I picked the first of our broccoli and peas from the garden today. I steamed the broccoli over the water kettle on the woodstove, with a towel over it to keep the steam in. Even though our days are in the 80s right now, it's around 40 to 45 in the morning, so Steven makes a fire to take the chill off the air. This time of year he uses big pieces of bark and wood splinters from the wood shed and the splitting area.
After steaming the broccoli I spread it on screened racks to dry. I'll dry and set aside some of the peas from this first picking to use for seed next year.
Four trays of Mint ready to be put on shelves to dry. I cut oregano, lemon balm, and thyme and spread them to dry, and I packed up basil and cilantro that was dry and ready to be jarred.
While walking around the yard I noticed the first of the Serviceberries were ripe, so I picked enough to make a pie. While I had the oven on I baked biscuits to have with dinner and I made peanut butter cookies. We had tuna casserole with peas in it for dinner, along with warm buttered biscuits and cold, sweet mint tea. Yum!
Looking down from the hill, there's the 3 timbers Steven and Victor made out of the trees/logs they cut and peeled. They're laying on the foundation pads and they'll be able to start framing the floor this afternoon.
This evening we went fishing. Since the rowboat was going to be pretty full and I was feeling independent, I took my kayak. I launched first and headed out into the lagoon.
The guys used the oars to "pole" their way out into open water, then used the trolling motor to move the boat around. Tristan is in front, Victor in the middle, Steven in back.
The guys get select their lures and get their poles ready.
Steven caught the first fish...a nice sized bass! That's only the second one we've taken out of this lake in the 8 years we've lived here. We normally catch Perch and Pike. Tristan and I each caught a perch, and those three fish were all we got today, though we caught lots of "salad"! (lake weeds)
In my roamings with the kayak I saw a lot of these blue dragon flies.
This dragon fly is like me... near the crowd but not part of it! These stems had lily flowers on them at one point. The muskrats and beaver eat them and leave the stalks.
The sun was glaring, so this picture is milky. When the guys cast their lines it shone brightly in the sun for a second. I took several pictures and got this one timed right, even though I almost cut the boat out of the picture! Steven and Tristan had both just cast their lines. Looks like Tristan is waving good-bye to his!
Speaking of which... Tristan, being in front, was the anchor man, and when they got to the first spot they wanted to fish from, he lowered the anchor over the side and the rope broke! Our beloved (*cough cough*, come on, lets pretend to be sentimental about it!) blue anchor sank to the bottom of the weedy-bottomed lake! We have a couple other anchors and could rig one up, but we had to lean on Tristan and try to make him feel bad!
The view from my kayak as I fished. With scenery like this, it doesn't matter if you catch fish or not!
Some minnows followed my lure to the boat. I have one of those white squiggly-tailed worm thingies on there. I have no idea what happened to the bottom corner of the picture. It was complete when I viewed the picture, and maybe when I hit "post" the whole picture will come up. So if the bottom corner isn't missing, ignore this. I hate going back in to edit.
It's evening now, about 8:30, and we're coming in from fishing. I got to shore first, then got out to help pull the rowboat in. Of course, by the time I was done taking the picture and put the camera in my pocket, they were out on shore!
The bass and two perch. Victor got to learn a new skill... fileting fish!
Steven uses a chainsaw guide to cut the curved outer edges off the logs for the foundation of Barbara and Victor's house. The resulting timbers were laid on the concrete pads when they were done squaring them up. In the background is the house site.
You can see the guide clamped onto a board on top of the log. These are the logs Victor peeled the bark off of last week.
One side is done!
Tristan, shooting at the gun range. Saturday evening Steven went shooting with Tristan, Randy, and others at the Eureka Gun Club shooting range.
Sunday evening, fishing on the lake near our house. Tristan caught a perch!
The guys were in the rowboat, I was in my kayak. I hung my feet over each side into the nice, cool water. It was in the 80s and sunny, so the water felt good. I also didn't know Steven had his camera along...
There I am, with my feet up on the bow of my kayak, fishing.
