Late Summer Days

We've been enjoying lovely late summer days here in Interior Alaska.  Just when we beginning to panic with frost advisories, crisp days and yellow leaves falling, it feels as though we've been given and extension. Today, although I had to run a bunch of errands in town, we made the most of the warm weather. Noah wore shorts, Avery a dress and sandals, and I wore a skirt and a gauzy white blouse. There have been a handful of days where I've just had to wear a skirt to town, as it might just be my last chance.

The sun is sinking lower in the sky and we are getting less and less direct sun. So, once the sun starts hitting the garden and the south porch, I am either at one or the other. On days we have to go to town, I try and be home by the middle of the afternoon when it is the sunniest. I move across the porch, scooting my chair as the sun crosses the sky. The kids are kind of over the garden, over being outside. I'm still insisting that we read, play, work, shell peas, paint and color outside - if the sun is shining, I try my hardest to be basking (or working) in it.

The nights are getting dark, completely dark. In early August I would wake up at two or three am and it would be dark. Now it is dark by eleven. I had to put on a headlamp to check on the bucks the other night. I thought someone was injured, but they are just in rut. It is a noisy time of year around here with goat kids being weaned and crying for their mom's, and does in heat, yelling at the bucks, and always, the sound of bucks bashing heads and moaning (there really isn't a better word) in the distance. It is a stinky time of year too. I open up the door to step outside, and have to remind myself why I have bucks, and then I wonder if two would be any less stinky than three? I doubt it.

Asia and her daughter Brie are doing great. Asia is taking to motherhood with great finesse. And her doeling is healthy, growing and just disbudded. I'm thinking August kid's aren't really so bad, and maybe I'll breed a few yearlings each year in the spring. As long as I get a couple month break between spring and fall kidding, otherwise the novelty of does kidding and caring for new kids wears of fast, (sleepless nights).

I'm trying to put something up each day, pickles, jam, sauerkraut, blanching herbs, etc. Tomorrow is scallions. I have a ton. So I am going to blend them with olive oil and freeze them flat, in ziplocs so I can break off chunks for finishing soups and pastas etc. It is an experiment. I love scallions. They have a permanent place on my winter shopping list, so we'll see if I can replace my winter scallion addiction. Everyone is asking if I'm in full harvest mode. Well, I tend to put off the mad pulling frenzy till the last moment, although I know I shouldn't. I did pull two rows of onions and all the garlic the other day. I figured with a few sunny days in the forecast it would be a good time to lay them out on the beds to cure in the sun. I started bringing green tomatoes into the house to ripen. So I suppose I'm in full harvest mode.  The garden could really benefit from another week or dare I say two, of this warm sunny weather- and so could I. Here's to dreaming!