Thank you~

I'm still missing my Leisle today, but it's not as bad as yesterday, and just to know that others care is such a blessing! Thank you to all who left me a little note of encouragement~ I'm so grateful for the friends God has blessed me with!!!

This afternoon found Mother, Jacob and I saving cucumber seeds (we have a large bowl full now!) Then, my mom made a new recipe-- Cool Cucumber Soup--for supper, while I made Glorified Rice.

Oh yes, while Mother and my brother were out in the garden picking the cucumbers, I was in the kitchen getting our next batch of Kombucha started. We're now making 4 gallons at a time and we have several extra mushrooms in the fridge--even though we've been giving them away to friends! :) We really like the flavor of the finished Kombucha tea much better when we add fruit-flavored teas to the black tea in the beginning of the process, but recently our friend, Sarah said that she's read that if you do this too long, your mushrooms will start shrinking and dying off.?.?.? So, I'm going to be keeping watch for any such disastrous things to start happening... So far, (after 3 times of using the flavored tea) the mushrooms were a nice creamy color and were ever so plump, so they seemed pretty healthy yet to me... Does anyone else have any advice to share on this subject?

My brother, Andrew spent the day baling, and then cutting down more of our second cutting of alfalfa.

My dad got home in time for supper, although he was pretty tired from his long day! He drove a total of about 600 miles!!! I could never do that...

And now, we're all sleepy and are headed for bed.

Before I sign off, I'd like to leave you with a poem I found just now about this lovely month we're enjoying~

"September"

by Helen Hunt Jackson

The goldenrod is yellow;

The corn is turning brown;

The trees in apple orchards

With fruit are bending down.

The gentian's bluest fringes

Are curling in the sun;

In dusky pods the milkweed

Its hidden silk has spun.

The sedges flaunt their harvest

In every meadow-nook;

And asters by the brookside

Make asters in the brook.

From dewy lanes at morning

The grapes' sweet odors rise;

At noon the roads all flutter

With yellow butterflies.

By all these lovely tokens

September days are here,

With summer's best of weather,

And autumn's best of cheer.

~Enjoy these last days of Summer!