Now that September has arrived Summer is now slowly coming to a close…This Summer on the Homestead has been filled with a little bit of everything…
The weather has been interesting. Most of the Summer has been incredibly hot, humid, & dry with highs in the upper 90’s & heat indexes in the low 100’s. We experienced August heat in June & a week or so of Fall like temperatures in the middle of August!
July started off with a bang–literally. Our local Rec Center sets fireworks off on July 3rd. We go every year & make a night of it. This year we bought some fried chicken, made some potato salad, stop light salad (cut watermelon, cantaloupe, & honeydew mixed together), & some homemade Cosmic Brownies. We met up with some friends & spent the evening visiting, playing games, & of course watching the fireworks. Because Bradley works at the fire department, we are a little more invested in the fireworks show than the average Joe! 
Since it’s been too hot to be outside for much more than completing chores, we’ve been working inside making each room usable for the season of life we are in now. Rearranging & updating furniture, talking about potential paint colors, replacing blinds, & figuring out where we want to put the Christmas Tree!
We also came quite close to burning the house down…
It started as a chlorine smell in the kitchen. Barely noticeable, but enough to get your attention. We started researching & thought that maybe we needed a new fridge as our current one wasn’t keeping temperature like it should & was nearly 10 years old…So we made plans to go buy a new fridge the next day.
The following day I got home from work & the chlorine smell got worse…there was no mistaking it now, the kitchen was slowly becoming hazy, & there was now a burning smell. Still thinking our refrigerator was on the fritz, we began to clean out the freezer & move the fridge to the porch until Dad got home while Bradley started opening windows to air out the house.
…He went to plug a fan into an outlet that had nothing plugged in at the time & calmly said, “Uhh, Mom I don’t think it’s the fridge.” He saw smoke coming from the outlet! As he pulled the surge protector from the wall to inspect the outlet it looked a little bit like a melted marshmallow–all stringy & gooey. The outlet was burned & was minutes away from catching fire!
He quickly made sure there wasn’t a fire in the wall & then killed the power to the house to prevent a fire. Within a couple of hours we had an electrician out who replaced the outlet & we got a new fridge the next day!
Outside we have been working on several projects as well…
Dad & Bradley installed a new privacy fence & we are working on making that area of our backyard a little seating/outdoor cooking area. We’re also working on cutting & stacking wood for Winter. We’ve got some Barbecue Special birds–a group of several varieties of roosters that we are raising for meat…we’re hoping to butcher them here in a month or so!
As for the garden? It’s been interesting this year.
Despite the heat we’ve enjoyed quite a harvest!
We ate lots of fresh peas in the Spring/early Summer. We were able to harvest enough peaches to enjoy a couple of snacks/desserts this year! The tomatoes are doing really well! We have a TON of cherry tomatoes, several Romas, & quite a few yellow tomatoes. Our cucumbers did okay…we didn’t get enough to can but we got enough for a few batches of tomato/cucumber salad. We’ve also gotten a few banana peppers as well which make for some yummy snacks or a great addition to some scrambled eggs! 
Our Sweet potato plants are doing really well! The one we got when Grandma was visiting is HUGE!
We were able to harvest a few ears of sweet corn that we ate for our Labor Day dinner!
Our garlic & onions did great this year! We harvested both earlier in the Summer, then let them cure for a few weeks, trimmed up the tops & bottoms, & stored them in the pantry in storage bags.
We’ve also been able to get together with family too!
Not only did Grandma get to come for an extended visit in early June, we also got to go visit family a couple of times since. Getting together, visiting, & of course eating. It’s been nice to see everyone a little more often. This last time we went Grandma was cleaning out some old totes she came across & found several old treasures! Farming magazines from the 1920’s, Issues of LIFE magazine from 1963 following President Kenndy’s assassination, Stamp magazines from the late 60’s, & old books & records!
Not only do we love to look though things like this, it’s even more fun when you own a few of the items in the magazine! We found an advertisement for some blue flowered Corningware that we have a few pieces of & a page in one of the magazines mentions Andy Williams’ Christmas Album on vinyl which we got from another family member on Dad’s side several years back!!
So now, we enjoy the last few weeks of Summer! We’ll decorate for Fall today & enjoy some Fall festivities this month…Soup season is nearly here & with it comes cozy sweaters & fires in the fireplace & we can’t wait!
Until next time,
Bailey Sue
