Apples, apples, everywhere.

This is how the day started!

I did not move the apples from the below picture onto the table. There are just that many apples.  I worked on apple related projects for the entire workday.

I am waiting for the last batch in the canner to finish so I can go to bed now.  I stopped work at 5 to take Beaver to his dad's for the weekend and visited with my parents - we meet at the halfway point which works out to be near my parents house. 
 

My Dad was helping me to restore a great wheel that Garfield Farm Museum had stored in a barn.  They want to fix them (there are three) up to have volunteers demonstrate spinning on a great wheel. They have the Garfield family wheel in the museum, these were donated at some point. Dad got it working and it looks great. We spent some time working on tension and spinning with it tonight. I need to do some research on better cord splicing methods... but that is another post this one is suppose to be about apples not spinning. It sneaks it's way into all parts of my life.

While I was working on apples today I made up these loaves of bread, which I just pulled out of the oven. I used only the yeast left in the bottom of the carboy after bottling a batch of pear cider. It is a sour dough like bread with a faintly pear cidery taste.

left to right apple butter, apple butter in cool anniversary blue glass jars that makes the food look different, and spiced apple rings.

I did up apples for jelly - I have near a half gallon of juice.  Most people dump the fruit after making juice for jelly, I don't I mill it and make apple butter. I got 5.5 pints tonight and it smells so good.  I cut and froze apple slice for pie, I am also going to try making pie filling - this is not how I make my pies normally but experimentation is fun, right? I also did spiced apple rings with cinnamon and star anise. This is a new recipe for me and they were so yummy it took serious willpower to not just eat all of them.  I have 9 half pints - side note doesn't hay-pint sound better, like a hay penny - and a half gallon of syrup I will use to make more.

Oh and the apples are still everywhere... I seriously doubt anyone but me could tell any got used - unless I made you carry the compost out - and the trees have at least that much again on their branches. Hoping you kitchen smells as good as mine ~ Julia

Yarn along - just keep knitting

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs.  I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? ~ Ginny at Small Things

 This is a thrift store find, I got this soft fuzzy yarn for 99 cents.  It is acrylic and nylon. I was only able to get one skein, but they had another that was in a pale green that co-ordinates okay. Truthfully, I am hoping just the one skein is enough as I think it is better by itself. This is on it's way to being a cowl for my Aunt, she has a lot of pain in her neck so I wanted something pretty and very lightweight. I need to get it done fast as I need to ship it.

 This is a thick scarf for my uncle, and needs to get shipped too. The problem, I am out of yarn. This is a Spanish wool, natural coloring and soft and warm.  I am knitting four strands at a time & love the result. My Uncle is a surveyor and while he mostly works in the office now, I wanted something warm for him.  

 Another crocheted bead soup necklace, this time on memory wire. I think it will be a bit nicer to wear and lighter but it moves differently and is not as dramatic as the other one. It was easier to control the tension and move the beads where I wanted them, but I could not put it down, each strand had to be finished before I could let go.

Some progress on the socks, but I mostly set them aside to finish up the items for boxes that need to be mailed before Christmas.  I would like to be done with everything to mail and ship it out on Monday (I was hoping for today, but that is not to be.)  Mouse's sweater has also seen little progress.

On the reading front, I am mostly reading blogs and reports on screen as I can read and knit that way.  I have also decided to try listening to podcasts and have been searching for interesting free ones.

Tomorrow is low pressure as it is just my parents joining us.  A nice fun relaxing holiday is what I am going for. My parents are bring salad stuff, dry sausage, and a feta cheese dip my Mom found a recipe for. We are putting out some other cheese, fruit cheese (I made,) summer sausage and cracker and playing games together.  For the big meal we are having turkey (with sausage stuffed under the skin,) stuffing, mashed potatoes, acorn squash, mixed veg, rolls, pickled cranberries, and cranberry sauce.  For desert, apple pie, pumpkin muffins, and an apple-cranberry crisp.  I am making the muffins and pie today to save space and time tomorrow.

Today is Mouse's birthday. We had the party over the weekend and he had a great time. I got extra hugs this morning and help in the kitchen - loading the dishwasher with me and setting the pumpkins to bake.  We stopped and got him cupcakes to take in. His school requires all treats to be store bought, annoying on so many fronts, but he was excited. When I was going to school, it was better not to bring a birthday treat than to bring in something store bought.

Have a wonderful holiday or if you live elsewhere have a wonderful day with your friends and family! ~ Julia

a long drive home

Beaver took these for me as we drove, finally, home yesterday.  The sunset was more beautiful than it appears but try though we might, we could not get it to come through any better.  This is a common game for us, the one spot on the drive convincing us to get out the camera, with the remaining drive foiling us with trees and hills.  It really is a lovely drive under an amazing sky.

I worked in the field - back at the trade post site - the last two days.  Worked is a bit strong despite blisters and sunburn as the guys I am working with make it all day raze each other and laugh-a-thon.  Have not really found much yet but even given the limited amount of work we want to accomplish it is early days.  We are clearing a 50cm by 2 meter trench currently.  Olive glass, a flake, flow mulberry, and a plastic face (piece of a saint icon) are the notable items so far.

Off to Garfield to dig with their program in the morning.  

Lab day and deadlines.

Watch Fob, Silver Ring, Gear, 1929 Dime & 1909 Penny.

Just a quick post today as I am over my head in toit's today.  Ever noticed how everything always seems to be due on the same day?!  Any way I am working on a poster presentation for a Symposium at the University and spent all my lab time yesterday trying to take good clear shots of the some of the more interesting items found at the Tavern Site.  Much harder than I expected and I am mostly unhappy so more picture on Wednesday. 

Shell, glass, bone, brass and copper buttons, ladies' pin & engraved shell.

Slate Fragments and slate pencils.

Kaolin pipe fragments.

Clay & glass marbles and a doll's foot.

Ceramics.

Whole bottle and small vial bottle.

Glass buttons, stem glass base, old olive glass, perfume stopper, blue glass reading "drug"

Shells and percussion caps.

My dad was a professional photographer when I was little, I asked him for some advice and help, and suddenly I was a little girl with him doing lighting checks in the kitchen while I ate oatmeal.  I love when my life brings me full circle.  That the advice was mostly technical and a bit over my head  added to the feeling.  Dad was always one to explain random things that came up completely and as if we where grown-ups, which explains why I understood great circle routes of navigation before I could identify all the countries in Europe!

So come Wednesday armed with more cameras and my Dad's voice in my head I shall tackle this again until then I have to get to work on the words part!