pert and saucy sauce

well, here we are the next morning, back in real time, not here in blog time.

the sauce is now in a smaller pot and is chilled, ready to be put into jars.

and here are the jars! half pints because there are usually just the two of us to cook for.

our high tech metering system to ensure that each jar is filled just so.

the automatic labeler

and the finished products. sauce and tomato chunks and pepper pieces.

i'll add here a garden recap because we use blogger to keep a record of some parts our life.

the tomatoes seemed to ripen a bit late considering the early heat spell we had, but they have come on quite nicely. the purple cherokees are pretty much done. we may get 3 or 4 more. some early girls and beefsteak are still ripening and we will have loads of green ones to ripen inside when the weather turns cold. there are many romas left. maybe we'll freeze some.

our corn was delicious. we could have planted more. the bush beans only gave us about 4 meals. we planted 5 basil starts and all flowered very quickly. there were enough nice new leaves for daily use but mostly the leaves turned bitter. we didn't make any pesto this year. an early potato crop is tasty but has very thick skin. we tried a midsummer 2nd planting. the tops grew well and are just now fading. i've poked into the dirt a bit and found at least one large tater.

the transplanted strawberries grew well but didn't produce many berries, though they were quite tasty. they have gone wild with runners and probably need thinning. aaah zucchini! the heat messed with it a bit but we have had fresh zukes all summer and have thrown away some monsters that seemed to grow huge overnight. there are about two dozen mature butternut squash of various sizes hardening for winter storage.

the shade house was a slow start. we did eat a lot of kale, but the chard leaves got burnt a lot in the early heat. the kale finally got aphids and is gone. the chard pulled through and we have eaten quite a bit. after sowing carrot and beet and onion seeds in the outside beds more than once and having almost no plants come up (save the early beets mentioned below) i sowed some of each in the shade house and now we have all three coming along nicely.

we harvested about 15 pounds of garlic in late june. the onion sets we planted last fall along with the garlic didn't do so well. we did harvest almost two dozen good onions but the majority fell to root rot and tiny worms. an early spring planting of beets gave us many nice meals.

we grew mini red bell peppers, regular red peppers, red rocket hot peppers and jalapenos. they should have been staked. they all fell over and i have added straw mulch under them several times. they are prolific. we have been cooking with the bells and frozen some. i pickled some mini bells and i have made some tasty hot sauce with the red rockets and jalapenos.

even though we have decided quite firmly to move next spring we ordered garlic for fall planting that will mature after we plan to leave. and we'll do onion transplants instead of sets.

best laid plans "gang aft agley" and all that.

saucy sauce

we eat lots of tomatoes. cooked tomatoes most of the year because the fresh ones available in stores aren't good raw. we like to grow them. we enjoy fresh, vine-ripe tomatoes for about 4 months, so we make sauce and freeze it for the rest of the year. we also cut some tomatoes into quarters, freeze them on a cookie sheet, and put them in freezer bags. we do the same with whole golden cherry tomatoes.

the ingredients: early girls, romas, and beefsteaks. the onion is store bought. the garlic is ours.

two workstations: i stepped back to take the picture we rinse them in cold water and cut them meticulously into exactly equal pieces.

ready to simmer: the garlic will be put through a press. it looks better whole for a picture.

the summer kitchen: who wants simmering pot going all day in the house when it's 90 degrees? that is a sears campstove, maybe 50 years old. i found a nifty conversion thing so it runs on propane instead of liquid fuel. the sauce will reduce to about a third its beginning volume 5 or 6 hours. then we let it cool for a while and transfer it to a smaller pot and cool it overnight in the refrigerator.

Crepuscular Rays and Shadows

I wish I knew more about photography. That's actually an incorrect statement. I wish I knew something/anything about photography besides point and click. Yes, I have a good eye for beauty, but that doesn't give me any way to convincingly convey to you what the sky looked like on Sunday.

It had crepuscular rays all day long, from sun up to sun down.

From our backyard to the co-op parking lot to the highway. Crazy clouds that looked out of focus even before I pointed the camera at them. Crazy colors in mid-morning.

Roger says I should learn how to do manual focus and F stop stuff. I say, what? My brain is on overload all the time as it is. Put more stuff up there? No way.

So, this is what you get. It really looked like this, but who would believe me?

A Post About Comments

When Roger and I first started blogging in January 2005 we used Haloscan for commenting. Not sure why, except that some of our favorite political bloggers at the time (like Eschaton) used it. It wasn't a good idea because Haloscan quit hosting a commenting platform some time in 2008. We were able to save all of the comments, and there were literally thousands of them, but only in a ridiculous Excel format that is seriously unfriendly in every way. The comments were deleted from blogger, and that was the end of that. I still have 18 database files of comments and planned to edit out personal data and would like to try to append them to original posts where they had been left. It's an absurd amount of work, and in all likelihood it won't ever get down, but not for lack of good intentions.

