Weekend at The Cottage

I started my weekend on Friday, in the kitchen.
Many weekends here at The Cottage begin and end in the kitchen.
The heart of our home.

I made a batch of granola.
The same recipe that I've been using for more than 20 years.
I added dried cherries, raisins, pumpkin seeds, almonds, and sunflower seeds.

For dinner on Friday night, we made kabobs.
Brown sugar and pineapple, chicken kabobs.
We make a lot of kabobs and hobo dinners in the summer.

Saturday began with Bountiful Baskets.
If you have BB in your area and you haven't checked it out yet, I encourage you to do so.
For the cost, and the freshness of fruits and veggies, BB can't be beat.

I have a couple of bowls of fresh plums and apricots that I'm going to put in the food dehydrator today.

Our box gardens were doing fantastic.
We even got our first little pepper.

Sunday morning, we woke to this.
Frozen plants.

Saturday, our squash plants looked like this.

Sunday morning they looked like this.

All because of this: freezing temperatures.
The last time we checked the forecast, at 9:00 pm Sat. night, the temperatures were only supposed to get down in the low 40's.
Wrong.
Sunday morning the thermometer read 29 degrees fahrenheit.
Today, after I pinch back the damage on the plants, I'm going to see what plants can be saved, if any.
We have had the craziest weather this year.
If we have to re-plant the garden again, it will be for the fourth time.
We have started a lot of seeds, but who knows if our growing season is going to be long enough for the seeds to germinate and grow enough to get any harvest off of them?

Also, this past weekend, we picked up the metal roofing for the little barn and the garage.
We have had to re-build the North wall of the little barn, and add four support beams that the previous owners had cut out of the barn.
Now, we need to get it roofed, rebuild the south wall, and get it painted.
We are also going to level out the floor and add pea gravel.
The little barn will become half chicken coop, and half gardening shed.
Work, work, work.

Attitude of gratitude :
~I'm grateful for homemade maple syrup. Nothing like the smell of fresh maple syrup early in the morning. I'm off to make pancakes for Spencer before he has to go back up on the mountain for work this week.
~I'm so grateful that Craig gave us such a great deal on the metal for the roofs.
It's nice to have family that owns a metal building and roofing company.
Thanks Craig!
Also, a super big thanks for getting us the galvanized.
 It will be the perfect look for our homestead.
~I'm grateful for that old dehydrator that is still humming along after all these years.
Fired right up, after being in storage for almost 2 years, and for practically being an antique, it works like a charm.