Back Online

Well, Knut was working on a house project last Sunday.  It was more tinkering around than doing serious business.  He accidentally cut our wifi cord, and we just got it fixed today.

There is so much I want to catch up with on the blog.  I’m not even sure where to start.  I had been working on a big homeschooling post on our plans for this year, but about half of it got lost when I stupidly tried to save my work online when we had no internet.  It’s still in my head, so maybe I’ll get it done for tomorrow.

I’m so scatter brained today.  The butchering crew showed up this morning to butcher our meat birds.  We hired out that job this year…with no regrets.  The team that came did a fantastic job, and we now have chicken for the year all tucked away and on its way to freezing.  The internet guys showed up just in the middle of butchering, so I had a crew outside, and a crew inside, and kids running all the places in-between.  And I haven’t been able to achieve one thing on my to do list today, which I honestly decided to give up on around 8 o’clock this morning.  There’s just too many distractions.

But the little girls are now napping, so pour yourself a cup of tea, friend, and sit with me.  How has your week been?  I just picked up a crate of peaches that I ordered 2 months ago.  They just got in yesterday and no I have dozens of peaches to can.  I was planning on doing that today until I realized it just wouldn’t work.

So I’m just sitting around, watching other people work and eating peaches.  They’re really good cut up and sprinkled with sugar.  I’ve never tasted peaches so good.  Once I get my house back to myself, tomorrow maybe, after I pick up Silje from camp, we’ve got roasted peach and honey jam to make, with a touch of ginger, and maybe this weekend some canned peaches.  The sweetcorn is ready to be put away for the winter too.  Knut is thinking we’ll have the family over on Saturday to husk and cut it all then.  Never a dull moment.

I had a supper out with friends on Sunday and Monday night, and a meeting Wednesday night, and along with back to school meetings, I’m doing the agonizing decision making of figuring out which activities my kids will do this Fall, and which activities we will exclude.  More on that tomorrow…if I remember it all.  🙂  I wish we could do everything, don’t you?  There are so many fun things to do.  We can’t, of course, and it will hurt our family, and yours, if we try to do it all.  So it’s decide which good activities will make the cut, and which ones won’t.

I canned dill pickles, and sat them next to the fermented dills in our cold room.  I can’t wait to compare the two.  Both have to sit for quite some time to cure.  As soon as I get the tomatoes done, I want to take pictures of my cold room with a wall of canned goods for this winter.  The farm harvest may not be that great this year, or at least it’s not anticipated to be, but our garden harvest is just blowing me away, and we’re just trying to catch it and store it as fast as we can.

I made this recipe of Roma Fresca from some of our fresh garden tomatoes that are just starting to ripen, and it is d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s.  I highly recommend it.  I can’t stop eating it.  It’s another fermented food, but tastes like a fresh salsa, (like the kind I was once served in Mexico) not like sauerkraut.  Oh, it’s good.

We spent a lot of time climbing ladders, and measuring the barn for new siding, which it desperately needs.  That will be going up next week, right when my parents will be in town.  I love it when they visit.

I had to get 2 fillings at the dentist.  That wasn’t fun.  My mouth feels better, though.

Silje is at Bible camp all this week.  We get to pick her up tomorrow.  I miss her, but honestly, it’s been nice not having David and her bickering non-stop.  We’ve been busy, but overall it’s been pretty quiet.

I cannot wait for school to start.  I just can’t wait.  Not because I’m just so excited to do a million more things with my kids, because that’s not it even a little.  I’m excited for routine, and I’m excited for my kids to have a job to do everyday.  They need something to do.  Seriously.  I didn’t mean to do as little school this summer as we did.  I really was planning on doing 1-2 days a week of school.  But the garden got crazy, activities got crazy, and I just got swept away by all of it.  So we have some review to do, and we just need to get back in the saddle, so to speak.

Maybe I’m just anxious to get my garden done.  I haven’t burnt out from the garden yet, which is good. Normally I have by August.  The only weeding that gets done now is if a big one is in my way as I’m trying to harvest.  Right now there is only time for picking and canning/freezing.  There is not time left for weeding.

Finally, this is my Yarn Along picture I never got to post yesterday on here.  It’s just a Tiny Tea Leaves sweater for Ingrid this winter.  There are some things I want to tell you about this yarn and project, and the new wooden needles I’m finally using.  I’ll probably be finishing up the sleeves by the time of the next Yarn Along, so I’ll save all that information for then.  I know I don’t have much time to knit these days, but I need to force myself to sit at least a little, and this with a glass of wine and some pieces of dark chocolate with “Singing in the Rain” playing on the t.v. is pretty much the best way to unwind from a day of canning.

Sigh.  It’s good to be back.