Where is the summer going?

I can't believe it's the 8th of August. The summer is flying by! Last weekend we were at the pool for the last of the swimming competitions for Championships. The girls did well and I'm proud of their individual accomplishments. We also had our swim team banquet and the food was excellent as always (Can't go wrong with the Georgetown). Allison and Emily both won a Chinese auction prize as well as Jim and I (a gift certificate to a local farm!).

Jim accomplished a big task for the farm this past week! *Drum roll please* He hooked up all the barns with electricity. With the help of an electrician we now have a light in the hen house with a plug outlet for the water in winter. An outside light for the Alpacas along with an inside light in their barn with another plug outlet for their winter water. Yeah...Jim, your my hero and I LOVE YOU!

Allison's friend Austin visited yesterday and I put the teenagers on a job of painting the inside of the Alpaca barn and giving the Alpaca's their shots and spraying them for the awful horse flies that are out in droves.

The chickens are wonderful. They run out to greet us every time we walk by their yard. Of course most of the time we are bearing treats for them. I like that our fruit and vegetable scraps are being used up. They appear happy. But they really need to get into this thing called laying eggs. I have frequent conversations about this subject and end with something about chicken soup!*smile* (just kidding)

The tomatoes are finally turning red! They were green for quite sometime. It has been unseasonably cool and uncharacteristically wet! Didn't think we would see them red. I thought I would have to process them green. I guess this is what I will be doing next weekend! Time to SALSA!

This has been the summer for intriguing Zucchini recipes. I have made zucchini fritters, which I like but am alone. And zucchini brownies (5 star...according to the family), lemon zucchini cake (a repeat winner) and zucchini muffins. There are still some more recipies to try... and I have enough zucchini to do it! *smile*

The girls and I are putting some finishing touches on our entries for the Canfield Fair. Why can't we just limit ourselves to one or two entries total? I think we will have another large haul this year.

Sauerkraut anyone? This is our first attempt at creating sauerkraut. I bought some cabbage at White House Fruit Farm yesterday and Jim shredded it this evening and now it is fermenting in a crock awaiting to turn to kraut. I can't wait to try this on some sausage!

Also, today Emily and I participated with the East Ohio Handweavers Guild in a weaving demonstration at the Columbiana County Fair. We arrived as Monica was finishing threading the warp through and we were needed to wind the warp on. Emily cranked as Monica and I kept the threads from plying and knotting. Now this loom will be ready for the next member to begin the fun of weaving a rug! (I don't know who the gentleman is in these pictures... but he was fascinated by our work.)