Projects

Tim cleaned the garage over the summer.  It looks spectacular.  And what do you know?  It really can fit two cars.  After all.  The garage hasn't been this clean since it was built.  No, it wasn't cleaned out by the previous owner when we moved in.  In the freezer that was left for us, for example, we found steaks dated 1976.  There was also a box of the former owner's photos, a box of toys with the name of his 44-year-old daughter on the outside, and some old fabric.  To this collection and more, we added our stuff over the past three years, including construction supplies, boxes, bikes, windows, wood, paint....

Cleaning out a garage involves several trips to Habitat for Humanity, and a couple of trips to the dump.  But when you're finally done, you can take out the patio chairs and just sit out there and gaze at the clean-ness. Wow.  That was a project.

Me, I've been processing fruit again since July.  This year, I tried making more jam.  Cherry, black raspberry, plum, blackberry.  I've also made a lot of fruit rolls, in cherry-apple, black raspberry, plum, apricot, and pear.  In late July, I dried sour apples, and made some dried apricots.  It's lovely to live in a former fruit orchard, but there is a price to be paid.  The price is in time, evenings and weekends.  Taking care of fruit is a huge project.

Oh, and guess what Tim found when cleaning out the garage?  A massive fruit dehydrator, much like the one we purchased last year to deal with all our fruit.  Maybe I'll clean it out and we can use two massive dehydrators in parallel, but frankly, that sounds too exhausting.  I am ready to move onto other projects now.