Welcome to another week of things to like! I missed last week; we had an all day research workshop on Thursday so I never got my post written, so I'm glad to be back this week.
The best thing is that I got a new HVAC system last week. It's not terribly exciting (and was very expensive) but is definitely nice. We've had a few nice days of weather lately, but many days still in the mid-90s, and my AC had been limping along really ineffectively for a long time before finally giving up the ghost. It was almost exactly 30 years old, so that seems like a good run.
The dogs are super sweet as always, Spooky always getting into something, Bentley trying not to be trampled, and Blue joining in wherever he can.
I was very entertained by Bentley's ear here.
I spent all day after church on Sunday preserving the rest of the crabapples. I made and canned 26 half pint jars of jelly, 12 pints of jelly, 12 pints of crabapple syrup (delicious on pancakes and maybe cocktails), and 8 pints of crabapple butter. It took several trips to walmart for jars and seals (in spite of bringing back lots of jars from my mom's) and resulted in a very sticky floor, but I'm so happy to be finished. Combined with the batch I made this summer, the total was 18 pints of crabapple butter, 49 pints of jelly, plus the 12 pints of syrup and two large batches of crabapple fruit leather. Considering about 1/3 of the fruit was given to my sister and friend (who are busily making their own batches of jelly), that seems like a fairly good turnout for one crabapple tree! Especially since my canning pot is pretty small, so I can only processs a few jars at once....
Of course now I have to find lost of things to make with crabapple jelly and butter.
I have one dahlia left alive, the plant looks horrible, but it survived the great bug-rain-heat apocalypse and has made a few lonely but beautiful blossoms in the last week. Excitingly, a random marigold has sprouted up and flourished underneath it, also just in the last few weeks. This was a whole bed originally planted with dahlias (only one of which came up) and then completely covered in pumpkins, and then those all died, and now I have this beautiful flower.
We took Spooky and Cash back out to hike around the lake the other day, Cash swam and had lots of fun and Spooky was even brave enough to wade in up to his elbows once!
I hope everyone is having a good week and that summer temperatures are breaking where you live.
Click over to LeeAnna's for more things to like!
Your pups are so cute!! great likes for the week and I love all the preserves you made! Wow~ Have a safe and happy weekend!
ReplyDeleteI love that photo of Spooky with his paw on your arm - so precious! Your crabapple preserving is amazing, and sounds yummy, too. I have lots of apples - I wonder if I should try making apple butter? Pretty dahlia!
ReplyDeleteWow! That is a lot of preserves! And that last dahlia of summer is spectacular. I’d love to see your small embroidered squares. I’m sure they are more elaborate than mine.
ReplyDeleteShannon, you sound like a true pioneer woman there naming out her canning. That is amazing. It will taste so good even just on toast. We have an ancient crab apple tree that still turns our a dozen or little apples. The squirrels or birds eat them. Yes, I'd say your tree did well! Nice to see the dogs out and about in beautiful surroundings. Already Ned's favourite word is walk.
ReplyDeleteHi Shannon! The dogs are awesome like always. I never tire of seeing them and their antics. Yes, 30 years is a great run for an a/c unit! You definitely got your money's worth out of it. ~smile~ Roseanne
ReplyDeleteHappy dogs! Wow - so many jars!!! Pretty flower. Too bad the garden was so contrary. Oh, a new HVAC - we have to look into that at some point.
ReplyDeleteI have never had crab apple.. I planted one because I read that it is necessary when having just a few apple trees. But alas my orchard isn't doing great. Wow 30 years that is awesome. Looks like a fun hike.
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