Tuesday Update

I'm having good luck with the casting; for the last two days everything has come out of the molds successfully. I'm taking careful notes as to how I'm mixing the slip and when and how I open the molds.

A homeless girl came by today. She had an odd way of talking, so even though she spoke English, I couldn't follow what she was saying.

It seemed to be some sort of bad con about her car running out of gas and needing money. I've seen her scuffling around for months, and she's obviously been living rough. She didn't have a car, or even any clean clothes, and she tried to play me like an idiot.

She spoke softly and rapidly, and finally clearly asked for something to eat. I gave her some food and she rushed away.

Her face had that reddish look from always being outside, and her teeth were terrible. My guess is that she's spending her time smoking meth in the woods.

Farm Report For September 3

The Serreno peppers are ripening en masse, so I'm picking and drying them every other day. I have six big bushes full of peppers, each bush about 4 feet tall. The peppers are plenty hot and flavorful; three or four are enough for any dish.

The canning had become less hectic, in a few days I'll can a combined batch of tomatoes and what probably is the last of the bush beans. When 11 medium yellow squash are ready, I'll also can them, to yield seven quarts.

The pole beans haven't begun to flower, but some have climbed six feet or more, to the top of the trellis. The one Brandywine tomato bush is full of green tomatoes, some quite large. With about 60 days until first frost, these late plants should still produce.

The earliest butternut squash are about mature, but I think I can leave them to pick right before the first freeze. The beauty of winter squash is that you just keep them cool and they last without any processing.