fermenting the cukes

Lately, my preferred method for preserving cucumbers has been fermenting.  Too bad we planted so many Japanese cucumbers because I could have used them this year.  Instead, I ordered a lug from our local organic farmer.  You don't know what a lug is?  Neither did I.  But, I ordered one from the farmer.  It turns out that a lug is just a measurement that they use.  In this case it was a box of cucumbers.  Maybe 20-30 pounds? Anyway, a lot of cucumbers!!

Obviously I decided I was going to ferment a LOT of pickles this year. You might say I love fermented pickles. And last year I didn't make enough.

I may have forgotten one little detail which is where the heck I'm going to store all these jars!  I always make things work.

I am now the proud mama of these beautifully, bubbly, cloudy, garlicky fermented pickles.  I actually got one more larger jar and filled that up.  My husband took all the really large cucumbers left over and made a batch of bread and butter pickles today while I was at the store.  I think we're set in the pickle department?!

Do you ferment?

lazy summer

These lazy summer days.  Yesterday I had some things to do and I totally blew them off in exchange for staying close to home.  We did a little laundry, a trip to the farmer's market and a stop by the post office to send Amelia a care package (a duffel bag, gluten free lemon bars, toothpaste and a card).  But mainly, we did much of nothing. I'm not much for packing my schedule full of activities because we do enough of that during the school year.

Summer = LAZY

Not that my summer has been uneventful.  Amelia has been away at summer school for 5 excruciating weeks.  The boys and I have been sprinkling our days with fun activities while she's been gone.

Months ago when summer was just a page on my calender, we applied for a two night summer camp for Solomon.  That happened last weekend and I envisioned that page on my calender in my mind and checked it off of our summer plans. I'm now looking forward to Amelia coming home in 12 days.

We still have plenty of summer left and I'm happy about that.  I need that recharge time in the summer to think and plan for the school year coming up.

on our way to Solomon's summer camp

I hope you're summer has been fun!

mountain cool

This is up in the Sierras and part of the Pacific Crest Trail.  We've been here many times and have backpacked on this same trail.  It's a beautiful spot and because it's up in the mountains, it's cooler than the valley floor.  Summer hiking has officially started!

sunny days

Although we could use more snow here in Nevada, I can't complain about these sunny days we've been having. It's important that I take advantage of these moments of goodness when I can.

I've been thinking more about what I'm going to grow this summer, taking inventory of our seeds and plotting my rows.  I love this time of year because it's still winter, yet I can take these warm days and really start to imagine the seedlings coming up, the sunflowers rising to the sky and the endless days of watering, weeding, harvesting and preserving.  But, I won't get ahead of myself.

This is what's going on in our garden right now.

The garlic peeking out.  It's under the the chicken wire to keep our chickens from scratching it all up.

Amelia's handy work.  She's made a fort in her garden with sunflower stocks and tree branches.

Solomon helped too.

Our silly broody chicken.  At least it's cool so she won't bake in the chicken house.

Are you thinking about summer?

I've missed you!

Happy New Year!  I've not been here in a long time!

Actually, I've taken very few photos with my camera recently because I've been taking almost all of my pictures with my phone and posting to Instagram instead.  You can find me there under kyndal3.  So, not much to show you here but  I just took these off of my camera.

We have our kiln up and running.  We've done a few firings but the kiln we have was given to us and it's like an old car.  There's plenty of things going on with it that requires us to put money and time into it.  Last night we were finishing up a glaze firing and it wouldn't get up to temperature.  Some of the elements burned up and that means we'll have to take everything out, pull the kiln apart and replace some elements.  But, I have to say that I am LOVING it.  I love working with clay and the sky's the limit.  In the next few weeks I'm going to be taking a pottery class and I'm looking forward to what I can create on the wheel.

This shows you how old these pictures are.  I literally just took them off my camera.  Here we have our Christmas tree.  Remember Christmas?  The next one was when I took Solomon aside and gave him the Santa talk.  He'd been asking me so many questions and I think we held out long enough.  I hate lying to my kids and at this point, it doesn't feel good to keep up the whole Santa story.  He was so sweet about it.  I was upset and he was telling me, "mom, it's okay, it's okay!"  What a relief.  Just one more kid to go.

I knitted a lot of these scarves this Christmas.  You can find the pattern on Ravelry (link at the side).  Fun knit that I used a lot of scrap yarn for.

And finally a recipe for you.  This one came from my mother-in-law.  I've been changing my diet around a lot  lately.  I've actually been working toward less and less grains.  I tell you, it's hard.  This recipe has lentils but I'm thinking that I could use some greens instead of lentils.  It's a hearty meal that would go well with a side salad for dinner.  It's super yummy.  I took shortcuts in writing the recipe as if you know how to cook lentils and roast squash. : )

Roasted Squash and Lentils

1 cp French Lentils cooked, cooled and drained
1 lb. winter squash, cut into 1/2 inch cubes roasted in olive oil
4 Tbs. olive oil divided
2 Tbs. country Dijon mustard
1 Tbs. red wine vinegar
2 Tbs. minced red onion
1 tsp. honey
1/2 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Whisk together mustard,, vinegar, onion, honey and 3 Tbs olive oil.  Gently toss with lentils and squash.  Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with walnuts.  Enjoy warm or at room temperature.