Patty and family arrived Monday.  We had a wonderful time introducing the kids to the farm.  They all loved the blueberries and everyone pitched in to pick about three quarts before going down to the big garden.  The raccoons had been good to us and not come on Sunday night so there was lots of corn  to pick.  We got a dozen and a half for dinner on Monday and three dozen for them to take to Rock Island State Park where they had a cabin for the week.  Then they picked Swiss Chard, cucumbers, tomatoes, and pepper of all kinds.  We did not pick the beans as it had been raining all morning and things were very wet and it is not good to pick beans when they are wet. We forgot to pick the leeks so I got those on Tuesday with the green beans when they dried out a bit.  Tuesday morning Norman had a dentist appointment at 8 a.m. and after that we went to the cottage with the family.

They were at the beach so we went to the cottage and waited for them to return.  This is Becca, her husband Chris and daughter Gina.  We had a cook out and just played and visited for the rest of the day.

This is Nana (Patty) and Colby (one of the twins)

This is Colby watching the fire.

This is James, Colby’s twin brother.  We stayed over night and this morning I took Becca and Gina to the farmer’s market where they got some fresh peaches and assorted peppers. Then I got some corn to can.  I bought 6 dozen and John gave me 8 dozen in all for $12.  He said this was a great year for corn and we are long time customers so he always gives me a good deal.  Then I got a whole box of summer squash which we will can tomorrow all of this will go to Becca for Christmas.  I dropped them off at the cottage and picked up Norman and gave him the good new that we had canning to do, and he thought he had the week off- Ha Ha.  We got home about 11 and went right to work on the corn.  We shucked it and blanched it and then cut off the ears and got it all done before we stopped for dinner.  Right after dinner we canned the first load of 7 quarts.  It takes 85 minutes to process a load so we didn’t get it unloaded until 5:30 and now the second load is in.  So we got 14 quarts canned and 6 quarts frozen.  Good Corn day!!  Tomorrow we will can the summer squash.   Hopefully Norman’s plate will be back and ready for us tomorrow also so he can eat again and then on Friday the family heads back home and will stop here on the way.  I will have more blue berries for them to take with them.

Next week we will be back to canning full time.  Monday we will get four-2 5 pound boxes of tomatoes again and can those.  We need to pick our tomatoes and make salsa with the red ones and green tomato relish with some of the green ones. Then we need to start cleaning up the garden and pull the beans as the new crop of beans in the kitchen garden should be ready to pick in another week.  And all the time, I steal whatever time I can to pick blueberries, they are still getting ripe but still have lots of green one so each time I go out I can get a couple quarts in no time at all and I want to get them all into the freezer as well as having some for breakfast every day.   The last load of corn in now ready to cool so we can open the cooker and leave them to cool so by 8 we will be ready to rest while they cool,  before going to bed.  Have a great day!!