Bits and Bobs of News

57°f this morning! Finally,  a cool down after being over 90 modt days for the past forever.

Clear, low humidity, bliss.

I have been a slacker about posting, mostly because I just felt burned up and burned out with fighting this heat and drought. We are still so dry, unfortunately,  with only a couple brief showers in tbe past week. Then we had a water leak, so the water was off for a couple days while Larry dug up the line and made repairs. If you have a well, you know how worrisome a leak is, as it causes your pump to run much more than necessary. We could not water during those days, another worry, but everything except some flowers I had just put out survived. 

I stayed busy with cleaning up and pricing items for restocking our booths, listing on eBay for the first time in a while, and trying to keep the house running with no water. We spent Friday stocking our booths, then Saturday I felt so bad from not getting any sleep due to an aching shoulder that I did very little at all until the evening.  We went out to see a folk musician at our favorite little cafe, and then went on to meet up with our son at his favorite watering hole. It was a good evening, and a much needed break. Yesterday we took food to a friend in need, sharing some of our bounty and gaining freezer space in the process.

About that food: a local veterans organization wrote a grant to get free food from a USDA warehouse that supplies school lunch programs. The warehouse has contracts for the food, and when new shipments come in, the shelves must be cleared to make room. So in the past, the food was sent to the landfill! This group heard about it, and was able to get a grant to give this food pantries, churches, other nonprofit organizations and individuals instead of it being wasted. I went to help a neighbor last week to get the food for her church. It was amazing how much there was, but it all got distributed. We ended up with cheese, diced ham, pulled pork, oats, pasta, and some other stuff. These giveaways happen randomly, sometimes weekly, sometimes monthly. But we have been getting it for the past year or so, and our freezer is stuffed, so we give away to a few other people too. It is so good to know that such bounty is no longer wasted. 

We got sad news on a couple fronts this past week. First was a post by a friend who has just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  He is such a nice guy, and beloved in this county for his volunteer work. He is doing well, but as you know the prognosis for this cancer is not good 

The second news I just got this morning, about the death of a storytelling friend I shared many a stage with over the years. He too was loved in his community, and just a great guy. His obituary was totally his style,  funny and entertaining and upbeat. You can read Rich Knoblich's obit here.  

I don't want to end on a sad note today, so here is what I did yesterday evening-- canning our first beans of the season. I only planted a short row, thinking we would just eat them fresh. But they are producing so well, I had to can some. 

Here is the first picking of the rattlesnake beans, just snapped by Larry: 

Aren't they pretty? And here is my next project: beets! 

The onions behind the beets will be spread out to dry before storing. They didn't do as well as usual, but I am glad to have them. I also have a big bucket of broccoli to prepare for the freezer today, and will be canning some pork barbecue, made with that pulled pork, so I better get busy!

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