June – a month of living slowly

Another month of the year down. It really is a slower time of year around here, with summer starting and the outside heat getting turned up. I’m following the example at Slow Living Essentials again this month, and using her categories to summarize my month and list some things I’d like to accomplish.

{Nourish}:

We’ve officially started BBQ season here and have been grilling everything that we possibly can. I’m sorry that asparagus is done for the year, because we were really enjoying it marinated and grilled. We’ve had a few house guests on the weekends and the resulting treats were French breakfast (donut) muffins and brownies.

{Prepare}:

I made strawberry rhubarb jam one weekend and strawberry freezer jam plus some extra strawberries in syrup for the freezer the next weekend. We didn’t have any extra rhubarb this year for the freezer like I’d hoped, but I think the frozen strawberries will probably make up for it.

{Reduce}:

We are working on keeping our garbage down to 1 bag every 2 weeks, but sometimes we don’t quite meet that. Our food waste is either composted (and by that I mean we throw it into the back  field – we really don’t need compost with all of the horse manure we have available), or fed to the dog. Most other things are recyclable here, but there are still things like tissues (don’t want those in the septic tank) and styrofoam that need throwing out. I try to avoid products that come with too much extra packaging and we do buy a lot from the bulk stores, but the packaging still seems to make it into the house.

Repairs were made by the dad to our truck, lawn mower and the pressure pump on the back well, thereby saving us repair bills. The pump was a new part, but necessary to avoid using the front well, which had recently started pumping (as the 9-year-old so aptly calls it) fart water. Lovely. But we’ve resumed normal clean and clear country water now.

{Green}:

I’m still adjusting to the summer time-of-use guidelines for hydro usage in order to use hydro more efficiently. I normally set the appliances to run after we’ve gone to bed. I am hoping to be more consistent with using the clothesline to dry clothes with the extra time I have off this summer. The air conditioning is staying off as much as possible. I don’t mind the heat, as long as it’s not humid. Humidity makes us turn it on every time.

As far as homemade products go, I made a warming bath soak for when some unexpected cold weather at the beginning of the month caused some chills and muscle spasms and some lavender cooling spray for when the weather did a complete 180 degree turn.

{Grow}:

We’re still planting the garden in increments, trying out succession planting to see if we can stretch the produce out even longer this year. So far we’ve enjoyed lettuce (mesclun mix – can anyone tell me what the nasty bitter stuff is in it?), onion, radish and baby potatoes. The carrots didn’t germinate, so we’ve had to replant them, but everything else seems to be doing well. I’ve been using the chives, mint and dill regularly and am looking forward to using some of the basil and sage. My rosemary didn’t come up either, now that I think about it. Huh.

{Create}:

I made mom a (late) housewarming gift basket containing a lavender beeswax candle, amongst other things. Other than that I wasn’t all that creative this month. Mostly, I’m lucky to get out of the house with pants on in the morning. Creativity comes pretty low down on the list, but I’d like to try knitting again. I haven’t done any knitting since the girls were babies.

{Discover}: 

I have a stack of overdue library books. Almost every time I opened a book this month my mind shut down and I fell asleep. It wasn’t the book, it was me. I’m going to renew them all and take them with me to the cottage. I’ll be better next month. Promise.

{Enhance – community}: 

The dad worked out a barter/trade with an electrician friend to fix the hydro line that was knocked off the barn in a storm in exchange for storage of his vehicle in our barn. We are also sharing our garden with a friend who lives in town. He, in turn, has a lot of experience and expertise to offer (not to mention labour – it’s a big garden). We purchased local strawberries for jam-making.

{Enjoy}: 

We spent our weekends with friends and family. We never have a weekend without entertaining company of some kind. A highlight of the month was taking the kids and some of their friends to see the RCMP musical ride. Most of the time, our kids are busy just being country kids and enjoying life.

Sorry that was such a long post. I don’t mind if you don’t read it all. I just like it as a little reminder that we actually did accomplish something this month.

Linked to Like a Mustard Seed, Frugally Sustainable, White Wolf Summit Farmgirl