Last night my epiphyllum oxypetalum bloomed for the second time this year in the greenhouse. I got it back in 1998 however this is the first year it has bloomed. The first blooms happened earlier in the summer. It had a total of four beautiful, fragrant white flowers that opened together this time.

I am still canning and preparing food for the winter. I plan to can some pint sized cakes and breads as well as some more beef stew for winter use. I harvested the sugar beets which need to be made into sugar two days ago.

We have begun to eat our canned food. It tastes so much different and is so much more satisfying than store bought. Even though I have been buying organic for the past few years I am finding that home canned still tastes better and is more satisfying. I am not sure if it is because I know where it came from and how it was grown or if it has to do with different processing methods. Either way, it is nice to know I do not need to buy potatoes, vegetables, fruits, fruit juices or condiments for most, if not all, of the winter. The only food we need to purchase is meat and milk. Once the goats begin producing again we will not need milk and we have plans come spring to add a pig to our flock of animals, so that will eliminate the need for purchasing meat.

We finally fired the still up. I made half a gallon of distilled water to water some of my more sensitive plants with. It took two gallon to make half a gallon and about four hours total time. Keeping the pan with the pump in it filled with cold water was not an easy task. Now that I know what I do, I wish I had bought a five gallon still instead of a two gallon one.

I strained the lavender buds out of the olive oil that it was being infused into and have that bottled and put in the basement. I will use some of it in salves and some in the lye soap that I am in the process of hand milling now. I also have some soapwort leaves, roots and flowers I am working on converting into soap. Once I am satisfied with the thickness of the product I will use it as a hand soap, as a shampoo and possibly as a laundry soap, at least until my trees begin to produce soap nuts. Making our own salves, soaps and other necessities is just one more way we can be more independent and self-sufficient now.

I think the goats are bred, at least I hope they are. I am really looking forward to some nice goat milk to drink and make cheese with. It has been a long summer without some. I had about thirty chickens, a peafowl and three guineas given to me by a nice man who could no longer care for them. Luckily for us, Jerry had the new henhouse done and was able to get the top cover back on so they cannot fly away, otherwise I would not have been able to take them.

Jerry has been working hard on the new greenhouse which will be ten feet tall! Woo Hoo! My plants will sure like that. Some of them were reaching the top of the other greenhouse. It is also larger so instead of needing two seperate houses, I can put all of the plants into one house. That will make heating and watering much easier. He is also going to work on a hatch that we can open and run a hose out of. Hopefully this will allow us to use a hose outside in the winter to water the animals with.

In the greenhouse I have lots of lemons and limes on the plants and believe it or not they are still blooming their little heads off. Looks like I may have plenty of these to use fresh as well as some to juice. I will can any extra juice I get to use at a later date. With any luck my need to buy lemon and lime juice will come to an end as I begin to build up a larger supply than I need. Now if I could just get some of my other fruiting tropicals such as the bananas, passionfruit, pineapple, cacao, coffee and vanilla to bloom!

The garden is almost done for the year and I did not get a winter garden planted. Once the new greenhouse is done and the plants are moved I may start some lettuce, spinach and other greens in it, then move them into the cold frame after they have grown. I am also considering trying to grow some green beans, radish and peas in the greenhouse. In the garden still left to harvest after the first frost is brussels sprouts, kale and rose hips.

It is late and I need to get some sleep. The contractor’s could be here as early as 8am tomorrow to start on the barn roof. It will be nice to get rid of the leaks in the big barn and have a new roof with a ten year guarantee. Jerry is still working on the other parts of the barn roof that we are re-doing and he still needs to tear off the roofs on both of our offices and re-do those. The office roofs I think will end up being tarped for the winter and started on come spring as they need to be torn down all the way and rebuilt. That in itself is going to be a huge job and one I do not want to take on with winter just around the corner.

Sheri