Vacation?

Three weeks ago from today my DH started a 2 week "vacation".  I use quotes because we both had pretty long to-do lists.  I always joke that I am either always on vacation or never on vacation.  I, definitely, feel like I need a vacation after my husbands time at home!  So to keep things from being to workie I made a Fun List for the time off.  We got everything except the 3rd lake checked off our fun list.  DH finished his work list...I am still trying to get mine done...never on vacation?

The next couple of blogs I will share bits of our mostly stay-cation.  We did go out a few times but never further than a 45 minute drive.  These will be photo rich blogs...We have a lot of far flung family and my blog has been a great way for them to keep up with our lives.  Very efficient too!

I did some more canning, dehydrating, and giving away of tomatoes.  Finally, I had enough and pulled the plants.  8 hours to plant them ~ 6 hours to clean up the patch. Final Tomato Tally still to come...

I pulled a lot of stuff and my DH hauled it away for me.

As a matter of fact, DH spent a lot of time working with his tractor.  I lovingly call it his Tonka Toy.  It's real name is Agent Orange...when he first got the thing he had a bit of buyers remorse and didn't really want to use it...or get it dirty?  So I called it Secret Agent Orange waiting for his mission...the name stuck and DH got over the getting it dirty thing.  One of the jobs he got done was brush cutting our fields. He does this every couple of years.  We just want to keep the fields, fields.  It is amazing how quickly open land wants to turn to forest here in Maine.

A work and play thing we did was to go down to DH's folks lake place.  They didn't make it up this year so we have been checking on the place and mowing the lawn.  They have a year round house on the land but, we decided to have a sleep over in the old camp part of the property.  It is right down by the water with a view of the lake from the bed.  Pretty sweet!  I packed a picnic dinner and a couple of bottles of wine.  Runa came with us...we left Vern and the Ducks at home!

We had an evening paddle...

A misty morning~~~ I took a swim...very quick swim!

We had a nice old campfire at our place.  We cooked dinner on the fire and ate outside.  We would have had another fire but the weather became hot...in the 80s!  Crazy!

A rare moment when DH grabbed the camera and caught me in the act of having some fun!  He made me this swing at my request last Mother's Day.  It is a wonderful way to release stress and strain.  I find it to be a nice stretch after doing something like digging carrots.

That's enough for today...more to come...I hope to be back tomorrow.  Time now for me to finish the Garden Beet Borscht I am making for dinner.  Until~~~

☼ Forest & Field Happenings ☼ Could this be the End?

There is a definite shift this week.  Cooler air, shortening days, things are slower to ripen.  I may just be able to catch my breath.  Well, atleast I can stop canning tomatoes.  I have opened my garden to a couple of friends to come glean the Great Wall of Tomatoes. It is hard for me to leave a vegetable unharvested.  I have an intense compulsion to put up everything even when I already have enough.  I have more than enough!  Sharing and letting them do the picking allows me to let go of some of that obsession.  I have gardened too big again this year.  I continue to search for a good balance.  I am happy to share but, by growing too much, other things in my life are neglected...including my very own body!  So as the harvest continues and I check things off the final Grand Garden List I am also taking careful notes on how I can do less next year.  I only managed one beach day this summer!  What's the point of living near the coast and not swimming in the ocean?

 Soooo Many Tomatoes!

 Some Potatoes Harvested ~ More among the weeds

Another fall activity, DH mowing the back field so it remains a field.  

It has been more than 2 years since that last mowing.  

He does enjoy his tractor time!

Here is a haul that actually took very little of my time.  Just 2 hills of each produced all of these Butternut Squash and Long Pie Pumpkins.  My first time growing these pumpkins.  I am excited to have found so many while I harvested....lots of weeds among the vines!  They are supposed to be good keepers and great for pie!  Here is a link to FEDCO Seeds with a description-->  http://www.fedcoseeds.com/seeds/search.php?search=long+pie&item=1723&inde

Went out a few nights ago looking for the Aurora.  No luck but still very beautiful.  

A moment of stillness that was much needed during the frenzied fall.  

One of my most favorite bits of writing ~~~  

THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

— Wendell Berry

---Shop News--- Summer Distractions

I have been trying to spend 2 long days a week only working on Etsy, this has been a real challenge.  There are so many distractions!  I am making headway but not at the pace that I desire.  Here is my Thursday this week...supposed to be Etsy all the way but....

I did get this Vintage Spice Rack photographed and listed...

I sewed some eyes and whiskers on these Seal...something new coming to EcoCutie 
& a start cutting flower puppets

 


Then Runa had to out so I walked up to the garden and found an armload of summer squash ready.  One cannot wait when it comes to zucchinis, and the like, or you end up with monsters.  So I got busy blanching.  This is why I have a garden, to put food by.

I had planned to photograph and list these Buntings and all these Tendrils but I lost the light as well as my steam.  At least you can see I have been busy creating!

So I went outside in the little covered patio we call The Bear's Cave.  I thought I would try to do a little Etsy Teams work on my Ipad while enjoying the cooler evening air...until...

...I noticed this reflection in the table top.  I was so pretty. I began to reflect on reflections.  It was such a nice summer evening.  I just got up and began to wander about.

I spent the rest of the evening watching the light fade.  There will be another day to work.  But I wonder if these moments of reflection could really be our true employment.  It certainly makes all the other busy times more worth "wild"...at least for me!

I leave you with this lovely quote by Wendell Berry~~ Love & Light

“There are, it seems, two muses: the Muse of Inspiration, who gives us inarticulate visions and desires, and the Muse of Realization, who returns again and again to say "It is yet more difficult than you thought." This is the muse of form. It may be then that form serves us best when it works as an obstruction, to baffle us and deflect our intended course. It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.” 
― Wendell Berry