We are too tame.

I'm about to go harvest my tomatoes. They're gonna be so split. This is one heck of a storm. Alright, I was wrong. It didn't blow the table over. Maya turned the table over. I was like, holy smokes. Do we need to seek shelter? I mean, yeah, that is pretty bad. It's wild, huh, Toby? That's... Flashbacks of Helene. Yeah. This is a serious storm. I knew it was gonna rain, and that's why I was trying to get out to get the tomatoes. I thought I had a little bit more time. So the reason I didn't just go straight out there is I was getting ready to put up the last harvest of tomatoes I had. These are all cored and scored, which is where you cut the core out and cut an X on the bottom. This is what I do with tomatoes when I do not have time to make them into something and process them right away. Put them in the freezer, and then when you take them out and thaw them, the skins come off easily and you can process them later. But I had these baskets in here that were full from the last harvest a couple of days ago, and I was trying to get it up, and then all of a sudden it started storming. Hey, Harlow. What's up, girlfriend? This basket. You? You want to sit with me? Yeah. You want to say hi? Hi. Harlow got her first haircut the other day for her fourth birthday, and she got some pretty purple sparkles in her hair. You want to show them? Oh, so fancy, huh? Yeah. And did you get your fingernails painted? Nice. Very nice. Was that fun? Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad you liked it. And now the power's out. How big is this storm? Real small. Real small? But it's supposed to rain all evening? No, it's supposed to... It's actually... I mean, it's supposed to be rainy, but then... No, I haven't yet. It's severe for, like, another ten minutes, but then it's just sprinkling. Okay, so it should be... So I'm actually supposed to be leaving first thing in the morning to head to Arkansas, and that's why I was trying to harvest the tomatoes, because I was going to take them and give them to my mom for her to be able to make sausage. She had a bunch of deer get into her garden, and I'm going for just a short visit to spend some time with my family this week. I thought, well, that'll work. She just told me the other day her deer got in, and she had, like, big tomatoes that were, like, blushing, and they all had big bites, like, whole sides of them eaten off, which, if you've ever had that happen, it's devastating. The one year I did not have garden cats, after I lost Kitten George in Arkansas, I did not get another cat there, because we lived on that busy road, and I didn't want to lose another one. We had gotten little Kitten Bruce, but we kept him in the house, which he is now... If you offer him to go outside, he looks at you like you think he's a peasant, but that one year that I didn't have garden cats, I would go out and just have to take a five-gallon bucket down and just harvest half-eaten fruit, because the squirrels were so bad. Thankfully, I don't have that issue anymore because of cats, but I do know the heartache of watching a tomato start to blush and then having to get rid of it, because it's half-gone. So I was going to take my mom a bunch of tomatoes. I really hope they're in good shape when I get to them. Oh, my little project. Let me show you. I love showing you all my current project. I just cast this one this morning. I haven't gotten very far. You can see here. So this is the very corner. This is going to be... It's a shawl pattern, and it goes from... It goes from just stockinette stitch to garter, and then you can't see very much of this, but it's a really open weave, like a yarn-over, knit-two-together situation. I actually got this yarn last year. My friend Morgan sent me this for my birthday, and it was locally made there in Vermont, and it's a lady that keeps the animals, and she spins yarn and does all of that in there. The natural colors, it's undyed, and it's so pretty, and I've had complete analysis paralysis on it, which is... I know I'm not the only one. Please tell me I'm not the only one that does that. I have my special yarn collection. It's like a basket that's this big, and I have lots of yarns that I stocked up on when Joann's was going out of business, and I'll buy them when I find clothes out. So it's really my favorite way to buy yarn because I like natural fibers when I can get them and when it's appropriate. Occasionally, I'll do acrylic for if I'm giving someone a gift that I know will not want to launder natural fibers, but mostly, I use my yarns freely. I really don't like hoarding special things. I think special things should be used. That's why I carry my special mugs out to the garden. I'm always like, use the special things, but I'm a hypocrite because when it comes to my special yarns, I've got this little basket, and I just get them out and look at them. I'll start projects and then wind them back up if I don't like how it's turning out because I'm like, I can't waste my special yarn on a project I don't love. I really like this, though. The thing is, is I had started a couple of things with these, but they're a really thin yarn, and I just wasn't ever liking the way that it looked because it's lightweight. It's got kind of a halo. It's alpaca and Icelandic for you fiber nerds, but then I was sitting there looking at it one day as I was going through my special yarn basket trying to think of a project, and I was like, you know what? I could hold two strands together, and I would probably get more of the weight that I would like, and I love this. I love how it looks. And the colors, you know, I love color names, too, when people name their yarns. This one is called Maple Creamy, and this one is called Cold Brew, so I'm calling this my Affogato Shawl. And this is like a shawl that just keeps growing, so it goes down, so it's like a big triangle that goes this way, and you just keep going until you run out of yarn, which is nice. And my plan for this is to wear it more like a big chunky scarf. If you guys have any great patterns that are like your favorite things to make in summer, I don't have as much time to do fiber arts this time of year, but I do, like my kids do karate twice a week. We have things where I have to go sit and wait, and I definitely would rather keep my hands busy with something productive than sit there and scroll on my phone. So if you have any patterns that you just love for smaller