A Sauerkraut Morning

Slicing Cabbage With Tom

6:19

7:34

It's 7:53, and the sun is so bright in our living room that we have to move off the couch to read on our devices. I am not complaining, though, because it's a beautiful Saturday morning on the lake—just a few clouds, lots of sun, and a light wind.

Great Blue Heron

Same Guy

A Teal

Sun Rising Above The Reeds

Into The Sun

Kayak Morning

Yesterday began with a great paddle, as I was treated to plenty of lake-life photo opportunities: herons, eagles, and cormorants. I was out for close to an hour and back by 8:00. After breakfast, I wrote the blog and had it published by 9:00. I then picked up Jim, my neighbor and fellow sauerkraut worker, and we drove to Tom and Julie's house, where a couple hundred pounds of cabbage heads awaited us.

The Sauerkraut Boys, Tom, Jim, And Moi

Tom buys the cabbage at an Amish market for a dollar a head. Wegmans charges $1.29 a pound. We have our method for making sauerkraut down pretty well, since the three of us did it together last year. Jim cores and halves the cabbage heads and brings them to me, and I put them through the electric slicer. Once I have about eight pounds of sliced cabbage, Tommy puts it in a pot, adds salt, and vigorously mixes the cabbage and salt until it's well marinated. He then packs the cabbage into crocks, where it will sit for the next couple of weeks, aging and turning into sauerkraut.

Crocks Filled With Salted Cabbage

We started at 9:00 and finished cleaning up the mess right around 11:15. In a couple of weeks, Tommy will dole out bags of kraut for us to freeze and use throughout the year. It's a fun way to spend a morning.

I was home just before noon and was greeted by the aroma of corn chowder simmering on the stove, our grandchildren's favorite summer soup. I was tempted to have it for lunch, but we decided to save it for dinner, so I finished up the leftover lemon chicken and rice and watched my show.

We then had a leisurely afternoon. Evie sunned herself briefly in the backyard, and I went out on the dock to read until the breeze made it too cool. Around 5:00, we had our wine time and once again marveled at how lucky we are to have a home on the lake.

Dinner was easy, as Evie had already fried up bacon for the soup and had plenty left over to make BLTs. Along with the corn chowder, we had a great dinner. We watched a couple more episodes of ER, and after Evie went up to bed, I watched the second half of the Indiana Fever's twenty-point defeat of Connecticut. Both Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell scored 34 points apiece. Around 8:30, I went in the kitchen and noticed the moon just starting to rise above the Bemus shore.

Moon Rising Over Bemus shoreline at 8:30

Moon Risen

Full Moon Rising

I ended the night with the final episode of Goliath and am ready to start Season Two today.