A little bit of this and a little bit of that...

I've just been muddling through life lately. Feeling a little stretched thin in places and having lots on my plate. There's been canning to do, putting the garden "to bed" so to speak and generally getting ready for fall. I've canned more this year than I have in a lot of years. It's been fun, but it's a little stressful too. Now, I'm sure I'm singing to the choir on that, because there's tons of ladies out there canning to keep themselves sustained all winter... I mean sustained as in not going to the grocery store for that can of green beans! My canning has been things like pear honey, dill pickles,sweet pickle relish, pickled beets, cinnamon pears, pickled hot peppers, elderberry syrup, Fall Gold raspberry jam, Chesterberry Jam and some last minute peach jam. I've been having fun with my steamer/juicer and steamed up the elderberries that Sis. J gave me from the forest around about and then made the elderberry syrup out of that. (Sis. D, you can have your's back! Mine turned jellyish too!) A patron at the library had me come and pick grapes at her house and so I steamed those and got the really pretty grape juice that's in my frig at the moment! I LOVE my steamer/juicer. I even threw in some of my otherwise useless apples from my tree and steamed them. The juice was delicious. No, I didn't can any green beans, we ate them fresh! Shared them with some dear visiting brethren back in August, froze some and ate the last fresh ones last night at dinner. Mmm...yummy! We did get a TON of garlic into the ground. 148 cloves of one variety, 84 of another, 20 of another and then 16 of the last kind. Each clove that we planted will turn in to a HEAD of garlic! That's a LOT of garlic if it grows. We want to make our own garlic powder and it won't be ready until late next summer. It takes a long time to grow. But my mouth is already watering for my own home grown garlic. We love garlic around here! I've been trying to sew too. In between helping my girls sew Christmas dresses and Regency Ball gowns, it's hard to get to that cute little doll I'm making for little Miss A's birthday next month! I made Daughter L two dolls so long ago when she was a little girl and I've had a fancy to make my granddaughter her own as soon as she was old enough. She'll turn four next month and by golly, I think she is ready for a dolly! I will be making it with her own little dress and bloomers at first, but then at Christmas time I will make a replica of the beautiful Christmas dress her mommy is making her! What fun! Next I'd really like to make those grandbaby boys some jammies. The Dad is still working on the house. He had a little trouble with finding why in the world a sink hole was sinking in the front yard. Don't worry! It was an old rotten tree stump that was years upon years old. He rented a stump grinder last Saturday and ground it up, filled the sink hole and hopefully now it will be fine. This Saturday we will be getting the new gutters at the roofline of the house. And then I think he will be done outside! Just in time too, because our much anticipated visiting OKC brethren are going to make another try at visiting the following weekend! Whoopee! Can you believe we are less than two weeks away from NOVEMBER?