Well, it's been just about a year since I last posted to this blog.  I've truly missed writing.  It's one of those things that I need to schedule into my day (along with everything else).  So what's new?  Well, I've had a few successes, some failures, some plans come to fruition, and others that were hopelessly overoptimistic.  So, the usual, I guess. 

Thing 1 and Thing 2 grew like weeds this last year.  I purchased the first "men's department" clothing for Thing 2 the other day.  I think Thing 1 is mostly done growing.  At almost 6'3", I certainly hope he is, because otherwise finding clothes will be even more tricky than it already is.  Jeans in 31-34s?  How about a dress shirt for 15-37?  You get the idea.  We don't need "Big and Tall", we need "Scrawny and Tall".

I am currently making Thing 1 a nice, it-better-last-you-for-ten-years-so-you-better-take-care-of-it sweater.  I actually had it finished, or so I thought, but the sleeves were too tight once I sewed it up.  The pattern was a bottom-up body, but top-down sleeves, and it just didn't fit right.  So I frogged the sleeves, and am reknitting them bottom up.  I have one done, and about six inches (of 23) on the other finished.  The sleeves should attach to the sweater better as well.  The odd thing is, I made the same pattern in a smaller size for him several years ago, and it worked out fine.  Strange.

I didn't weigh out all of the produce from our house this year.  Spring was extremely cold and wet, and I was so disappointed by June, that I just didn't bother.  There simply wasn't much to harvest.  The mice got into the few potatoes and carrots that I had, and the early beets, spinach, and lettuce simply didn't grow.  The rabbits totalled the peas.  With the exception of the cherry tomatoes, which were a full month late to harvest, I had maybe a half dozen tomatoes off of a dozen plants.  Talk about dismay.  I managed one butternut squash from my plants, and some small oddly-shaped acorn squash.  Strangely enough, the cucumbers did relatively well, and I pickled many quarts.

I did manage to can several quarts of applesauce.  Enough to get the family through the winter and into strawberry season, I hope.  I also purchased two boxes of peaches, and canned those as well.  22 quarts should hopefully be enough.  I was hoping to buy a couple boxes of pears as well, but didn't see any at the time.  Nor was I smart enough to buy out the only guy I found that sold pie cherries this year.  I did make lots of strawberry jam and some pizza sauce, though again from purchased fruit, and I'm now trying my hand at making mustard. 

I'm still making my own sandwich bread, and occasionally fresh pasta and spaetzle.  I found a new to-die-for recipe for an apple batter cake, and an easy BBQ pork sandwich recipe that I'll share soon.  It's a good thing the rabbits have disappeared, because I was seriously thinking hasenpfeffer might be on our table this fall.

I guess that's it for today.  Back soon to add more.