And Then Again...

As soon as I posted that I am slowing down I seemed to get a burst of energy. Don't get me wrong... I am still slow, and huge, and waddle everywhere I go. But I have more will and energy to do things anyway. My body dislikes me quite a bit afterward a good part of the time though. Oh well. I assume that I am in the nesting phase. I think I nest differently than most pregnant women. Rather than knitting little hats I am mowing and canning up a storm. Maybe it is the pull to get these things done before baby comes. The garden is weed-eated and re-mulched. The entire yard is mowed and looking very pretty. I still want to get some weed-eating done and mulch in my flower gardens beside the front and back porches and in the small garden. I am also really wanting to clean, organize, and redecorate Keegan's room. I would like to surprise him with a new and more age appropriate space that is all his own since he is going to be sharing everything else with a new baby soon, possibly including his birthday. He will be turning 15 the day after Liam is due. Is that a good surprise or a violation of his personal space at his age?

Another reason that I have been getting so much done outside is because of the glorious weather we have been having! It has been beautiful! The days have been staying in the high 80's to low 90's, but the most amazing thing is that the humidity has been so very low. It doesn't feel like the air is thick and soupy like usual. The humidity here is what makes the summer so miserable. Sadly, today the humidity will return brought in by a front carrying rain. Eh... I can't complain because it isn't usually as nice as it has been at this time of year and my gardens need to be watered. I will miss being able to sleep with the windows open, air off, and under the blankets instead of on top of them. Soon enough I guess.

As I mentioned, I got a bit more canning done. It feels like much more than it was. I canned 8 quarts and 6 pints of dill pickles and 5 pints of dill pickle relish. Two of the pints of relish didn't seal for some reason though, so we will have to use them soon. I need to do a batch of bread and butter pickles, and probably at least one more of dills, but I'm not sure I will get the chance. The chickens have been invading the garden and have scratched through my cucumbers and damaged them pretty badly. It didn't take long after the initial damage for them to start showing evidence of some kind of fungal issue. They looks worse every day. I also pressure canned 6 quarts of green beans and froze half a gallon more that wouldn't fit in the canner. I wish pressure canning didn't take so long! It seems to take so long to get just a little bit done. I hope to can some more beans before they are done for the year. Freezing is so much easier, but I feel much better about having things put up in a shelf stable manner. You never know when the electricity will go out. Especially with this being an area prone to tropical storms and hurricanes. It has been a while since Katrina and we are probably about due for another, at least small, hurricane at some point soon. Better to be prepared. Also, even with the 3 deep freezers that my in-laws have, freezer space is at a premium. It really needs to be reserved primarily for meat, and we regularly add pork, beef, chicken, and turkey to it. I haven't tried my chances at canning meat yet, although I really need to look into a chili recipe next time we get a ground beef added to the freezer. We would use a ton of it if I had it on hand, and maybe it would make me more comfortable with other types of canned meats.

The garden is doing fairly well still. Like I mentioned, the cucumbers are succumbing to some kind of fungal issue in top of the chicken damage. I am so frustrated with the chickens that I can't even say. I just can't keep them out of the garden no matter how many times they are chased out. The tomatoes are also being slowly taken by blight. The bottoms of the plants are brown and it is slowly working its way up the plants. The tomatoes that I have been getting have been cat faced and aren't keeping for more than a day after being picked. I have just resigned myself to enjoying them for as long as I can. I'm not using chemicals on the garden. Not even "organic" ones. I almost sprayed Bt on the garden, but after reading the warnings on the label, changed my mind. Not while I'm pregnant. It isn't worth the worry. One thing I can say about the stupid chickens raiding the garden. After seeing a couple of caterpillars on my tomatoes, and having to completely remove the broccoli, they have completely disappeared and I have had no further insect damage. So far. Just chicken bites out of everything they can reach and the mulch repeatedly removed from under the plants.... ugh. I admit, I get a special, and probably very evil, satisfaction out of periodically seeing half of a jalapeno laying on the ground that a chicken decided to taste. Brad said that once we get enough peppers put up to be comfortable for the year we need to try to condense some oil down to spray on things we don't want the chickens destroying. I think it is definitely worth a try! I also plan to plant cayenne peppers next year to dry. Sprinkling it on the mulch in my flower garden really seemed to do a good job keeping them from scratching in there. It is just to darned expensive to keep buying it to dump on the ground. Again, it may seem cruel, but I feel better about it than locking the chickens up and not allowing them to free range any more. And definitely less cruel than the thoughts I have when I go to pick a beautiful ripe tomato that I have been watching intently for weeks, and have the whole back of it turn to rotten mush in my hand because the chickens have eaten half of it. They have been lucky that I am so big, and slow, and waddle everywhere lately. They have come to fear the garden hose, though. That will have to do.