Yuck

 And there is more and more ash in the air. The air quality numbers keep creeping up.  I notice the forecasts keep pushing it out as to when we might get some rain and some relief from the smoke.  Highest air quality number today was 576. The graph only shows to 500 and that is already extremely dangerous.  

I don't know if it is me or what, but it doesn't smell that bad to me.  A few years ago when there was the Gorge fire it smelled so bad, but I don't think the numbers were this bad.  Maybe my sense of smell has gotten worse.  

Dog Food

 So the little dogs don't seem to want to eat.  I think for Monsta it may be her teeth as she is getting old.  I have no clue on Harley. And I have noticed Harley scratching at her ear and Betsy is really licking her paws and scratching her backside on the fence.  I'm wondering about food allergies. So I have been perusing Youtube videos about home made dog food. It may be time to give it a try.  

Smoke

 And the smoke is here more.  We have wildfires in Oregon and just northeast of us.  The smoke comes from the fires in Oregon.  It's a real catch-22.  We need the wind to sweep the smoke out.  Don't want the wind to fan the fires.  Looks like we are staying in this weekend. 

Farming

 

All the ash in the air kept some of the volunteers from coming to the farm today.  Nobody blames them.  Although it wasn't too bad at the farm.  We didn't work over hard.  Just got the job done.  We picked all the peppers and all the summer squash.  Rachel, the farm manager is planning on pulling all those plants and getting ground cover planted.  Then we moved again to tomatoes and picked all that were ripe.  I think we picked more today than last Thursday. 

Again the owner was there and one of the volunteers was picking his brain.  They talked about the various uses for tomatoes and how to preserve them. Sounded like one of his favorite ways was to smoke them and the instill them in olive oil.  Sounded like a lot of work.  

He and I talked about cilantro.  I am one of the 10% of the population who thinks cilantro tastes like soap.  I did comment though that even though my taste buds say that....it still has to be in guacamole and salsa or it tastes wrong.  He commented about adding it to stuff and people like me like it.  We agreed it was the adding it to stuff.  And it has to be the right stuff.  I've had cilantro in stuff and it has still tasted like soap. 

He was telling us more of the history of the farm and the catering business.  I asked him how it went at the Farmer's Market and he said phenomenal.  Said he wished they would have done that all along this season.  Next season I am sure he is hoping to be back to utilizing the farm mostly for his catering business.  

We didn't feed critters this time and boy the cows were unhappy.  Methinks they are used to Thursday being treat day.  They mooed and mooed.

I came home with another big bag of produce.  And a bunch of tomatoes.  :)

Tomato

 

The transitioning from taking the picture with my phone and then uploading it here made it lose something.  When I cut that tomato open it looked like a sunset.  It was vibrant.  And it tasted just as wonderful as it looked.  It was the last tomato from my haul last week from Gather and Feast Farm. 

Maybe I will go volunteer again  tomorrow and get some more tomatoes. 

Last Shelf

 When I moved in to Pat's house I decided to do some reorganization of the kitchen cupboards.  Kitchen stuff I got a lot of and need some of it to live in the kitchen.  I like to use my stuff when I cook and some of my OCD comes through then.  I got all the way to only one shelf done and then I quit.  The last shelf is three cupboard doors long and it is the top shelf.  Easy to put off.

Well Pat commented that we needed more containers for storing leftovers in the frig.  He doesn't like big bowls in there when smaller containers work.  I have lots of containers.  There just wasn't any more room to store them in the kitchen.  He points out that last shelf.  

So that was my to do today.  Pulled all of Mom's old wine glasses out and put them in a Goodwill box.  Found old lids and whatnot that went into the garbage can. Moved stuff around and then there was room for almost all of my containers.  

Now we need to figure out what to do with all the extra appliances.  

Differences

 Pat and I received an equal amount for our inheritance.  And I noticed that the male female trend continues.  Guys seem to splurge on bigger things.  Gals seem to go for smaller things.  I'm not saying that splurging is a bad thing or it works along those male female lines all the time.

But Pat bought a boat and a truck.  I replaced the roof on my rental.  I bought a couple of airline tickets and a used drier.  The roof is a pretty major item, but it really doesn't feel like a splurge.  It was past time and the timing on the money was fortuitous. 

I honestly can't think of anything that I want bad enough to go buy it.  Maybe it is not male female splurging.  Maybe it is I have every thing I need and I don't want things to take care of.  Pat really wanted a boat to go fishing in and it is something he wants to take care of.  

Anyway......now I'm going to look for a used couch.  Since the big dog likes to be on a couch, I don't want to spend a lot of money for something that is going to get drooled on. ;p