When I was young, summer break used to bum me out. The school year would end and it would feel like the months ahead were just wide open and that free space and time felt kind of wonderful and kind of uncertain in a way that threw me off. Now it’s surprising how quickly summer fills up with activities—especially now that I have the garden and bees to keep up with.
Gardening
The garden is finally sprouting, but it is off to a late start. I think the issue was not getting into a good watering routine quickly enough. I planted the first round of seeds on Mother’s Day weekend and not much happened. Then, a couple of weeks later I went to plant a second attempt and most of my labels had faded or washed away. I had neglected to write them down in my notebook this time, so I made a best guess. Then, I did a third sowing and as I was doing it, I thought, “Eventually, most of this is going to sprout and it is going to be chaos.” Honestly, I would take that chaos and delight in it, but I may not know until August or September which types of pumpkins are where. At one point, I considered giving up on pumpkins for the year, but I realized that would mean no squash bees. I had to keep trying because I love those squash bees so much. Fingers crossed that my scatterplot garden flowers.
Chickens
Black Bean and Chickpea have integrated into the flock after their quarantine and are enjoying free-ranging in the backyard. So far, none of the chickens have hopped over the garden fence we built, which is a big relief to me. I thought there was a good chance we would do all that work and they would just jump over it and go back to digging up the garden beds for their dust baths.
Black Bean’s beak looks a lot better. Chickpea is still missing a big portion of her upper beak, but otherwise they are happy and very sweet. I am relieved that there was no aggression while they joined the flock. They still stick together closely but wander with the other girls too. Their eggs are starting to get bigger, evolving from the fairy eggs of early layers to full-sized eggs.
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Yarn
In the past, we have spent the 4th of July weekend painstakingly skirting the alpacas’ fleece to get it to the fiber mill. This year, we have two years’ worth of fleece to prep, but we didn’t get on the mill’s schedule until October. We hope that means we will have yarn to sell in time for the holidays, but we are not sure. For that reason, we are pushing our open farm days to the autumn, in hopes that we will have honey, propolis oil, dryer balls, and pumpkins then. And if the yarn is done in time, we will do a holiday shop before Christmas, in addition to listings on our Etsy shop. If you’re interested in Moira’s white yarn, it always goes first. We expect about 13 skeins from her this year.
Bees
The bees are very busy and starting to make honey. Nevermore Academy is still working on beating Chalkbrood, but Queen Leslie Knope III in The Bee & Bee is really cranking out the eggs. The population in that hive is growing rapidly. I hope that thanks to the long brood break between queens, the varroa mite population is not exploding too. Otherwise, there is not a lot to report on the bees, but the honeyflow should be on soon and I hope that they will provide a good harvest. They already have a lot tucked away for themselves in the areas of the hive I do not harvest from.
Out and About
One of my favorite local places is Luvin Arms Animal Sanctuary. For a brief time before pregnancy during the pandemic, I volunteered at Luvin Arms, helping clean the barns a couple of times a month. It is such a good place, where animals rescued from industrial agriculture, abuse, or neglect get to live out their lives in peace. Now, we head up a few times a year to visit with the animals. They had a community day earlier this month and we went to pet the cows; check in on Jared, the sheep we sponsor, and Gelato, the goat Julio’s parents sponsor; and meet the new animals that moved in since we were there last.
At the farm, we were given a copy of The Friendly Vegan Cookbook. We’ve already tried a couple of the recipes and they are really good. Also, our daughter was given a Beanie Baby—just because—by another animal rights org that was there, Pro-Animal Future. That blew our ‘90s kids’ minds. Can you even imagine that happening in 1995!? It reminded me of when Mountain Mamas lobby day coincided with Bring Your Child to Work Day at the Statehouse and someone’s little girl was tagging senators with unicorn stickers. What a smart idea to put those old Beanie Baby collections to work for causes at tabling and lobbying events. Good attention grabber.
Anyway, I was inspired by the book's recipe for sushi to finally try making it at home. I added portabello mushrooms and spicy eggplant sushi as further options and was pleasantly surprised that the rolls stuck together. We had fun assembling the sushi as a family and it was delicious.
I consume very little dairy, but one of the times I do eat it is in my Big Fatty Salads™ that I eat for lunch most days, often including feta. This visit to Luvin Arms inspired me to find a vegan swap that would hit the fat and salt that I was really after with the feta. I tried this recipe for vegan feta. I was not happy with how much coconut oil it contained, so I decided to leave that out, instead bumping up the miso content. It tastes good enough. The texture could be firmer, so I’m going to keep tinkering with it.
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We also made a trip to the Children’s Museum to check out the new Snug exhibit in Gallery Uno. It’s like a cave constructed from couches and is very fun and bizarre, making a great addition to the already great time we have there.
On Father’s Day, Julio won the local Manly Mile with a time of 5:09.3. I wonder what it is like to be that fast. Seriously.
Summer Reading
My reading goal for the year is 75 books and right now I am about a dozen behind schedule, but I hope to gain some ground this summer as we are signed up for two reading challenges, one through the library and one through Bookshop.org (this section does include affiliate links).
Most recently, I read The Heat Will Kill You First by Jeff Goodell. Last summer, I listened to his previous book about climate change, The Water Will Come, and I appreciate how he explains the dangers of a warming planet frankly, but also focuses on adaptations made by humans and other species to our environments, describing solutions even as he does not downplay the severity of our moment. The Heat Will Kill You First is fascinating and frightening and probably everyone should read it.
Next up, I am looking forward to receiving my copies of Democracy or Else and Democracy in Retrograde. I’m also going to work through some other science books I have had on my TBR pile for too long, but allow myself the treat of reading the next book in the Talented Mr. Ripley series, Ripley Under Ground.
What are you reading this summer? Let me know in the comments.
I’m reading “Killers of the Flower Moon”, “Breathing Lessons”, and “Great Expectations” (witch I am having a hard time gettin through).