Life!

It was brought to my attention that I needed to update my blog . . . not that I didn't know that already :)  I've been off of here for so long that I never knew how to start up again, so I just decided to go with the present.

Last week was a really busy week.  Tuesday we had a Kulla craft day at our house.  My sister-in-law, Anne, from NH was out here so it was nice to get together when she was able to come.  Since we hadn't spent any time with her, we asked her to go up into the hills Tuesday night.

After the longest ride ever to get up there (the road just keeps getting worse and worse), we finally got to Dogob to check out the huckleberries.  First off, those of us who hadn't eaten on the way, ate our sandwiches and chips.  We had a quick 45 minutes of eating and huckleberry picking.  We got 1 1/2 gallons in that time, so that was good.  Then we headed back up to the Bluff trailhead parking lot to watch the sunset.

Everyone headed off to see if there were any huckleberries up there.

Daddy and Bridger

Waiting for the sunset . . . I got this picture of Mt. Adams.  My camera just didn't want to pick up the pretty color very good.

And Mt. Hood

Anne and David (older sister and baby brother)

Another one of Mt. Hood.

And another!

Just as we were leaving down the mountain, I got a text that peaches would be ready to pick up in 20 minutes!  We were going to be home too late, so I asked if I could get them in the morning.  When we got home we took care of our huckleberries and had milkshakes.

Wednesday we had a Rhoades craft day.  We were working on things for our family reunion.  We had a fun time and our signs turned out cute.

After my company left I had crab apples to take care of.  My neighbor had given me a couple boxes of them on Monday.  Last year there weren't any to be had and we went without jelly for over a year, so when she offered I took both boxes.  They were super tiny this year.  After cutting and cutting (with help from the kids) and staying up til all hours of the night while it juiced, I finally had all of my juice made.

Thursdays Tanner goes to speech now, so that kind of messes up the afternoon.  I'd decided to can a bunch of the crab apple juice because I got so much of it.  I didn't have enough jelly jars, sugar or time to make a lot of it.  I canned 9 quarts of juice.

Friday was supposed to be hot.  I got my jelly made in the morning . . . about 33 cups worth.  Most of it was in small jelly jars but I had to do a few pints, too.  David and I are the only ones who like it, so we don't go through it very fast.

Pretty crab apple jelly (and juice in the back.)

I was supposed to be making a wedding cake, so I waited til later in the day to heat up my house with the oven going.  I got my cakes made and then David decided we could all go to town for supper and shopping.  After we got home I made frosting.

Saturday morning I was up early to decorate the cake.  Luckily David had taken 4 of the boys fishing so there wasn't as much commotion.  I got in about 1 1/2 hours of work before Bridger woke up.  I was hoping he'd sleep because he'd been a real grouch (I think teething) and the older girls had gone camping so I didn't have much help.  I'd just gotten most of my mess cleaned up and the cakes in the refrigerator when the girls got back home before 11:00.

We had peaches to take care of, so we got all of them done that were ready.  I lay them out on tables in my basement so they can ripen slowly.  Dad had asked me to do a box for him, so we were able to get all of his done.  He just wanted frozen ones.

I wanted to refrigerate the cakes because they were supposed to be in the heat at an outdoor wedding.  They were supposed to get delivered at 3:00.  I got there and the spot it was supposed to be set up at was in full sun.  It wasn't a boiling hot day, but full sun wasn't going to do the cake any good, so I left it in the house and came back at 5:00 to finish it.  The place still was in the sun, but I just hoped for shade and set it up.  As I carried out the cake, I noticed the bottom layer cake board still felt really cool in my hands, so that was a good thing!  I thought it ended up turning out pretty . . . and it tasted good, too :)

Pretty place it was set up.  Later there were bars and blueberries on the stacker things.

And that was our crazy week.  I was just going to say I hoped this week wouldn't be so busy and then I remembered peaches.  I will have the pleasure of canning, among other things!