I spent the day canning pickled jalapenos. I set out all my stuff and started scorching my pepper skins and realized I only have one glove left! Like a dummy I continued with only one glove for 4 lbs of jalapenos. This is by far the most labor intensive preserving that I do, and it is also the last batch I will do this year! The rest will have to be frozen or flung at passing cars. I can't even feel the keyboard my hands are burning so bad, 4 hours after finishing! Maybe I should have re-read my lessons learned post last month, lol! Oh well, it's done now, and I finally have enough to last for a winter of nachos at night after the kids go to bed. I let about half go to red and half green just for variety:
While watering this morning, I spotted several Black Swallowtail Caterpillars happily munching away on parsley and dill in the garden. No problems here, I plant oodles of these plus fennel and milkweed especially for them!
I had 100 bottles of beer on the wall...literally - last night! The brew wasn't quite ready to be bottled when Sailor/Husband left Sunday, so I had to do this myself. This is definitely a 2-person job, but then again, so is raising kids, lol..."Honey, where aaaarrrreeee yoooouuuuu???" When I was almost finished, I put the kids to work wrapping things up while I enjoyed a Belgian Ale from the last batch. Is this even legal, lol ???
I am hoping to post a little more frequently these days. It seems whenever Charlie's away, I get more done (no offense, dear!)! The kids and I get into a groove and I'm not busy trying to fill our days with plans just because "he's leaving again soon". Yesterday, I even got my desk cleaned up. I am usually meticulous with organization, etc. but lately I have been joking that my desk was "our mudroom"! I have had a piece of paper tacked to my fridge keeping track of my harvest and even finally got around to putting up a "harvest counter" on the blog! I see many of you have them and it seems like a great idea to have a constant reminder of my progress in the sustainability dept. Also on the "to do" list - a homebrew status for Sailor/Husband/Farmer: check! Soon I am hoping to get my slideshows to look a little better on the page. I haven't really had time to mess with that since the day I put them up. Seems I am finding all sorts of ways to avoid going outside in the garden, as this week we are actually having "normal" temps of 90+ and humidity.
I'll take the MN summer we have been having any day, I just want to know ahead of time so I can more appropriately select & date my plantings!
"Put away for another day" I love it, and wish I had thought of it, lol! The boys were so gentle with your precious brew- I am very impressed.
ReplyDeleteHave you found your frozen corn to be superior to market brands? Do you have a special corn remover thingy?? (Can you tell I have been putting some thought into this over the last couple of months??) The corn we had for dinner was awesome, if it will taste that good in 6 months I am certainly willing to put some away.
Oh, and I FINALLY got a fig, and it arrived in 2 pieces, just figures. The Fig Gods clearly do not like me.
WOW! Home brew!? I'm coming over.
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Kelly's right. The boys were gentle and cute as buttons.
I did the same thing you did the last time I used hot peppers. Then I took my contacts out at night. Not good. Not good at all. I tried soap, antibacterial hand santitizer, everything. Nothing worked.
The next time, I tried something I thought was stupid. I soaked my hands in milk for a few minutes. I don't know if it was psychological or not, but it worked.
I oddly thought the hand burning was an uncomfortable but interesting feeling. It let you know your senses were working right, but the contact incident was just down right painful.
In two pieces???? That sucks! I can't really say that the corn is better than store bought, but it feels better anyway to eat out of our stash, lol! I use a bundt cake pan for the corn. After it has cooled a bit, jab the cob into the hole and slice down (I just use a paring knife), all the corn will collect in the bundt cake pan, then simply dump into your freezer bags. This works so well I haven't even thought of using a special tool!
ReplyDeleteYou think I'm busy with my brood? Look at you! How do you do all that and manage two kids with hubbie away. Mine works long days but wow. Please tell me it's years of practice :) You're an inspiration!
ReplyDeleteRibbit- The milk does work, I can't remember why though. So sorry about the contact incident, it hurts just to think about that one.
ReplyDeleteErin, great idea for stripping off the kernels, I will have to tuck that one away for future use!
Ribbit, the homebrew is awesome, lol! The only thing that might cause problems is that my kids will know exactly how to brew micros when they go off to college. Problems for me, but not their friends anyway! Fiona, I will admit that I seem to excel when I multi-task, I love having tons of things going on, but the kids threw a big wrench into it when they came along! Kind of hard to garden when you have to park babies in a pack & play when it's hot out. Thank God they are slowly becoming more self-sufficient. I really want chickens, but I knew enough to stop myself at least until both kids are in school and my husband is home for a few years. (After this upcoming deployment he should be on shore duty for 3 years - IF he doesn't go to Iraq or Afghanistan) I have my days where I feel like the worst mom in the world though, it's hard to be with the kids 24/7 with no family for 1200 miles! I think the thing that saves me is that I was in the military myself, so the "shock factor" of deployment doesn't hit me as hard when the time comes. I can't believe all the animals you have and your gardens look great! The grass is always greener, though, isn't it?! Blog life can certainly look easy, but real life, not so much!
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