Down time ~

I'm doing nothing today, not even getting out of the pj's.  Seriously.  I was up at 5:00 yesterday morning getting salmon out of brine and into the smokers...the last piece finished up at about 10:30 last night:

Our freezer is full ~ 32 chunks of silver and 10 good size king pieces.  Thanks, again, JR ~ your cooler and some of this is headed your way soon!

I also processed 5lbs of Oregon blueberries.  I've got 4c dehydrated in the freezer now and 5 and a 1/2 jars of this left:

My first ever blueberry jam ~ I'm not a fan of blueberry pie (too sweet) but this jam is so good that I've already eaten 1/2 a jar since I finished making it yesterday.  Much less labor intensive than the cherry jam I made last week and I'll definitely make multiple batches of this next year.  I've enjoyed doing these experimental small batches while I'm learning to can, since I can test recipes as well as figure out all the ins and outs of food preservation.

And if the kitchen projects weren't enough, I finished (almost) my Goodale sweater that I had mostly completed by October of last year.  I actually did all the finish work once yesterday but thought I could tweak everything to make it even better so I ripped all my seaming out and did it a second time.  It's on the blocking boards right now, so no completely finished photos but you can get an idea:

And finally, while I sat up all night (I'm not exaggerating!) waiting for my husband to get home from a too long day of fly fishing and seeing Soundgarden at The Gorge in Eastern Washington, I cast on for Vitamin D:

My sleepless night was the result of a not so funny at the time comedy of errors ~ I waited up, he got too tired driving home so pulled over to sleep, I normally wouldn't have been up to know that he hadn't made it home on time but I was wide awake, he didn't call to tell me he had pulled off the highway since he thought I was sleeping.....so at 5:30 this morning he got a panicked phone call from me....WHERE ARE YOU!?!?!?!?!

He's fine, we're both tired, and all's well that ends well.  I'm spending the rest of today snuggling on the couch with the pup and knitting a little...

or napping a lot!  Hope everyone is having a great weekend!   ~ Melissa

Misty Monday

I spoke too soon yesterday ~ 2 days of sunny 70 degree weather does not a summer make!  Today is rainy and gray (again) and I actually see a few chimneys wafting wood fire smoke in the middle of a late July afternoon.  Uncle!!!

But it did make for a good day to stay inside and try my first solo canning adventure:

Getting ready.....

Done!  Sweet Cherry Jam

I only made a single batch since I wasn't sure how carried away I wanted to get without any help, so the rest of the Bings went into the dehydrator and I'll vacuum seal those in small bags to use in baking over the winter.  It's a great feeling to be stocking up for the cold months when all the foods we love are limited, expensive and definitely not from around here!

I need to find a new way of testing them to see if they're done ~ the taste test thing is a bad idea.... We may not have any dried cherries by the end of the day, let alone this winter!

I also finally sat down and figured out my fair entries and got myself registered for the Skagit County:

and also for my first go at the Evergreen State later in the month:

I'm a bit concerned they won't take my entries at the state level since the registration was a little more involved than at the county level and I'm not certain my knits ended up in the correct categories.  We shall see....  Now I need to get everything reblocked and packaged up for delivery in the next couple weeks.  What a fun way to wind up the summer and I'm glad that Kelli will be joining me again this year (although she beat me to registration this year so I guess I'm joining her!).

Busy days ahead ~ there's more canning I'd like to try my hand at while local produce is in season and it sounds like there is a huge weekend project showing up this evening that I need to get ready for!  Rumor has it there are 4 silver salmon and 1 king salmon freshly plucked from the waters of Canada that I will be smoking and they need to be filleted, cut in pieces and brined by Saturday morning.  Or is it 8 silvers and 2 kings ~ I guess I'll find out when the fish changes hands tonight!  JR, you rock!!  I can't wait to have fish in the house again!  ~ Melissa