Living off the land


It’s mid-August and the produce is abundant here on SA.  Joyce has been making a lot of delicious hot sauce lately, trying to consume the tomatoes from her 21 tomato vines.  So far, she’s only had to water the vines three times, which means the rain has kept them watered even to the extent that, with so much moisture, the tomatoes tend to split open.  The blemish is superficial and doesn’t harm the flavor, just the appearance.  Chopping up the tomatoes and using them in hot sauce solves that problem.  The table grapes have begun to ripen and taste better than any grape I’ve ever tasted.  The pair tree on the south end has lots of pears but no one but Tino seems interested in them.  Joyce picked eleven peaches the other day that were maybe not as ripe as she’d like but were attracting the attention of squirrels and other marauders.  The apple tree is loaded with small but delicious apples and there are a half dozen watermelons ripening in the front yard.  The wine grapes have only just begun to ripen and have a long way to go.  They seem to be behind where they were last year in the process.

Abigail played in a volleyball tournament Friday and Saturday.  Joyce and I went to one of the games and the Abster made a solid showing in a losing effort to the Tascosa  red (A) team.  However, her team won several games on Friday and went on to win some Saturday.  I’m told Bushland blew them out the first game Saturday afternoon but her team gathered itself and won the next two games, taking the match.  Freshman volleyball definitely ratchets up the time and physical demands on the players.  It also demands a lot of Kari’s time running Abigail back and forth to practice and games, and spending time watching games.

We’ve still got half a dozen frogs or so in the pond.  I make a circuit around the pond from time to time and count them as they jump in.  They are too well camouflaged to see before they jump.  There are also a lot of tiny fish, so small they are hard to see.  We got a few small fish when we collected the tadpoles around Memorial Day and they seemed to have matured and reproduced rapidly.  Until the other day I hadn’t seen any larger ones but I finally got a glimpse of some.  They are very shy and will race to cover at one’s approach.  These adults are still only about an inch and a half long, maybe less.

No significant moisture in the last week.  I’ve caught up on the mowing to the point that I’m able to mow a quarter about the time it needs to be mowed.  That means I can mow faster.  The grass has been so high and thick I’ve had to go slower to avoid overloading the mower.  I also don’t have to trim underneath the perimeter trees every time I mow.  That chore takes as much time and more energy than the mowing so I’m glad to skip it when I can.