Hot! Hot! Hot!

It has been blistering hot warm up here in Maine this week.  And what is a girl to do, can't take the baby outside because I don't want him to sunburn too much and we were going crazy inside with nothing to do.....
So we went to the river.  And went in the water. And we soaked, and played and cooled off.....and now it is wonderful weather.......perfect weather.  Just in time for the temperature to cool down again for this weekend....but now we have a plan for the summer, we will be walking down to the river and wallowing like hippos...a lot. 

Canning When it is Hot

Since we now live in the country we are working on getting gardens going so we can grow as much of our own food as possible.  And when all of this food is grown and ready to be picked some of will be canned one way or another. I have been looking through my cookbook and thinking about all of the different stuff I want to try to make this year. 

One problem...canning means heat, lots of heat.  And who wants all of that heat in their kitchen in the middle of summer?  So we decided we would try doing this over a fire outside in the fire pit.  We wanted to see if we could get the fire hot enough to sustain a boil.  And we did.  So Saturday Patrick built the fire and was in charge of the water and I bustled about and made Strawberry Rhubarb Jam, Rhubarb in Syrup, Rhubarb Barbeque sauce, sour pickled fiddleheads, and lilac jelly.  And we processed it all outside, in the breeze, and the sun.  And even with having to cart everything outside to fill the jars, it was so nice to be able to walk into my kitchen and not fall over from the heat of a boiling canner. 
This is going to be so great come pickle season once the beans and cucumbers are ready.  I have so many plans to make. 
In other garden news, I have green things in my bathtub gardens!!!! 

Gardening is my Life

Well that is how it feels sometimes right now.  We are busy getting gardens ready...without a rototiller at this point.  And that means a LOT of labor for my husband and a bit of labor for me.  But we are getting there.  And hopefully the sun will come out tomorrow and I will be able to take some pictures for you all.  I even have some bathtub gardens! 
And I just got home from an awesome talk on Winter sustainable gardening.  I learned a ton and can't wait to go buy some bush beans because frankly we eat soooo many green beans and it is ridiculous to buy them when they are so easy to grow. So we will be adding some beans and potatoes to the garden and I leaned some other great stuff that I think I will be saving for next year.  Like how to defend your plants from bugs without chemicals.  Fabric is great for more then just quilts and clothes. 
And the guy talked about storing your veggies and all sorts of good things. Did you know that Kale is the easiest to store veggie ever, you just leave it there and when you want to eat it you move the snow off of it and pick what you want to eat.  It is crazy.  And you can just mulch your root veggies and leave them right in the ground all winter long and just dig up what you want to eat.  I am getting really excited about this. 
In other news, I have a new nephew!  Ezekiel was born on the 19th at 12:17 am and he is beautiful.  And a BOY, they were expecting a girl, and that means I need to hurry up and finish a boy quilt so when we go up to see them in a few weeks I will have it done. 
And now lets hope it doesn't take me another month to post again.