Ahhh lazy Sunday's

If you are Norman and Douglas! Truth be told it has been a lazy Sunday. We slept in, and I took half the afternoon to get the dishes done and some of the stalls mucked in the barn. Still work to do, but it just took all day instead of a couple hours of hard work!

It was humid today, so you feel sluggish anyway. Plus I feel overall lazy from the week and there is always something about Sunday that makes you feel deep inside that it's OK to move a little slower than usual... it is afterall, supposed to be a day of rest.

I'm really happy with my habenero peppers so far, I can't wait until they are ready to pick. From my research I've decided the way I am going to preserve them is to freeze them. I considered pickling, and other ways, but freezing likely keeps the best natural flavor.

This afternoon I picked the dried dill seeds off the dried heads and put them in a mason jar for safe keeping...

Then I took down and pulled my dried thyme leaves off...

And added more herbs to my kitchen to dry on my beaver stick! (It's working great!)

I went for a quick walk to an overlook to an area we call our cedar swamp... it's a big beaver flood area.

On the way I noticed a lot of different mushrooms, most of which I've seen many times before but this one had me stumped.. I'm not sure what kind it is, it looks like a flower almost...

Top of the mushroom

the underside of the mushroom

The soft maple trees are turning ready now, fall is coming close. My trail was pretty thick, but part of it has been used regularly by deer so it was easy to walk on...

Once I got home, a storm was moving in quickly, and there was thunder in the distance.

I told Doug he better hurry up and pee before he got really wet!

This morning when I got up I put a big pork roast in the crock pot. I cook it with lots of sliced onions, garlic, salt, pepper, and vegetable stock for 6 hours on high. Then I shred it and add our favorite BBQ sauce to it, and you've got BBQ pulled pork. It couldn't be any easier, and it always tastes great.

While we were eating, we had a visitor coming in the lane...

A doe came to eat along the edge of the lane way. She was not the least bit concerned when she spotted me, she just kept eating. We see a lot less deer in the summer here than in the fall and winter, but it's time, by the end of this month we'll be seeing them more often, and soon daily again. There is such comfort in the routine of the farm and the wildlife here, along with the seasons.

It's mid August, the trees are slowly changing, the fireflies lights have gone out... the evenings are getting cooler and it's getting darker earlier. But the Whip-poor-wils still sing, and the mornings still come early and hot. Soon I'll be able to start my fall routine of a glass of wine in the barnyard in the evening, wrapped in a heavy sweater or shawl, watching the leaves begin to turn vibrant colors.

I look forward to winter as always for many reasons, just as many reasons as I look forward to spring. I look forward most of all to those cold nights when the stars shine so bright you think you could reach up and touch them, and you can hear branches snapping in the forest and the distant call of "who, who... who, who."


It's cool tonight, and the bullfrogs and crickets are as loud as ever. The dogs are I going to curl up and watch a movie with a cup of tea and a warm blanket and call it a night.

Oh, and we are joining in the homestead barnhop this week :)