Currant Jelly

Well, I got 3.5 half pint jars of jelly out of all those currants. The juice from the berries was thick  - I expected something thinner, more watery, and the jelly seems a bit heavy and sticky after cooking it to sheeting point. This was my first attempt at determining cooking stage by the way the solution sheets off a spoon and I may have overdone it a bit. The half jar I opened wasn't completely cooled so it might be different tomorrow. It definitely tastes like currants and looks pretty enough. Just not the way I expected. Maybe I'll try again next year since most of this year's berries have been picked.

Or maybe not.

Pictures from the homestead

This is my first time making currant jelly. I'm not a big jelly fan but the currants were such gorgeous sparkling red pearls hanging from their strands amongst the green leaves that I couldn't let them go to waste.

Here they are all smooshed and draining. Tomorrow I'll make their juice into jelly.

Bob helps with the sheep chores and loves to hold a branch down for the boys to chow on the leaves. They wait for him to finish clean up and follow him down to the trees for their morning treat.

Here are Sapphire and Ruby, two of my sweet ducks.

And Hattie with tennis ball. She reminds me of Hooper, always carrying a ball, ready to play.

All the garlic has been harvested and is hanging to dry. A few onions are in here too.

It's a pretty rose but I swear I am going to rip this disease prone thing out.

We trimmed the ceanothus yesterday. I hate doing this to shrubs. Their natural form is so beautiful and a lot less work. But this is a case of the wrong location for a plant like this and it has to be cut back yearly or will totally block the window and walkway.

A few pictures of summer flowers.

Finally getting some roma tomatoes to ripen without the dreaded blossom end rot. I'll cut them, dry in the oven and freeze them for use later. 

Luscious raspberries. We have a bumper crop this year but most will be left for the birds to enjoy. I still have jam from last year so won't be making any more.

These are my favorite type onion, Walla Walla sweets, and they look big and beautiful.

Just great color in this flower.

Two Years

Two years gone and I still cherish memories of Tag and Hooper and our adventures together. We explored Sauvie Island with a dear friend in their youth, every inch of the desert around Old Trails in their prime years, Alaska as we all slowed down with age and finally came to rest here in Sequim. Now their memorial garden is lush with roses, irises, lavender, ceanothus, poppies, sea holly and a strawberry tree so they can still share life's pleasures with me.

Still Kicking

I've been busy! Guess the Vit D therapy is working as my energy levels are much improved. The sheep are doing well and Hattie works with them every day. We took them out to the neighbor's yard as a test of her ability to keep them under control outside the fences. Bob was worried the sheep would panic and run around the neighborhood but all went well. The neighbor was impressed by our little dog's speed and skill. 

It's been very dry which means we have to water constantly to keep grass green in the pasture and we've been putting temporary pens in the back yard to let the sheep mow it. The garden veggies have been doing well except for tomatoes. I planted them in bags of potting soil and now I'm getting blossom end rot, a calcium deficiency. Either the soil in the bag was so compacted that water wasn't getting in to the root zone so the plant could uptake nutrients or the bagged soil is just deficient. We opened the bottoms of the bags to let the roots into the greenhouse soil and I've been spraying with calcium solutions specifically for blossom end rot, but not having much luck. Lime really needs to be added to the soil in the fall to be available for the plant to use the following year. Such a disappointment. I won't be repeating this experiment again. I hope the slower growing Cherokee Purples will make it OK, but the fast growing romas are pretty much duck food. Live and learn.

Poppy Time

Another scorching day. Not sure what the temperature is, maybe the upper 80's. Too hot. I'm spending the afternoon making glazes. Sheep and ducks are hanging out in the shade. Tomorrow cools back down to the seventies and everyone in this family will be happy about that. The heat seems to make the poppies and roses happy though.

Peony poppies!

Darlow's Enigma in full bloom

Poppies

A coneflower

Bonica heavy with flowers

A Bonica bouquet

A yarrow

Roses and Sick Sheep

It's rose time. I snapped a few pictures before the battery died on the camera.

Climber that is more mounding than climbing

Darlow's Enigma and ceanothus

Peony

Iris

Peony poppy

Roses at front of house

Sick Sheep

Boots took sick last Wednesday. He was lagging behind the others, sleeping a lot, had diarrhea and a fever of 106. Gave him a shot of oxytetracycline. His temperature was back to normal by Friday and he was eating non-stop again. He'd lost quite a bit of weight in just a few days. Don't know what caused it and none of the other sheep have gotten sick. Waiting for results of fecal to see if parasites are somehow involved. I didn't think we'd be getting into doctoring so soon, but so it goes. So glad these veterinary antibiotics are available OTC as I saved $100+ on a house call by doing it myself.

Updated on sheep

Fecal results show no significant parasite load. All is well, and no idea what caused Boots' infection.

Herding Practice

I managed to snap a few pictures of Hattie working the sheep! They all get an animal cracker when it's over.

Garden Pics

I don't really have anything to write about. Just want to post some garden pics. I've been busy with yard maintenance, animal care, herding with Hattie and a little pottery stuff. I made a bunch of French toast to freeze using a dozen duck eggs. Four eggs a day really adds up and we can't eat them all ourselves even with the dogs sharing one every day. 

The ducks come up onto the back porch every afternoon and tap their bills on the door until we bring them tomatoes. We are now trained to do that. Sometimes I sneak outside and call them from the garden just to watch them take a flying leap off the porch. They're bred to have undersized wings and cannot really fly so getting a little airborne like this is pretty exciting for them, especially if there's a strong wind to help.

Hattie with the big bulb

Clematis

Ceanothus in bloom, Darlow's Enigma starting to bloom and irises

Black iris

Tag and Hooper's flowers

Blue (?) iris

Fruit starting to grow on the tomatoes

Finally successful in keeping the rats out of the veggies!