Eli and the Tomato

I went out to the garden to gather in the daily tomatoes and throw out the less than desirable ones. So I toss a tomato and Eli goes bounding after it picks it up looks very confused and drops it.

He stares at it for a while.


Noses it.

Stares at it from another angle.

Grabs it and runs over to the neighbors depositing the tomato on their stairs.

Eli is a little bit odd.

~Eikon

A Dilly of a Pickle

The pickles were ready to be canned today. I make the brine extra salty to avoid things that I don't want making a home with my pickles from growing. So when I put the pickles in cans I dilute the brine in half with water. This doesn't make it half strength but more like 75 percent because the pickles absorb alot of salt from the heavy brine and that salt leeches out of the think salinity tries to achieve equilibrium but should really ask one of my science people about it.

Pickles are nice because they are rather inexpensive.

$4 for cucumbers
$1 for lids (though if they are for me I'll reuse old lids after they've been washed)
$.50 for salt ( non iodized sea salt from Penzey's I could be a lot cheaper)
$1 for peppercorns (Co-op again it could be less)
$2 for dill ( the rabbits ate all of mine so again the coop where it is more expensive).
So a grand total of $8.50 and 1o minutes time with the occasional peak over the course of a week or so for 3 liter jars of pickles. Which is roughly the cost of one jar of Bubbies the only commercial brand that is as good and they don't cram their jars full so you get about 3/4 as many pickles in a jar.

~Eikon

Fall Arrives

So the temperature here in Saint Closet, MN has fallen considerably overnight and it is in the low 60's today from 80 a week ago. It doesn't ease into seasons in MN they drop from the sky rather abruptly here.

We wandered to the Quarry Park here in town with Elias. The are was once noted for it's granite mines which have subsequently filled with water. It's a lovely little park and we have a season pass. In the summer teenagers swim there but away from the swimming hole it is a peaceful place.

I'm rolling along on the sweater and should reach the shoulder saddles tonight if I'm diligent. I'll be certain to post pictures.

~Eikon

Concerning Popples

Knitxcore has reminded me of the 80's which make me think of Popples.




The franchise came out with popple stuffed animals which could be used as a weapon like a flail (hard plastic faces and appendages) or thrown at high speeds like a sling.



The big ones were just cute it was the little ones that were thrown across our playroom.
The joys of my childhood.

~Eikon

More Tofutsies

I really do like this yarn though one of the previous pair has disappeared. I'm sure it will show up again. For some reason I made these a bit too short. 56 stitches on # 2 with plenty of yarn to spare; I tend to make my socks with short ankles . I have another ball of this in green and white and think I'll use all the extra to make a pair of striped socks combining the three. That brings me up to 4 pairs of socks (minus one blue sock that as I mentioned is MIA). I am going to finish Flopper's sweater (I just got a 32" #8 circular so I don't make any more mistakes) and then begin working on a pair of Jaywalkers; Everyone else seems to have made this pattern and I might as well jump on the band wagon.

~Eikon

Fall Semester Begins

The fall semester starts today at Saint Cloud State University; they have to try really hard to find nice pictures of this campus. I'm taking 16 credits and am really excited about getting back into a class room for student teaching. Unfortunately student teaching doesn't begin until the end of October and is very inconveniently placed in the middle of my day with the result that I am taking three night classes this semester.

After student teaching the highlights of this semester are "The History of Moern South Africa" and an upper level Social studies pedagogy course which is worth 4 credits. I'm a bit apprehensive about the latter (4 credit courses are very rare here) but hopefully it will turn out all right.

~Eikon

Harvest Time

Dan's farm covers some 120 acres of hills in NW MN. As a child he used to wander around gathering the berries and fruit that grow wild there. So when he mentioned that the plums and grapes (both wild and delicious) would be ripe this weekend I was very excited.

We got to Rollag around noon and soon set out in search of jelly ingredients.

Eli volunteered to be our fruit bearing pack dog.
and Flopper decided to be a scare crow.

We were pleasantly surprised to find the last of the seasons choke cherries ; these aren't good for jelly but make a very nice heavy syrup.

There were highly unorthodox fruit gathering techniques utilized resulting in people being joined at the sack and bad Siamese Twin jokes.

I kept being distracted by the butterflies and the flowers.
Eventually we found a bounty of wild grapes.
The plums had all been knocked to the ground in high winds on Friday so much to Flopper's chagrin we picked fruit off the ground. There were two types on the farm; the small red ones pictured and then a larger yellow and red type.
Eli took the opportunity to look pretty and be cool in the glade while we were slaving away picking plums.

We probably collected 20 lbs of fruit all told and trudges back to the farm house to process the juice.

~Eikon