I Quit

The second reason I did not take many pictures this past weekend is tomatoes and milk.  Seriously.  I’m not getting much milk from the girls right now, but it still adds up.

That means, I started Saturday by making three batches of mozzarella.  I also had to deep fry the mozzarella sticks that we made last weekend.  They’ve been in the freezer all week taunting me.

Then I switched to tomatoes.

This is my canning total for Saturday: 13 pints and 2 half-pints of roasted sauce; two pints and four quarts of cold pack tomatoes; and six pints and three quarts of tomato juice.

My basement is full. I’ve already given away two dozen pints of sauce/salsa.  I quit.  I refuse to do any more tomatoes this year!

That means I moved on to other garden items!  I chopped and froze some okra.

I started preparing and freezing butternut squash.  I did some for me and some for my uncle.

Someone had to check out the squash after I put the skins in the birds’ bucket.

Sky and Snickers

Snickers decided that it tasted yummy.

I pulled the last of the beets and shared them with my nephew.  I roasted and froze mine. Since my peppers didn’t do well, my sister sent me a bucket.

I’m still working on getting the peppers done.  I did take a break though, and made three batches of soap Sunday afternoon.

That includes a new fragrance–crisp apple rose.

The To-Do List

Usually, I wake up with an idea of what I want to get done each day.  Most days, I don’t come close to finishing my list.  But there’s the rare day like yesterday when everything actually gets done.  Yesterday, I started the day with putting on a batch of tomatoes to roast.  While they were roasting, I made two batches of soap.

Black Amber & Lavender and Almond Biscotti

I like the way the design turned out in the soap.

And two batches of mozzarella.

In the afternoon, I put another batch of tomatoes on to roast.

Then I made five batches of goat milk lotion.

I managed to get the tomatoes processed.

Then I started a batch of relish.

I admit.  I had my mom help me with the relish, but we got it ready.  I hadn’t even planned on the roasted tomato sauce when I got up.  So I’m really happy with everything that got accomplished.

Soaping!

One of the reasons I had to take a break from canning tomatoes was because of soaping.  I shared that I had sent a bunch of soap and lotion to a store in Des Moines, and that left a lot of empty space on my shelves.

I’m working on filling up those blank spaces.

Last weekend, I made eight batches of soap on Saturday.

I’m also working on keeping up with the milk from the goats.  I am getting just about a gallon a day from the five girls I’m milking.

I have to make lotion.

lotion making and soap making

I got a start over the weekend, but I still have more to make.  I will also get it back on my online market to ship to people.

The small town where I used to go to the farmer’s market is having their fall festival.  I’ll be taking my soaps and lotions there.

It will also be my first opportunity to take other items.  I’ve already sold a few sets of llama balls (for the dryer), so I need to make more and take them.

I’ll also take my knitted dish cloths and coasters.

I’ll also take my rugs.

It will be nice to get to set up and see everyone whom I used to see weekly throughout the summer.