I let Ruby outside a Thursday afternoon and as I stood looking out the window waiting for her to return a small but colorful hummingbird made a quick stop just a few feet away from where I was standing. It’s pause in flight was just enough to say “Hello” before it hurried on its way. My thoughts immediately turned to my mom. It’s been 12 years (Friday, June 30th) since Mom passed away and there are still times when something will happen, and my first thought is “I should call Mom”.

For many years of my adult life mom and I would talk almost every day. She wanted to hear every little thing that was going on in my life and the lives of her grandkids. She would have loved hearing about that little encounter with a hummingbird.

Then on Friday evening when we turned to calendar to July it was as if Mom was speaking to me. More hummingbirds.

What I really meant to share in this post was some of the things that have been going on over the last couple weeks.

Berries

We have been picking both strawberries and cherries. Our strawberry crop is small this year and we have been eating some fresh so I only have about a quart in the freezer. Well I should say had because Monday I decided that if I am going to make strawberry jam I would have to buy berries. When I called the strawberry farm where I have bought my berries in the past I found out that it was their last day picking and I was able to snag the last two trays they had. I kept one tray (8 quarts) and got them in the freezer that day. My sister picked up the other tray so she can make jam as well.

Our cherry crop, on the other hand, was fabulous. I think I have 10 quarts in the freezer now and have made 4 pints of cherry juice. My husband finished picking all that we wanted then my sister came and picked about 4 more quarts. We left the ones we couldn’t reach for the robin family that is nesting in the maple tree nearby.

Organizing Freezers

I needed to organize my freezers because the 1/4 cow that we had ordered from our local farmer would be coming soon. I still had a large piece of suet in the freezer from last year so I cut it up and put it in the crock pot to melt. When it was mostly melted I strained it through a fine mesh strainer lined with two layers of paper towel. As it cooled it hardened back up and I now have several pounds of tallow to use in soap making. (This tallow could also be used as cooking oil or in candle making.)

I also had blueberries in the freezer from last year’s crop, so I made a double batch (6 pints) of blueberry jam and some very tasty blueberry popsicles.

Sewing Projects

My sister K.C. and her husband were in Michigan for a couple of weeks so on one of our days together K.C. and I made a trip to the fabric store. The main project I was shopping for was fabric for my dining room curtains. I knew I wanted, in some way, to match the kitchen curtains that I made last year but I didn’t want them to be exactly the same.

The picture above is the new dining room curtains I made. You may remember the kitchen curtains I made last year are full panels of the blue with the lemon pattern that I used as trim for this set. I am very happy with the way these turned out. They are very cheery and, in the afternoon, when the sun shines through the yellow, the room glows.

While at the fabric store I also found same really good deals on clearance fabrics. One fabric was a Christmas themed fleece for $2.98 a yard. It wasn’t anything I thought I would use for making garments, but I realized it would be perfect for making dog blankets to donate to our local humane society. For less than $15 I bought the last five yards and have cut it up into 7 pieces to make dog sized blankets. I have finished the edges on two of the blankets and when I finish the others will make a trip to the humane society to deliver them along with some scarves and chicken potholders that I am making for their “Pawzzar” fundraiser they will hold in December. Animal adoption is not the only way to support our local shelters.

Gardens

As summer arrived our weather pattern changed. The dry weather that we had from late May and early June has been replaced by pretty regular rain showers and storms.

We were able to stop watering the gardens and the plants have really taken off.

We will be picking green beans before long.

The blossoms on the tomato plants are turning into small tomatoes and my husband spotted our first cucumber yesterday.

I don’t know if we have ever grown healthier looking cabbage.

Chickens

When we arrive at the farm nowadays the welcoming committee looks something like this. The chicks have really grown up. The rooster on the far right in this picture, who we are now calling Rex, began crowing a couple of weeks ago. Out of the three roosters he seems to be the dominant one. A second rooster just began trying to crow this week.

Deer

The deer population on the farm has been greatly reduced since my husband put up the fence this spring. There are still a couple of does that regularly stop for breakfast (and lunch, and dinner). We did have to put fencing around the strawberries after we discovered the tops nibbled down and my husband replanted and fenced the mammoth sunflower patch after the deer ate the tops off, but they haven’t done nearly as much damage as they have in previous years.

Among things that they have (so far) left alone are the Asiatic lilies that have been in my prayer garden for at least 6 years. Each year they come up but before they ever get a chance to blossom the deer eat the tops off. This is the first year I have ever seen them blossom. That fence has been a blessing in so many ways.

I’m going to wrap up this post that I started writing a week ago, even though I could keep adding things (like we started picking blueberries) because if I keep adding to it July will be over before I hit the publish button. 🙂

Thanks for visiting.