Meet Peabody – and other August News

First baby picture. This is what I sent my husband when I visited the pound. “I think you need to meet this one” was my comment.

We have a new kitten! And I’ve become one of those crazy cat ladies where the vast majority of the photos on my phone are of my cat, lol.

We picked him out from the Blue Mountain Humane Society, and brought him home about three weeks ago. He’s now about 4 months old. We haven’t had a kitten in the house since Butters was little, way back in about 2003 or 2004. So we had kind of forgotten how much energy these little furballs have, and how much fun they are, and oh my God how stinkin’ cute.

I normally rename cats when they come into our lives, because they usually have some silly name like snowball or fluffy. But Peabody was his name at the humane society, and somehow it fits, so we kept it (though Ivan the Terrible is a close second on some days).

The more he’s been with us, the more sweet he has become (doesn’t mind being held, likes to spend time in laps, is VERY good and quite in the car, and sleeps next to our legs at night), but he definitely has an independent streak, and is happy to do his own thing a good part of the day. He’s learning his name, comes most of the time now when you call him, is doing well with the other two cats, and the two dogs, and runs through the house like a heard of buffalo when you fill his food bowl. All 4 lbs of him. All of his vet visits are done for the year (vaccinated, neutered), he seems to be quite cautious when venturing outside, and we’re enjoying the heck out of him. We hope he’s with us for the next 15 years, at least.

He’s been busy growing (he’s doubled in size in the last three weeks!) and seeking out all the best spots to nap.

Play with me!

Dogs? Whatever. I got this.

Cats. Never met a box they didn’t like.

In other news, I’m in the full blown August harvest season. Harvesting for markets, but also trying to preserve food for our own use for the rest of the year.

Dried zucchini chips. Great with hummus and a great thing to do with the ones that get away from you and end up 24″ long!

Heirloom tomato tart, for the eclipse pot luck last Monday.

We didn’t have totality here, but we came pretty close at 96.5%. This was taken with a pinhole camera. Very cool experience.

I grew Padron peppers this year. If you don’t harvest them when they are small, they get quite hot. So I made a batch of quick hot sauce with the ripe ones!

First batch of canned salsa for the year, from a variety of heirloom tomatoes. Not sure if I’ll have time for many more given how fast the summer is flying by.

We’ll be taking our annual break from the Saturday farmers market this Saturday (I’ve learned that doing 26 Saturdays in a row makes me very crabby by the time September rolls around, so we take two Saturdays off during the season. One in late June/early July and one in late August/early September). We’ll be heading for Portland, then the Oregon coast, then the Willamette Valley. Looking forward to the change of pace, and returning with renewed enthusiasm for the rest of the year!

Miles Away Farm Blog © 2017, where we’re excited to get out of Dodge for a few days on vacation, but will sure miss this little guy while we’re gone!