Gluten Free is New to Me and We are Caramelizing Onions!

This is Byron.  (I'm starting slow since I've been absent from my post so long, lol.)  Byron is a young English Lop buck and he is waiting for you to pet him.  When you try to close the cage door, he will not move out of the way and will be offended that you had the audacity to shut it in his face.

I believe my last post was back in June when we were getting ready for my oldest daughter's wedding.  Is that enough excuse to be gone so long?  It did take a lot out of us and we were tired for weeks after...But I think we're over it now!

Summer is always a busy time on the farm and this one is no exception.  Western Washington is known for its massive rainfall, but we do have very dry summers and things are definitely suffering the lack thereof around here. Our low flow well is struggling and we've put ourselves on water-watch!

This is Korb Yellow Highlight, the Dahlia.  He is very handsome and I've been sneaking water to him when no one is looking.  (Shhhh...)

A close friend of his (pic below) is Pam (no, not me, it really is called Pam).  I picked this one out especially, not just because we share a name, but it is my favorite hue in flowers - shades of yellow, orange & red!  Sunset colors!

My younger daughter and I worked at the local county Fair again this year.  I've had some health issues and am also eating a limited diet, so we packed weird salads to take along most days.  The two weeks sped by and we're back here on the farm most days.

Canning season is upon us and we're working hard, even though our own garden is kind of puny.  A friend 'down the valley' let us pick their green beans and we put them up.

 You can see some waffles on the stove next to the canner and in a plastic container on the green beans.  I've been making gluten-free waffles and freezing them so my 'special' breakfast is fast and easy.  These are made with Almond Flour and turn out fabulous!  The nice thing is they are heartier than regular waffles because of the protein content of the almonds.  I got the recipe online, tweaked it a bunch to make it egg, dairy and sugar-free as well, and now I get bona-fide delicious waffles that even my gluten-eating people like better than the regular ones!  (If you want the recipe, leave a comment with email addy and I'll get it to you!).

Foolish people that we are, we suddenly decided the cellar needed cleaning & organizing.  YIKES.  It's been roughly twenty years accumulating and was a BIG JOB.  We disposed of canning from 2012 and even found a couple jars from 2008...blech.  It's all in order and now the current accomplishments can go right down there and onto the correct shelves!

 We have taken time out to haunt our favorite beaches, namely Westport WA, home of Bennett's Fish Shack (yes, I know I've mentioned them often...) and Wash-Away Beach in Grayland.

This time as we drove & walked around, we discovered something new to us....Cat Feeding Stations!  I saw this little birdhouse-like structure (and a shiny black crow exiting....) and wondered what it was.  There are actually about 3 or 4 of them along the big rock jetty in Westport and they are cat feeding stations for abandoned cats!

Sounds like a great start to a poem...The sleek & stealthy feral cats, dining upon the many wharf rats, stopped to feed at little cat houses and soon gave up the eating of mouses!!

Hmm.  Maybe I should stick to my day job....farm wife!!

Raspberries, strawberries and luscious blackberries!  The raspberries and strawberries are cultivated, of course.  The blackberries grow here with wild abandon.  We have three varieties; the highly sought after wild trailing blackberries, Evergreen Blackberry and Himalayan Blackberry.

The Himalayan is a big, succulent soft berry (my favorite) and grow all along the back of our orchard fence.  We have some of the Evergreen around here, too.  They are a firm berry with a completely different flavor and hold their shape well for canning.

 This summer I've gotten to know another neighbor.  We've only got three neighbors withing a mile or two and I know the others!  Jean and I are becoming good friends and we're having a grand time trading farm produce!

Today my daughter and I are canning tomatoes from Jean's AMAZING garden!

Last weekend, on our drive out to the coast for lunch, I took this picture of the lighthouse museum in Westport.  I love the HUGE flag - almost looks photo-shopped in, doesn't it?!

There is a long dock along the seawall protecting the marina from the ocean and we had walked out there and I snapped this with my new....SMART PHONE!!!  Yes, I have finally joined the ranks of, well, everyone else on the planet and now have a smart phone.  So far, it holds true and it is actually smarter than I am, so I try to leave it alone....

My son wanted to can caramelized onions, so early this morning we began sniffing and crying over a big pile of onions from the garden and they are all in a big turkey roaster.....out on the porch!  The entire farm smells like onions, seriously!  I guess we have to cook them forever and then we can them.  After all these years, we're still finding new canning adventures!

I've a bunch of other things going now, but shall save them for another post!  I'll just leave you with this....

I was standing at the sink, doing a few dishes (ok, a lot of dishes), and feeling just a bit sorry for myself (health issues I mentioned earlier) and doing a bit of praying.  "Lord, I just want to be able to do my work...serve my family....take care of stuff on our farm...."  And I realized that, standing there at the sink doing dishes, I was doing just that.  Sometimes I don't see all the good things the Lord has done for me when I'm busy concentrating on the not-so-good.  It brought to mind

Philippians 4:8King James Version (KJV)

8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Until next time, let's think on all those good things!