Canning Inventory, etc.

Just for shits and giggles, I'm recording what we canned this year. Apologies to those of you who don't find bread and butter pickle counting simply breathtaking:

30 jars of pickles - 25 quarts (half bread and butter/sweet and half dill) and 5 pints (baby dills)
4 quarts of spicy dilly beans
2 quarts and 22 pints of apple-ginger and apple-plum butter
9 quarts of stewed tomatoes
12 quarts and 12 pints of salsa
4 quarts of pickled banana peppers
18 quarts of applesauce (almost all gone at this writing)
Oh yes, and a quart and a pint of sundried tomatoes and various batches of dried apples.

I think that's it!

My Nordic blood loves the cold here. I thought I'd suffer through the winters in the heartland, but as it turns out, the summers are harder on my constitutuion. The frosty mornings make me gleeful. I skip down to the barn in my little plastic gardening clogs and no hat most mornings. It's funny what farm life does to a person. For another example, my tweezers. I once used my tweezers to shape my eyebrows. I now use my tweezers to pull giant ticks out of my horses' hides (I know you're supposed to burn them out with a match ... now). Here's a typical morning for me: wake up with the sun (usually between 6 and 7), feed the cats, feed the horses, stoke or start the fire, depending on how far Jay got, wash up any straggler dishes from the night before, sweep the first floor (you would not believe how farm dirt and junk piles up every day - enough to make a Scandinavian compulsive), get some breakfast together, love on Ellis while he plays and smiles and coos, love on Ellis some more and walk and sway while he fights sleep (Ellis does not believe that babies should have to fall asleep. He's called his lawyer. He's thinking of starting a union), work a horse or two, clean some stalls, read (East of Eden right now. Brilliant. I'm on a real reading bender - The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Light in August and 50 Acres and a Poodle are others I've recently enjoyed; Julianne and Amy, you would especially appreciate the last one), lunch, chores, dinner with wine, hot tub and bed - sometimes a movie if we can keep our eyes open long enough.

We'll be in Portland after Christmas - stay tuned for more info!

As per usual, my time is up. GREAT to hear from you, Justin!

Love and Jack Frost magic to all,

Charis