Sunday, August 11, 2013

august - sweet, sweet august!


 

that's a pic of our feet while we were down at the river this afternoon!

august. it just sounds so nice to say. we love august!

april, may, june and july are all about getting seeds started, transplanting, planting, daily weeding, daily tending to the garden - it's a lot of work!!! september, october and november are about harvesting, starting cool weather crops, building cold-frames, harvesting some more, putting food up by canning, freezing and dehydrating. december, january, february and march are about reading, learning new skills, honing and practicing others, early to bed and early to rise.

august is our month to live and love, relax, suntan, spend every afternoon at the river, if possible...and to just enjoy. we love august!

it is the best summer month of the year! our temps during the day are in the mid-to-high 20's C, sometimes low 30's C, and the beautiful ocean air keeps you cool. in august, the rivers, lakes, streams and ocean have had a few months to warm up...and our river is absolutely delicious in august! if any of you are ever planning to visit cape breton island (MDR!), august is the month to do so if you want to see incredible blue water, blue skies and green that goes on forever. august is our month...it is our month to lay back a little and enjoy all of our hard work. and to enjoy flumping down at the river, suntanning, snacking and napping together. and plan all of our dreams and future endeavours!

here's another garlic that i pulled. omg - these babies are to die for!


i am not harvesting them yet...they can stay in the ground for another month at least to grow nice and big. but i do pull one every few days for use in our food. half of this garlic found itself in  last night's supper - 

that's a big-*ss shrimp salad with lime/chili dressing. it was delicous! we ate some for supper and then snacked on the rest of it all night - deelish!

jambaloney went fishing this morning - SCORE! 2 beautiful trout. this one is an ocean-fed trout - you can tell by the size and the colour. it was a female who was coming up the river to spawn. she was full of roe, which jambaloney ate raw. it is very good for you to eat the roe and i am working up my nerve. i looooove smelt roe...but i just haven't had any other kind. it is so good for your bones and cartillage tho.


that delicious trout had such red flesh - more red than a salmon. she was delicious and very healthy. served beside her was fresh kale, fresh swiss chard and lamb's quarters all from our garden. what a healthy way to start the day.

and start the day we did! jambaloney painted new doors for another cabinet, i did laundry by hand, jambaloney cleared out the basement and shed, gathered all of the garbage (it's garbage day tomorrow!), and i made some food to take down to the river. in august, on beautiful days, the rule is to down tools at noon!

here's our lunch.

and a funny little piece of info. i love heinz beans from the can! no really - they are a guilty pleasure for me! i make our own beans - many different kinds - but i love heinz from the can. it goes back to when i was a child and me and my brother and sister would head off every summer morning to go to the beach for the day. these were the days of no cell-phones and we would be gone from 7 in the morning until about 5 at night. my mother packed lunches for each of us. we would get a sandwich (with MW, Linda - omg! for everyone else that's an inside joke!), or some potatoe salad (yes, Linda - with MW!!!), or pasta salad (yes, Linda...groan, the jokes getting old i know. but the pasta salad had MW too...and we let all of that sit in the sun for 4 or 5 hrs before we ate it!). but, because i was the oldest of the kids (my older sister was 5yrs older so she was a teenager and not one of "the kids"), my lunchbag would contain the can opener, the salt and pepper, and the prized can of heinz beans. let me tell you, if you haven't had cold beans from the can with a ton of salt and pepper - you are missing out on a truly wonderful part of life - bahahahahah! i love taking cold beans down to the river. and jambaloney loves them too!

it was windy down at the river today - all of the grasses and trees were blowing. but it was so hot out! about 25C. just gorgeous weather.


i took 25 million pictures of everything. and yes, you are welcome that i am not sharing all of them - teehee! look at how blue the river and sky were - i was mesmerized! jambaloney was napping!


and when i lay on my blanket and watched the grasses blow - this is what i saw.


i love our river. so does jambaloney. i can't wait until we get to a point where he can go fishing for 3 hours twice a day. and i will go with him. but i am not j-stroking - i hate paddling!!! but he goes into a trance when he is paddling and fishing...and i go into a trance watching him. and watching the river. and watching the water...and the waves...and the sky.

i am soooo happy to be home. it's been a good day. steaks are going on the bbq soon, and we'll have sauteed home-grown green beans from the garden to go with them. life is good. i hope that you all have a beautiful sunday.

24 comments:

  1. If anyone reads my blog post for today, it won't be so "inside." The only way I can eat beans from the can, pork and beans, is cold. They are nasty heated. It has been 20+ years since I even had a taste, though.

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    1. Linda - i thought i had hyperlinked to your blog post but for some reason it didn't come out. that's ok - it's fixed now and people can head over to your post to understand the "inside" joke - bahahahahah!

      oh i love my canned pork and beans in tomatoe sauce - it is a delicacy that must be enjoyed at the river!!!

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  2. I had a childhood friend who's dad was in WWII. We were all there for a picnic and they served the beans warm. He had such a hissy-fit, I'll never forget it. Usually, he was a quiet man, never hardly spoke to anyone. But, boy was he ever angry they warmed those beans! Had to open another can, set it down right in front of him with a spoon, only then could the picnic proceed.

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    1. Sharon - thanks for dropping in and what a great story - bahahahah! imagine how we remember the strangest things??? but your friend's dad knew how to eat a can of beans! no warming the beans - bahahahah! thanks for sharing this story, it means a lot. cuz i like the beans cold too and would have had a hissy fit!

