I have Jellybean working to earn money this summer for his dream technology. Turns out that is a very helpful parenting technique. I can sit on the patio and read with a coffee and he push mows the yarn before the Midwest heat gets us both.
This current book is “The World’s Greatest Detective and her Just Okayest Assistant” by Liz Tully. I picked this up on a whim on a delay in the airport. The cover was beautiful and I was bored. Turns out this book is GREAT. I haven’t had a ton a ton of time to read but I am really invested in this book. Would 10/10 recommend.
Happy 4th of July to all who choose to celebrate! The heat is starting to crank up the garden progress. We are already ahead of last year….or so I hope.
PB’s strawberries (that I was very skeptical of) are actually producing fruit. And she stated they were DELICIOUS. If these plants survive the summer I may actually try to over-winter them with some straw.
The main garden has produced a single (and beautiful) large jalapeno. I plan to dice this up for taco night this coming week. Not all my family members like jalapeno but maybe they will try a tiny bite that doesn’t have seeds.
Now I am off to shoot some fireworks with Jellybean and my Dad because we are ALL children when it comes to the 4th. Also, hopping for a really good and properly cooked s’mores
In non fibery news, my summer apple tree did very well this year. I harvested close to four plastic grocery bags of decent apples. I probably composted 50 times as much due to bird and animal loss. Or just failing to pick and they got rotten. And that is okay, I am not a commercial apple producer.
I cleaned up the apples and cut out all the bad or buggy bits and dropped into a pressure cooker. My preferred method is jelly from juice so I like to harvest that from the fruit. I cook as much of the apple including core an seed to develop as much natural pectin as possible
The juice is coming out very deep rose colored this year with the peel influencing the color. I use cheese close to harvest the juice. The kids didn’t really appreciate the apple sauce pulp flavor so I chose not to try to salvage any of that. I gave some to my friends with chickens and composted the rest.
It is crazy back to school time again so I don’t have capacity to make jelly right now so I sterilized several jars and I’m freezing the juice until I have time to work it. I am hoping that I can also get my hands on more wine grapes to re-stash my grape jelly stash as well this year.
And then I would just do a large cook day for jelly processing. Hopefully with extra hands to help!
Summer time also means major pool time for my kiddos. I took the liberty to put my pasty skin in the sun with some 70 SPF and knit on a chaise lounge.
This Dream State Musselburgh is my project I grab for auto pilot knitting when I don’t want to think or not sure what I want to work on. I think I added two stripes in this pool visit? My kids did occasionally press me into service to go down the family slide or watch them perform cool tricks.
I unfortunately protected my legs so hard that I ended up burning my shoulders and chest. Lessons were learned! Happy Summer!!
It’s summer here and in full swing with activities. That means late nights, cold beverages and easy dinners. Last night the kids requested grilled cheese and tomato soup.
That meant I could multitask! I popped on a podcast and knit while I made sure to not to burn the sandwiches. This is my Dream State Mussleburgh hat and I’m plodding along. This hat doesn’t have a “place” as it doesn’t live in my work bag or purse. It kinda bobs along to miscellaneous activities.
Late August around here means APPLE SEASON! Our crop was small but might this year but I think I have enough to do two batches of apply jelly.
It literally dangerously hot here in Kansas with 100-110 degree temperatures without the heat index. But apples ripen when they want. I took my time to wash and cut out the bad parts and pressure cook out the goodness.
After the juice is complete I made the basic cooked apply jelly recipe from the SureJell boxed instructions. This batch set but a very soft set. Not enough that I want to recook but I think I will make some tweaks for the second batch. It’s too hot for that!
OOOH! And I did something very environmentally friendly with the canning and sterilizing water. Stay tuned later this week!
Summer busy season is in FULL swing. We have golf, gymnastics, swim lessons, camp and daycare. Someone ALWAYS needs to go somewhere. I am surviving with purse knitting and coffee.
I got my second GFOA/Rose Apothecary sock tube started at gymnastics this past week. It’s a wee bit of a toe but I’m at least working the round and not on DPNs anymore. My coffee is an iced Brunette from 7Brew and its my summer favorite.
I went out on a limb and signed Jellybean up for golf lessons that included a team building component. He doesn’t see super interested in general sports but golf fits. This means two hours, twice a week I have “mom” time. I have decided to dedicate to knitting and reading!
I am cruising through my first 2023 GFOA sock tube and I just started a new summer read by Janet Evanovich. I am immensely enjoying both!
I have also joined a co-worker’s book club and I’m expanding my reading world. The Measure is out next up July book and I can’t wait to dig in! So don’t mind me, I’ll be over her reading and knitting!!
Kansas is currently set on “Devil’s armpit hot” and we are all melting away. We were gifted a pool from the next-door neighbor who is decluttering and no longer has littles. So after a quick dinner we all hopped in the pool last night and swam until bedtime. That counts as a bath right?
I pulled Victorian Mauve Vanilla Socks and started up the leg. I finished the heel a little while ago but stalled on working the leg. My sock got a few splashes but I think I added about one inch to the leg?
Now I’m off hide in the basement, the only place where I can stand to be these days. Happy Knitting!!
Our garden has been a little slow this year with unseasonably cool spring that immediately shifted to boiling hot summer. Everything is plodding along but we picked our first produce, a very health zucchini!
I should have a second squash in a week or so. Our yellow squash plant is not far behind but it has more blooms that is spreading out the resources of the plant. Our tomatoes are LONG way from producing. I guess we will have to be patient, lol.
My Tangled Yarn Knitting Adventures 