Short Story Long

A new friend mentioned that she had a bunch of chickens, and more eggs than they could use.  I jokingly (?) said I would gladly take them.  I have a kid that would eat scrambled eggs every day of the week if we made them.  So she invited me to stop by and get some, and she wasn't kidding.  I left with eggs by the two dozen, and that barely dented the collection in the fridge!  Of course, I was as excited about the pictures I could take with these lovely little gems as I was at the prospect of fresh, free range, free eggs!!  And as I was contemplating photo ideas, I remembered that I had recently found an abandoned nest on the ground.  (There are also brown and beige eggs.)  

I went to my local local grocer's to buy local cucumbers.  Of course, we canned them!  I find that pickles are one of the easiest things to put up, although the vinegar smell does linger in the house.  This is my most requested canned good item, from friends and husband, and BFJ opened the last jar of last year's pickles a week or two ago.  I don't want to have a disappointed spouse for the next year so I stopped and got some cucumbers.  I actually planted what I thought would be a bed of cucumbers, but it turns out that only two or three of the plants are actually producing cucumbers, while another two are producing what appear to be mutant pumpkin hybrids.  And I'm not sure what happened to the rest of the plants I thought I had.  Sad.  The lemon cucs are doing better but are in the corners of the other beds. The jalapenos and other peppers and goodies did come from my garden, though, and I did make a couple small jars of home-grown stuff....

I have a friend who received some Spiced Peach Preserves from me last year, and she inquired recently whether I'd be making more this year.  I answered that I was not sure, as it is hard to can with store-bought fruit after you've received organic, homegrown, best-you-ever-tasted peaches.  Obviously I would love some more of those peaches, but unfortunately my in-laws' peach tree was hit hard with a late frost this past spring, as were many fruit trees in Colorado.  My local farmer's market had some lovely peaches on a day when I didn't have time to can, and assured me that they'd have more the next week.  They didn't!  So previously mentioned friend asked her brother to pick up a box on his way through Palisades last week, and she gave them to us in exchange for some finished jars, and a little lesson in canning.  Isn't that nice? I decided to blog the recipe so that you can use it, and I can find it here again!  Spiced Peach Preserves R...

I should finish up my story about our trip to Minnesota, right? Friday We arrived at Camp Friday afternoon.  A few other people were there, and we went in and said hi, and figured out where we should park. But before anything else, the boys and I headed right down the path to the lake!  There were a couple of cousins I knew, along with one of their kids.  Before you know it, shoes were off, boys were out on the dock, feet were in the water. As more people arrived, we had a fun time meeting everyone and figuring out how we were related.  The evening was hot and humid, and there were definitely lots of mosquitoes.  I was beginning to wonder if we were going to have two days of misery ahead of us!  Eventually, the boys ended up in the lake, shorts and all, and had a great time with new cousins.  Really, that's what we came for, so mission accomplished.   a path off the path... where does it go? We slept in bunks, and it was not the ...

A garden with bees and pumpkins and birds! And of course, some knitting.