The first week out of school isn't ever a week off; I have to pack up my classroom and finalize my grades, and clean up any committee/paperwork issues from the year. Then I spend a week coaching youth basketball camps. By the time summer actually starts, about the end of June, summer gardening is in full bloom and my days are spent weeding, watering, getting the patio ready, and trying to take my kids to the pool at least a couple days of week to head off their entertainment demands.
Lots of fun stuff to recap though, so buckle up.
Let's see...last August sometime, one of my munchkins got a popsicle out of the outside freezer and forgot to push it shut all the way. That resulted in the great Freezer Panic of 2011, in which I was cooking ridiculous amounts of pork and chicken in an effort to save it. Now, a smart girl would have taken that little lesson to heart and purchased a freezer alarm to prevent that from happening again.
But this is me you're talking about here, and buying a freezer alarm would have resulted in an extra trip to an appliance store AND having to admit that I was not vigilant enough to keep it from happening again. Well as it turns out, I'm not vigilant enough to keep it from happening again.
This time, I rearranged the freezer to get some things out from the back, and when I pressed it shut, it popped back open. I didn't notice for about 36 hours...just enough time to partially defrost 16 chickens and completely ruin 4 boxes of Schwan's ice cream treats.
And because this is me you're talking about here, it happened in the same weekend that I was baking/building a 3-tier wedding cake for my cousin. The cake was due in approximately 1.5 days, and now I have the freezer to deal with. I started cooking chicken at 11pm on a Thursday night, and cooked, roasted, shredded, diced, chopped chicken the whole night through. That was super fun, especially the lovely scent of cooked chicken and sugary fondant ruminating nicely in the kitchen all night.
I still haven't gotten the alarm, but I SWEAR it is on my list.
Now on the Great Gardening Extravaganza 2012. The early spring and warmer than usual temperatures this year allowed Aaron to get our garden and greenhouse planted extremely early this year. Last year, we were lucky to get everything in the ground by mid-June. This time around, I am already harvesting cucumbers, peas, carrots, kohlrabi, potatoes, green beans, yellow beans, raspberries and strawberries.
The cucumbers in particular went crazy; we put just a few hills in the greenhouse, and thought we might get a handful of cucumbers before the outside field took off. It just so happens that Aaron is also a big believer in composting. He has been using our home compost as fertilizer all winter, and this year the cucumbers went crazy. I didn't think anyone would believe me if I said that the cucumbers grew taller than me, and have grown out the doors and on to the ground. So I took a picture to prove it.
Let me elaborate a little on the joys of gardening. Do you know me well enough yet to hear the sarcasm in that sentence? Just wondering.
Anyway. Gardens, when planted prudently, can provide an adequate amount of fresh vegetables for a small family to enjoy for the summer. Gardens, when planted by my husband, can provide an abundance of fresh vegetables for our family, my in-laws, my neighbors, my teacher friends, the friends of my kids, and random strangers who are kind enough to take them off my hands.
This summer is hot and dry, so the watering begins in the early morning before the humidity really takes over. I'm up around 6:30am most days, rotating sprinklers and checking soil conditions in each of the nine (yes, that's right, I said nine) plots that Aaron planted this year.
And every summer we have a different pest to battle in the garden. This part may seem a little odd, but it is actually true. Every year, some new pest invades our area, and many of the big farmers spray chemicals of various kinds to eradicate that particular pest. So a different one takes it's place next year, and the cycle continues. One year we had ladybugs like crazy. One year we had those little green aphids. One year it was gigantic black crickets. One year I had thousands upon thousands of frogs and toads in my yard. This is the year of the Picnic Bug. Sometimes known as Raspberry Bugs, these little nightmares are everywhere. EVERYWHERE.
Any vegetable that nears ripening is invaded by one of these little bugs. We have had to harvest early and meticulously to try to save our veggies before they are eaten. We are philosophically opposed to chemicals and pesticides and insecticides and other unnatural things, so we are doing our level best to deal with the little buggers the old fashioned way, before they ruin our crop. (Incidentally, the farmer who farms around us is super-awesome...he knows we don't spray, and will choose a very still day to spray his own crop so as not to over-spray on our property. Good people, they are, and we're lucky to have them as neighbors.)
But these black bugs are the bane of my existence this summer. They also bite. And it hurts. I think maybe my favorite part of this summer has been bending down in the garden to look carefully at every single developing vegetable, in 85 degree heat at 6:30am 7 days a week and being bitten at random intervals by tiny black bugs that fly in your ear, down your shirt, up your shorts, inside your socks, and in Aaron's case, in your mouth.
You caught the sarcasm in that one, right?
After I've done the daily hunt for ripe stuff, I am off to the kitchen to prepare a box for sale, or can/pickle whatever the family can't eat. When I'm all done canning this year, I'll take a picture of the outcome...you really have to see it to believe it.
So far, that's my summer.
We have a few fun activities planned for late July and August, but this is me you're talking about here. I'm sure there will be plenty to write about.
