Waiting...

It's nearly August, but we have had only one ripe tomato.  There are big green ones, though, so I hope some start to turn soon.

I did get two of my Mexican sunflowers open today:

The "bed" corn is doing well.  It's so tall.

Panther has been super lovey lately.

The sweet potato vines are climbing the trellis.

Gyunay was excited to pick a pickling cucumber.  We are starting to get some ripe cucumbers now.

Remember the sunflower?  Now it has so many blooms!

Book Review - An Appalachian Summer by Ann H. Gabhart

An Appalachian Summer by Ann H. Gabhart is set in the mountains of Kentucky in 1933, where Mary Breckinridge established a Frontier Nursing Service to help primarily with midwifery.  This book focuses more on the couriers, who are privileged young women who come to the mountains to help with the horses and running errands to support the work of the nurse midwives.  In this story, Piper is one such young woman who is a reluctant debutante from Louisville.  She seeks adventure and escape, and her summer unfolds predictably.  This is a sweet but unsurprising novel.  The mountain and nature descriptions do give the reader a feel for the place, and that is the strength of the book.  It does feel like a Hallmark story, where you know what's going to happen, but it's a pleasant ride to get there.  I do feel that her other book on the Frontier Nursing Service, These Healing Hills, was much better.  In this one, the main character seems to have everything fall into place for her with little need to stretch much.  Overall, this is an easy summer romance, but nothing particularly compelling. 

I received this book from the publisher, Revell, for the purpose of writing a review, but all opinions are my own.

Growth

Our bedspring corn garden is looking great.  There are some tiny cucumbers growing:

Also, I currently have one giant sunflower blooming:

We are starting to get beans and carrots.  The pea pods are done.  I am still eagerly waiting for tomatoes, but we have had a couple of cherry ones to snack on.

We had a good trip to my in-laws' house.  

As you can see, Lydia loved sweeping off the camper.

Painting

I finished painting this dresser for Lydia's room:

It takes up much less space than her last dresser, but it holds nearly as much, so it is a better choice for her room.  Now there is actually space for her to share her room, if we end up fostering a girl.  

Now looking at the photo makes me want to go center the dresser under the cabinet, so I guess I'd better go do that...

New Sunroom Floors

This adorable guy turned 8.  We had a nice party for him with his friends, and then immediately afterwards, the construction zone went into effect.  We needed to put new flooring down in the sunroom.

You can see the bad section to the left. The rest of the subfloor was good, though.  We had plenty of hardwood leftover from when we did the rest of the floors, so we decided to use it in the sunroom.  Unlike last time we did floors, I didn't help.  Elijah took over my job at the chop saw: 

And Malachi took over my job of laying out the boards for Nathaniel:

Both boys also acted as general gophers.  Nathaniel does all of the nailing.  The end result is gorgeous!

Gyunay is a camera hog.  When he sees me taking pictures, he jumps right in.  He loves the new floor, and has been busy playing with his "guys" (superheroes) there:

I don't have any plants on the shelves now, but in winter, they will be well-used.

Bed Frame Growing and Front Yard Tobacco

The bed frame garden is going very well.

As you can see below, the cucumbers in the forefront are nearly as tall as the corn, and the corn is nearly as tall as the dill behind it.  (The dill is about 5 feet tall.)

And here you can see that I am growing peppers!

Also, we now have tobacco in our front yard, because how can you be a barefoot Kentuckian without tobacco in your front yard? 

Seriously, though, we planted 4 heirloom tobacco plants in the front berms.  Now those that know me know that I never, ever smoke anything.  However, Nathaniel thinks it would be fun to roll a cigar for his dad, and I am a sucker for heirloom plants nobody else is growing, so we ended up with some from the farmer's market.  Actually, my sister-in-law bought two of them when she was visiting, but she forgot them, and they wouldn't survive without being planted until the next time we will likely see her in October.  And Nathaniel picked out the other two.  This one pictured is supposed to get only about 3 feet tall, and it will have yellow flowers.  The picture of it was quite pretty, so it got to go in the front yard.  Another one gets white flowers that open in the evening.  So I hope they will look nice as well as be an interesting addition.

June Harvest

Blueberries - 1/4 c
Carrots - 2
Eggs - 146
Garlic bulbs - 78
Garlic scapes - 7
Kale - 3 oz
Lettuce, leaf - 2.5 lbs
Pea pods - 3 lbs
Peas, shelled - 1/3 c
Potatoes - 2.1 lbs
Radishes - 8
Radish pods - 7.3 oz
Raspberries - 1/4 c
Strawberries - 5.5 c

Plus, lots of chives, cilantro, dill, mint, oregano, sage, and thyme

The strawberry, pea pod, and radish pod rates are actually higher than listed, because theses things are most often eaten raw right out of the garden.  The eggs went down, but we lost a hen, so it's not a shock.  By far, that is the most lettuce I have ever grown, and there is more that I will harvest this week.  The potatoes were disappointing, as usual.  I did eat one ripe cherry tomato, and it was divine, but there are no new ones in sight for a while.