Well good morning.
Last night I was up late. But like every morning, I still woke at 5 am. So I've had two cups of black tea (I don't normally do caffeine) and my thoughts are all over the map.
Let's run with it. The following will be random, but that's how I'm rolling today.
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It rained.
My garden is so happy, I could almost hear the collective sigh of flowers and veggies as the young plants soaked in that rain. Standing out in the garden this morning felt so good with wet grass and soil beneath my feet. Rain! Finally.
Sage, Lupine and I have spent the past two days gardening despite the heat and the dry soil. Lupine has been having considerable flower envy as we walk around town, ("Look mama! They have peonies. And poppies! Oh, and irises! I love irises. Oh, mama – they have LUPINES!" And then appreciation turns to tears and I carry her home. We talk about how pretty the flowers are but I say no, we won't plant roses here. We're moving. Really. I think so anyway. And then she cries a little more.
So I took her to the greenhouse this week and we picked out some annuals to brighten up a bland corner of our yard. This girl is ready for some acres of soil to dig in, but for now we've still got our yard, and for that I am truly grateful.
Sage is more of a succulents kid, so he planted a copper box with some plants from his collection. I got in the spirit with a galvanized tray centerpiece for our picnic table of herbs. Oregano, rosemary, and – of course – sage. There is something so satisfying about containers.
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And then I discovered that our freezer was unplugged.
I will spare you the photographs.
I have an uncle who once buried a full, broken chest freezer in his yard because he couldn't bear to clean out all of the stinking, decaying food. Had I waited a week to discover mine I may have considered renting a backhoe. Okay, not really, but I can understand the sentiment.
My freezer was nearly empty (small blessing) and I discovered it while everything was still cold, though thawed (large blessing).
And today we'll be roasting two turkeys we bought in the fall. Yes. Two. Enormous turkeys.
There were bags and bags of no-longer-frozen vegetables from last summer's garden. And a few containers of homemade cheeses. And some chicken livers. I couldn't bear to toss or compost it all so into the food processor it went (one container after another) and then back into the freezer. I'll add some raw meat and feed it to the dogs. I'm glad the food I worked so hard to put by last fall will be consumed by someone, even if that someone is canine.
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And now we roll into the weekend. I'll spend tomorrow selling soap at the farmer's market and likely spend the Sunday and Monday off-line, digging in the garden.
Wow. That was totally random. Thanks for sticking with me to the end.
Have a magical weekend, friends.
Love,
Rachel
Enjoy your weekend Rachel!
The freezer – ugh! I’m glad it wasn’t full, and that you were able to find a use for everything. You can always re-freeze the turkey meat once it’s cooked; I find that frozen cooked meat *always* comes in handy… xo
have a great weekend, Rachel. i will also be digging in my garden. i hope it rains here in my neck of the woods in mid-MI, we sure need it. you mentioned you had bags of veggies in your freezer. do you freeze yours in plastic freezer baggies or some other plastic alternative? i need an alternative, but don’t know what to use.
Thank goodness you caught it in time! Hopefully I will be hitting the farmers market tomorrow so I can pop over and get some hand lotion 🙂
I like your random posts! One question, did you punch holes in the bottoms of those steel containers? I would like to make a fairy garden of sorts for my toddler. It’s so hot and dry here in the desert that we need a way to keep all the things watered all the time. I would think a container garden would work well.
I’m still laughing over your uncle’s solution!
Cassandra,
It looks like were rained out for market. Thunderstorms in the forecast all day. Catch me next week!
Yes. That’s the plan, as I doubt we can wolf down 2 turkeys in one weekend. I’m thinking small portions ready to go for tacos, stir fry, etc. And one monster batch of stock!
I never got around this issue myself. I freeze soft/wet thinks regularly in glass mason jars, but veggies I plastic bag. I rinse and reuse the bags, but often then end up damaged and get tossed. I wish I had a better solution to share!
I did not because we’ll bring them in come winter and I didn’t want them to leak. So today, as the rain keeps falling they are on my potting bench out of the wet. In your climate they might be fine without drainage too. But add rocks/gravel to the bottom for drainage.
Right?!
Random but oh so honest! And this is why I love your words so much and come here to read them!
Alex
Love to read you as usual, I have been days and days off the internet.