on things from the house, to be sure my barrier was working. As soon as I was out of the barn, Campion tried to tear the stock panel down, but was unsuccessful. This was a big victory for me; sometimes it takes two or three tries to Campion-proof something. He is tenacious!

The fan isn't on all the time, but when the air is hot and thick and humid, it certainly helps to keep a little air moving through the barn. And I hope it's helping keep the biting flies out as well.

~~~

So far this summer, there have been only three days when the gardens have not needed watering. There are hoses set up to reach the big gardens but every evening after regular chores I've been carrying buckets of water to a few small garden areas beyond reach of the hoses. A couple of days ago I broke down and bought one more hundred-foot section. (After extensive research last year, I invested in several sections of 100% rubber hose. And I do mean "invested;" these hoses will be specifically mentioned in my Will.) Money well spent. What a thrill to have that hose carrying the water for me! Simple tools often provide miraculous results.

Here's another miraculous thing: the vegetable plants are beginning to produce. 

French filet pole beans

In the past ten days I have appreciated the first pole beans, summer squash, and cucumber. The winter squash plants are now climbing to the top of the six-foot fence, and at the other end of the spectrum, the tiny okra plants are putting out new leaves. I may not have the abundant harvest I had hoped to put by for Winter, but I am very grateful to have fresh, organic vegetables right now.

Ronde de Nice squash

And tonight I think I can skip watering the gardens.

~~~

Piper visited the doggy spa last week, where she is very popular and always has a swell time. Usually she has a professional bath in the Spring and Autumn, but this was an extra trip; the equivalent of buying new jimjams for a hospital stay.

Piper's doctor felt a couple of molars were giving her trouble and should probably be removed. To be honest, I was hesitant; Piper wasn't off her grub at all and showed no signs of discomfort. And as boisterous as Piper is  - and as much as I am in total denial about this - she is not a youngster. Anesthesia always carries a risk.

But I did the responsible thing: trusted my vet and scheduled dental surgery this past Wednesday. It was two hours of surgery in the morning, and poor Pip was feeling peculiar and a bit wobbly when I brought her home late that afternoon. She is feeling much more herself now, but we're still taking things more quietly than usual. I'm hoping we'll be back out for little strolls in the woods this week.

typical provisions for Adventures with Piper

~~~

What are you planning for the coming week?

Can you believe it will be August?

~~~~~

pattypan reprise

One late little pattypan squash recently appeared, glowing like a beacon amidst the thinning foliage of the fading squash plants. I waited for a few days, but with plant-eating bugs still attacking the neighboring cabbage and cauliflower and potato plants, it seemed risky to delay harvesting the little squash any longer.

And I picked a few beans and lemon cucumbers, too.

This picture really shows why they are called "greasy beans"!

A few weeks ago I decided to let the last few pole beans dry on the vine, then gather them for for shelling as the last part of the experiment. But to my surprise, the plants continued to produce, yielding more beans at the end of the season than they did earlier. Maybe I should check the packet and my planting notes.

I don't know if these little lemon cucumbers are ripe, but I was told to pick them before they turn yellow. And they do smell lovely! So we'll see.

Did you have a garden this year? Are you still harvesting vegetables, or have you already put the garden to bed for winter?

And who is just planting their gardens, in the southern hemisphere or parts more tropical than Massachusetts? Links to your bloggy garden pictures very welcome  :)

~~~~~

wordless wednesday

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pattypanapalooza!

We had a couple of very soggy days and nights this week, but yesterday was lovely. A perfect day to poke around in the garden and discover what's been going on out there.

Unfortunately, I was held captive all day by a rogue migraine, and spent most of the day indoors.

But today! Today I spent hours in the garden!

Some of the goats kept me company, on the other side of the garden fence. This is Tsuga, nibbling mullein leaves and pretending she is not waiting for a chance to sneak into the garden and chow down.

"I am not trying to sneak into the garden! I am just minding my own business and eating mullein! Why are you always so suspicious? Sheesh!"

Five seconds after this picture was taken, Tsuga squeezed her pudgy little body through a four-inch gap in the gate. I grabbed her as she was reaching for a cauliflower, and bundled her right back out to browse with her mama.

Sheesh.

Okay, now here's a little update.

 The lemon cucumbers planted on the last day of June have been growing and reaching and grabbing on to the fence.

At least a few of the onion sets planted on 10 June survived the Massachusetts Monsoons of 2013 and are still holding their own:

This is one of only two potato plants from sets that went in with the onions. Both are an experiment; clearance-priced at the feed store, and already looking a bit sad when I brought them home. Not sure I'll see any actual potatoes, but you never know:

The first tomatoes! This may be one of the Cherokee plants. I've added so much goat poop and "used" hay around all the plants, it will now require some cautious excavating to locate the labels. The labels I carefully stuck in the ground by each tomato plant because I knew I would forget which is which.

 

Oh, and here is the first little zuke:

Isn't it adorable? It's a type that grows little round green globes instead of the traditional baseball-bat zucchini.

So, lots of activity in the world of plants, but the big story in the garden today is the pattypan squash!

Look here:

And here!

Ooh, and here!

 The patterns and markings are different on each one.

There seems to be an infinite variety.

 

Was Shakespeare writing about pattypan squash?

  I think maybe he was.

~~~~~