25°F this morning. A flock of ducks heading south just flew over the lake through the mist that is beginning to lighten as the sun comes up and warms it. The duck water was frozen and I used my heel to open it this morning.

I borrowed a small shovelful of glowing coals from the greenhouse wood stove to jump start a fire in the chilly house. As I drink my scalding hot coffee, I am wondering if the tunnels had enough protection or if I have lost my winter squash harvest. Summer is over and fall is here for a few weeks and then it will be the long winter.

While I am a huge proponent of the idea that life is all about the journey and not the destination, Alaska’s summer are so short and so intense that this time of year I find myself looking back and wondering when I stopped to reflect and just be, or enjoy being. I last wrote a blog post on August 6, one month ago. My computer was being used for 9th grade online classes and homework and I was too busy, too scattered, to sit down and write anyway. I put my head down and worked. And worked. The problem is that when there is so much to do, you will inevitably fail crossing off all the items on the to do lists. I have piles of them on my desk, each day making a plan that was scrapped when something needing immediate attention took precedence. Last week my 13 year old son and I got in an argument about schedules and being organized, prioritizing tasks, and working in a timely manner. Partway through the heated argument (the 13 year old does not want to make a schedule), I realized I could use my own advice. I wrote this August 29 when I had a crazy busy day where I did not accomplish the one goal I had set in the morning. The day was so ridiculous I had to write it down.

August 29, 2020. Todays plan: process previously harvested vegetables that are in totes under the house. I get a text at 8:30 AM: ATV tires are ready. Drive down the road and pick up ATV tires, put them on the atvs, put away all tools, test drive atvs. Put away atvs. Open greenhouse and consider that the slugs are out of control in the greenhouse and perennial garden and think about how the ducks are over due to be moved up here. Ducks have not been let out yet so instead I catch the ducks, stuff them into a cat carrier, bring to perennial garden and fill their water dish. While the irrigation pump is on to fill the duck water and there is plenty of sun on the solar panels it makes sense to quickly water all the outside flower pots. While doing this, I notice that I need to collect seed from the bachelor button, violas, and nasturtium. I proceed to do that. Next, back to processing. There is no room in the freezer behind the shed for more vegetables but it does not make sense to put another freezer back there as the shed is supposed to be painted soon. I put a newly cleaned freezer behind the house and go to fire up the backhoe to use it to scoot the big freezer on pallets away from the shed so I can paint soon and put all the freezers back there. (Because at the time it seems faster to use the backhoe than to empty the freezer to move it. Not so in reality.) The duck house needs to be moved too so I can cross off two chores with one tool. Backhoe needs two tires aired up so I start the generator and hook up the air compressor. Then the battery needs a jump so I use the water truck to do that. Once the hoe is going, I ratchet strap the duck house onto the backhoe bucket and move that up to the perennial garden behind the greenhouse. After the freezer is slid out of the way, it is obvious that the water line running under the shed needs to be moved and there is debris that needs to be scraped away before the pallets will fit behind the shed. It makes sense to do that while the back hoe is already going. I have to get a torch to soften the waterline but it finally comes apart at the now badly placed (due to shed placement when we relocated it this past spring) valve that needs to be replaced with a splice later. I scrape away the debris and then decide to turn the compost while the hoe is still running as that is way over due on the chore list too. Compost gets turned after moving the bear fence that surrounds the old compost, the new compost, and the pig pen. Backhoe is now parked back behind the shed so debris can be shoveled into the bucket. Go inside and check time…6 PM and the kids are hungry. Meatloaf goes in the oven and peeled potatoes in the pot at a slow boil. Conner and I make the final adjustments to the duck house placement, shovel debris into the backhoe bucket and rake the freezer area, and shovel and rake around the compost pile until the meatloaf is ready alarm goes off on my phone. Eat dinner at 8:30 PM.

Not a single vegetable was processed that day.

August in review: I was also too busy in August to jot down my daily few sentences in my journal so the month is a little hazy. My son started his online homeschool classes. We had a few big wind and rain storms. I spent a lot of time working on mechanical items that broke: ATVs, my truck, the irrigation pump. Weeds started to get out of control with all the rain and with my time now divided by harvest for sales and harvest and processing for us (as well as housework, homeschooling, hauling water etc…). Survival mode is the best way to describe August. Do what you can.

A bear came in the night of the 15/16th and pulled grain bags out of the conex.

