(DF) HOT, DRY, BUGGY, ETC.; but we are still here

As you may have noticed, Anna and I have not posted recently, so I wanted to take this opportunity to say that we are still here, still alright, and most importantly, still together (we just celebrated the first anniversary of our relationship on Thursday).  Though it was not the celebration we had planned, we did get to spend it together and it is wonderful to look back at the year that has so quickly passed.

Now for reasons (not excuses) why we have not posted recently.  To begin with, Anna's computer is still down and her stone-age laptop, like my stone-age desktop, just doesn't handle working in temperatures in excess of 100 degrees.  By the time either of us is forced by the heat to take a break,  it is already to hot for the computers to work.

Time and energy are other factors to be dealt with.  With the long stretch of record breaking heat and record low rainfall in our area, most of our time is being spent watering plants, trees and livestock.  No, we are not getting a lot of production, but in this heat, the goal is to just keep things alive until it cools off and rains.  Today is wonderfully cool by the way, at least so far.  It  has just passed the 90 degree mark, and though quite humid, is still better than the 100 degrees plus that it has been this time of day for awhile.

Between the heat, drought, and what I jokingly refer to as a grasshopper plague of near biblical proportion, it is amazing that anything is left to do here.  Actually though the grasshoppers are most plentiful, they aren't quite on a biblical scale.  However, it looks like the small apple trees will have to be replanted thanks to the grasshoppers eating all the bark off of them.  Managed to keep the deer off them just to save them for the bugs.

On the up side of the situation, my tomatoes have been producing up until the last few days, and okra is still going.  I have actually had a chance to can and dry some tomatoes and have dried a bit of okra.  As an added treat, I found a wild plum tree which I didn't know was there and was able to make several jars fo plum butter, which will be great this winter.

Bottom line is that it could be worse, we have a lot to be grateful for and there is hope for more production in the fall (if the drought breaks in time for a fall garden).  We are keeping notes and taking some pictures so we can bring you all up to date when it cools off and rains so we aren't spending all our time hauling water.  
We are learning lots of things to help us through such times and are making some interesting adjustments, all of which we well share soon, so please bear with us and check back from time to time until we are back to our regular posting schedule.

(D♥A) MORE ABOUT PEARS

 It is a beautiful Fall day here, and as I take a break from pealing pears, I realize that we have gotten so caught up in all the Fall work on the farm that we forgot to post a pear update.  As you may have noticed in recent posts, we have been up to our elbows in preparing the fruits of our foraging expedition, so here's a brief update.

On Sunday, Anna made contact and arrangements for the pears from the our previous posting.  Those beautiful pears were actually not going to be used! Monday found us with buckets and tubs, gathering a good supply of fruit, much of which we picked up from the ground.  We had to fight the Yellow Jackets for a few, but neither of us got stung, thank goodness! Many of the pears had bruises and blemishes, but still great pears for canning, and such a shame to let them rot on the ground.  We also picked some from the tree for eating fresh and longer keeping. But we should have taken a tall ladder, as the best ones, of course, were waaaaayyy up high in the tree, far above either of our reach. Considering our extreme heat and drought this summer, it is amazing that any fruit tree was this productive this year.

Since that time, we have both been spending a lot of time pealing and preserving pears in between other necessary activities.  Yes, there is a fair amount of so called waste to the damaged fruit, but with farm animals to feed, there is really no waste at all.  The chickens and goats at both farms are enjoying the leftovers to the fullest, like kids in a candy store.

We will post further updates soon, hopefully with pictures.  For now,  there is work to be done while resting from the fruit processing.