The End of Summer

I never thought I'd say this, but right now, I am ready for summer to end! Don't get me wrong, I will miss the warm weather and I dread the ice and snow. But right now...I'm sick of the garden stuff! We got a frost last week, and I didn't even care. It was a hard enough frost to kill off our tomato plants and beans, although the actual tomatoes were fine. 

I'm in the midst of mountains of pears right now. I've made pear butter, pear sauce, and I have 10 dehydrator trays full right now. I have tomatoes ripening all over my kitchen and pantry, and I've lost count of how much I've canned. I've done garden veggie juice, tomato soup, salsa, and sauce. And I just feel DONE. And yes, I'll be thankful to have all of this yummy food this winter when we won't have much of a garden (although I'm hoping for a few things in my greenhouse and cold frame!), but right now it's exhausting! 

The boys started soccer, and cub scouts starts tonight. The fall craziness has started, but the summer craziness isn't quite over yet so we're being hit hard! B's birthday party is (finally) this Sunday, so we have preparations for that too, along with the fact that it's hunting season. Oh my goodness. I think I tired myself out just typing all of that. 

But I will say this. I'm thankful for a weather forecast in the high 80's for this week. I'm thankful to be still comfortable biking the boys to and from school. And I'm thankful for our productive garden, even if I'm burnt out on it!!!

I took the boys to Silverwood while John was hunting. He didn't get an elk, but he found this treasure that the boys think is pretty amazing!

John and I went on a date the other night...a bike ride by the lake, appetizers at an Italian restaurant along the bike path, and then sushi and a movie! It was amazing.

Pears!

Garden corn...yum!

A little backyard four square

Archer doing his first filling :)

And the pears. Pears pears pears!

Canning Progress

I kept thinking I was so behind in my canning this year, until I looked back at last years post...I guess I am ahead of where I was last year! I will try not to panic.

We have tomatoes in abundance, but our green beans are finally slowing down a bit. I still have canned green beans from last year, so I froze them this year and didn't can any, except for 10 pints of dilly beans. I ended up freezing at least 12 gallons! Crazy. Plus we had plenty to eat fresh and even enough to share with friends and neighbors. 

My tomato canning has really picked up the last week or so. So far this year, I have canned 20 quarts of tomato sauce, 32 pints of salsa, and 7 quarts of salsa. Up next is ketchup...I'd love to get 10 pints or so! I am definitely done with salsa - I've used up pretty much all of our jalapeños and Serrano peppers, plus I'm pretty sure we won't run out of salsa this year.

I'm so thankful that we have had such a productive garden year! We have a small fall/winter garden planted so I'm excited to see how that goes.

Our Last Week

I can't believe we're down to the last week of summer! We have a busy, busy week here, and I have to say, I'm still not ready for school to start. It might be partly because my baby will be going to school, and I will have 3 hours with no kids for the first time in almost 9 years. It's weird. I can't wrap my mind around it yet, but I am kinda regretting that we didn't do preschool for Arch. I think we both could've used it as prep for "real" school! So, I guess the busyness keeps my mind off of the impending start of school.

This weekend we finally finished a project that has been ongoing for about 9 months: the greenhouse! I'm beyond excited. We started it last fall, but then John had knee surgery, and we've only worked on it sporadically since then. Until now! We spent ALL day Saturday on it, and it's a huge relief to be done with it.

We also had a birthday party to go to this weekend, and it reminded me that I really need to get on planning a party for B! His birthday is the day after school starts this year, and we've already talked about doing it a week or 2 after his birthday, but even that is starting to creep up on me! I can't believe he's going to be 7! Last night he lost his first tooth. I think my boys are all growing up way too quickly!!

Otherwise, the garden is continuing to consume a TON of my time. I enjoy it, mostly, but it sometimes it feels like just one more thing I have to do. I have canned some salsa & tomato sauce, and dilly beans. I'm canning some more tomato sauce today. I've also frozen 11-12 gallons of green beans! We are going to be eating beans like crazy all winter, but I don't think I'm going to be able to can as many tomato things as I did last year. Oh well...

These grasshoppers have me on edge every time I pick beans! They hop right at me sometimes and it scares me!

And we have at least one more adventure to come before school starts...

Summer Days

Slipping away. I feel like summer is disappearing before my eyes! We have been busy busy busy and of course that makes it go even quicker. Not what I want happening when I want to be savoring the hot sunny days!

My parents and sister just came for a visit (they left today) and brought their tiny rescued kitten, Rocky, along. Needless to say, we now have 3 boys who want to kitty! Poor boys were shut down by their parents who couldn't handle any more craziness. But look at this cuteness! I can't blame the boys for being a bit love struck!