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It took me a while to locate bear slugs for my shotgun and round up bear spray for the kids to carry while they played in the yard. I had gotten lax. We can have bears come through at any time of the spring, summer, and fall but they most often move through our area when traveling from the mountains to the river in the spring and back again in the fall. Somehow I was not on the ball with the fall migration back to the mountains. The next night when the conex door was securely locked (as it had not been the night before), the bear ripped the weather stripping off the doors and then found the compost pile. To keep dogs out, I have an old heavy duty steel homemade hay bale ring with garden fencing tie wired onto it that I fill with plants, salmon carcasses, and bedding. The bear flipped the compost ring up on end and dug through the compost pile which is 15 feet from the pig pen. I am not sure if the pigs were frozen in terror or just slept peacefully through the night but the bear did not discover them. Day 2 of the bear became all about the bear. I moved the electric fence charger down to the pig pen and strung 4 rounds of wire tape around the pig and compost area.

Then I finished attaching electrical fence caps on the garden fence and strung 2 inch wire tape around the top of the garden. (This was a partially started project that was supposed to be finished eons ago to keep out moose and bear).

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I finished in the waning light by atv headlight in the rain looking over my shoulder for a bear the entire time. Perhaps it was the paranoia and desire to be safe and warm in the house but somehow I forgot to switch the two game cams on. The bear came in again for a third night during the rain storm and hit the electrical fence by the compost and had a very negative reaction to it. It pestered the neighbors the next night and then moved on. I am very grateful I did not have to shoot it but very irritated that I did not get a picture of it!!!! I do not even know if it was a black bear or a grizzly. We have bear spray on the atvs and in the garden mailbox. The kids have pocket ones that are with them when they are outside. My 44 is always with me and the kids and I went through shotgun safety and have it loaded with bear slugs for a worst case scenario. We got lucky this time and are now well prepared for another encounter. The bear did very little damage, no people or animals were hurt, and we are all, now, on our toes.

Otherwise life is spot weeding, harvesting, and processing the harvest. The garlic was harvested August 9. It is now finishing drying on racks.

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We have almost 6 gallons of raspberries in the freezer. And many went right into our bellies.

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There are more black currants than we have time to pick.

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And many more vegetables have come out of the garden. The beautiful romanesco, cheddar cauliflower, and regular cauliflower did not get their photos taken in the August rush. They are now in residence in the freezer for delicious winter meals.

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The sun is up and it is a toasty 45°F outside. Time to go inspect the frost damage.

I always forget the intensity of August. With my husband working remotely in August and September, all the homestead chores fall on my shoulders: hauling water, vehicle and generator maintenance, occasional grocery shopping at the local store (an hour away). Three of my son’s classes have started and I am overseeing his education this year. In two weeks more classes (all at home this year) will start for both kids. I am responsible for cooking and cleaning or supervising the kids doing these things. I can count on one hand the times we have eaten a meal prepared by someone outside our household since March (yup, 4 times). The last time I remember going to a restaurant was in December when I was in Anchorage with my sister-in-law Christmas shopping. I make an often repeated, and not very funny joke, that I have made all my kids lives when we come inside after a long day and still have to make dinner “let’s order Chinese food.” (The nearest Chinese restaurant is over 120 miles away.)

In the garden it is full on harvest season. I am harvesting to make meals we eat each day, harvesting to sell, and harvesting to process food for the winter. Harvest times are determined by when the plants are ready, at peak maturity. Just 12 hours can change a crop from perfect to over mature. Strawberries and raspberries need to be picked daily and frozen or voles or the sparrows eat the ripe ones.

I often plan on harvesting and processing in the same day and then beat myself up mentally when I go to bed with buckets of harvested produce under the house. There are only so many hours in the day. But slowly cases of jars are filling on the pantry shelves of smoked salmon and dilly beans. And bags of broccoli, green beans, napa cabbage, raspberries, and strawberries are in the freezer. The cold and damp nights have started delicate cucumber and beans plants to molding. They will not last much longer. On the other hand, the carrots are just starting.

The fall flowers are blooming and knowing a frost can happen in the next three weeks or so I try to enjoy them as much as possible. Sunflowers, sweet peas, and snapdragons are my favorite. By the vegetable garden gate, last years snapdragons seeded themselves and I have new flower color combinations. And my scarlet runner beans started blooming this week as well.

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The popcorn I started this spring has not had a hot enough summer to produce. They are just leafy stalks, even the three in the greenhouse.

I have to do lists everywhere. There is so much to do that I make a new one every morning of what must be done before it becomes a lost cause. I weed when plants are about to burst with seed but don’t have time for maintenance weeding. Other projects have been put on the “fall” list for when I might have more time: finishing the fence, painting the shed, tearing down the old pig pen. Conner and I crimped down the buckwheat covercrop in a spare few moments this week, hopefully in time to keep it from seeding too. Crimping a cover crop in flower should kill it, leaving a layer of mulch on the soil over the winter to protect it.

And I have to remember to stop and have fun summer moments with the kids whenever possible.

It is not a terrible thing to be surrounded by bounty but it can be stressful. I don’t want to waste the food we will need to get us through this winter.

I need to get back to it. A harvest for a McCarthy restaurant is on the top of this mornings to do list.

Till next time, happy gardening!