Taking a break

“Sometimes the most urgent thing you can possibly do is take a complete rest” ~ Ashleigh Brilliant

GASP!!! That was me coming up for air!

It has been so incredibly busy here. The canning seems to never end…as hot and tiring as that can be, it is a good thing.

I froze 30 more pints of corn, and canned 24.5 pints of salsa, 16 pints of hot pepper mustard, 7.5 pints of strawberry jalapeno sauce, 7 pints of hot dog relish, and 11 pints & 3 quarts of bread and butter pickles. It continued on and I added 6.5 pints of green tomato relish, five ½ pints of orange jelly, 19 ½ quarts of pickled hot peppers, 4 pints of green tomato salsa, 7 quarts & 24.5 pints of green beans, 18.5 pints of tomato soup, and 12 quarts of crushed tomatoes to the shelves. It has been a very busy 2 1/2 weeks! At one point I got so tired of it that I gave a bunch of cucumbers to the pigs. I should feel bad for wasting them but they were rather large and I would have had to take all those seeds out and make relish and I just wasn't up for it.

Football practice was a nightly thing. I thought I would have all this free time to knit…hahaha! My old neighbor’s son is in football too. We sat on the bleachers watching them and gabbing away. Now son is doing the two-a-day which means I drop him off at 6:30 AM and pick him up at 3:30 PM. I sat holding his helmet one day and saw this sticker. It reads "...no helmet system can protect you from serious brain and/or neck injuries including paralysis or death. To avoid these risks, do not engage in the sport of football." What a happy sticker.

Along with canning and chauffeuring, I also took some time to take the kids to the fair. They had a new company handling the rides and there were more/different rides so the kids were happy. I went into look at the judging and got annoyed. In the baby afghans there was a two strand worsted weight crocheted shell stitch one vs a worsted weight knit lace (can't remember the pattern). As I can do both and know the difficulty of them I was amazed to see the crocheted one took first place! Of course you were not allowed to pick them up and look for errors so maybe the lace had some mistakes. I would still have picked the lace one. I found solace in a blooming onion.

With all this driving it was bound to happen... #2 daughter and I came upon a bear. He was definitely not interested in us and sauntered away into the woods. Although beautiful to look at in their natural environment I don’t want them near my animals. Last week we had a bobcat come down out of the woods and snatch a chicken with #1 daughter standing right there hanging up laundry. She was only 20 feet away and it was oblivious to her. I don't think she will have to worry about seeing one again as she moved to Philly this past weekend.

Today while driving it was all turkeys. They are coming out of the woods and into the road. I stopped in the middle of the road for three different flocks and saw two flocks in peoples yards.

Knitting/spinning/crocheting is almost non exist but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. We picked a bunch more cucumbers tonight and are planning on picking the last of the beans tomorrow afternoon. Then it is on to elderberry jelly and sauerkraut. The squash can go into the root cellar and then we are done...I think.

Tomorrow I get a slight reprieve in the morning (coolest part of the day) to go to #2 sons first scrimmage, which I would not miss for the world. Then-as if things could get better-Saturday there is a local fiber festival at Fort Delaware in Narrowsburg, NY. I can't wait, a day of sitting and spinning and fiber, that is what a would call really taking a break.