Sammie’s Early Morning Company

Autumn Garden

Sammie had a visitor the other morning. The problem was that he soon became a porch-bound marsupial. Our kitty has a rather complicated entrance to the house, which has been modified through the years in an attempt to limit her visitors and cold winter winds.

She knows to enter under the deck, squeeze through a narrow opening in the wooden box (just big enough for her narrow Russian Blue body) and nudge the casement window open to skitter down the step ladder. This method has eliminated most adult cats, all dogs, raccoons and woodchucks. But not adolescent opossums.

Sammie's Entrance

The little guy got into the wooden box and didn’t know how to open the inside door. Sammie came and “told” me in her own unique language that she had a problem in the basement. I followed her down and saw this:

Stuck!

Sorry the photo is blurred, but it was the best of 20 pics!

Kayaks and Butterflies

 

Houseplants going crazy

 What happened to the last three months? Well, making my creations for two farmer’s markets every week, drying herbs, canning produce, weeding, making salves and tinctures and jams and jellies and I won’t bore you with the rest! Every day was a fun adventure. Okay, not all of it was fun, but most of it was. That’s good enough for me.

July Garden

Mammoth Onions and Small Pumpkins

Our “vacation” was the morning we slipped down the Rock River in the kayak.

Locked and Loaded

Pre-Launch Countdown

Bliss

My Equipment

Much of the harvesting is done and it’s time to party. The Harvest Celebration Open House is October 8^th this year. I anticipate a house full of wise women sharing their stories, smiling and laughing. I have made so many new friends this year. Here is but one:

 

Meredith in Wonder

 Meredith came over to can with me and I noticed a newly hatched butterfly on the front porch who was struggling under a flat that contained milkweed pods. I lifted the flat and took the Black Swallowtail butterfly outside where we released it. We then got to watch the newly hatched fledgling dry its wings in preparation to fly away. Oh, the wonder of it!

Black Swallowtail

A Beauty!