Day 238 8-25

Here's another look at the status of our garage that died back on the 4th of July. They've torn off the roof and made stacks of wood and had some people offer estimates on building a new one. I think that the weekend after Labor Day (so 2 weeks from today) some people will come from church to help load it all into a dumpster we'll rent for 3 weeks I think.

Technically this picture is from yesterday and I really should take a new one for today because after I took this the boys likely did some more work and they definitely cut the pine trees in back. They cut all the branches to about six or seven feet off the ground so it'll be easier to drag things down to the dumpster. It really opened things up back there, makes it seem like there's actually a place to be back there. Maybe I'll take a picture of it for later. I wanted that place to be a secret hideaway in the trees but it was not a comfortably place to get into and who knows what bugs were hiding in the trees. Seems like we're rehabilitating the yard now with the new garage and the pruning. We'll see what happens. :)

Day 237 8-24

So you know how back on day 232 I said I was searching for yeast in the freezer? I never found it and decided I'd just make my own yeast. I started this on Sunday night I think. Maybe it was Monday morning. Regardless, I want to make some bread already but I can't tell if this is really ready! I tried to "proof the sponge" but it didn't look particularly white and frothy. I will try to make bread tomorrow anyway. If it never rises I'll know I failed to grow wild yeast. It was a fun experiment anyway.

Day 236 8-23

This is some of the mess I made making jam. It may also be why things didn't set well. I maybe had 10 cups of berries instead of 8, I had pectin for 8 lbs of berries but I didn't boil for a full minute after adding it because things were bubbling over and I didn't want to lose jam. It was really just foam so I should've ignored it, except it did start a small fire at one point. :) All in good fun, right?

Day 235 8-22

Happy 64th Birthday to my Dad! I should've cleaned the house for him or something but instead I made strawberry jam with the 8 lbs of strawberries I got cheap in the strip a few weeks ago.

I don't think it set properly and the bit I tried from the pan tasted rather too sweet to me anyway, but it could always be an ice cream topping like I did with Susan's blueberry "syrup" jam she sent for my birthday. I don't know that we'd ever need 9 jars of strawberry topping though. :p It was fun to do anyway, even if I made a big mess knocking over the cup of skimmed foam.

Day 234 8-21

There were some nice flowers outside the visitors center in Kirtland. I took lots of pictures of things there and at the farm and camp that I'll probably never share. Maybe in a blog post on my main blog. I should just upload them all to Facebook at least!

Shade and lomographic (I don't know what that word means but I use the filter sometimes when vibrant makes things hurt your eyes to look at. Tha seems to be a problem with pinks and reds. It may only be on my phone that it's an issue though)

Day 233 8-20

There was a gate we had to keep closed across the gravel/dirt road that led from the Johnson farmhouse to our camp. I wasn't even sure I had the right place when I first came to it.

This picture was from Wednesday, walking back to camp after touring the farm. The clouds look really cool, too. We had such good weather at camp!

Clarity and 80% vibrant

Day 232 8-19

Barbara has tons of tomatoes in her garden, unlike me. She brought some over after church to make spaghetti sauce. It turned out pretty good and we had a very nice Sunday dinner which included vegetables I'd thrown out of the freezer in a frenzied search for yeast so I could make some quick rolls to be garlic bread to go with our dinner. It was all rather upsetting at the time but now I know what's in part of the freezer at least. I still need to clean out the rest of it and make an inventory so they'll stop buying things we already have hidden in the freezer. I found so many things!

But enough on cleaning, here's dinner with filters: food and 50% vibrant.