Tuesday, September 06, 2005

how I did

  • Laundry (of course) Done. The drying took an extra day, due to intermittent showers.
  • Clean house and vacuum up white dog hairs (never ending job) Done, for now.
  • Make crabapple jelly from juice I prepared last week It turned out perfect! I only got three and a half half-pints, but I only used a quart of the juice. I did it the old-fashioned way, with no added pectin, and it jelled just like it was supposed to.
  • Prepare more crabapple juice Done, and I learned a few things about the whole process. Like a slow cooker works great for cooking the juice from the apples, as long as you don't overfill the thing and leave it cooking in the kitchen while you go for a swim, and come back to find a stream of juice running down on the floor.
  • Find a gallon glass container for crabapple liqueur; start liqueur I ended up using quart jars. I now have four quarts of divine-smelling cordial mellowing on the table.
  • Can or freeze the green beans my neighbor brought over I decided I had too many other things going on in the kitchen, and there weren't enough to justify running the pressure canner. We'll just have them for dinner tonight.
  • Make and can salsa verde and tomato salsa (Yes! finally!) I canned three pints of tomato salsa. Since tomatillos keep very well, I'm going to wait with the salsa verde until I see how many more tomatillos I can harvest. The salsa took a lot longer to make than I expected; I used some juicy tomatoes that had to cook down a long time, and it took a while to get it how I liked it. I don't go by a recipe; I just keep adding peppers, onions, garlic, and cilantro until it tastes right.
  • Water the garden; clean out pole bean vines, which are history Nature took care of most of the watering; the vines are still there. No hurry on that.
  • Take Togo for a long walk/run Poor dog. I was going to wait until evening last night because it was hot during the day, and then before I knew it it was dark outside. As soon as I get home tonight.
  • Play at least one instrument; give Calvin a guitar lesson I thought about it. I really did.
  • Go fishing in Sand Creek No. I need to really have a lot of extra time on my hands to go fishing.
  • Enjoy the Twin Pines spot in the woods Yes! And Calvin, my modern day Thoreau, told me he has taken a vow to go for a walk in the woods every day for the rest of his life. Not a bad plan!
  • Listen to "Folk Migrations" Saturday night on KUMD-Duluth. Last week it was awesome. I caught some of it, but it wasn't my favorite deejay doing the show. I still highly recommend listening if you're in the Duluth area on a Saturday.
  • Visit my neighbor P and compare garden notes I'll do this when I'm done working through the fruits of the garden.
  • Help The Hermit lift floor joists He didn't ask, which is probably a wise choice. Let's just say our working styles are a bit different from each other's.
  • Practice doing Starflower's hair so it isn't a struggle on school mornings I could not keep her in one place long enough!
  • Hug my kids. And my husband. Done. Many times over.
All in all, I fared pretty well, although a few times when I was half way through cutting up the five gallon pail of crabapples I asked myself "And just why am I doing this again?" Because theyre there. Because they are a gift, a sign of abundance, and I have this need to not let the gift go to waste.

2 comments:

R.Powers said...

Ditto on the salsa. Who needs a recipe...just a general plan and the right ingredients.

Great job on a mega list.

Jim said...

Deb-

We love your blog and have added a link to it from ours.

Jim