Summer

Revision as of 12:24, 30 August 2007 by Admin (Talk | contribs)

Lots of wood to chop, split and stack.
Move pine scraps to pallets (get pallets) behind woodshed and tarp them. Save these for sugaring in March (used outside, burn hot - not good for stove, too much resin).
It would be nice to get to the standing dead wood and other trees that need clearing as soon as the green wood is stacked. If not, at least marking them with red spray paint so when the leaves fall we know which are dying/need to be removed. Go walk out there and see if I can figure out where we can bring the pickup in so we can get to the wood to bring it out of there (stop fantasizing about getting a draft horse for this job!).
Prep and jar dried mugwort and yarrow. Label jars - red clover too (gathered in July).
Prepare other mason jars for canning. Buy more lids?
Dump green beans from previous owner into compost pile. Wash jars. All thirty-something of them.
Make list of maple sugaring supplies (gallon jugs from milk, large shallow steel pans, fire bricks, etc) and keep eyes open for them. Plenty of time for this, but time is what allows us to get things for free instead of having to buy them because suddenly it's February.

Notes on herbs & berries mixed in with tasks:

Elderberries are coming in - I imagine in a week or two they will all be ready. Some are ready now. I need to read up on making elderberry wine as well as syrup for winter flu. (I have made it from dried berries before - not sure if I can boil down the fresh berries or if I should let them dry first.)
Blackberries are starting - need to check on them every couple of days.
Tomatoes are fully in now - picking a pint's worth daily from our six plants. We eat that much out of hand so we don't need to can them. They're beautiful little golden Sun Gold tomatoes - sweet, low acid, delicious as candy. Will plant more of the same next year as they did so well.
Goldenrod is over. If we wanted to use any (just didn't have the energy to dye this year, and we have lots of herbs on hand for the things goldenrod is good for) the prime picking time would be first week in August.
Red clover was done by mid-July, except where we had mowed. Gather this first week in July.