Have we spoken about my grand supply challenge? I mentioned that I was organizing a large grocery purchase in June to fully stock the pantry, freezer and medicine chest (liquor cabinet) for everything I could imagine we would need for, if not twelve months, at least ten.

But I never explained the ongoing restrictions with which I am hoping to live by, now that the house is full of staples, meat and medicine (wine).

With the vegetable garden now producing, my weekly groceries will hopefully only consist of milk and fruit. Once my apples and plums are ripe in the fall, I‘m hoping we will just need milk. Obviously, my first attempt at what could be a huge feat of organization and self discipline is likely to need tweaking. My goal is to spend no more than $25.00 per week on groceries for the rest of the year.

E has been busy drilling holes into the rocks around the house to support the new solar panel frames. Once we committed to four additional panels for the solar panel system we decided to go all in and ordered four more. We needed to add another charge controller but the battery bank we have can stay as it is.

We will have the eight already on the roof, four new ones on the rock behind the house and another four on the rocks at the base of the driveway. Sixteen panels, 4800 watts. I imagine that will do us for a very long time and when things are working as they should, the generator will rarely be needed. Even in the winter, when I am quilting/ironing and E is watching hockey while rain pours on the roof and the pump comes on to send the water up the hill to the tanks, we should still have power stored.

The tomatoes are slowly starting to ripen and there are going to be plenty, all different shapes and sizes. I have never had such a great tomato crop. There is nothing like munching on Sugar Snack tomatoes while working in the garden. They are the size of blueberries and taste as sweet. If any actually make it down to the house, I am going to try to roast them and then freeze them for winter pizzas.

I have four pumpkins. Three ordinary sized, nothing exciting. But the fourth one, the one I scratched my granddaughter’s name into, is huge., and it’s only August. There are pumpkin pies and pumpkin soups in our fall future.

I will try my best to get y’all up to date on the goings on but I have to admit this heat has taken its toll on me. But it’s time to get off my duff and try to

make an effort