Wooly Day, Canning Jam and What is Dude up to?

I headed toward the mountains early this morning to see my sister. She is a weaver.  We were meeting for breakfast in her garden and spinning wool. 

I loved that she had the coffee pot humming among the bees. 

Inside her tiny studio is her work. 

The painting was done by my grandfather and is sandwich by her weavings. 

She is a master at container growing. Yes, you can grow anywhere. 

I got my wheel out of the car. 

Breakfast was finished and very tasty. She has been a vegetarian most of her life and really knows how to create a great meal. 

My sister began to show me how to "felt" a landscape mini. 

She brought out her wheel. 

And carded some wool. 

I brought some of Romeldale CVM wool I had carded from Wilbur who was one of our rams. I love the variegation in it. 

That's me spinning. 

Heehee, not perfect or much but it's my first. 

I came home. It was so hot at 98*.  I took a nap and then filled a cup of coffee to get started on canning strawberry jalapeño jam.  Strawberries are at their peak of the season and very inexpensive right now. 

The recipe is pretty simple if you know how to make jam. I have posted it before but here it is again.

4 cups chopped strawberries (I use a food processor, it makes the job quick)

1 cup chopped and deveined jalapeño

7 cups of sugar 

1 pouch of liquid pectin. 

That's it. 

Getting ready for the bath. 

Coming out of the bath and pinging lids. 

  I always make a small jar for testing and tasting. 

I put a quick meal in the mini crockpot.  Meatballs and sauce for Dude's pasta night. I have leftover Greek salad, my favorite. 

The meatballs and sauce is quick, easy, and ready when he is. 

I will spend the evening cutting out chef hats for my grandsons. 

So where was Dude all day?  He was planning on going fishing and canoeing with kids today but barely got out of town before he turned around. He was tired. Homesteading does that to you sometimes. The ride was over 2 hours possibly 3 hours away with just him and the dog.  His elbows hurt from nonstop working on the homestead this week.  He came home, and for once, relaxed watching a movie.  He napped and then, true to form, he went out in the hot weather to work on the wood splitter. We are planning on getting our wood pile ready for the winter this week. (We work good together with the log splitter, one loads the splitter, the other splits.)  After puttering around he did manger to get it fixed and headed out to get gas to get it running. It works well.  Great job. 

Oh, and he did feed the dog(as he does every day).  He has a cup in the large bag of dogfood to scoop out the food. Today, when he scooped and went to put the food in the dog's bowl, there was a small gray field mouse perched inside the cup, with it's little paws holding on to the rim.  It startled Dude more than mouse and it escaped on the way to the dog's bowl.  The cats, who stay out during the summer, where invited back in. Everyone has a job to do. 

Time to cut out fabric and sip on ginger lavender tea.

peace