Midsummer Musings

It's been a fairly quiet summer thus far, though it has been flying by all the same. Once again no art shows, though things are looking up in terms of vaccinations and disease control, so we may have one in late August.

We both got our second shots in early July, so glad to have that out of the way, and far sooner than projected a few months back.

We've been spending a lot of time in Tillsonburg helping Jane's dad, which has limited what we have been able to do or get done at home. Lots of cleaning, organizing, and dump runs in the van....and in the evenings, he likes to watch Trailer Park Boys!

Our garden is alive and well at least, with a heavy dose of tomatoes, potatoes (mainly in grow bags) and brussel sprouts this year....and lately we have even gained some bonus squash from the compost. We also harvested our small batch of test garlic we planted in the fall, which is currently drying.

The farmer next door planted wheat this year - well, technically last year - which we don't see often but it is our favourite crop for viewing purposes.

We also have managed to squeeze in a few retro-night movies on the big screen out back!

Where's the fire?

Evening light over the wheat field

It puts the Wheat in Wheatley....or it gets the soybeans again

The garden in early July

Drying our garlic

The Outsiders

Point Break

Second Shot!

Solar Flair

We found a solar oven at Dave and Anne's house, which they had never used - though the science behind it seemed pretty solid! We thought we'd give it a try, on a nice sunny summer day.

We went with chicken in a black pot, along with mason jars of rice, and vegetables. The oven maintained about 250 F all afternoon, peaking around 300 F or dipping to 200 F on occasion, depending on intermittent cloud cover or how often we opened it to check on things. 

We let it cook for about four and a half hours, though we could have eaten sooner if I wasn't busy finishing the lawn. The chicken was great and fall-off-the-bone tender, and the rice was good as well. The veggies likely could have gone in partway through instead of the whole time - the corn was fine but the brussel sprouts not so much.

Great for power outages or camping and environmentally friendly....or even just if you don't want to heat up your house on a hot day!

Jane is likely going to make some bread next!

Cleaning with vinegar before first use

Pre-heating the oven

Chicken with herbs and onions ready for the oven

Now we're cooking!

Rice and Veggies

                                                 

The chicken is coming along nicely!

Yummy dinner - thank you Sun!