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.