What a Weekend!

It’s Sunday night and the kiddo is in bed and asleep before 7:30, Nate is out finishing a project for me in the garage, and I finally get a chance to just sit for a minute!  We had a super busy and productive weekend – which, as you know, don’t necessarily go together.

Saturday Kaitlyn and I made some new friends when Nate and Chris (a guy that is working with Nate on some of his grants submissions) and Chris’s wife Amy, did some brewing.  Chris is a brewer, but wanted to try all-grain since he usually brews extract and all-grain takes a bit more equipment.  Kaitlyn did her usual slow warm, but before they were done Amy had been accepted into Kaitlyn’s circle of friends and was being drug around the house by Kaitlyn who was super happy to have someone new to talk to.  Nate and Chris finished their Milk Chocolate Stout.  Sounds terrible to me, but I guess each to his own.

Kaitlyn got her first early birthday present from Nama Kathy:

Kaitlyn has incorporated her new bug quilts into her decor and has been snuggling up with them any chance she gets.

Of course after opening quilts and a couple other gifts Nama and Papa had sent Kaitlyn wanted to know why she couldn’t open more things!  Patience is not a virtue of an almost 3 year old…

We also enjoyed some of the tasty hand pies Kaitlyn and I made earlier in the week from the cherries we picked.

Super yummy and I’m not usually a fan of cherry pie, but I think we might have to go back for more cherries…not that we really need more pie!  Ha!  But they freeze well so that is the reasoning I’m using to justify making more.

SUNDAY:

I’ve been waking up early so today I decided to brows Craigs List just for the fun of it.  Nate just sold a bike and we’ve used it a couple of other times so I thought I’d do some computer garage-saleing and see what I could find.  And I found this : for 8 bucks!  Totally adjustable and in great condition.  Nate wasn’t convinced K would use it, but I thought what the hay – might as well see, for that price it isn’t a big loss if she isn’t interested – so I e-mailed the guy, he was going out for the day but left it on his porch so I just stopped by and picked up the hoop and left the cash under a flower pot!  HA!  What a deal!  And, even better…Kaitlyn LOVES it!

Okay, then I trimmed herbs. The last couple of years we have planted herbs in pots on the deck with the idea that we are more likely to use them if they are within easy reach…true, but then I always over estimate how many of each plant I need to start and then…well, I end up with a LOT of some of the herbs….like oregano and sage. If you have any great suggestions on what to make, I’m all ears!  In the mean time they are drying in the basement and smelling lovely.

Nate decided to sharpen our knives this morning after watching an episode of Good Eats about cutlery – now we have sharp knives again!  Yippy!

I also made a batch of raspberry jam from most of the raspberries Kaitlyn and I picked the other day…did I mention we went back to the berry farm for a second round?  Yep!  This time it was just raspberries since we didn’t get too many the first time.

I love the way the seeds look in the jam – I did actually only put in 1/2 the whole raspberries they called for and then juiced the rest so the jam doesn’t have nearly as many seeds as it could have, but it still has plenty!

Hearing the seals pop as the jars cool is really one of the most satisfying parts of the whole jelly/jam making process.  I don’t know why, but it makes me happy! :)

Okay….wait, our day doesn’t stop there!  I’ve been compiling a list of things we need to get from Lowe’s so we made a family trip that I swear took 3 hours all by itself!  We came home with some stepping stones to put by the hoses so I don’t have to keep getting poked by bark mulch (top priority, wouldn’t you agree?), some dirt that will be used to re-pot our avocado and lemon trees – yep!  they are growing above the dirt now!  And, a pot rack – like this: We haven’t installed that yet, but I’m excited to see if we can avoid any more dents in the floor fro trying to pull pans out and stack/unstack them.

The rack didn’t get installed because once we got back from Lowe’s Nate started making two of  these:

Yep!  “Corn Hole” boards.  That’s what we’ve been told this game of tossing bags into small holes cut in boards is called…anyway.  I thought it would be fun to make for Kaitlyn’s birthday part and just to have as a summer lawn game.  And, this is the type of project Nate likes to do – one that involves buying new power tools (jig saw) and getting to build things.  Nate is currently out in the garage finishing up on construction so we may be able to paint  and get them all snazzy looking sometime this week.

Kaitlyn and I decided to wash cars…

Kaitlyn and I washed my car without much problem, but when it came to washing Nate’s car…well, the spraying began and Kaitlyn found it terribly funny to spray me and Nate….we all ended up wet in the end.

After the car washing fun I decided to water our trees while the hose was out so I was dragging the hose to the back yard to water a little trans-plant oak that is out at the edge and what should we find but these little guys!

Black Swallow-Tail caterpillars!  Super cool!  We just will have to make sure they have enough to eat until it is time for metamorphosis!  I don’t know who thinks they are cooler, me or Kaitlyn.  Watching caterpillars totally brings back great childhood memories.  I’m glad that I get to share the same experiences with Kaitlyn!

I’m off to check on Nate and see how things are coming!  Hope you all had as interesting a weekend as we did!

- Jen