Friday, July 20, 2012

My Kitchen morning

The ant party was relocated this morning!  Seems like they are enjoying the new location---probably not as much as me, though.  Knock on wood that we don't have any carpenter ants around;  these are just tiny little buggars that don't do much harm, but are extremely annoying.

Despite waking up a bit later than normal (6:08AM instead of 5:30), the floors and counters were clean before taking the girls to summer school.
I'm getting into a routine of picking the produce as soon as the carpooling is complete.  I didn't have the camera with me this morning, but the goats were talking, talking, talking DETERMINED to let me know they were there, begging for some weeds.  I caved.  I weeded a bit between each row of picking, so the bean picking took a bit longer this morning than usual.  

Cassie helped me pick raspberries yesterday.  And newly added to the goodies:  Blackberries!  Last night, Paul needed to do an errand at a house he built a few years ago. The owner is gifting us his outdoor hot tub.  GIFTING!  This is a NIIIIIIICE hottub!  Once I gave it a mere glance and asked and double-asked if my husband was SURE he said the owner was "giving" it to us {{and Paul saying for the umpteenth time YES}}, my mind was set.  They MUST receive a thank you throw quilt!  A new deadline quilt to work on. :)

Anyway---back to the loot.  When leaving the property and relocking the driveway gate, Paul glanced over and said..."Hmm!  Wild blackberries!"  He picked a couple and ate them.  Well....**I** wasn't going to be left out, so I went to another small patch and picked a handful.  Next thing we knew---the car was turned off, the ice cream cups (that we just bought before going to the house) were emptied,  and we picked a few cups full of berries.  They were just starting to ripen;  and the branches are LOADED with BUKU-TONS more!  And they have so MANY patches!  I want Paul to give them a call (they live in MN; this place in WI is their cabin) to see if they have plans for them.  If not, we would LOVE to take some of them off their hands :)

I haven't tried Blackberry jam before;  to be completely truthful, I needed to add 1/2 cup of raspberry to the bowl cuz I was just a smidge short of blackberry, but..... it's MOSTLY blackberry.  Yum!   And check out our "butter dish."  LOL.  My sister had a good chuckle when she saw it.  I guess we like our butter!  (Mostly DH)  It's actually a vegetable cooking dish of some sort;  but we just buy the pound of butter packages (not quartered) and plop it in there.

The beans were taken care of before the jam;  only 5 pints today; probably not worth starting up the pressure cooker, but I figured I might as well since I needed to be in the kitchen anyway.  

For those of you who preserve gardening goods or even bake/cook.... the "kitchen dance" is a nice zone to get into sometimes.  This morning, the dance involved cutting beans, washing dishes, prepping berries, blanching beans, mixing berries/sugar, washing more dishes.... And four hours later, I'm done!  A bit pooped out too;  I think I think I'm Andee--staying up so late at night.  Gah.... it's hard to keep going when you play BOTH parts:  being a late-night girl AND a morning girl!  

And as I was enjoying my piece of toast with fresh jam, I spied Lil' Mama with her chicks out at the playground tires (umm.....just ignore the weeds! :p)

I have my feet up right now with plans to look around for a throw quilt pattern for the homeowner.  Happy Friday....

Friday!??!!?  OMGoodness!!!  It completely spaced me.    Well, THAT changes my plans.  FIRST, I'm off to see if the QOV Mystery 28 clue #3 has been posted.






5 comments:

scraphappy said...

Hate the battle with ants. Had an outbreak recently and had to call in the bug guy after emptying out loads of food and cleaning repeatedly. No fun at all. I am just picturing that conversation with you and the goats. So glad you kept them happy. Are they going to be milking goats or meat goats? Have to make a new quilt -- ah the fun! Enjoy that new hot tub -- it is a nice place to sneak away to on a cool evening after the kids are tucked away;).

Nancy said...

I've had to put Terro Traps out three times this summer. So tired of them living in my house. Hopefully this rain will keep them down.

Hugs!

Pieces to Love said...

Borax and water spray is a great way to git rid of ants. Just spray the parameter of you your house inside and out. Be sure to get behind any appliances the best you can.

Ann Marie @ 16 Muddy Feet said...

Must be that time of year, we had them for the 2nd time this week too! and now the FLIES are here. URGH> The flies drive me nuts. They are huge, and slow. Makes for a easy kill, but you kill one there is another, kill that one, and turn around from picking them both off the floor there is 3 more, and it keeps going. I hope both are gone now for the summertime. They drive me batty!

Andee said...

That ant killer stuff works great...use it here in AZ too...we get them in downstairs bathroom a few times a year...they come in for water, lol!
I have been working a LONG shift today (only Fri all summer) and have been checking for the next clue all day with no luck! Back to check again...