It was right about that time that we quit replying to comments. It always bothered me that we stopped, especially since we love bloggers who do reply, but our enthusiasm for had been diminished. We were moving around a lot back then, and blogging became more about journal keeping than communication. Still, we always loved comments and the amazingly bright and wonderful people who became our friends here and stayed.

So, you may have already noticed, I have made a commitment to reply to all of your comments. We appreciate hearing from you so much. You have enriched our lives and we just want you to know. So, you'll be hearing from us!

And, thank you.

PS The skies cleared. The local American Fire is 26,194 27,440 acres, 98% 100% contained, and expected full containment today, August 29th (DONE). The Rim Fire rages on. It is now 192,737 199,237 201,894 213,414 219,217 222,777 228,670 231,086 235,841 237,341 246,350 252,156 253,332 254,685 255,858 256,169 256,895 acres, 30% 32% 35% 40% 60% 75% 80% 84% contained and the 6th 5th 4th 3rd largest fire in California history expected containment is September 20th October 1st. It will continue to grow. The above photos were taken Wednesday in our clear blue blue skies. I think these clouds are Lacunosus formations. What do you think?

Coming Up For Air

This has been one long hot smoky summer. I got burned out writing about smoke and fire, but then one of the largest fires in California history (The Rim Fire) started burning about 125 miles south of us. That's not very close, until the wind blows out of the south and our air gets smokier than we've ever seen it. The above pic is a screen grab of what the air quality map looked like on Saturday morning. It was bleak, and yes, unhealthy.

And here's what that air looked like when we went into town to shop at the co-op. It's what everyone is talking about. Like a crazy slow motion disaster, it goes on and on and on. The cashier says, "Take it easy out there, it's like smoking 20 packs of cigarettes today."

What else is there to write about? Well, we've been freezing batches and batches of tomato sauce. Roger has been painting the exterior of the sauna to match the house paint. There have been flocks of migrating warblers in the oak trees. When I went out to take some photos, I found this female Western Tanager. One of my all time favorite birds! Such a treat. Wished I'd seen the male. He's quite a stunning beauty.

Roger found what we think is a juvenile skink  a young Northwest Alligator lizard (thank you for the ID, Bev!) in our bathroom. It was hiding under the scale in a dusty little corner. It dropped the tip of its tail when Roger caught it. That tail wiggled on the ground like a perfect distraction. Pretty crazy to see. We set it free on the deck and it high-tailed it out of sight in a hurry.

Yes, it has been one long hot smoky summer.

What The Blazes...(With Updates!)

The American Fire has grown beyond what we thought it would do. Last Sunday, August 11th it was 15 acres, by Sunday morning the 18th it was 12,950, and is now 13,730 14,765 14,990 15,738 16,822 20,232 22,040 24,135 24,684 24,935 26,004 acres and  45% 49% 54% 63% 60% 66% 67% 78% 83% 88% 92% contained. We have been under an air quality watch and from the above pic you can see why. It's been pretty smoky here most mornings. The estimated time of containment for this blaze is August 28th September 1st August 29th. So, we have many more days of this hazy air. If you click on the above link you'll see the incredible effort being made to suppress this fire. There are 1433 1822 1614 1283 1082 personnel, and the team has been transitioned to an Incident Type 1 -- the toughest fire fighter crews there are. 

The skies cleared here on Wednesday. This is what it looks like now.

When the smoke blows north of us and the skies clear, we go outside to see what's happening out there. On Friday, there was this perfect circumzenithal arc. It was visible for no more than two minutes. Poof... gone.

Last Monday, when the fire was only 800 acres, after the smoke blew away, there was this lovely sundog. We take advantage of the clear-ish air whenever the opportunity presents itself. Fortunately there have been sights to dazzle us in these brief moments.

It's been interesting and challenging staying indoors. It's not a good idea to hike or do much physical exertion during times of such intense smokiness. We'll just add this craziness to the column of why we plan to leave here next year. Not another blazing hot summer, not another blazing summer fire...

Like Clockwork

We know when it will happen. It's why it's called fire season. Last year we had the Robbers Fire, this year we have the American Fire. This year's blaze is in the same general area as last year, east of us about 20 miles. As of this writing it is over 1900 3050 4958 7367 11,949 12,950 acres, and 45% contained on 8/18.

I first smelled smoke early Sunday morning. The fire was small then at 15 acres. By Monday our skies had grayed with smoke, and the fire had grown to 800 acres. Tuesday morning the smell of smoke was everywhere, even in the house. The morning sunlight filtered through the smoky trees, reminding me of fog.

We went for a walk up to the Three Horse Meadow (which is now probably Two Horse Meadow, since we haven't seen the large pale horse for about a year). There's a pretty good view east from there. This is what it looked like.

All day, all day the tankers fly over the yard, every half hour heading east. It's like clockwork, this fire, this tanker, this fire season.