I may have spent a lot of time cuddling Rocky, and taking pictures of him because he's so photogenic!

We had another 4 legged visitor as well...

B also got to do a little birthday celebration while Momma & Poppa were here. He was super excited about his Star Wars lego set, but the crossbow was definitely the big hit. The boys have been target shooting!

We had a bit of excitement last weekend when John, my dad, and the boys went fishing at a little mountain lake - 10 miles up a little windy dirt road In the middle of nowhere. We just recently replaced our tiny Subaru with a diesel truck since John no longer has a commute (he bikes to work most days) and we are working towards being debt free. We bought a truck that was cheap. We knew it had some issues, but we took it to 2 shops and while there are things that need to be done, nothing that should immediately make it undriveable...well...you can probably guess where this is going. I got a call from John in the mid-afternoon that the truck wouldn't start. He and I both called around and basically accomplished nothing. We couldn't find any tow trucks willing or able to go up that road! Thank goodness we live in N. Idaho where every other person has a diesel truck. There were lots of people trying to diagnose the issue to no avail, BUT there was a guy up at the lake who had a flatbed trailer who was willing to tow the truck down! He ended up towing it all the way to the service department at a car dealer. I wish I had some pictures of how the whole thing went down, but I was too busy biting my nails at the way they had to load and unload the truck!

Other than that excitement, we've been swimming, going to the beach, 

bike riding,

 going to the park, gardening,

 canning,

 squirt gun fighting, 

and just generally go go going. John and I even snuck in a date night while my parents were here (never mind that it was a dinner put on by an investment company!). It was beautiful weather and the scenery was perfect. We got to sit outside and eat a yummy dinner while looking out at the lake. Not a bad date night!

Just Some Summer Fun

I'm trying to enjoy the summer and not think about the fact that it's almost August and my boys (all 3!!) will be heading to school soon. I wish it was June again (with July weather of course).

Just a few pics of the SUMMER from the last few days...

Our garden is producing a bounty of kohlrabi, peas (still!), kale, peppers, and green beans. Less bountiful are the tomatoes (we've only gotten a few), and the raspberries are slowing down sadly. We have a handful of blueberries here and there. We have a few baby sprouts on our Brussels sprouts that I'm pretty excited about! Possibly the most exciting thing about Fall will be our Fall garden that I'm working on right now.

Just beautiful. I love the sunsets from our backyard.

Oh yes, 108! Hot hot hot! We had escaped the heat for a trip to the movies with friends, but when we got out to the car, I burned my legs on the seats. Ouch. 

Friends visiting from Oregon

Coffee/OJ date with the littlest while the other 2 were at golf lessons

Apparently 100 degrees is too hot for most people around here, so we got to enjoy an afternoon at the splash pad ALONE. And to make it even quieter, Preston was at a friend's house!

See? Not too hot for us! I finally had to force him to come into the shade and drink some water.

These 2. Adorable.

Pool noodle cage fighting!

So much to do...

...so little time to blog about it!

We have been camping, going to the beach, bike riding, golfing, gardening, playing in the sprinklers, enjoying the outdoors, going to the park, going to Silverwood...and so much more. Summer has been crazy busy! I've been snapping pictures when I get a chance (how did I ever take pictures before iPhones??), but not as often as I wish I would!

Yummy garden bounty! Our peas are finally ending, the strawberries are just about done, and the blueberries and raspberries are just getting started. We've picked a handful of cherry tomatoes, but not many yet. We enjoyed our first beautiful head of broccoli, and we're anxiously awaiting green beans! I'm going to try a Fall garden this year, so we're getting ready to plant that.

We are fortunate to have a neighbor who gets us free tickets to lots of events at the fairgrounds. We get to go to way more events than we would otherwise...like Monster Trucks!

Selfie by the 4-yr-old

Poor B! He was walking Ender and had a little issue!

We went camping over the 4th. Not my pick of times to camp, but it wasn't too crowded and most of us had a good time. (I was kinda cranky and not feeling like camping.)

After we got back from camping, we did a little fireworks celebration in our backyard.

Ender LOVES the sprinkler. In fact, we've been turning it on just for her, even if the boys don't want to play. She will run through it as long as it's on!

This kid is working his way through a big summer reading list

Silverwood!

Oh, yuba. We LOVE the yuba. It has enabled bike rides that might not be possible otherwise.

And take a look at our weather forecast! I'm envisioning lots of ripe tomatoes in our near future!

High 90's! Thunderstorms! Sunshine! Lows in the 60's! This is why I insist on only taking vacations in the winter/Spring. Who wants to leave this???