Apples! Get Your Apples!

Over the Labor Day weekend, we did a little apple picking. Now, we had every intention of going to Lynd's farm, paying someone else for our hard work, then heading home to make apple butter and sauce. Well, T's dad pretty much told us we were idiots, and that there is an old man down the road from their house that will let you have apples from his defunct orchard for free. Just ask. So we did.

The orchard is huge, and it's pretty sad that it's in such a poor state. No kidding, this place is a little wild and overgrown and there's a lot of stickers and possibly poison ivy, and a lot of the apples are wormy - BUT, we still managed to pick a ton that were perfectly fine.

See, they're fine! Maybe not the Miss America of apples, but still completely fine for our purposes. And totally FREE!

See how pretty they look all washed up?

While we were making apple butter, I had plans to make apple cinnamon syrup, so I washed up practically every jar in the house. There's something so satisfying about clean jars in the sunlight, waiting to be filled up and stored away.

So the apple butter was the crock pot method (since buying a copper kettle would probably mean opening up an equity line). And this was what it looked like starting out. Apples, cinnamon, clove and about a half ton of sugar. Delicious!

This is about 5-6 hours of cooking. Starting to break down and actually look like something. Let me tell you our house smelled like autumn heaven!

And this is the next day. Three crocks pot of apples cooked down for a looooong time. We mixed all the batches together for consistency, then canned, canned, canned.

And here's the end result! We got 18 jars of apple butter, and I did manage to squeeze in the syrup making too. Gosh I love those cut glass jars. Now, we still have possibly 15 pounds of apples left, so it looks like apple sauce needs to happen this weekend. Or we may have to invest in a cider press, it's hard to say.

Oh Yeah!

I have a blog! Yes, apparently I've forgotten (again) about that. This reminds me of my high school Latin teacher, when we were wasting too much time in class talking about Days of Our Lives. "Tempus fugits class!" Once we heard that we knew we had to get back to conjugating and translating. That's the only excuse I have for dropping the ball here. Tempus fugits, and it just won't stop.

Not that I haven't been up to stuff.

This spring we went to Costa Rica - Playa Carillo, on the Pacific side. Teeny tiny town, incredibly quiet, since it was off season. We practically had the beach to ourselves.

We hit the Goodguys car show again. I love me a classic car.

Apparently I love a classic car very close up.

There's been some cooking.

Some crafting.

And I'm learning how to fish with T. I don't have any pictures of that - cause, well, that would be a camera disaster of the highest order.

That's a very tiny nut shell of the past six months. Hopefully I'll be better about keeping up this time!

Some Spring Stuff

Every year the rhubarb action in my garden freaks me out a little.

It's just so weird, ya know? Makes me think of an alien baby - I know, it's gross, but I can't help it!

But then it starts to look more like a plant, and you turn around and it's big enough to hide small children and livestock in.

This was the garden a few weeks ago, and things certainly don't look quite as bleak now. But for reals, there's a crushing amount of work left to do. That is, after it's safe to plant stuff after our scorched earth weed attack. I hate it, but we had to use the Round Up, or there would be no peas, lettuce, carrots or tomatoes. Just thistles. And more thistles, and a few locust trees that I don't need. Oh well, we can always try better next year, and know that, even if it's not organic, at least it's homegrown!

And in the spirit of spring, here's a shot of some tulips I treated myself to....in February. I just didn't get around to sharing them until now....Well, I can try better next time, right? They're still pretty even if they're not exactly hot off the presses!

Itty Bitty

Here's the hat I made during the first big snow, for a new baby, C. I might have been inspired to pick a bright, springy green by the snow coming down when I was at the yarn store - who knows? Either way, it's super soft, and making that teeny tiny pom-pom was a kick.

Super close up of the knitty goodness. That's a mock cable stitch, which looks super fancy and cabled, but is just a 4 row repeat of knit, purl and a ssk or two. I found the pattern for this itty bitty hat here. It's easy, and very importantly, quick. I made a similar hat for my niece J, when she came 2 months early. I could still get it completed in time to deliver to her tiny little head, just a little over a year ago! Man, time flies!

