Breakfast at Granny's, Cabins, and Tomatoes

66 this morning, mostly clear. It has been a nice week but getting hotter and more humid each day. Reached 89.7F today.

We have had company for breakfast the past two days. Yesterday it was our friends from Arizona and granddaughter Hannah and her two little ones, today was our son Derek. Yesterday was omelets again, with peppers and onions from the garden, cheese, and some chanterelle mushrooms we had found the day before. Not everyone wanted the mushrooms, as they can sometimes cause a reaction. But we love them, and Don was game to give them a try. Of course we had fried potatoes and sliced tomatoes from the garden too, because it is that time of year. Nancy stayed for the day to visit, and helped finish painting a china cabinet while I cleaned up elderberries and prepared them for jelly-making. We had picked them on our road the other day. It has been years since we have some ripe elderberries before the birds got them. 

Today the movers arrived to put the second half of Sarah's cabin in place, so our son Derek was here bright and early to be on hand for that. A simpler breakfast today, just fried eggs, rosemary bread toast, sausage, and coffee. It was good to have a visit with our son before the movers got here. They arrived an hour and a half late, but it didn't take long to get the xabin set up. Next step is welding the 2 halves together and getting doors, windows, and roof on.

After the movers arrived we lit out, to go pick more tomatoes. Don't throw your hands up in despair! These were not all for us. I made 50 quarts of tomato juice and 20 of pasta sauce with that big lot the other day. We still had 3 bushels left, so we gave them to our neighbor T, along with another peck or 2 of cucumbers from our vines that will not quit producing. Then our friend Mark, who raises 8 greenhouses of tomatoes every year, messaged that we could come get whatever we wanted. We usually get tomatoes from him (for free!) earlier in the summer, but this year he decided to continue selling longer and we didn't think he would have any for us. Thus the trip to Ohio.

We didn't want to chance losing this connection, so we figured we'd go pick a few. Then remembered our friend Patricia said she wouldn't be able to get any tomatoes because she has too much on her plate this year re caregiving for family members. So we went and picked about 5 bushels for her, and kept a half bushel to make a little more salsa and Jenn's chili sauce. 

Some of you were curious about Don's vertical-log cabin, so I asked Nancy if she could send a photo that I could share here. 

Don and Nancy leave for the long drive home to Arizona tomorrow, but plan to be back again next summer. It has been good to have had them here for the past month.

Tomorrow I will be in the kitchen again, doing up this bunch of tomatoes and who knows what else. Summer's bounty can be overwhelming sometimes,  but the cellar is filling up.

Leaving you today with random pics from the past few days.

We cleaned up the herb garden and raspberry patch last week.

A long view of the main veggie garden. Still going strong.

The new arch for late cucumbers. They are already climbing and blooming. I planted cabbage under the arch last week.

Weedy but manageable. 

The grapevines are not as full this year, but we will have plenty.

Iced coffee for a tired old lady.

An early morning firepit, because why not? We did this several mornings when the temps were in the 50's. 

Flutterbys,  as someone called them. 

Evening light.

pics.

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