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July The weather for August was a carbon copy of the previous month. HOT, oppressive and muggy
and buggy although it didn’t rain as much. But then it didn’t have to with steamy, hot dew
points in the low to upper 70’s most days, all you had to do was move an inch and you were dripping wet as if you had
been standing in a rain shower. I’m really beginning to look forward to winter.
Bruce spent most of his time cutting, raking and baling hay, butchering chickens three times
a week, and fixing things. About three years ago, one of the brakes went out on our big tractor and then
about a year later, the other one gave out so Bruce has been driving this gigantic tractor around without brakes.
He stops by downshifting and then he drops the loader bucket attached to the front of the tractor – a bit scary
if you ask me. Anyway, this year, things began making clunking sounds in the rear wheels of the tractor
so he figured that the parts inside were beginning to fall apart and he just couldn’t put off fixing it any longer.
It is a huge task and we would have liked to have a professional do the job, but that would cost us several thousand
dollars, so he is going to attempt it himself. So far, just one side of the tractor has cost us $550 in
parts alone, plus almost a week of his time. If anyone out there has a good tractor that they no longer
want and would like to donate it to our farm, we would be most appreciative! I
spent every other day, cleaning and packing the chickens that Bruce butchered the day before and I also spent a lot of time
peeling and freezing tomatoes so that when the weather cools off and the humidity goes away, I will be able to make lots of
jars of MN Mix and salsa. I plan on making at least 24 quarts of MN Mix and about the same number of pints
of salsa. When I wasn’t in the kitchen doing tomatoes, I was in the kitchen making ice cream, chocolate
pudding, washing/packing eggs to sell in the farm store, and just about anything else that I could think of that would keep
me in the coolest part of the house and out of the heat and humidity. Our kitchen is in the basement area
of the house with a south exposure only. We have a nice view of the lake in the fall when the leaves are
off the trees. And in the heat of the summer, those trees offer much needed shade so that the kitchen area
doesn’t get too hot.
I know the above doesn’t
sound like much, but believe me all these things take lots of our time and are sandwiched in the middle of the day in between
the morning and afternoon chores. If you would like to know what I mean by doing the “chores”,
go to our Tid Bits page this month when I explain it. We are
looking forward to the month of September and are hoping for a less humid month with more normal temperatures so that I can
finish harvesting my gardens and get everything canned or frozen for the coming winter months.
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This is baby Abby, our new little Rat Terrier puppy.
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