It began raining early today, but the heavy stuff held off until early this evening. We still have pre-winter chores to do, but we’ll wait until the weather’s better.

I am still thinking about abundance and the haves and the have nots. We are in the haves category. What I wonder is, how did this come to be? Well, I took on livestock: chickens and goats. The dogs and horses followed suit. Pete generally feeds and cleans up after the dogs; I tend to the horses.

Ranger

Pete has worked for several years to bring the garden into fruition (no pun intended). This year, it all came together in a grand and glorious way. We had a good fireweed year, and so the bees produced record amounts of honey. He thinned the beets early on, and so this year, the beets were huge. The same might be true of the carrots – we don’t know yet because we haven’t pulled many from the ground.

We got more cabbage, green beans, and peas than any other past year. And we are still picking and eating strawberries, raspberries, and saskatoons.

We have five chickens who randomly lay eggs. The egg carton that we put the eggs in is always full.

And then there is the goat. Swampy is producing a gallon of milk a day. She was giving us two additional pints, one morning and one night, but no more on the pint front.

Pete is having to make cheese and/or yogurt two or three times weekly. Making both is an arduous, time-consuming process that requires that he be in the kitchen when this is going on. He is very unhappy about this. I have not stepped in and taken over because he is the experienced kitchen worker. Me, my having spent so little time in the kitchen these past few years has resulted in my becoming an inefficient galley worker.

Pete’s always been more hands-on than me in anything kitchen related. I remember when we first met – we were living in Fairbanks – I had a job dishwashing at a nearby restaurant. I wasn’t the best – in fact my one saving grace was that I showed up on time and stayed for my entire shift. I one night I told my boss that I was no longer going to be able to dishwash because I was going back to school. He was dismayed for only a very short period of time because in stepped Pete who was the best dishwasher and cleaner-upper they ever had.

This was probably one of the many things that endeared him to me.

Next: 251. 9/11/21: Envision Growth