Summer doings

Well, hasn't it been summer, though!  We have had a spell of hot and humid, and before that it was very dry, which has made it a very summery summer.  Thankfully today is cooler with a bit of badly needed rain.
It sure is a busy time around here.  The garden is beginning to produce with a vengeance.  I have already frozen many beans, blueberries and raspberries.  Made raspberry jam.  Every night at supper we have something fresh from the garden.  It is such a great feeling to just walk down, pick something, than come back to the house and cook it!
And I am cooking it on my new stove.  The old oven just upped and quit a few weeks ago.  As it was about 13 years old, and had been repaired twice, we decided to get a new one.  I love, love, love the new one!!!  It is a Frigidare with convection oven and a 5th burner in the middle that is for a griddle (that comes with it).  I can't wait until canning time as I think that it is going to be so much easier on this stove top--the other one had pot issues, as the canner didn't fit on the grates very well.
The excitement for last evening was the first of the honey extractions.  Jeff uncapped and spun out 9 frames.  It went quite well.  I even got a chance to spin it.

Uncapping the comb

The extractor holds 4 frames

Spinning the honey out

Now the extractor is sitting in the bathroom waiting for a sunny day.  The warm day will make the metal heat up, which in turn will make the last of the honey on the walls run down to the base.  Then we can bottle it up.  He got some nice jars and pretty labels to go on them.  Yum Yum!!
There were two baby events that needed knitting for.  I adapted a pattern for the first one, using the Garden Trellis Dress pattern from the Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders book.

For Sophia's sister

I then decided that I liked the shape of this little dress and used the basic premise of the pattern to make a second dress for a little four month old who had surgery recently.

Adaptation

The shawl is finished, is being blocked, and when dry I will take a photo so you can see it completed.  I am very happy with it.  Now I am on fire to do a little gift weaving.  The first project is going to be made of cotton and is not handspun at all, which is exciting me, as it will have 20 epi, a doubling of warp compared to my latest weavings.   I hope to get the cones tomorrow.  It is for a wedding shower.  The second bit will be the wedding present.  That will be a throw with my handspun as warp and a beautiful royal blue chenille as the weft.  Meanwhile, we will be hosting the shower here, so I have had to really work on the flower beds to spiff them up.  Like I said, it's a busy time!

Happenings and Non Happenings

The happening that happened was that Jeff finally got recognition for his role in capturing the Bank Robbers.  This is the short story--last fall our little town and the town next to it were hit by a pair of thieves making bold demands for cash, and then getting away quickly.  My husband, aka Jeff the Barber, happened to see the woman and the car she got into, noted the make and plate number, which led to the capturing of said robbers.  And subsequent arrests.  Tuesday he was awarded by the State Troopers for his part in all this.

A close up of the award

It was a very nice ceremony, starting out with all the trooper promotions, then going on to the awards. There were the ones for rescuing people from burning buildings and children from culverts and lots of them for the work done during and after Hurricane Irene, which Jeff said were much more deserving of recognition.  Jeff's brother Rob was able to come.  

Rob on left, Jeff on right

I was very proud, although Jeff had to be coerced into going as he always maintains that he was just being nosey!  

The non-happening was that Mama Hen did not get any chicks to mother.  After the 22nd day I got her off the nest.  She had been sitting on a broken egg that was beginning to smell, and I was not surprised to find that the rest of the eggs were intact with no sound of peeping.  I put her in the cage that she would have occupied with  her chicks, and kept her there while I gave the nest boxes and coop a thorough cleaning.  But when I let her out she ran right back to her box and jumped in.  Poor Mama!  I wished I knew someone with chicks to give her one.  I took her off the nest, put her back in the cage where she had to spend the next two days, as she would run back to her nest at every opportunity.  But finally last night she stayed on the roost, and this morning came out by herself, so I think that the broodiness has dissipated.  We eventually broke all the eggs and found that none of them had developed.  So they were all duds.  It will be nice to have the flock back to normal as the other hens didn't seem to lay as much with her in the nest box all that time.

Normalcy

Now the next thing that needs to happen is to finish my shawl and get the loom warped with the next project.  Besides gardening.  And cleaning.  And spending time with the Grandgirls.....