Cute Pups

Violet, last night, snuggled between Rob and I in bed. Happy, snuggly pup.

Random pics

Sadie is a little ball obsessed.

Fall Has Arrived

I'm feeling a little cheated out of my summer

Snuggle Time

No explanation needed. Just a typical evening of chillaxing before bed.

Peaches

We bought 2 boxes of peaches a week ago. I've used up nearly all of them making peach preserves and canning them.

This was my first go at canning preserves. Plain peach preserves using this recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Peach-Preserves/Detail.aspx
Basically...it's alright. It didn't set as well as it should have - probably my fault somehow.

But the real winner of the peach preserves contest was spiced peach preserves, recipe found here:
http://goodthingscatered.blogspot.com/2009/08/spiced-peach-preserves.html
Delish. I didn't even bother taking off the skins. The peaches were *very* ripe so I dunno if that counters that fact, but I kinda like the texture it provides. Personal preference I guess. I washed the fuzzies off first though.

Pictured also is my large round zucchini. My lone, single, solo round zucchini. I started out with a bunch and they all withered away except for this big dude.  Should I eat him or save his seeds? Oh choices. Note my strawberry container behind it. It is mid September and I have green berries and FLOWERS. This has been the screwiest summer ever in the history of Seattle.... or at least for the 4 years I've been living here.

And tonight? Tonight I just halved and canned them.

I'm debating what to do with the remaining 25 peaches I have. More spiced peach preserves? Something new? Choices.

Pickles

Today was my first go at canning. I chose pickles. I don't even really like pickles. I hope Rob enjoys eating a whole bunch of pickles this year.

We picked up a box of small cucumbers just yesterday. Peaked in on them today? Moldy. Awesome. I scavenged enough to make 7 jars and tossed the rest in the yard waste bin. I may pick up some larger fresh cucumbers from the farmers market on Friday and make some sliced pickles.

The main problem (aside form my cucumbers spoiling) was getting the damn water bath to a boil. Rob suggested putting it over two burners. That was the trick to finally getting a boil. Note to future self: use two burners and hover the pot over both.

So I ended up using:
12C water
4C white vinegar
1tsp crushed red peppers
1tsp mustard seeds
1tsp black pepper corn
1tsp horse radish (per jar)
2-3 whole cloves garlic (per jar)
3-4 sprigs of dill weed (per jar)

Guess I'll find out in a couple of months if it sucks or not

This post is all about Sadie

Sadie's stitches

All bandaged up, thanks to nurse mommy

New bandages (again) = much happier dog

This post is all about Violet

Serpentine weeping cherry

Now that the fence is complete you can finally see the form of the tree. Love it.

The fence is 99% done

FINALLY! The fence is up! I've only been talking about this fence for 2 years now :)
Paul & Rob (with some help from my sister and her boyfriend) did a great job getting it all done. I say 99% done because it still needs to be stained.

Here are the two gates - one to our yard, and one to our neighbor's yard. I hope Dave likes it!

My baby is 1 today

Today is Violet's birthday. I plan on making some puppy cupcakes on Monday. A crazy stupid sappy video will probably follow in the next few months.

My babies aren't babies anymore.

Pity Party

Sadie had her tumor removed today. You have never seen a dog happier to be going to the vets. She pulled me in like a work horse and squeaked and squawked  with delight at all the workers and any other poor sucker who happened to be within her visual radius. When the gal took her leash to take her back she pulled her like a work horse to the back and I could hear her back there squawking away at everyone back there. It's outings like this where Sadie's tail becomes a lethal weapon of joy.

But now? Not so much. Sadie is throwing herself a little pity party. She has a cone that she has to wear when we can't supervise her and she HATES that thing. Unfortunately she has to sleep in it. She also has this little boot over her paw and she hates it. I'm pretty sure all her crying is because she's sulking that these things are on her. The horror!  She has pain meds so hopefully it's not because she's hurting.

We had them send the tumor off to the lab to make sure it was benign (though we are pretty darn certain it is). I think she has to wear this stupid boot for 2 weeks. Two weeks of a sad, mopey, whiny puppy. Great.