Summers,when I was young, were never about vacation. Yes, vacation from school work, but work on a farm is never done and there are endless tasks to accomplish. July, then, seemed like the longest month in the entire year. Very limited contact with other kids and the never ending chores, made time seem to stand still. July still seems like the month of endless tasks.
For many years I never had pets, never had a garden, and only kept a few flower plants. I had good reasons, I didn’t want to be tied to the responsibilities or to be stressed with extra tasks.
This summer is different, animal ownership and a full garden area I am experiencing days of endless tasks. Disappointment, when I walk into my beautiful garden only to find that slugs have had a feast on all my best plants. Months of hard work down the drain overnight!
Then there has been the weather. July has been wet. All rain after months of drought and heat.
The deluged of rainfall made my tomatoes bust open, making them useless except for chicken food.
Then there are my four beautiful chickens. The space at our place is too small for four large hens. Their voices of descent were heard constantly.
Something had to change. It did this week. Two of the hens went on the market to reduce my stress. Through the tears of posting them for sale, to taking much less than I wanted for them, my flock of four became two.
That quick solution will hopefully put an end to my Mid Summer Blues.
I learned when I was young, that the best solution to the Mid Summer Blues (according to my mother) was to work on more farm tasks. If that didn’t stop our complaining, we were sent off to the rock piles along the farm field edges to pick wild raspberries. We were told not to return until we had enough to make jam. That always took a very long time as both my siblings ate as they picked.
So this week, when I needed to kill my Mid Summer Blues I picked cultivated raspberries. I rode my bike early in the morning to the berry farm, I picked raspberries in solitude, rode home and made jam.
That anchor to old skill sets still chases the blues away.
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The Cedar Journal 
A ‘sweet’ ending to a rather sad post. For slug control sink some pots around the garden and fill with cheap beer, works a treat the slugs die happy and the two remaining hens have an ‘interesting’ snack!
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Thanks for the suggestion. Been there done that too. Too many slugs not enough cheap beer.☹️ When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.😎
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When I grew up in Germany, the hours at school were the most boring part of my life. The time spent in school seemed endless. But with the beginning of the summer holidays, life was exciting and carefree. After reading your sad post, I realized how hard it often must have been to grow up on a farm where work would never stop and leisure was at a premium.
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Pretty much. One thing is certain, I value my free time and I also learns what hard work is and that we all can endure anything if we are busy. Thanks for stopping Peter.
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I read your post, and thought “She grew up exactly like I did!” I couldn’t wait to go back to school, to be able to sit and read, to be with people my own age. Life on the farm in summer was work, work, work. If we weren’t in the fields or barn, we were in the gardens, or preserving food in the hot kitchen. No air conditioning, and no 9-5 hours. After supper, it was back to work, weeding or helping repair farm equipment, or fences or even later, doing housework that wasn’t done during precious daylight hours! We picked berries along the creek with the same instructions, “Don’t come back until the buckets are full!” I’d leave in the morning with a peanut butter sandwich, and come back in time for evening chores. Then we made jam. Looking back, I don’t know how my mother managed it all!
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Funny- but so true. One of the reasons I enjoy my leisure time now maybe even more. I can do what I want and when I want and those old skills are like a friend I can visit but not a lifestyle I need to endure. 😊
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That jam looks amazing! I’m sorry you had to part with two of your chickens. The other two are probably wooping it up now, huh? Our garden has had a lot of challenges this year – insects, rabbits, and deer. We found three deer behind our house this morning. No wonder so many of my lilies are disappearing.
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Oh, at least I don’t have a deer issue here! TGFT! They use to munch on my tulips in Northern MN each Spring.😬
I would give you a jar of jam as I could never eat it all myself…but… I don’t think we can trust the mail system to get it to you intact. I have to say they are not as talkative (the chicks) since removing the other two. Plus the coop is staying cleaner. It was like a full time poop job here just to keep things tidy so the neighbors wouldn’t complain even more. Hopefully your garden will produce something even with all the issues.
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Usually there are lots of slugs where I now have my one tomato plant, new this year. I crumbled egg shells all around the base of the plant – it’s in a pot – and the slugs haven’t found it yet. I’m not sure they won’t figure out they could climb up the cage, to get to tomato foliage, but they haven’t yet.
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Eggs shells are great! Although I would need a chicken farm to supply my entire garden. Beer also works.
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Sorry to hear about the chicken reduction – if nothing else a warning to the other two to behave ha! Summer is definitely my busy days of the year as the forest becomes a thriving ecosystem that has to be continually controlled or there would be no catching up – doesn’t help that the heat turns up these days making the chores even that more exhausting. Can’t give you much help on the slugs as that is one area we don’t have to worry about – I could trade you some chipmunks, moles and raccoons if you still need to up your frustration levels. Hoping everything eventually rights itself over there and hang in there, it will be winter much to soon.
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What a nice gesture cute chipmunks, tunnel digging moles, and raccoons that would clean up the extras the chickens won’t eat. Rats? Do you have some of those too? Again if shipped by normal post they could suffer an unfortunate demise.😂 The other two chicks took my warning of “I could ship your asses out of here too if you keep it up with the noise” funny, they must like it here as they are hardly heard anymore. They lay great eggs so it was only a threat.
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I’m so sorry about your garden! I do hope having only two hens helps make things easier at home. I think mid-summer blues are common right now, as the world still struggles so much. Hang in there…your raspberry jam looks delicious and seems like a perfect thing to make to cheer you up a bit!
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It was awesome on Ben & Jerry’s Alaska ice cream.😊
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Oh I love raspberry jam, my mum makes lemon curd which is also nice on toast.
Sorry to hear you halved your flock.
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Yes, sad, but much quieter. Lemon curd sounds wonderful on a scone.yum.
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