It seems we put somehing up every day now. Today it was sauerkraut. Jim brought in three beautiful heads of cabbage. I did the slicing and he did the crushing and salting. We got seven quarts. They should be done fermenting in three days. How lucky that Fred Meyer has a coupon for Hillshire Farms ring sausage that makes it 2 for $4. By the time the sauerkraut is ready, we'll have sausage to cook with it. :-)

Yesterday it was plums. Jim juiced about enough to make 5 gallons of wine. I gave about 6-7 pounds of nice, ripe plums to a dear friend so I wouldn't have to deal with them. I also gave her zucchini and cherry tomatoes and cucumbers.

I have spent a lot of time of my current article for Ruralite Magazine, and that has put me behind. Tomorrow I have to work for the Times-News. But Friday I hope to make plum preserves and lemon curd. Jim says the raspberries are on, and I already have pie crust in the freezer, so how easy can you get. Tartlets! Yum!

I am reading "Miss Marsham's Repose" by T.H. Elliott. Those who enjoy Harry Potter stories will like it. Fascinating!

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Jim planted the garden kind of late this year, so we only have one kind of peas - snow peas. He chose them because they come on earlier than other kinds and because you don't have to shell them. I've been picking them all week. There are six large bags of snow peas in the freezer and tonight's stir-fry peas sitting on the counter. I also took a gallon to some friends of ours.

When I picked the first row for the second time, the calves were leaning on the fence begging for a treat. It was time to pull a few vines anyway. I pulled the whole row, salvaging the pea pods, and fed the vines to the calves. They're about 200 pounds now, and quite cute. They're old enough to not be afraid of us and too young to knock the fence over.

We also brought in two gigantic heads of Chinese cabbage. Some of that will go in the stir-fry, but most of it will go into Kimchi. Yum!

Last night I made a giant batch of egg rolls. We had several for supper along with some frozen berries and cream, and more of them for lunch. The rest are in the freezer. We used up all the soy sauce except the Lite. We ate on the patio, and the smell of the ground turkey and soy sauce brought all five cats to politely beg for treats. We were happy to oblige.

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It is truly canning season. In the past three weeks, I have put up 16 quarts of green beans, 25 pints of sweet pickle sticks, 5 pints of dill relish, 6 pints of dill pickles (whole), and 10 pints of sweet zucchini relish. I need to take the dill out of our dryer tonight, and put in slices of pears. It seems to be stocking up time. I got a three week supply of seafood (shrimp and fish fillets) along with some ice cream, vanilla yogurt and cheese at the grocery store, and five big boxes of tissues. I also "bought" two packets of cat food and a year's supply of Post-It's for free. It all cost $37.00. I still have $13.00 left for the two week period, and am thinking of going back to Rite Aid. They have Scott t.p. on sale at half price, plus they gave me a $5/$25 purchase, and I have $5 in Scott coupons. Since this would normally cost almost $50.00, it is quite a savings.

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We visited some friends, who fed us lunch and invited us to pick cherries. Theirs are some of the only sweet cherries in the area! We got a gallon and will go back Monday for the rest. I have visions of jam, canned cherries, and lots of fresh eating.

When we got home, another friend showed up bearing fried chicken, macaroni salad and rolls. We sat outside and watched the parakeets play. While we chatted about our lives, he put grass in the aviary and the little birds got so excited! They were actually fighting over it, even though we do this periodically. I showed him one of the two little chicks that have hatched. After Jim finished chores, we ate out there. The weather was perfect.

I ran out of blush. But the little jar it came in was so pretty, I mixed some petroleum jelly and lipstick I wasn't using anyway, and it turned out great! It will last quite awhile, until I get some money saved ahead for personal appearance stuff.

A back issue of a crochet magazine has a pattern out of granny squares for a cardigan. The design is really stylish! Theirs is in fall colors, but I have some crochet cotton in summer colors, so guess I'd better get busy. After that, I'm going to find or make a pair of slacks to go with it, though I think my jeans would work, too. I bought the cotton thread for a dollar for a bag of new skeins at a thrift store last year, wondering how I'd ever use those pretty colors.

I meant to go food shopping this week, but we have so much on hand that we may as well use up what we have.

Happy Father's Day!

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The coming week is going to be clogged with have-to's, so I did some cooking ahead. It's all too tempting to want to run to the newly-established Asian Buffet. I started with Tuesday night's Halloween alternative at church. I made 27 burritos, which all disappeared. But I had beans and meat left over. ENCHILADAS :So I made tortillas Wednesday night and made 18 giant enchiladas. The sauce is easy, and way cheaper than buying it. Ditto for the tortillas. We worked on one pan of enchiladas and froze the other pan for later. TABOULI: We've been hungry for this yummy Middle Eastern salad for awhile, and I have all the ingredients on hand except for the bulgur. So I soaked some soft white wheat and sprouted it. This morning I spread some in a big jelly roll pan and dried it in the oven while we were doing morning chores and getting ready for church. I'll do the rest tomorrow. Now all I have to do is run it through the handmill and it will be bulgur. I can already taste the tabouli! The heck with politics! Good, nutritious food is never out of line. SQUASH: A large supply of winter squash begs to be used. So last night I found one that wasn't keeping very well and cut up half of that.one. Then I cut up another one. We like Kabocha-types, but they are very dry. So when I baked them (without the seeds, of course, and cut in eighths) I added an inch of water in the pan to soften and moisten them. We had some with salt and butter and a touch of Parmesan. Tonight we'll do that again with our canned ham. And tomorrow, I'll make "pumpkin soup." It's another favorite, especially with onions. BEETS: Tomorrow is my last not-so-crammed day for awhile, but I can put a few of those giant beets on to cook. They go well with lots of foods, and I have a recipe for Russian salad that uses beets, boiled eggs, sweet pickle sticks and a mayonnaise-based salad with dill in it. If I don't serve that every now and again, my husband asks for it. And once the beets are cooked, the rest takes about ten minutes. Now I have several meals ahead, and the rest of the week should go smoothly. There's another church potluck coming up next Sunday. Wonder if they would like tabouli?

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This time of year, I get so excited about putting food by! Yesterday I finished the cucumber chunks. I never made them before. They are so good I can't stay out of them! Lots of salt and sugar, though. I also put up apple butter. Today I processed 40 pints of beets for my good friend, Laverne. Her canner wouldn't work. I think it needs the correct gasket. That one looks too small. Then Jim helped me snap green beans and we processed seven quarts of them.

The wind is blowing hard, and my asthma is kicking up. Dinner will be a simple deal, I guess.

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