Britesea - Living the good life in rural Oregon

[rathbone]

That sounds pretty much like the sum of my days. I either have time to go get all the stuff for the project - or I have time to do the project but never enough to get it all done.
The raspberry bush sounds like a real find.

 

[Britesea]

Rathbone, you and I sound like we have a lot in common

Today I made better progress-- The pears were finally ripe, so I canned a load of 7 quarts of fruit cocktail (peaches, pears, grapes, pineapple and 1 small bottle of maraschinos just because you gotta have em), and I have 6 trays of pears drying- 3 of them in the car, as a makeshift dehydrator. I also got the kiwi jam finished, and I have cheese working on the stove.

We have a frost warning for our area tonight ( I'm SO not ready!) So we spent some time covering tomatoes bean and peppers. The sunflowers are too tall to protect so I guess we won't get any crop this year-- they were just STARTING to bloom I harvested a red cabbage that was large enough to make it worthwhile, and we have more broccoli and cauliflower coming in.

Tomorrow I have to spend some time making my row covers. I bought a 100' roll of floating row cover that is 3 feet wide. My beds are 9' long and 3 feet wide, with a 4' tall post at each end and a pole connecting the two posts, so when I drape material over the pole I have an A-frame of frost cover. I need to sew together 4 lengths of the the FRC so I will have enough to drape over the entire bed, with a little extra at the ends to lap over. DH said he would put up the two cold frames for me as well.

Our little house is crammed to the gills. I haven't set up the bed with risers yet, so I still don't have any storage under the bed. Still, it's such a nice feeling to look at the sacks of beans and rice and jars of canned and dried produce!

 

[rathbone]

May I make a suggestion? Go to the bookstore and get yourself a copy of ...oh say, Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Set it aside for when all this prep work is done.
I know, I know, a little kids book but - As you were talking about all the prep work you are doing for winter, really all I could see in my mind's eye was "Ma" in apron, working hard to get things ready for winter. I seriously think you might enjoy that easy read especially in view of all the work you are doing. Or if you want a "big girl book" maybe get Animal, Vegetable, Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver.
I know you don't have time to read right now but come winter? Or will you be doing some quilting/sewing/weaving/knitting? (I usually quilt my way through the winter).

 

[Britesea]

Haha, I always try to have a few good reads available for winter. But I also knit and try to do "indoor projects"; like updating our 'bug out bags'. I was also thinking of mudding the living room to give it more of the feel of a cob house.I have a couple of orders for jewelry as well, that need to be finished before Christmas.

Winter always seems to be a hard time for us financially- with property taxes, holidays, and other "once a year" expenses- and we never seem to have enough saved up for it; so I'm hoping that with all the food we are setting aside we will have things a little easier this year... maybe we'll even be able to pay down some of the credit card debt (couple of poor decisions in the past that I'm still paying for).

The frost apparently didn't happen, or was so light that even the sunflowers made it just fine. Thank goodness. But this was a wake-up call to finish those row covers and get the garden ready for the coming winter.

Well, I'm down to just needing to make a batch of orange marmalade, and I have a couple pounds of peaches that I could put up. Then it's just wait for things to ripen in the garden. The pears are already nearly done; I hung the cheese to drain this morning, and I will be making another batch of dog food.

 

[rathbone]

"like button"

 

[framing fowl]

What kind of jewelry do you make?

 

[Britesea]

Here's a couple of images of some of my favorites Framingfowl.... It's called wire wrapping or wire sculpture
This was a cameo bracelet I made

a brooch with a stunning piece of chrysacolla

and a pendant of fire opal (which is named for it's color, as opposed to the opal most people are familiar with) and citrine

I'm semi retired now. I have so many other things I'm doing with the garden and all that I don't have much time for jewelry anymore... perhaps it will become something I do during long winter nights...

 

[Britesea]

I am finally winding down on processing all the produce I got on sales. This week I canned:
9and1/2 quarts of tomato sauce
4 quarts of tomato juice
8 pints salsa
6 pints spaghetti sauce
4 pints strawberry jam
4 3/4 pints kiwi jam
5 half pints rhubarb/blueberry jam
6 3/4 pints orange marmalade
7 quarts fruit cocktail

and I dried
15 pounds pears
3 pounds peaches
a handful of jalapenos

and I made a batch of farmer's cheese

Whew... writing it all down, I feel better about how much I accomplished. But I must get a food mill-- I could have processed the tomatoes so much faster than peeling and seeding by hand.
We found the garlic spray so tomorrow we will finally get the yard sprayed to repulse mosquitoes. Then we will finally start cleaning out the Man Cave and get it better organized. Then I will sew up the row covers for the garden
Going to have friends over for a Labor Day Burn-N-Share

 

[moolie]

Beautiful jewelry--I especially like the chrysacolla piece, and great job on all the preserving you've done this week

 

[snapshot]

Your jewelry is stunning! Very unique!!!!