And We Keep Going

Even when the hits keep coming.  But these hits aren't as bad as the ones last month.  And I am very grateful for that.

Hopefully the old small freezer will be sold by this weekend.  The money from that is supposed to build a wooden playset for my son.  His old metal one was crushed by a tree and desperately needs replacing.  My Dad gave me the parts kit for this years and years ago.  All that you have to do is add the wood.  And the wood may be less expensive for two reasons.  First, my Dad and I have some lumber left over from other projects.  Not much, mind you, but enough to spare having to buy a few boards brand new.  And second, because I may be able to pick up some new lumber cheaply from someone who bought too much for building his deck.  Both things would be helpful.

My laptop crashed again.  This is bad since it is the only computer I have at the moment.  My brother decided to do a massive overhaul on my desktop but didn't calculate in the cost of a new power supply to fit the changes.  And he didn't tell me he was doing this drastic an overhaul!

Anyways, it took two tries to get Windows to reinstall and the hard drive now has 6 bad sectors.  Yup, that would be the hard drive crashing.  So Dad is looking to see if he has a spare.  I'm not diverting my son's playset money to this.  His playset has been too long in the waiting.  So, please fates be kind and keep my hard drive going.  I just got most things reinstalled today and will spend tomorrow doing backups of things that I don't want to lose.  And then I just pray things keep going until a solution I can use comes along.

My laptop is old.  My desktop is older.  My girlfriend's SO told me to just dump them and get new ones.  It was one of those hand to forehead moments.  My hand, his forehead.  I tried to explain to him, in little words, that my budget didn't allow for me to buy new computers, even used ones.  And even I can put in a new hard drive, although my preference would be for Dad to do it since he has the anti-static equipment.

I've got 15 pallets near the garage to break down.  I spent today cleaning inside, as well as working on the computer.  I'm hoping to get most of the inside cleaning done today.  Tomorrow I will start the lawn and get at least one new garden bed in.  Hopefully legal aid will call me back today or early tomorrow so I can get paperwork completed.  Oh, and I still have to figure out how to word a letter to the school district.  The joys of leftovers from last month!

Today is normally swim day for my son.  But he didn't want to go!  This is so amazing!  He's addicted to pools and would live in them if he could, or so it seems.  But he didn't want to go, so we didn't go.  I did get his hair cut, which is very difficult.  He hates hair cuts.  And I had to do it with scissors first, then with the shaver.  His hair had gotten too long and would have bogged the shaver down.  I think what got us through it was that I didn't make him sit down.  If he needed to run for a few seconds before the next cut, I let him.  He came back willingly each time.  And toward the end, with the scissors, he was directing my hands to cut when he came back and staying longer each time.  The hardest part was that he wouldn't turn around while I was using the shaver.  He wanted me to do it while he was facing me.  Fortunately I got him to turn long enough to get the back done well.  So now he has peach fuzz again.  And he's running around rubbing his head, or getting me to rub his head.  As much as he hates the cut, he loves the feeling of the very short hair.

The weather here has been weird.  It was supposed to be sunny this week but it was cloudy with random rainstorms.  It made planning things really crazy.

And my potatoes aren't doing well, despite all the rain.  They're wilting.  I'm going to have to research online and see if I can figure it out.  The beans are ok.  They're short and spindly.  I think it's a need for fertilizer, so when I finish the harvest on them, I will dig them into the bed and then add a thick layer of compost again.  Part of it may be that the season change started early and we are already hitting summer temperatures that we normally wouldn't have for another month.  I think I may do a second planting of them in August.

The pear trees are loaded!  I'm going to have to string some of the branches up because they aren't holding up to the load.  That's going to be good for canning come fall.

The grapes have exploded this year.  And some muscadines that I thought were dead - aren't.  I'm going to have to go out and collect grape leaves in about a month to save for pickling.  I have to get them before the japanese beetles and june bugs do.

I haven't heard from Dad but last time I looked his plum trees were as loaded as my pear trees.  So I'm really looking forward to fresh plums.  I don't like them canned, but I can devour them fresh.  And homegrown are so, so, so much better than store bought.

Anyways, that's the update.  Praying for good things.  I hope you are getting good things.

Running

Running seems to be most of what I'm doing lately.  It's good running but it gets tiring after a while.

I spent Friday running between stores to get the groceries.  Lots of good sales so lots of things to repackage.  Which meant I spent Saturday in the kitchen repacking meats.  Along with a side trip down to pick up catfish, which then joined into the repacking marathon.

After I got all the meats repacked I had to run to get a load of pallets.  These are in good shape.  And to get them, I got the back of the caravan cleaned out again.  This was the first time I used it to haul pallets, and it does a good job with the extra seats out.

Then somewhere between Saturday and Sunday, I made powdered onion.  (Which is a major pain to do and takes forever!)  And I got the strawberries prepped for jam.  And I got laundry done.  Oh, and don't forget lessons.  And another trip to pick up pallets.

Then this morning I had to go into town to the Dollar Tree.  There was a need for a few items that they carry.  And the gas was almost $.10/gallon cheaper there so I got half a tank.  Then to get another load of pallets.

So I think we are home for the rest of today.  I have to get at least two jams/jellies made for taste testing tomorrow.  Along with finishing the laundry because my son added more this morning.  And more onions to caramelize so that they can be processed.  Along with waiver forms to fill out (uck! legalese) and a letter to the school district.  And that doesn't even touch the need to put in the new garden beds, weed and mulch one of the existing beds, take the sawzall to the pallets, fill the potato bed again, pick more honeysuckle, mow the lawn, pick the strawberries, tie up the grapes, mow the lawn, start several new jars of vinegar and clean out the herb garden bed.  Oh, and make a new cover for the yard swing and experiment with several projects made from the tree deadfall in my yard.

It's gonna be a busy week.  Here's hoping I get it all done!  I hope you are having a productive week as well.

Wild Jellies

Today was taste testing day!  I took two of my new jellies, made from flowers, to co-op for other moms to try.  The all around opinion was that they were good!  Not to sweet and not to "un-sweet".  The flavors blend well.

Unfortunately, my roses are done with their early spring bloom.  I got just enough roses off the bushes today to do one more batch.  So I'm planning on pulling honeysuckle this week and making extract.  Then I'll freeze the extract until the rose bushes give their midsummer blooms.  Well, I'll freeze part of the extract for that.  The rest will make the batches of honeysuckle jelly.

And Mom has a batch of honeysuckle & rose mead going.  She decided to throw it all in together rather than do two separate batches.  So I may have to fight her for my flowers next year! 

Now off to make some wine jellies for taste testing next week!  As well as strawberry jam.  It's going to be an interesting week.

I hope you all are having success with your endeavors today.