Currently: September 24, 2017

Weather: 

Fall has arrived...sort of. It's been a bit fickle around here, floating back and forth between warm days and decidedly fall days. I don't mind that it's somewhat clinging to summer. I need a few more days of niceness. Today it was a mix of both. The temperatures were nice...in the mid- to high 70s, but it was cloudy and breezy with rain off and on. I had enough time to harvest the cabbage from the garden and do a little spot checking on my remaining crops and then spent the majority of the remaining day indoors.

Watching:

Since we live in the middle of nowhere, getting network TV is a trick. We don't have cable because of the high cost, so we do a lot of Netflix instead. We had watched a couple of episodes of NBC's The Good Place a while back via their website, but watching on a computer screen isn't as nice as on the full-sized television. So...I was really happy to discover that the first season of The Good Place is now on Netflix. The second season is coming to regular TV, so we'll perpetually be a season behind, but at least we can still watch. I'm quite enjoying it and it's nice to have a show that we can watch together.

Reading:

I have finished my first read for RIP XII! Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children was a good read. It was a bit out of my normal wheelhouse, but it is incredibly imaginative and reads super smoothly. Riggs manages to keep the narrative aimed at a preteen/early teen reader set, but still keep things fun and entertaining for the (*ahem*) older reader as well. I was pretty pleased with this one.

I have now moved on to the second book in the series, Hollow City. I'm about 1/2 of the way through and this one is reading just as easily as the first. I have a feeling, should this continue, that this will be one of those series where I'm sad that it ends.

Listening:

I did a little more Pandora this week and I think I'm going to have to change tactics. My station is playing good music and it's all stuff that I indeed do like, but it hasn't yet suggested anything new for me. It's all bands and songs that I've heard before. I'll have to branch out and find a way to explore a bit more.

Learning:

It was more farm learning this week. I spent a few days wrangling piglets who kept wanting to find ways to escape their pens. They have now been well corralled. In addition, the vet came out on Friday and helped us to castrate a few of the boys who will become butcher hogs next fall. He taught us how to do it ourselves, so now I'll be on the action end of the scalpel for the next batch. We'll see how that goes. Initially, I had told Gary that I wasn't going to do that part. But...after watching him try to wrangle the boys while the vet did his job, I quickly decided that being on the outside of the fence was the better idea.

Making:

Turnips and rutabagas have been finished. I pulled the onions and potatoes as well. The potato crop was disappointing and my sweet potatoes were fairly nonexistent. I wound up with two the size of carrots and that's it. Bummer. However, my green onions went gangbusters, so I have about sixteen freezer bags of sliced green onions all put up.

Today, I pulled the majority of the cabbage. Since our pepper crop did crummy and I'm still letting my carrots grow, I had to make a run to the store for a few supplies. I then spent the afternoon and evening making freezer slaw. I have four gallon bags put up and will be working on doubling that tomorrow. Then I have to decide what in the world to do with the remaining cabbage heads. I still have six jars of sauerkraut in the cellar, so that is not on the agenda this year.

Thinking/Feeling:

This week, the general feeling around the house has been exhaustion. The little guy has continued to teethe, but also seems to be going through a growth spurt. It's been restless nights for all three of us as he has decided to wake up several times throughout the night. He also and tosses and turns even when he does decide to go down for the count. We're hoping this is a short-lived stunt, because we could all use some good sleep around here.

Wanting/Needing:

I am getting really excited for the renovations we're taking on in the next month and a half. We had the house measured last week for the hardwood and tile installations we're planning. I have to contact our flooring guy tomorrow to get one more piece of the quote, but then we're almost ready to roll. I am really looking forward to having the upstairs flooring complete. It should make a huge difference in feeling like we're moving forward with making this house a bit more complete and a bit less of a project.

Loving:

I haven't used it much up to this point, but with today's adventure into freezer slaw, I'm seriously loving my food processor. I still have a lot to learn about it, but it made slicing up all that cabbage so much easier and faster. It easily saved me an hour or two. Thank goodness. At this point in canning season, I will take all the help I can get.

Planning:

I have a few lists put together of all the things I want to accomplish around the house, on the blog, with our farm website, and other tasks. It's been really nice to have a visual reminder and to be able to add things as I think of them. I'm also a super huge fan of being able to check things off as I go. I love being able to see my progress.

Once I get through canning season and can officially call the garden complete for the year, I'm planning on going on a few blog tours. I have some reading to catch up on for sure. I'm really looking forward to reading some of the posts for recent Top 10 Tuesday and Top 5 Wednesday topics. I also have a feeling that they will introduce me to some new books that might just strike my fancy. No matter how ridiculous my TBR pile gets, I still very much enjoy discovering new potential reads.


What about you? What does your "Currently" look like?