Tomatoes: Round Two

When I woke up yesterday morning, I was already tired at the thought of doing more tomatoes. Silly me thinking yesterday would be easier. It wasn't, but at least today I'm on the home stretch. I desperately need a day for some sewing, and so I scheduled Thursday as a sewing day. Grocery shopping needs to happen tomorrow. Before I started in the kitchen, it seemed like a change of scenery was in order. I donned my canning clothes...

and then headed outside. I needed to harvest a few things, but I really just wanted to see the flowers. And what was the first thing I saw but this thieving rat bastard.

We didn't get any lettuce this year. The squirrels ate every bit of it, leaving only a few bolting stems. I'm assuming he wanted some cherry tomatoes for his salad.

On the way to the garden, I snapped a picture of this automatic sprinkler system Mike has set up. We're thinking ahead to being gone for most of next summer, trying to set things up to water, so we don't lose our entire landscape. Mike has cleverly installed these "splitters," hooked up to various hoses and some "Beehive" electonic timers. He can monitor the watering and the timers with an app on his phone. (You never doubted that, did you?) The electronic timers also monitor local weather, and so they won't run if it has been raining. Also, he had to replace four faucets, and this is one of the brand new ones. Pretty flashy, eh? 

We have another half dozen faucets that look just like this one. His final effort a few days ago was to dig a trench across our gravel driveway to water an area where our driveway loops around. We can't just leave a hose across the driveway where cars and delivery drivers will be driving over it. So, he dug a trench and ran a hose through some plastic pipe, and then covered it up again. Our upcoming trip will be a good test for his new watering system. The only down side of this do-it-yourself system is that he'll have to move the hoses when he mows. So that he doesn't have to reinvent the wheel every time, he'll simply spray paint an "X" marks the spot when he mows, and then he can put it back as before. Even after mowing, the spray paint should still be visible.

Okay, so let's just see what's blooming, shall we? Of course there are lots of sunflowers. I notice the birds have already been after some of the older ones.

The Lemon Queen sunflower was one of the last to the party. The bees are loving it.

In the bee garden, I've noticed a few more of these Scarlet Flax. So pretty. I'd like to see more of these. There have been just a handful this year.

In the beginning, we only saw a few of the cosmos, but now we have a lot, and in all different colors.

It's hard to get in-focus images of the wildflowers since they're blowing in the wind, but I'll try getting some more in a day or two. I was really most interested in checking on the cantaloupe. These are supposed to be an early-ripening variety, but they sure are taking their sweet time. The largest among them seem to have reached their full size, but they are still green. 

We're expecting some warmer weather this week, and I'm really hoping that will put them over the top. As for the rest of the harvest, the zucchini seem to be slowing down. The green beans are just getting started. I've harvested about this much each time I go out. We won't get enough for canning, and that is fine. We'll just eat them as they accumulate.

The plums are starting to soften a little. I haven't harvested any, but we should have plenty to make a dessert when the kids are here this Sunday.

Okay, so nose back to the grindstone, I got busy with the second box of tomatoes. I meant to take a picture of this the first day, and then forgot. This is the tomato juice that comes off the tomatoes when they're roasted. I save it to top off jars of any plain tomatoes I have for canning. And if I don't can any plain tomatoes, it can be used like vegetable stock. Mine is in the freezer for now.

By day's end, I'd processed two more batches of pasta sauce for a total of 13 quarts. There's a nearly full quart in the refrigerator, and so I'm expecting I'll get another 5 quarts from today's effort. And that will be it for the tomatoes...not a moment too soon. My feet can't take much more of this.

The only sewing I did yesterday was to finish off this section of the eighth plate for Pieces of the Past.

Now I've moved my hoop to the left. I couldn't quite fit the last of it here, but I expect to finish this off in a day or two.

Yesterday afternoon, I spent a little time in the sewing room. There wasn't time to do any sewing, but I selected one of the vintage linens I'll use for my first quilt block, this one:

I might try to incorporate this one too. It's quite a bit smaller than the apple above. These are embroidered onto a small tablecloth. It has some staining on it, and that probably explains why it's been packed away for something like 100 years.

I've seen some pretty ways of sewing vintage linens into a quilt on Pinterest. I have in mind to just do mine crazy quilt style. Some of the embroidery is fairly large, and so I'll make my blocks fairly large too. I'm antsy to get started on this project, and so I'm hoping I'll have more time later in the week.

We're a little worried about this guy. He started sneezing yesterday, and he's still sneezing this morning. Mike called the vet, who suggested bringing him in tomorrow morning, if he's no better. No doubt, he picked up something at the vet while he was having his teeth cleaned last week. Poor guy.

You might recall we were worried about him last week when he seemed a little lethargic. We're hopeful this is the end of whatever he has, but better safe than sorry. Fingers crossed he'll improve.

Okay, so more tomatoes today, and then I'll be finished. Next week, I'll start in on the applesauce, but that will be less work and a lot less time-consuming. When I'm in the middle of all this canning, I start asking myself how many more seasons I can stand. But then a whole year goes by and I forget how much work it is. I wonder if memory improves season to season.