More Pickles

I'm running out of pint jars around here.  Actually, I have run out of pint jars.  I have one, single, solitary widemouth pint jar that I just unearthed from the back shelf of the bottom of a cabinet this morning ... but I could have used 12 pint jars yesterday in my canning adventures, during which I put up salsa (3 1/2 quarts), garlic-honey jalapeno pickles (5 half-pints) and bread and butter pickles (2 quarts). 



The gallon of tomatoes - washed, cored, quarters, and squished in the hands, then put in a cloth-covered time-out for 5 days...



became a half-cup or so of tomato conserve. I am still figuring out what to do with the 3 quarts of juice - fermented tomato juice, I would assume. Tomato wine?

A brioche cowl that came off my needles

Julie's Slippers, drying

Comfrey leaves

And now, I've spent so much time wrestling with the pictures I forgot what I was going to say!  Lots going on -- knitting, learning new things, transportation, gardening, etc, etc, etc.

Until next week...

Pickles

More pickles

Gentle reader, my pickle cabinet overfloweth. 

And my tomato conserves are thinking about fermenting on the counter.

And my "to-knit" list is expanding.

And my family is healthy (since seasonal sniffles and lung-wrenching coughs from Jalapeno fumes do not interfere with health)

And I have 5 lbs of locally grown honey.

God has richly blessed me.  For, even more than those things which are going well, He is with me. 

He will be with me when the cucumber vines die.

He will be with me when the tomato conserves are gone, or grow pink and green mold instead of white mold.

He will be with me when the knitting deadlines are looming, or when the yarn runs out.

He will be with me when my family is not healthy (and through the sniffles and wrenched lungs)

He will be with me when the honey runs out. 

He is more than enough.

In which I post pictures, comment briefly, and run

Gloves, the ends for which are now woven in

This is why my Zinnias have issues.

This doesn't help any. 

Today's Garden Haul

The squash

The Cucumbers (Orange?  Really?)

Boothby's Blonde Cucumbers

Why am I commenting briefly?  Because I suspect that the items on my kitchen table, pictured above, (let us not forget that huge 21 oz tomato.  Twenty one ounces) might take over the kitchen if I am gone too long.  And because God has seen fit to keep my days from being idle. 

First - let there be a trumpet fanfare - Filius passed his road test last Wednesday, and is now a Fully Licensed Driver in the state of which we are residents.  Ahhhh --- HOME DAYS!  He can get himself to/from work on the three days a week when Filia isn't volunteering at the historical society.

But wait!  Let the fanfare continue, with great putting-together of heads.  Just scant hours after he left on his first solo trip to work, Filia received a job offer!  Two Filii.  Two jobs.  Starting times of 8:00 and 9:30, ending times of 2ish and 4:30, in towns which, for simplicity's sake, form a lovely triangle with our town of residence, 12 miles per side.  (give or take a few miles.) 

What was I thinking about home days?  I am not thinking that any more.  I am thanking God for my mother, who has loaned us her car to ease the logistics and remove 80 minutes/day of transportation duties from my regular schedule.  Life is, shall we say, in flux.  Filius has 7 more days of work before the college term resumes, and we can manage flux for that long.  Right?  Of course right. 

The project on the needles is Hitofude; slippers are still awaiting yarn.  Two items have been shipped off to the Minnesota State Fair.   Many projects on the computer call me.  The Conference about the Bookcase should happen in 2 weeks or so.  Service Dog Project saw 8 newborn pups born yesterday.  Life is full.

Until next week!