I’m Bad

I’m bad.

I just typed a huge long post and lost it! Now it’s double bad as it’s been over a year and I haven’t blogged.

The gardens were great earlier this year. Nicely weeded – they looked like they belonged in a magazine. So why didn’t I take pictures? Beats me. We have been suffering with a lack of rain this summer. Some veggies did great and others not so great. Tomato have been going gangbusters. We’ve put up 52 QUARTS of spaghetti sauce. Yes quarts – that is a ton! I also picked a bushel of green tomatoes last week and put up 34 pints of piccalilli. I’ve dried tomatoes, we’ve eaten tomatoes any which way you can conceive eating one. I am tomatoed out! Beets did well this year too – really early. We’ve put up 52 pints of pickled beets. I have to say I do not like beets on their own but pickled beets taste great. A totally different flavor.

We decided to take on two farmer’s markets this summer. What a lot of extra work that has created. My husband is working a different shift now so he was able to handle a mid-week market. It’s nice to have extra funds. We would like to expand our greenhouse next year.

We lost our five bee hives over the winter. I harvested about 55 pounds of honey and put some frames in the freezer. We decided to downsize and only purchased one new package. We put the frames that we saved in with the new package and they are lovin it. We have two boxes full of honey and they’ve started working the third box.

We did great in maple syrup this year. This was our first year with vacuum. We got an early start which saved us as we had really warm weather the third week in March which shut down the sap run. We made 37 gallons of syrup. We hope to make at least this much next year. It was great not having to lug those 5 gallon buckets full of sap!

Decided not to raise pigs again this year. We each got a deer last fall and our freezer are full of meat so we decided to hold off. After years of hunting, I finally got my first deer. What an experience.

We are decluttering. With the prospect of a possible move in the future, the task of moving this farm is daunting. So we are unloading. We’ve listed several items on Craig’s List and probably will have a yard sale. It’s amazing how much “stuff” you accumulate over the years.

The knitting front is dismal. With no time at all this summer except to address the garden and the harvesting, I haven’t done much. I started a vest in May and was lucky enough to work on it maybe an hour or two each month. Now time is beginning to open up. Of course I have my other five projects still on the needles which I need to finish up. I’m hoping to make a serious dent in my projects this fall and winter. I need to figure out how to install the Ravelry button that keeps track of your progress on your projects.

In an attempt to earn some extra money with all of the “hobbies” I have, I have created an Etsy site. The link is here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/mparker32. I hope to be able to post some basket and soap items this weekend. So feel free to take a look. I already listed my beeswax candles. Will be putting my felted hand bags on there as well.

I guess that is it for now. I will try to be more diligent about blogging. Enjoy the fall season!