Today turned out to be a nice and productive day, despite the rain this morning.

After driving my younger daughter to work, my older daughter and I went to the city to do the rest of our monthly shopping.  An unplanned stop at Walmart, where I got some canning supplies I hope to use to preserve chokecherries, though I have yet to decide what I will be doing with them; a quick trip to Costco – or at least as quick as any trip to Costco can be! – and then to the grocery store we discovered after our last trip.  We had lunch before we started that last bit of shopping, going through their kitchen area, for some Chinese food.  To be completely honest, it was hardly the best Chinese food we’d ever had, but it’s been so long, it was absolutely amazing!  Talk about hitting the spot!

Of all the things to miss about city living.  The dizzying variety of ethnic fast food! :-D

We took advantage of the incredible international sections of the store to get a few things we normally wouldn’t – including a couple of ingredients for something I want to try that I will save for its own post.  We haven’t been doing a lot of cooking in the heat we’ve been having, and pretty much no baking at all.  Our sourdough starters, sadly, did not survive.  The Rye of SourOn was the first to go, and even though my daughters were using Sir Sour Alot almost every morning to make hotcakes, in double batches, it basically went black over one hot and muggy night.

When things start to cool down later in the year, and we’re not doing so much yard work, we’ll get another Alaskan sourdough going and start baking again.  Until then, we stock up on bread at Costco and freeze most of it.  We’ve been going through bread rather quickly, since no one wants to cook in the heat, so we’ve been having lots of sandwiches! :-D

For now, the less time in the kitchen, the better, which means our grocery shopping trips are filled with more things that can be eaten cold, or with minimal cooking.

We finished early enough that we went straight home to unload before heading back into town to pick up my daughter from work.  We were able to make a stop at the beach in the process.

It was much windier at the lake, and the water was so choppy!

Some people even braved the waves!

I’m not sure I would have been willing to do that, but then, I’m not a very strong swimmer.

The water gets so murky when it’s like this!  Not that it’s ever clear, given how shallow it is, but on days like this, it’s pretty opaque!

The weather had cleared up around our area by then, so after we got home, I went straight to mowing the outer yard.  I’m still mowing a drive-able path to the second gate.  We have yet to fix the barbed wire gate.  I’ve decided not to make another barbed wire gate, and will instead pick up some fencing wire to use instead.

Now that we have power to the barn, and my brother fixed the melted plug end of the line to the storage shed, I should make a point of going around the areas I mow with the weed trimmer.  Though I will not be focusing on the outer yard for clean up, other than what’s essential, I also don’t want to give things a chance to get overgrown where we need to access them.  Tall grass is one thing.  Nettles, burdock, thistles and self-sown trees are something else entirely!

After I finished with the mowing and was coming back to the house, I noticed Butterscotch’s kittens were out.  I got some cat kibble for the kittens and refilled the water bowl by where Beep Beep has her babies.  Beep Beep’s kittens were out, too, but only the tuxedo stayed out while I was around, and did not like me being there.  So I went back to Butterscotch and her babies as they ate.  I actually got to pet the teeny tabby!  That itty bitty kitty is turning out to be the braver of the lot.  Unfortunately, none of my attempts to get photos turned out.  Ah, well.

The fridge and cupboards are stocked up, the freezer is full, the outer lawn is mowed, and I got to pet a kitten.

All in all, it’s been a good day. :-)

The Re-Farmer