A Little Something to Give You Hope

That someday, spring will come! Look! There's grass out there, and Love in a Mist in the middle ground. And peonies and sunshine. Someday, people, we will see more green than white, the ground will not try to so hard to make us fall on our butts, and sunshine will once again have an impact on temperature.

Bees will bumble.

Flowers will nod their pretty heads in the breeze.

And we can all - finally - give a big sigh of relief!

I don't know about you, but this winter is truly getting to me. I'm really hanging on for dear life here, and seriously thinking about moving to somewhere more equatorial. Looking at these old garden pictures actually helped some. I hope they brightened your day a little, too.

Roll 'Em Up!

I've finally finished this thing! I sewed the dang thing together right after Christmas, then just kept putting off figuring out the closure. Nestled inside is my complete set of double pointed knitting needles, from 1-13. An excellent gift. Look at them, all snuggled up in there, waiting to be called into action!

I tell ya, it's a pretty nice feeling knowing I'll always have the right size dpn's around when I need them. I think this will eliminate a lot of under the breath cursing involved in my knitting projects. Well, maybe some of the not-quite under the breath stuff as well.

The other great thing about this little roll up, was I figured it out on my very own! I'd sewn a big needle case several years ago - the one in the first Stitch 'n Bitch book. Well, over the years the cat has used it for a bed, and a place to leave hair balls, so it needs retiring. Because I'm, at times, pretty shiftless, it's still hanging around in the basement, so I was able to use it as a reference for my snazzy new roll up.

One of the changes I made was instead of one long ribbon for a tie-up, I made a band, with snap closure. The reason I always left the original laying around open for the cat to hork on, was I hate tying that stupid ribbon. With this closure, it only wraps around once, then snaps closed. Way less work involved (yes, I'm that lazy). Hooray for mechanical closures! ( I won't mention how many tries it took for me to sew the male and female ends of the snap the right sides up. Sigh.)

And I trotted out those needles for a project, this very weekend. A little gift for a new baby. I'll share pics just as soon as it's been bestowed!

10 Things...

I was tagged by Cheryl, earlier this week, for a "10 things that make you happy" list, and I'm finally following through! 

1.  My husband.  When I'm with him, I'm content in a way like no other.  When he's not around, I'm waiting for the moment he's back.

2.  My family.  Mom, Dad, sisters, nieces, cousins, aunt, in-laws.  A family feels like a solar system - everyone's orbiting around each other, tying eachother together, influencing and being influenced.  I'm so grateful they're there.

3.  Old things.  I just love old stuff.  I love that it's survived through a culture that is every more disposable.  I love that it ties us to people who are long gone, and makes them feel real.

4.  Oh, bread!  I don't know if it's a primitive survival thing, or just a carbohydrate thing, but warm, homemade bread with butter is the absolute answer to practically any hunger I have.

5.  Books.  Reading is like breathing to me.  It sustains me, and when I don't do it I feel a little blue and light headed. :)

6.  Being occupied.  Sometimes it's challenging to me to just sit still and not do anything.  It makes me happy to be knitting, sewing, spinning, embroidering - whatever.  My fingers don't like to just hang around, doing nothing.

7.  Flowers and other growing things.  I love my yard and garden.  I don't mind the work, but really it's the result that satisfies me.  It's not a perfect garden, but it's mine, and I love the wonderful things that grow from it.

8.  Being warm!  On a snow storm day like this, I'm fantasizing about saunas, or baking in the sun on a beach.  Hell, even cooking away during the summer, in the back yard, reading on the swing sounds fantastic!  My body was made to live somewhere warm, and it's going to pain me until I take it someplace that it approves of!

9.  Making things.  This sort of falls under being occupied, but really you could be playing solitaire and be occupied.  I like to bring something new into existence.  Hopefully something beautiful or useful or delicious.

10.  Clean sheets, warm out of the drier.  That is just such happiness. Smooth, clean sheets - heaven!

Now I feel like singing "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music!  I'm about to go punch down some bread dough, so some new lyrics might have to be added. 

So - what's your happiness?