yes, i know...

not a lot of activity here as of late… i’ve noticed my dishcloth pattern sales have been pretty decent lately – that’s about all anyone knits in the summer besides toys and baby clothes, anyway, right?

knitting? what *is* that, anyway?

i wish i had the time.

what’s going on here? well for starters, this land has turned into a full-on community at the moment as our friends and their baby have joined us here and so now there are six adults and three toddlers living here in beautiful chaos. community can be exhausting tho – there are days when i sort of just wish i could come in and have a cup of tea without seeing other people, but the benefits outweigh the annoyances, generally – and man it sure is nice to have more help in the garden. we’ve added one more mama to the mix, so now there are three of us out there with toddlers attempting to make it happening and harvesting the fruits (and summer squashes) of our labor.

yeah, summer squash. surprisingly, we’re just wallowing in crooknecks over here, and not zucchinis – for the first time since i’ve grown zucchinis, they’re sort of a delicacy. we only have one that produces, and it produces slowly (except for the couple that we missed that of course, were over a foot long). those early crooknecks are doing a number on us tho. they’ve been frozen, handed off, cooked, and…  baked.

i made a gluten-free zucchini bread using crooknecks instead. the only thing i’d do differently is use a little less of the squash, as they’re pretty watery and so i wound up having to work some magic in the oven in order to get it dry enough to make sense (yeah, and most folks are worried about the opposite). and i used honey rather than sugar, threw in some coconut butter for additional sweetness and creaminess, and used Pamela’s Baking Mix because the Grocery Outlet here had it on sale for $1.99 a bag so i stocked up because i’d rather do that than sit there with a buncha powder. i’m not the one for gourmet baking, i just want to make quick treats.

it’s so delicious i had a bite of it before the boys and babies left me with an empty pan to discover this morning. And while i’m not really one for the kitchen, this is a five minute whipper-upper thanks to that Pamela’s baking mix.

that’s the updates for now. we’re getting ready to build a composting toilet and a solar shower here and that’s about the most exciting thing my life has held other than my toddler in ages. trips to the river in this sweltering heat are happening a couple of times a week, too, and my 18 month old daughter is at the stage now where if we don’t watch our mouths, she’ll be cursing like a sailor within weeks. her hair’s also grown at least an inch, long enough to do stupid baby pigtail hairdos in. and we’re definitely doing some of those. it’s our parental payback, ya know, for the tantrums and cleaning up of fecal matter on the regular.

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