Cornucopia

We're laying waste to the vegetables here as we wind down our summer. Yesterday was a day to harvest as much corn as we could. The corn was among the most productive things in the garden this year. I planted a different variety from last year. This one (Sweetness) had a shorter seed-to-harvest time of 68 days, which was a full three weeks shorter than the variety we'd planted the year before. I'd do it again because the corn was so sweet and good.

Our day started with a trip to the grocery store. When we had everything put away, we headed out to the garden. We harvested a big bucket of corn:

There is still corn in the garden. We harvested only the largest ears, and we'll probably eat more of what's left before we leave. As for freezing it, I was following the method described by the Simply Canning blog. I've found this blog a very hand reference for all things canning. I forget what I was doing inside the house...getting all the pots ready to go, I think. I thought we were going to share the task of shucking the corn, but Mike brought it into the house...all done. What a guy. I was especially dreading that part of the process.

Okay, so next, it was blanched for five minutes.

Then, it was dunked in an ice water bath for two minutes.

When it was retrieved, it still had a nice color, and really looked as if nothing had happened in the interim.

Then, Mike operated the vacuum sealer, and this was really slick. We bagged it up two ears per bag (since that's what we'd eat at a given meal). 

The bags are sealed at one end, then the corn is loaded in. Then the machine sucks out all the air and seals the bag. Pretty nifty.

And then...just to keep it all contained...it was bagged again in zip-lock bags. Altogether, we had 21 ears. With what we've already harvested, this year's crop has been fairly impressive.

Now it's all stashed in the freezer. We'll still eat some of what is left in the garden as it grows larger over the next few days, but that's pretty much it for Corn 2021.

Okay, so honestly, y'all can stop hyperventilating about whether I have enough slow-stitching to keep me busy on the trip. As I've mentioned previously, I use a random number generator to help me choose my stitcheries. I have two lists: one is for long-term projects that are done BOM style. One is for short-term projects that can be stitched in one go-round. I was looking at the short list. So I asked Mr. Random to choose a project, but I kept disagreeing with him for one reason or another. He chose things with too many colors, and I didn't want to take the time to go through my floss stash picking out colors. Or else he chose something that required a lot of piecing. (That was my reason for rejecting the next Calendula Patterdrip block.) I was looking for something that I could put together quickly and simply. 

After getting into a major argument with Mr. Random (what a dimwit!), I decided to go through the project bin and pick something myself. And what to my wondering eyes should appear, but this kitty cat alphabet pre-printed panel. Whoa! This was a gift from my quilting fairy godmother, Ila. Thank you, Ila. She sent me a care package after I broke my shoulder and this was one of the items in that package. It's intended to be a pillow cover, but I'll stitch it into a little wall hanging. Isn't this cute?

Sadie appurroved whole-heartedly, especially when I decided to stitch all the cats in black.

She helped me select some other colors for the berries, vines, leaves, and cats' eyes.

This is what we came up with.

And here is all I'm taking on this trip. A tidy little space-saving package, if I do say so myself. And I do.

On the left there is my little travel iron, contained in the iron caddy I made for it a while back. The pattern is from Sisters Common Thread, and you can read my blog post about how I made it right here. Mine is the "junior" size, but it also comes in a size for larger irons. It's a great little bag because when it's opened flat, it forms an ironing surface. And that means there's no need for an ironing board in our small truck camper. It can also contain the iron while it's still hot. 

Okay, so with that finished, I could get on with the stitching for September's Posy block.

When I had the stitching done, I trimmed it to size. You'll never find a more reliable sewing cat than our Sadie.

And then I added the borders to finish it off.

Here are all the blocks I have for this quilt so far.

Sadie was feeling pretty self-satisfied after all her helpfulness in a single day of sewing.

But I wasn't finished laying waste to the vegetables. For dinner, I cooked up all the green beans I'd harvested to date that weren't already eaten. I made the Charred Green Beans. I had two pounds of green beans to work with, so I doubled the recipe, and we'll have leftovers for another meal. It's one of my favorite ways with fresh green beans these days.

I tried for most of the day to get a picture of Smitty. He's so much better. He was pretty sick, and he's still working at getting his stamina back. Otherwise, he seems mostly well again. I noticed yesterday his eye was still weeping a little, and he's sleeping more than usual. But it's good to see his eyes looking brighter, and to have him more engaged and active. He's still not posing for pictures though. A guy has to keep looking his best if he wants those Cosmeowpolitan magazine cover shots. He's trying to build up his 401(k) for retirement.

Okay, so the next couple of days are personal care days. I'm getting a pedicure today, and tomorrow I'm getting my hair cut and colored. I don't really need the haircut, but I won't get another chance until late October. It'll be driving me crazy by then. Saturday, packing will start in earnest. Matthew's friend Lyndsay is coming by this afternoon to pick some of the plums left on our tree. Otherwise, the day will be pretty low key.

To my friends in the Northeast: I'm so worried about you guys. I hope everyone is staying safe and dry. You're in my thoughts, so take good care.