A Busy August

 

The deck replacement project begins with removing all the old railings. We were getting ready for our builder/son, Tony to come to do the replacement work.

Railings, decking, steps all removed.  We can still keep working by removing the stringers, but after a week of hard labor, we are ready for our expert help.

Even though lumber prices are down from the astronomic levels of a few months ago, this little pile of material represents nearly $8,000.  Building anything isn't cheap!

Meanwhile - harvest season is upon us.  I have a pattern where I pick one day and preserve the next. To use the native blackberries (which we have an abundance of) it is necessary to remove most of the seeds.

This is how many seeds are removed from about a gallon of berries.  I get enough juice to make about 8 pints of jam from that many berries.

I use some of the blackberry juice to make gummies and some of the gummies are the center of chocolates.  These don't last long.

The fig tree is really starting to produce.  It took several years for it to have a single fig, but now it is really making up for the slack years.  So far, I've been dehydrating them, but think I'll make some fig newtons if it ever cools off enough to do some baking again.

The pantry is starting to fill up, but there's still room for more blackberry jam and pickles and OCD that I am, as long as there is produce, I'm on it.  I'm thinking it would be fun for all my canning and preserving friends and relatives to have a "Pint Jar Exchange" where we get new ideas and try new things that others are creating at this time of year.