Weekly Update: 6.14.26
Of yardwork and thunderstorms
It was a week of catching up between thunderstorms. After all the rain in May, the grass around the bunkhouse and weeds in the garden had gotten way out of control. We had wildflowers blooming where our summer squash is soon to be. We had blooming hemlock in our “yard” between the bunkhouse and the woods. It was a mess. We still dealt with storms this week, but most days had enough good weather to spend significant time outside.
Thankfully, the softened earth made for easier than normal weed pulling. Tearing down the unwanted jungle became our morning routine all week. One person (mostly our brother Levi, but Grace helped as well) ran the weed trimmer. The rest worked in the garden -- spraying for pests or pulling weeds. It was monotonous but satisfying to get things looking better. What is more, the rain has caused our garden plants to grow visibly almost daily, so that has been exciting.
When it rained or got unbearably hot in the sun, we moved under canopies to work or came into the bunkhouse. Our brother Levi, his wife, and his daughter have been sanding floor boards for their suite of rooms. We sisters have been busy with too many small tasks to list — from taking care of our seedlings to dealing with tech issues (two laptops had to be sent in for repairs this week).
We transplanted our cucumber seedlings into pots this week, as they are growing much faster than I expected. We are hoping to delay putting them in the ground until the first of July, as we read that can help with squash bug prevention. I’m not sure these plants will wait, though. We finally seeded our pumpkins and winter squash this week. We are hoping for a September/October harvest rather than an August one this year. I also seeded summer squash -- again, as only two of our old seeds sprouted.
I finally serviced our KitchenAid mixer -- a project on my to-do list since April. It’s always been an overwhelming task, but after learning how to build a house, I’m more confident than I used to be about these sorts of things. I watched a YouTube video, ordered the appropriate grease (food grade designed for mixers), grabbed some tools, and went to work. The most difficult part was removing the snap ring. I had ordered a special tool, but I made the mistake of picking the cheapest option I could from Menards. It was clumsy, had obviously misshapen parts, and just wouldn’t work. After struggling for a good while, Grace and I improvised -- using wire and a pair of scissors. It didn’t work great, but it did work. Once the mixer was taken apart, cleaning the old grease was simple enough, as was reapplying the new. Certain areas had very little grease left, so I felt like my efforts were well placed. I hit another snag trying to reassemble the mixer, as the planetary shaft (the central piece things rotate around) had developed microscopic burs that had to be sanded off. Once the mixer was back together, I turned it on -- and I was so pleased about how much quieter it was.
On Friday, a new stray kitten showed up on our homestead. So far, it seems very wild — no one has been able to get very close to it (aside from when it cornered itself in our old cat house. We have been meaning to make a better cat habitat in our garden, in hopes of having a couple garden cats to reduce our rodent population. Grace fixed up our old pet house, using a section of my old doll house to make a smaller door (it had an open front for our dogs). We located it in the garden, but we have yet been able to entice the stray to visit it.
On Saturday, we were forecasted a day of storms. Midmorning, the weather dried up for awhile -- in time for us to check our package box and find our grapevines had arrived. We planted 10 seedless concord vines last year, but by this spring only a couple showed signs of life. Since Stark Bro’s guarantees their vines for a year, I contacted them a few weeks ago and let them know our vines didn’t make it. The replacements finally showed up today. The forecast was still calling for storms, but a whole bunch of us ran out to the garden to get the vines in the ground.
After planting our vines, I took advantage of the cooler weather to teach my niece how to make caramel corn. Oven caramel corn was a childhood favorite of mine — my mom often made it for camping trips and holidays. We have talked about making some for my brother’s kids for ages, but for some reason we just haven’t done it. With the oldest getting braces next week and having to give up popcorn for a couple years at least, I realized it was now or never. We used the recipe I grew up with — from the old Betty Crocker cookbook my mom always used (it’s the second one we’ve had). We laid our popcorn out on cookie sheets and mixed up our caramel in saucepans. After it was coated, we baked it for an hour to crisp. It was as delicious as I remembered it, and the kids were instant fans.
With so much catching up, the week felt kind of chaotic. Thankfully, we are going into the next week feeling like we have a much better handle on our yardwork. We are hopeful that we can finally get back to working on our kitchen shelving, which we have completely put aside over the last several weeks. Since next Saturday has decent weather, we would love to take advantage of our brothers both being off work to get the tractor repaired and hopefully running again. The cucurbit sections of the garden still need prepped, and I need to get the rest of the drip system installed. That’s all next week, though. Today is Sunday — time for worship and rest. I’m looking forward to meeting Jesus at Mass, then spending the afternoon eating cold sandwiches, drinking home brew, and recreating.
