Get it together, Girl!

When I look back on my day today, I shudder to think what a stranger would make of me. Just when I was getting decent at juggling gardening along with my parenting skills, school (mine) gets thrown in the mix! The whole day I went from activity to activity absent-mindedly, jittery, accident prone... to an onlooker I must have seemed like an addict or maybe someone who had consumed 30 or so lattes back to back!

It started well enough, got up, got both kids and myself ready to go by 7:15. On the way out the door I realize I have the perfect crew to get rid of my excess veggies... a-ha!... the Master Gardener class students! So I head back and pile eggplant and peppers in a shallow box and head to school. Upon arrival, I attempt to juggle the box along with my coffee and bag, of course spilling stuff in the stairwell. When I plunk the box down to "oooh's" & "ahhhh's" I feel somewhat better, but at the same time think to myself "don't these people garden?" lol!!

(Veggies pawned off on my classmates!)

Afterwards I pick up my youngest and head home to deal with yet more peppers...

13.5 lbs of them!!!

(these are destined for the freezer, I gave up after slicing 6 lbs!)

Yikes, where do they all come from??? Anyway, my husband gets home at about 2:30 pm and agrees to take care of the kids, bath, dinner, etc, so I set about getting to work canning jalapenos. About halfway through gloved mama slicing peppers, he gets a call that he has to go back to work. Now I am trying to handle pepper oils and boil water and sterilize jars on the back deck (propane burner this time!) all while my kids are tearing through the house demanding dinner. I am trying to hurry since I have already been at it for 2 hours at this point, and promply try to pull jars out of boiling water using an inappropriate utensil and spill boiling water all over my hand and arm and toe! Ten minutes later I spill vinegar on my dog. The event culminated in my removing canned peppers to a flat cutting board, walking through the house with them when 2 of them started to slide... instead of letting it crash to the floor, I grab one with my hand and the other is wedged between my elbow and side of torso. Yeah, serious burns all over my body... someone please remind me that this is supposed to be fun and rewarding! I looked like a poster child for an anti-home canning campaign. Del Monte or Libby would love me to show why their products are "superior"! I am starting to wonder myself: I mean, hey, we can get a vat of pickled jalapenos at S@m's Club for like 5 bucks!!! One would never know I actually have experience at this endeavor...

(pepper rings this time, too lazy to scorch and peel them all)

(the end result: pickled & whole frozen jalapenos... I gave up slicing after an hour!)

Well, at least I can say canning season went "out with a bang"! And it's a good thing I don't drink martinis while canning... can you imagine? Or maybe I should start....! Well, one can of Solarcaine later, I can now reflect on my day. I think I will remember this one for awhile. Maybe next year I will actually get everyone out of the house on canning days. I cannot wait to get these kids in bed.... 15 more minutes!

Yesterday, I actually got my whole garden fall-planted except for my onions, garlic & shallots. I am sure I will write about that tomorrow, that is, if my fingers haven't blistered and fallen off! :)

Note to Self : Buy more gloves!

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!