Hibiscus – 1st flower
Tuesday was going to be one of those days. My #2 intern begged off coming. I got up late and had to clean the kitchen up and get ready for the freezer guys around 9AM. My general helper slept through her alarm and didn’t come down until after 7:30AM.
We finally got organized after 8AM and she went out and started checking to see what was alive in the cold frame. I had realized I had to soak the cukes for 2 hours in salt water, so I got busy chopping those.
The substitute for my helper friend while he was on vacation arrived at 9AM and as she didn’t know where anything was, wasn’t terribly helpful. I had her do some chores, and then sent her on errands, one of which was taking the pile of squash to the Survival Center.
Once I’d gotten the cukes done and my general helper had finished the seedlings, I sent her to the store for the peppers and onions as mine aren’t quite ready to harvest yet. When she got back, I got those soaking in salt water.
The freezer room guys arrived around 9AM too and decided to use the scaffolding but not the lift.
There was a knock at the door at 9:15AM and it was the Comcast guys wanting to know where to lay out the line for the cable for internet, etc. I hadn’t known they were coming.
So I soon had a white line across the backyard and along the fence and down the driveway.
My general helper remembered we were going to harvest the Juneberries as they had gone about 10 days since last harvest.
Photos taken by my general helper
So she went out and got the netting off and back on and harvested nearly 2 cups. That put us about halfway to the 8 cups I need to make jam. They were washed and went into the freezer.
I gave her the map of the New Herb garden and sent her out to plant what she could. I think she got 3 or 4 beds planted.
The helper left at 12:30PM after vacuuming and washing the floors. My general helper headed out when she finished in the gardens.
The vegetables were ready to rinse by 1:30PM and I got them soaking in the syrup, then heated them to boiling.
The freezer guys finished around 2:30PM and left.
I got the jars heated and finally filled them around 4PM and got them processing. I finished that around 4:30PM.
I was so tired! But a lot had gotten done on Tuesday. It was to be a cool night so I left the house open.
On Wednesday the heat pump guys were supposed to come at 9AM. My #2 intern was to be here at 7AM and my general helper also would be up by then. I wanted to get as far as I could in the New Herb garden with them, planting, amending and mulching. It wasn’t to get terribly hot until later in the day, so I was hoping for a good morning.
There is a special pleasure in this life that we grow the things we like in our garden and then harvest them and then eat them ourselves and feed them to our friends because the quality of the things we grow ourselves with hard work is better and is much more beneficial.
There's a lot going on at your house, and what a busy day! I am not familiar with Juneberries. Since you are harvesting them in August, I am wondering how they got their name. I guess I could look it up, but it's more fun to ask you! LOL
My guess is that with the netting on, and being at the north end of the Little Trees, it slows ripening a good deal. I know when I planted them in 2020, the next year they were ripe and eaten in mid June. I think the same thing happened in 2022. (Not eaten by me!) I think I never got to taste one until 2023 or 2024….
Last year I got tobacco netting and put it on them. They continued to ripen into November…
Now that's an impressive berry!
Pickles look good as does the new sheetrock. Are you getting cable now too? I must have missed that.
I am getting cable run to the house for free. But neither my brother nor myself have any interest in paying to get it in the house. It’s for what my husband called “resale value”.
I got cable ran to my house for free too and don't use it either lol By the time they finally got it done, I had a different internet option in place.