Where has the Summer Gone

Here it is the middle of August already and before we know it winter will be here. I spent the last several days cleaning out the small bedroom so we can put the new queen size adjustable bed in there. In case we should get overnight company they now have a place to sleep. The bed will be delivered Friday.


I dried apricots and with a second batch I made apricot jam. The jam is really good. If I'd known it would come out that good I would have made some sooner.

 I ended up with 12 8oz jars of jam and 4 baggies of dried fruit.
I'm hoping to get all my "have to finish chores" done so I can sew on Friday and the weekend. I am the program for the quilt guild this month. They asked me to demo the Accuquilt Go cutter so I will be putting a program together. I'm also doing the quilt block for August and providing the drinks (fruit juice) for after the meeting. DH has been traveling and should make it home Friday night which is his birthday. So there will be pinto beans and cornbread for dinner.


Have been learning my Instant Pot electric pressure cooker. So far I've, made pinto beans, rice, popcorn and this morning I made steel cut oats for breakfast in it. Next I am going to try yogurt and cheese cake. I used the new Electric Water Bath canner to do the Jam and it worked like a charm. It has a spigot on the side so you set it up by the sink and when you are done canning it drains almost all the way right into the sink.

The other news around here is Mama Cat (stray who adopted us) has 3 new kittens. I was only able to get a good picture of one of them this afternoon the other two are black and white. Will show you pictures when I'm able to get some they move so fast it is  hard to get a clear one. Can't get outside to take one they scatter when the door opens.

Well that about covers the last two weeks around here what have you been doing in your neck of the woods?

Summer Chores

Here it is almost the end of August and winter is not far away. The last few days I have been gifted some Apricots and Plums. Since canning can't be done on the new stove top I am dehydrating the Apricots.

Yesterday while visiting friends I learned that there is an Electric Water Bath Canner so I will be making jelly with the plums when the new canner gets here on Friday. If you want to check it out you can find it on Amazon. I didn't even know they made this I sure am glad to find it.

So last week while DH was in Pittsburgh I cleaned out the back bedroom which had become the catch all. Discovered there were mice making themselves to home which wouldn't do at all. So I had to haul everything out clean, buy a couple of new stands to put food on, wash all the jars, cans and boxes of food that were still usable and put everything back. In the mean time between the sticky traps and the cats we have done away with about 8 or 9 mice.  This is the after picture. Still have some arranging to do and clean out the closet which houses my yarn storage. We will be putting a queen size adjustable bed in there so when we have company they will have somewhere to sleep.

Our county fair just finished on Saturday.  I entered a couple of quilts and they each took a Blue Ribbon. So it has been a good month so far. I had a birthday the 1st of August and DH will have his on the 19th. So that is pretty much what has been going on around here. What's happening in your neck of the woods?