The sun is finally shining!!

Okay, well, it's actually been shining for a few days now, but I've been busy!

First, I need to show you how the great pear adventure ended up.



This is my handy-dandy outdoor cooker! Stud Muffin bought it for me for Mother's Day or my birthday, so some such holiday, but I haven't set it up to use before now. I figured it was a good investment in case the World Ends As We Know It. This way, not only will I have a grill, but another fire-producing setup to boil water or whatever.

I can't show you the bottling process, because I was much too busy to take pictures. But here they are!



Seven quarts of homegrown pears in light syrup. And look at these cute labels! No, not my lousy handwriting!



They were a free download from over at Bitter Betty Blogs.

So, on the first day of ... er...daylight, I ran out to gather as much basil as I could hold. I was just sure it had all rotted away in the rain, but there was plenty. I even left some to see if I would get more growth before the frost comes, and to let some of the flowers go to seed to save for next year,



I decided to chop up all the basil I brought in and freeze it for use during the winter.



I picked all the leaves off of the stems. Millions of them. The house smelled divine! heck! I smelled divine... for hours!



Then I whizzed them in the food processor with just a bit of water so that I could...



freeze the green mush into cubes!

When I'm not studying wieners and hoo-hoos, I am working outside. Stud Muffin and I have been chipping away at the pile of downed trees behind my studio. I guess I don't have a "before" picture, not that it would be anything much to look at.



Well, this was a couple of days ago, after I dragged a cedar tree out from under a bunch of branches.

But when we aren't chopping up the branches with the woodchipper, I am making bundles of twigs to use as kindling.



I have enough bundles to last me awhile, so I pushed the rest of the junk back into the trees with my tractor.





Better??

Now these last pictures are for Studly, since he is away from home at the moment.

My road man came out to fix some washed out areas of my new-last-year road.



After he filled in the rather large trench caused by all the rainwater, he put down rock.





Hope this stays put this time!