Goodness!

A few weeks ago Art went to Canada to visit his family while I stayed home- it was kind of a last minute trip but I had to work and I couldn't go with him.  For some reason, I am much more productive when Art is gone, so I got a lot accomplished while he was away.  Art had gotten me a pick-up bed load of free mulch from the county, so I mulched everywhere- flower beds, around the bird bath, the asparagus patch, around the birdhouse pole- by the end of the day I had used all of the mulch and was very tired. I didn't have quite enough to finish, though, so Art is going to get me some more eventually.

I also made dandelion and violet jelly.  I discovered that the trick to a successful jam or jelly is to follow the recipe exactly.  It doesn't matter if you have eight cups of dandelion infusion, if the recipe says to use two cups don't quadruple the recipe.  Sure it takes a little longer, but every bottle of jelly I made set up, so I'm not complaining.  I made eight jars of violet jelly and eighteen jars of dandelion jelly, so we're set for the year.

 

Ray came home a couple of weeks ago! He's neatly wrapped in butcher paper and residing in my freezer.  To celebrate his return we put some ribeyes on the grill and they were oh-so-tasty!  A lot of people wonder how I can eat an animal that we fed and cared for; it's easy- easier than buying meat at the store and wondering what the animal ate, how the animal lived, and what kind of drugs the animal was given.  With Ray it's an easy answer- grass and hay, happily, and nothing.