The girls all had the same kind of day. The oldest and the youngest went to the farmers market with me. Each of us rushing like slugs out the door. We left Mid-kid in a chair that she had spent most of the morning trying to get enough gumption to get out of. I could tell when she came in from her morning run of chicken feeding that it was not going to be a good day for her. She was not feeling well at all.
When we unlaunched at our destination in a drizzling rain with as much oomph as we could muster we then each crashed into our appropriated spots. The youngest looked cute as could be but said she didn’t feel good. That is the problem with Lyme, you can look perfectly perky but feel horrible. She got to feeling better by the end of the market and spent the rest of the time talking with her friend.
On the ride home the eldest daughter said she hadn’t “felt this way” in a long time. She has been doing pretty well so this kind of unexpected setback was upsetting. We have seen some other things return for her as well…so we are thinking that the addition of some extra things that we have added maybe causing extra toxin build up.
It has been a long hard summer for me and as the roaring heat passed into cool nights I am thinking the winter maybe difficult as well.
On a different note, my fall garden is looking good. We had our first turnip greens last evening, lightly cooked with some onions in butter. Yummy! Turnip greens are not necessarily my favorite but these were good. The collards are growing nicely and soon we will be harvesting from them as well. The row of peas looks promising and in a day or two I will be picking snap peas. The beets are still small but I am hoping that we will have a few more warm days so there will be a lot of small beets to harvest.
It has finally cooled off, tomorrow I will go out and plant my winter radishes and my mustard greens.
I find it kind of interesting that I seem to be the only person around here that plants a fall garden. In fact, when I mention my fall garden I usually get blank stares as if they don’t know what I am talking about…. Maybe being a misplaced southerner has its advantages, I know how to eat greens and that lettuce can take a frost (and taste better because of it). I even know how to cook turnips so that most people will eat them!! And oh yes, the winter radishes!!! Most of our favorite vegetables are fall crops. Should I feel sorry for these poor people who do not know what they are missing out on? No, I don’t think I will because most will turn up their noses at anything green that is not a bean.
Our winter cover crop has started to come up in the rest of the garden area…I am so excited to see all these little oilseed radishes starting to pop up in the dirt and then the little tiny sprouts of winter rye and hopefully the crimson clover will be quick to follow. After a summer of nothing but wet and grass and then an extended period without rain….this time of year one usually looks at putting the garden to bed but instead this year we are planting another crop. This crop is not for us but for the soil.
Then there are the chickens…way too many of them!! Mid-kid is faithfully feeding birds and in another few weeks she will be ready to start harvesting them. The past two nights some critter has killed two or three. We think it might be another mink…so precautions have been taken to better secure the coop.
Well that is kind of how it is….life as usual for us.