Crack for 2-year-olds

Four words: Ring Around The Rosie. Bean wanted to play and after one time through Beeb had to join in and would not let us stop. Maybe I'll have to enlist some of the bigger kids at the park tomorrow to play it with him. All. Afternoon.

Yes I Can!

and have been doing so frequently. Can, that is. I got a pressure canner for my birthday and have been using it a lot. So far this summer I have "put up" strawberry and raspberry (both red and yellow) freezer jams, concord grape jelly, pickled beets, watermelon pickles, crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, sauerkraut, beans, greens, creamed corn, and pinto beans. I did the pinto beans as an experiment with my new pressure canner and many other kinds of dried beans will follow when the weather gets cold! The low price tag of dried beans without the hassle of always remembering to soak them the night before? Priceless! At some point, I need to get some pictures of my stash. The grape jelly is particularly lovely if I do say so myself. When I held it up to the light for Miss Bean, she said, "It shimmers like purple diamonds!"

Also, it turns out that the veggies in my chili recipe fit nicely in a quart jar:

So this winter, if I get kidney beans canned, there will be some super easy batches of chili this winter! Other than dumping jars and cooking, the only thing I will need to do is measure and add seasoning, water or beer, and ground been and/or TVP.

There will be at least one more trip to the orchard for apples for apple butter and apple sauce. We got a big bag of eating apples and all the grapes for jelly there last weekend. The concord grape jelly? Between that and the freezer jam, I don't think I am ever going to buy jelly at the store again. The homemade is SO GOOD, that I believed I have been completely spoiled rotten for the other kind. This weekend will be another big batch of sauerkraut as we currently have two CSA cabbages in the fridge.

There are FOs to post and lots of other stuff coming soon...I hope!!!

Wisconsin Sheep and Wool was...

well, sheepy and wooly. The whole famn damily went up to Jefferson around noonish and we saw sheep dogs and sheep and shearing and lambs and vendors and lunch and shaved ice and all the wooly wonders. Since we had taken two cars, Kitty Daddy and the kids left around 3:00 and I got serious at the vendors. I found buttons for my February Lady Sweater and was viciously attacked by a couple of spinning projects. It turned out that Gale's Art booth was nearly fatal for me. First, this lovely jumped off the shelf, roughed me up, beat me into submission:

It's a merino/bamboo blend and it is as soft and cushy as it looks. While trying to get up and dust myself off, this subtle little lovely on a bottom shelf started flirting with me:

This one is an alpaca/silk blend and quite possibly even cushier than the ruffian above. Her booth also had trindles which captured my eye and my fancy, but they were out of budget after feeding my flock lunch and snacks. Next year, they can starve so I can have more fun at the vendors. Well, probably not, but the trindles did make my fiber encased engineer-type heart go flippety-flop. The etsy pictures hardly do them justice. I haven't tried them, so for now I am trying to convince myself that they couldn't possibly be as wonderful as they look.

Anyway, after the family left and I spent my money, I had some quiet spinning time by myself and did some people watching until it was time for the after-party and Ravelry meetup, organized by our very own Chocolate Sheep. The dinner was yummy and the cheesecake was practically illegal!