Labor Day

I hope everyone who had the day off managed to enjoy l the long weekend.  What did I do with my long weekend?  I labored.  Tomatoes.  Milk.  Goats.  Yep.

quarts of cold pack tomatoes for my dad

Pretty much all of the canning I’m doing now is for my family because my shelves are full. (Although, I still need to dig potatoes and see how they did.)

I managed to empty this counter and box of tomatoes a couple of times this weekend.

My counters got so full that I had to make a delivery to everyone over the weekend.  It’s really bad in here.  The canning stuff has even spilled over into the dining room.

roasted tomatoes waiting for the food mill

This weekend I managed to can 13 quarts of juice, 11 pints of juice, 13 pints of roasted sauce, and 9 quarts of cold pack tomatoes.

Ready to be off to their new pantry

And my mom asked me how much I had canned all together, so I added it up.  I’ve canned 17 quarts and 11 pints of tomato juice; 19 quarts and 44 pints of cold packed tomatoes; 8 pints of salsa; and 82 pints and 2 half-pints of roasted sauce. So far…

When I picked the garden on Saturday, I had to try and find bell peppers because I forgot to buy any on my way home, and I use them in the roasted tomato sauce.  Well, the rain really let these things mature.  I need to water them and I’ll probably have a lot more.  I’ll add that to my to-do list.

When I wasn’t canning tomatoes, I was making mozzarella.  I did six batches over the weekend.

(sorry–it’s an old photo but it looks the same)

Sidney is hanging in there.  She is a bit more perky and eating well, so that’s a good sign.  I am also working with the other girls from that year to try and keep them from crashing.

Eating her sweet feed. Notice no udder; she wasn’t making any milk for her kids.

Margarita is doing a little better, but she got another dose of copper. Same with Caroline.  I also wormed Caroline.  Astra is really improving, so I’m just keeping an eye on her.  LilyAnn is about as bad as her sister, so she got copper, wormed, and a probiotic for the diarrhea.  I also put her up north to limit her activity.  We’ll see how they do.

LilyAnn

It’s not like the whole weekend was work (yes, it was).  I did manage to fit in a little bit of knitting.

Tiger and my mitten I’m knitting

This time, I had Tiger’s expert help.  He’s about as helpful as the rest of them.  But I have a harder time knitting around him because he’s so big.

I’m grateful I had an extra day to get a little bit closer to caught up.