August & Back to School

 It's not quite mid- August. We are getting a later start at back-to-school than I had intended. I had hoped for the last week of July, but we will just press on from here.
I am already suffering curriculum set-backs. The "Good and Beautiful" History kit is still on back order- and when Tom cleared the history on the computer, my link to my paid downloads disappeared. The company auto-replied in email, they can't even get to my email to read for a number of days.

This year, Nickole is studying Astronomy, and Chemistry. (Today, we built a Robot from a kit, just for fun!)

 We are supposed to do US History, whenever our kit eventually gets here. For Math, I am trying "Life of Fred", and supplementing with Khan Academy. Khan Academy is also what we are doing for Language Arts, at the moment. We have Home Economics. I'm very disappointed in the course I bought, but can use it as a starting point. (It's Nutrition section uses things like bullion cubes... when I can teach her to make a stupid-easy bone broth that is FAR better for ones health!) We have Geography, and Geography through Art. I hope the two play nicely together! We are continuing our Atlas Adventures from last semester. We are continuing to read- Nickole is a voracious "listener"- she goes through audio books at a crazy pace. I do require actual READING, and we continue to go to the library. My friend Lori and I plan to do many field trips, though Lori isn't starting school until after Labor Day. Field trips and extracurricular classes are a challenge, due to Covid19 restrictions.

The garden is finally taking off. It was quite late in getting started, as the cool, wet weather hung on well into June. Last year, most of my canning was over with by the end of July. This year, I didn't get enough to even begin canning until this month (August).

I've been doing a few jars of green beans, and a few jars of tomatoes several times a week. A recent visit to my folks in Texas gave me a good start on pickles. I guess I should say 'traditional' pickles! I already have a cupboard full of Squickles. That's what I decided to call squash pickles!
The zucchini seems to be dying off at last. We have had squash relish, squash casserole, grilled squash, roasted squash, fried squash, sauteed squash, squash 'fries', Granny's Garden Veggie Saute (featuring squash), spiral zoodles, fried spiral zoodles, squash bread, squash as lasagna noodles ... I am sure I am leaving some uses out. The yellow squash has got a second wind.
We have done jellies and jams. Strawberry, blackberry, plum, mixed berry, peach... and I am only just getting enough peppers to consider jalapeno jelly.
The okra is finally giving us a few shy pods per day. The first batch of corn was the WORST corn I have ever tasted. Hopefully, this second batch will be better. We shall soon know!

The trip to my folks was fun. It had to be short, due to the garden needing care. I met Becky and her kids there. We made a couple hundred tamales with Grandma Rose!

That's all for today! Thanks for reading!