a long and busy day

in which our plucky heroine sets her alarm for early...

because the current garden task is raking up the plums on the ground under the thicket, which task has to be done in the coldest part of the day, just around dawn, before too many danger bugs wake up. It is satisfying to rake everything out onto the burden cloth time and again. It usually takes at least four or five mornings to gather it all up, but just with today's rakings the greenwaste bin is almost half full of windfalls and weeds.

This year I left picking the plums a bit late, so while a bit more of the year's harvest has been lost than usual, the available freezer space is almost full, and there are enough frozen plums to last the year. Have made a note in the journal to start picking early in September rather than mid-month

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Betwixt and between working on the conundrum project, the tomatillos from the weekend trip to the farmer's market have turned into eleven+ 4 oz jars of salsa verde. This is a savory/spicy addition to the pantry, although the jalapeno peppers bought at the same time were not spicy at all! I added about a quarter teaspoon of cayenne to the triple batch which added zing without adding pain. Peppers are so variable in their capsicum content

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While I may have missed Karla's yard sale, the remnants were on her lawn today with a sign: "FREE"... and there was a big old wheelbarrow. The only thing wrong with it was the tire was a mess. I think I can swap out the tire from my own wheelbarrow (the one with the damaged handles) and create one whole functional garden tool from two dysfunctional ones.

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Just about done with the flat piping pillow sham conundrum project. Had I left the salsa verde for a different day, the final pillow would have had all the corners hand stitched tonight, but since it is too late for V to pick up the finished pieces, it may as well have the final stitching done early tomorrow. Sigh and alas, despite increasing my estimate, the total hours worked are double what I allotted and charged her for, (even without including all the time spent figuring out the tiny mitered corners, which I had no idea was in store for me). Each sham takes about three hours apiece, between cutting out the pieces, basting, sewing, pressing the piping, then hand stitching down both sides of each corner. Live and learn.

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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	4 barkcloth tea towels	box fan grille	greenwaste bin
2	yellow triangle pouch	needle gauge herb stripper	greenwaste bin
3	knitted pony	pruning elderberry	recycle bin
4	8 jars quince apple  rosewater sauce	pruning nandina	-
5	6+ jars fig lemon marmalade	picked moar figs	-
6	dried pears	picked plums	x
7	4 jars pickled beets	small radiator foot	x
8	11 jars salsa verde	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
- burden cloth is one of the best ideas I had and made, years ago, and use regularly
- WD-40
- free wheelbarrow, hopefully to make a Frankenbarrow.

Time of Isolation - Day 1920