The season of action is upon us. My day starts early, with coffee, sauteed greens, and fresh eggs for breakfast. The dog is walked, the chickens let out to roam, Junebug changed and dressed, and my chores prioritized. We've pledged, now that we're able, to eat 90% local. So every day during this season, canning is on the list of daily work. So far this year we have put up the following: 5 pints pickled asparagus, 8 quarts chicken stock (from pastured chickens purchased from a farm down the road), 6 pints zucchini relish, 5 pints strawberry rhubarb pie filling, and 14 half pints strawberry rhubarb jam. We also have a quart of lacto-fermented wild leek bulbs in the fridge. The leeks, which we harvested in our own forest, should last us most of the summer if we eat them sparingly.
So, after breakfast, work continues. Clothes need to be washed by hand in a laundry tub and hung out to dry. Dishes need washing. Meals have to be made. The house needs cleaning, as does the chicken coop. Our Silver Grey Dorking chicks, still in their brooder, have to be fed, watered, and cleaned up after. A hundred other small tasks must be done. In between, Junebug keeps me endlessly busy.
After a dinner of baked chicken and vegetables, we took a walk together to the end of the road, to give the dog some exercise and drop off the recycling. Along the way I harvested a heaping quart of daylily buds, which will be on the menu tomorrow. We took note of the ripening wide raspberry patch, and picked a bouquet of black-eyed susans to brighten the kitchen.
The light is fading as I type. In the distance, the frogs are starting their songs while the many birds finish theirs. Junebug is happily playing in a puddle of rainwater, and in the distance I can hear Mutt on the tractor, clearing away some fallen trees. A day like this can make you forget about all the trials this life can cause, and remember only its simple pleasures.
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