Too hot to do anything

so why not update a long-neglected blog? Ok, first, why does the heat make everyone angry? Is it because when you get angry, you get hot, so just being hot makes your brain think you're angry? Something to ponder as I try not to murder Jon...

anyhoo... I wanted to give everyone an update on my canning/freezing/food preservation activities as they are one of my favorite things about summer.

We picked roughly 35 quarts of strawberries and filled the freezer with gallon size ziplocks of frozen strawberries, mostly tops on. We've gone through a few gallons already in smoothies, but there's still plenty left for the winter. My plan is to get raspberries and blueberries, but I don't know when and I don't know where. The signs are up, but...ok... I admit it... I hate picking those things. It takes forever and it's just so painful. One year Jon's mother found a place that was selling 10 pound boxes of blueberries that we froze. But I haven't found that since.

Anyway, I got 8 pounds of pickling cukes at the farmer's market and made 8 pints of bread and butter pickles. I made 3 pints last week using red onions so they turned a little pink. oh well.  This year I used the recipe in Better Homes and Garden. Maybe I used that recipe last year too... I hope so, because they sure were good last year! I also want to do some dill pickles or at least some refrigerator dills...hopefully the farmer who comes to my work on Tuesdays will have them this week.

8 pints of strawberry jam.

4 half-pints of dandelion jelly.

And that is my harvest so far. In addition to the berries, I want to get lots of fresh corn and freeze that too. And lots of tomatoes to make sauce, salsa, etc. with. Maybe some canned roasted red peppers. I'm growing some peppers in some pots on the porch.

What else? Well we went on our first kayak outing of the summer today with one of Jon's friends. We went to the New Meadows river in Brunswick, which is a tidal river. We put in at the mysterious Sawyer Park (much talked about the location seemed to be a secret - I figured it out though. It's right next to the New Meadows Marina on the Bath Road, just past skillin's greenhouse.) It was really pretty and we saw lots of ospreys. We didn't go to far...maybe an hour out until we found Thomas Point Beach. I wanted to find some sort of a landmark before we turned around. The boys were tootling hard core.. a little slow for me... but it was fun. I got a sunburn.

I pruned my roses today. I have one that is out of control. I just deadheaded it. Every year I have to look up how to do it. So you prune to just above the 5 leafed leaf below the bud. I can never remember if its the 3 leafer or the 5 leafer. it's the 5.

Got a new pair of running shoes from TJ Maxx, and a biking outfit from Dick's. I got padded bike shorts. They look a little ridiculous, like I stuffed a bike seat in my shorts actually, but hey, if there's one thing I've realized about being athletic...you just can't care what you look like. That's a fact. There is no room for vanity when it comes to this stuff.

And I didn't even talk about jewelry! Good night.