Gardening, Knitting, Canning and The Egg/Boat, Or Is That The Boat/Egg?

This drove (floated?) into my driveway (down the river?) this weekend:

Hubby is nothing if not imaginative and he wanted to take his canoe with him. Good to know that if the Egg flips over then all would not be lost!

The floor mats in the driveway? Don't ask, you probably wouldn't want to know.

So in the last few days a lot of different colored produce has found it's way from the garden into jars in my kitchen. We've got enough carrots now for the winter, beans too. Only about 1/2 the beets have been canned and I did get one head of cabbage that is presently being turned into kraut.

But the tomatoes. And the onions. And the green peppers were all mixed up, mashed up, sieved, food milled and processed to within an inch of their life to create tomato soup! Went over and grabbed my Dad on Saturday and we went to the farmer's market. My tomatoes aren't quite ready yet. I love this soup, it's soooo good with a thick slab of cheese, homemade bread or some crackers.

The next batch(es) of tomatoes will be for juice and then after that will be stewed tomatoes. Then our attention will be turned toward the apples. Apple butter, applesauce and even just apples for pies. Yum!

And then pumpkins for pies. We're not even 1/2 way done with canning season yet. It's nice to have shorter hours, it feels like I can get a lot more done.

But the calf feeder isn't done yet.

Neither is the wall unit.

But people, come on, I've been canning!

And knitting! The Muskrat's sweater is done except for sewing on of the buttons, and Grandson's sweater is just about done. This one's a bit late, his birthday was last month, but with any luck, this week will see that going out in the mail.

The Mouth has decided that I should knit for her a cardigan and she wants it bluey-charcoaley. Ok then. I don't have enough of any one yarn in my stash in that color so rather than go out and buy more (seriously, the yarn shops could buy from me, thanks to the oldest!), I've found some off white alpaca sport weight that will do quite nicely. Then I can just dye it the color she wants. Lots cheaper to buy a bottle of dye than spend upwards of 100 bucks for bluey-charcoaley colored yarn!

Tonight Bu-dawgh needs a bath, and there a few other things that need to be done too, however if my book comes in the mail, all bets are off. We're currently reading the Betsy Taylor series from MaryJanice Davidson. Hilarious! Also, if hubby comes home and wants to go out on the bikes there's a good chance that a lot of projects will be left undone.

Busy, busy, busy...... But at least it's not boring!

My Egg Rocks!

I always do it.
Every year.
Every year I put my vehicle in the ditch.
Only happens once, but every year.

So this morning the only reason I was surprised is because THERE WAS NO SNOW AND THE ROAD WASN'T ICY!!

So why did I drive into the ditch, in the exact same spot that this happens every year?

Because I was gonna be late for work.
And I forgot to park my egg so that the windshield was facing the sun (such that it is).
And the windshield was icy
And I am out of washer fluid.
And I didn't take the time to clean off the window, I just turned on the defrosters (hey, this is huge, normally they don't work!), scraped the window a bit with my fingernails and went on my merry way.
Right into the ditch.
Where I drive every year.

This time, however, I didn't require a tow truck (thanks, Dave) to pull me out (refer back to the statement above about the lack of snow, usually there would be anywhere from 4-6 foot of snow in this particular ditch), I was able to do the reverse, forward, reverse, forward thing and drive out on my own.

And I was late for work.
But I bet I won't forget to park the egg where the sun (such that it is) hits the windshield again!

My egg rocks!!

Transporting a Cow Via An Egg!

Went to the butcher to pick up the cow yesterday and he had the nerve to laugh at my "truck" (which is really a geo metro). Since I was picking up a whole cow, sans skin and bones, it turned into quite a feat for my little egg. The back was sitting on the tires.

Egg not happy.

Egg not like to go up hills loaded down like that, but while it moaned and groaned and whined about it, we did make it home.

Bu-Dawgh happy, he got a few new bones, with meat attached.

Ter happy, lots of meat in the freezer

Freezer happy. Totally full, doesn't have to work as hard.

Kids happy. Too much meat to put in the freezer, have to weed out all of the old meat (which goes to the kids).

Hubby happy, he got a slow cooked sirloin tip roast with mashed potatoes and gravy and home grown asparagus for dinner. Also, homemade bread.

Chickens happy, they got left over asparagus and potato peelings, they even gave me a few eggs for my efforts!

Ter happy, we like farm fresh eggs.

Ter happy, got left over sirloin roast and gravy for lunch today.

Hubby happy, he got left over sirloin roast and gravy for lunch today.

Butcher happy, probably still laughing at my "truck".

Girls at work happy, when Ter gets a new cow, girls at work get a food fest!

Seems like everyone's happy except the egg!

This afternoon..... more canning of the tomatoes shall ensue. Tomorrow, I go back to 12-14 hrs at work, ugh.