Dog days of summer

It's nice to have a day to organize your life -- work on the necessities and chores that pile up during the week. With Trevor and I working so much, a lot of things have fallen to the back of our minds: laundry, baking, dog baths, and packing, to name a few. We made some noble efforts to catch up this weekend.

Trevor started out today by making six jars of cherry jam. Boy, is it tasty! We've been buying in-season fruits in large quantities so we can save them for the winter. I've got a bag of blueberries in the fridge with 'pie' written all over it. When blueberries come into season in VT, I think I'll freeze a bunch so I can have blueberry muffins this winter. Raspberries and blackberries aren't far off!

I managed to do some yard work with the nice weather, and Trev and I transplanted a bunch of green things over at the cabin (oregano, coneflowers, chives, roses, mint, columbines, and others). We'd like to start the cottage garden, but the siding has to go up first. No use putting things in if they're going to get trampled.

Speaking of the cabin... Allison's organizing another work party for next Sunday, July 19th. Be there, or be square! We finally finished the roof. There would have been more celebration, but we were all dead tired. Allison and I ate a bag of cherries up on the ridge before coming down. I'm still trying to recover from the sunburn -- the metal roofing makes it feel like an oven up there. But, now we're on to more interesting projects. We've got interior walls, exterior sheathing, electric wiring, well digging, ceiling installation, and the list goes on. At least it's only July.

I'm off to work on pan-seared steak with onions and wine. At 9:00pm. I guess I've been losing track of time...