things or more lightweight things, throw them at me. Or if I can find them on like Ravelry or whatever, just comment the name, and I can look them up. I'm harvesting in just boxes, a few different ones. Since I'm leaving town tomorrow for multiple days, I'm not gonna have time to process anything, so I'm just gonna take anything I find to give away. I wanna get it off the plant though, because if I don't, that's gonna tell my plants that they've made their seeds. So I had just thought like, okay, power's been out for almost an hour, it's gonna get dark, it's getting late, gotta eat dinner. My dinner plan was not a go with no power, so I was out there rummaging through the freezer trying to find something easy I could put on the Blackstone and the power came back on. So Maya is cooking dinner right now. I'm gonna go harvest these tomatoes. Oh man, I was really hoping this would be accurate, but the way it's leaning, it might not have been. Even still, three inches of rain, and that was very fast. Oh, avocado kitty. Did you get rained on? You look dry. Oh no, you are a little wet. Poor thing. She does have a barn she can go in. Maybe she's just fussing for attention. All right, so my plants are starting to get pretty sickly looking, but thankfully it looks like I'm gonna get all this fruit off of here on time. I'm gonna go ahead and pick the ones that are even still a little green, because when I'm going out of town, the family will pick for me while I'm gone, but those are more liable to split because of three inches of rain coming down in an hour. All right, I hear a little thunder. It's distant, but I'm gonna do this pretty quick. However, I want to show you guys this one first. There's another big one right next to it. That's pretty awesome. No splitting, yay! All right, I'm gonna put my camera out of the drizzle over here, make quick work of these outside rows in case it starts raining again. Oh, look at this. There's a couple of carbons in here, this entire box. Otherwise, it's Dr. Witchie's, the good doctor. A couple of these on the top, they split. They're so big and luscious, there's no way. They split as I was pulling them off. So I'm taking those in, and I'll core those and score them, but the rest of these I'm gonna give away. Look at that, showing out. Oh man, the wind did knock everything over in here. That's not great. Thankfully, these tomatoes are not gonna be bothered by that rain because they were undercover. I don't have a whole lot of box space left. All right, there's still more out here, but Maya said he would get them. I need to grab a few other things. My friend Shauna just opened the cutest secondhand boutique in Batesburg, and she had asked me if I was gonna have extra produce, and I was like, girl, yes, because apparently I'm incapable of realistically planting a garden that is reasonable. Anyway, we decided to make a trade, so I have been bartering her weekly produce boxes for store credit in her boutique so I can go shopping and get clothes. And while I am taking her, you know, a lot of tomatoes, I'm trying to put some other things in there that she can use because tomatoes are great, but they're even better if you also have peppers, right? I forgot to show y'all I found a few melons, and then I just found this one that had just fallen. It was just a little bit split, but I busted it. Y'all know what that means? Picnic time. This smells so good. I almost dumped these seeds right in the bed, but see, I'm learning because the weeds in my garden are not typically weedy things. It's like patches of melons growing because I dumped a whole melon worth of seeds in my bed. Oh, my God, it's so good. Look at this. Ridiculous. I realize this is frivolous, and some people will say that it's wasteful, but it is the precise reason I garden. Every year, I don't do it a lot. It's only when something's, like, a little busted. When it's a risk, you know, like taking it in the house may not be worth it. I just break it open and eat it with my hands. Like, I've never seen a knife in my life, and I feel rich. It really does make me feel so encouraged and incredibly alive to grow food and eat it however I want with no concern. God, I wish I could share this with you. Oh, snap, I'm busted. What, busted like that melon? Oh! Hey, mogul, what are you doing down here? I do pretend like I'm mogul. Are you trying to bribe me? I'm just trying to give you a little taste of the best melon in the world. That is hands down the best melon that exists right now. Doesn't that taste like love? Yes. It is delightful. My camera's gonna be so sticky. I'm so sticky. I'm covered in juice. I think it's good for humans to occasionally do things that make them feel a little feral. We're too tame. That's how we get so disconnected from ourselves. From our bodies, you know? It's one of the things I realized when I got so sick a few years ago. I would say, how in the world did I get so disconnected from my body that I didn't realize how sick I was? I didn't think it was a lot of things, but it could be that I wasn't eating enough busted melons. My arms are not covered. It's all down the front of my shirt. You just... Hosed me down. I mean, that's what we do with Bear when he acts like an animal, right, Bear? When he gets into something. I've exceeded my harvest space. All my boxes are full. I got some shishitos. I'm gonna put these in Shauna's box. And then I noticed that some of these carrots are looking a little close to bolting, so I'm just gonna pull them out. Oh. Good one. This isn't gonna work. I gotta figure something out. I got a seed tray. This will work. I dumped my shishito peppers in the passenger seat of the car. I'm borrowing Asher's car tomorrow, and my idea coming down here was, well, I'll just pick these tomatoes directly in these boxes and put them in the back seat of the car to go on my trip. These guys are big. Oh, this one's real big. Nice. Look at that. Anyway, I, uh... I've just now filled the car up with produce, and I'm gonna have to figure that out. Asher keeps such a tidy car, which I'm very proud of, but... I have to be very mindful of how I handle it. It's starting to get pretty dark out here. Dusky. I'm gonna take my mom a few of my peaches. That's totally normal, right? Maybe I'll put it back here. Lots of tomatoes, melons, peppers, peaches, carrots. What a fun video. Thank you guys for hanging out with me today and all the days you do. God bless you. Until next time.