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  3. Thanks for sharing you photos, they are calming.

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    1. Rob - you are so welcome buddy. i am glad that you find them calming. hey, don't you owe me an email? and what is going on with your current situation? i have been thinking and worrying about you all weekend.

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  4. August around here is usually dog daze of Summer, hot, humid yet with the ground dry as a bone. Not so much this year but August ain't over yet.

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    1. ya - we call august the dog daze of summer too, but for different reasons. august is our flumping month - oh man i love august!

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  5. The trout smells so very good. jamie is such a lucky fella. But, I hate August. We had a heat index today of 103...ugh.

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    1. dear sweet one - that trout was so delicious! we are having the 2nd one for breakfast this morning. ugh. i don't know how you guys handle that kind of heat. i'd melt and not be able to do anything!

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  6. You painted a wonderful picture with just your words kymber,
    One day,I may just show up on your door step.

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  7. listen buddy - i am expecting you and c and your gurls next august - i mean it buddy! we need you and you know why! we would love for you to officiate - all of our friends would love a big texan and his family to show up - our friends would treat you all like gold - it would be such a celebration. i need you buddy - not trying to put pressure on you - but i would really appreciate it if you started planning now. and you could also celebrate your anniversary - how cool is that??? plus the fact that once you got here - you'd never leave - bahahahhaah! jambaloney is banking on that - he has a lot of unfinished projects that he could really use your help with! me and c would just snack and hang out in the hottub!

    lots of love to you and yours buddy! always!

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    1. Like you said, it is our anniversary week and that means no kids. Plus they all have jobs and are too busy to hang with Mom and Dad. Well, a trip to Canada would do it but nope, I have waited 41 years to go up there and they can wait the same.
      As far as coming back, You may be right and I might need to send for my things. I plan to stay a week so do whatever you need to, to get things ready for the Big Texan to walk in.
      Tell Jam I can't bring many tools with me but I will be ready to work.

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  8. August is a good month. It has been so wet and humid here this year that I haven't enjoyed it as much as I usually do. The blue water in your river looks really inviting. Ours are clear and cold, I used to swim in the river with the kids but these days I just sit by the bank and watch the water go by. Maybe pan a little if I am really motivated.

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    1. Harry, my good friend - we loooove august! we go and take a dip in the river almost every day for the whole month! but if it is an especially nice, hot day - then we go for the afternoon. everytime i dive into the river with my eyes open and my mouth open so that i can gulp some river water with every dive - i say to myself while under the water, i say "thank you river. thank you so much." i always make sure to say it so that the river knows just how much i appreciate it. it is so refreshing on a hot day, but it is also water that we can filter if the need ever arises. i love our river.

      i love the idea that you pan. i think i would really like to sit with you and pan...and chat...and then pan together in the quiet, no need for words, just panning together. i think that i would really like that.

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  9. High 20's, low 30's-- that's pretty danged cold for August!

    ;-)

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    1. teehee. Marica - those be our hottest summer days! that's the hottest it ever gets around here. we love those temps!

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  10. Sweet Kymber,

    Beautiful pictures! I know why you showed us your feet in the first picture.................you were sun bathing in the nude again....bahahahahahahahahahahahaha..........

    It's just so majestic up there with the beautiful skies and fish.......I'm jealous!!!! I so appreciate you sharing the ski, fish, and yummy food pictures. Now I'm hungry and it's to late in the evening to eat.

    Your Friend,
    Sandy

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    1. sweet Sandy - you got our number for sure - bahahahah! of course we were naked - bahahahah!

      Sandy - you are one of the kind of people who appreciate raw nature in it's truest form - it really is majestic here. the sky goes on forever, there are trees for miles and miles and the river fills you with a sense of peace and awe. but it is really rustic and really raw - and that's how we like it! i wish you were here when you wrote this comment - i would have made you something delicious to fill your hungry, little tummy!

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  11. Oh my gosh, Kymber. You are so funny! :-)

    I loved the beach story about your childhood and the indigo blue picture of lake and sky. I enjoyed your reference to Linda's Miracle Whip post too. ;-)

    You make me wish I could jump in the car with my obliging chauffeur and head off to CB this very minute. What a fun day trip that would be. But I have one thing holding me back...chicks. :-(

    Make sure you come to the mainland to visit before you start adding livestock to your homestead. Life really changes when you have animals that depend on you.

    You sound great in this post! It was fun to read.

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  12. bahahahahahha to you, sweet Sue. your post about crouching in the bloooooberry bushes was pretty funny too! thanks for checking out Linda's post - i just couldn't help myself from referencing it!

    git that chauffeur in the car and git up here. but it's true...when you have the "babies" to take care of, who depend on you for their survival, you just can't up and leave. i water my green peppers (i am so proud of them) in the greenhouse before we go down to the river. after an hour at the river, i wonder if they are wilting and dying and "omg! we need to get back and water the peppers!!!". i would be a complete nutjob if i had any little animals. these cats aren't so much of a problem...as long as there are snackdy-moes on a piece of a box in the computer room - they're fine. yes i just said they eat their snackdy-moes off a piece of a box - don't ask. it makes jambaloney nuts!!! but that's where they want them. they are all males so they are very nocturnal. during the day - they sleep. the. whole. day. they only get up for snackdy-moes.

    cats eh? bahahahahahah! xoxoxo to you and Rman!

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    1. I read Linda's post last night so I got the joke right away. :-) The cats sound like characters. I hope they go outside for the night and not keep you two awake.

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