My Alone Time

The kids were in school, the man is in VA for the NASCAR race and I was so blissfully alone for 8 hours. It is not often that I have this much alone time. Sadly I had a ton of things to do and couldn't just sit and knit.
The little man went and had both tubes in his ears replaced yesterday. Hopefully this will be the last time we have to have this done. Him and I both still sound awful when we cough. I finally went to the Dr. and yes we both had brochitis. When I was talking to the hair dresser while they were getting their hair cut for school, she said she is on her third prescription for brochitis and that it won't go away. I hope this is not like hers because I hate to take medicine.

So what has been going on....
We made elderberry jelly with all those elderberries I had picked. Then I got some more (what the birds hadn't gotten) from my usual spot and I made 6 pints of syrup for pancakes/french toast this afternoon.
I made some spaghetti sauce the other day and froze it. Today I made salsa as we go thru alot of salsa. It came out sweet before the heat hits. I didn't add sugar so it has to be the tomatoes because the spaghetti sauce was a little sweet. I am using Amish Paste, Early Girl, Better Boy and Beefsteak. There are alot of tomatoes out there so tomorrow I am going to have to just put some thru the squeezo and freeze it to catch up. That way I can deal with it when I have the time.
I made some blackberry wine to which I had to add more sugar today. There are still more blackberries and I was going to leave them all for the birds but then this morning I went and saw them all there and so because there was a bucket sitting there so handy like I picked enough to make blackberry cordial. If my sister ever gets around to updating her blog I might send her some because she really liked it last time I made it.

We got rid of all the male ducks that we hatched and the two little roosters and traded them for six hens which should start laying soon. The resident chickens are moulting and the eggs are few and far between.


We bought two steer which have been grass fed and now will get fattened up until mid October when we will take them to the butcher. The man is keeping them on his farm for us and we are buying the grain that they will be eating for the next 6 weeks. He said why move them when he has the space, how can I argue with that. I know we can sell 1/2 if not a whole one to the same people we sold half the angus to, but we still might have to buy another freezer as we have the pigs to do in November.
I have found time to knit. I knit a cardigan for the son of my daughters friend. He is two. I hope it fits as I am not a big swatch person. I know you are suppose to but I usually just go ahead with the pattern and hope for the best. I also started a seamless raglan done from the top down. I am about at the point where you would take the sleeve stitches and put them on holders. I should be able to get to that point tonight. It would be nice to finish it this weekend so I can spin. I am really itching to spin as I haven't in over a month.