Harvest frenzy continues...

We procured a lovely steel shelving unit for our harvest drying rack this weekend that was quickly put to use for curing veggies.

But right about the time we thought things were settling down Monday the neighbor stopped by. Seems he'd gotten a call from a friend about a shipment of grapes that weren't able to get where they needed to, so they were looking for someone that would use them. Since he has grapes already, we got a delightful special delivery... wow!

Lots more than we expected! A closer view of the beauties. We'll juice them and use some for jelly. If there are no takers on sharing some of this bounty, then we will start a batch of zinfandel wine as well. Good neighbors... well they make good neighbors!!

In the meantime, Newt, who always tries every object out as furniture... gives this drip hoses a test for comfort. She lays on them often, so maybe they retain heat or something to that effect. She's an odd cat, if we haven't said so before.

While Newt goes experimental, Magnus, the intrepid house-cat, "lols" on the living room floor. He seems to have no penchant for testing anything uncomfortable, preferring to lounge on soft things like fluffy rugs, fleece blankets or his human's bed.

Smart kitty!

And an update. Neither of us got a call about winning that draft horse filly. Sigh...

Visit to the Draft Horse Show!

At the Evergreen State Fair. And just below is Dixie Valentine, an 18 month old Clydsdale filly that is being raffled come Thursday this week. J is pretty darn sure she bought the winning tickets, but that's hard to believe since I was the one who bought the winners.

The sights and sounds were overwhelming to us northerners, with the place being packed, hawkers yelling, rides roaring with associated shrieks, smells assailing from roasted meat to cotton candy, and the sun beating down on all. We finally escaped to the barns where I shared ice cubes from mango/lemon ice tea with one of the draft horses in the cool, far more quiet confines.

Finally 5:00 PM rolled around when the draft event started. This was the winning wagon in one of the senior driver competitions. This 60 year old gal below made driving her team look effortless, but truth is it's just that she'd been doing it all her life. Her percheron team was also in top form and well trained which certainly helped as well. Blue ribbon!

Another shiny wagon competing with black percherons, and from Bellingham none-the-less! We stayed on through the pulling competition, but finally had to depart for home when it started getting late.

Speaking of horse power...

This is a small portion of the harvest that we dropped off at mom's yesterday. The garden is winding down, although J has some nice winter starts going that will hopefully keep us in veggies for a good while longer.

Happy week to you all!