Canning and Old Sturbridge Village

I have been translating when I can get the work, but I have quite a bit more free time now.  So, I decided to get started on Christmas presents, hostess presents, and stocking up the pantry for winter.  Canning!

Yesterday, I did 3 quarts and 1 pint of pear butter.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/pear-butter/detail.aspx

It tastes so good!  The orange flavor is perfect with the pear.  But...it takes 2 lbs of pears to make 1 quart.  Fortunately, we have maybe 50 lbs of pears (friend of the family sent Jon home with half a truck full), so I can and should make as much as I want.

Today, I started two more batches.

That one is a saged pear butter.
http://tigressinajam.blogspot.com/2010/04/saged-pear-butter.html
It has pepper and sage, and is making the house smell wonderful!

The next batch is a caramel pear butter.
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2008/10/caramel_pear_butter
These take half a day to cook down, but they are completely worth it.

My other project today was making pickles.  My grandparents had the most amazing sour mustard pickle recipe, which my uncle continues to make, that make your mouth pucker and eyes water.  I found this recipe, which is the closest I could find.
http://www.almanac.com/recipe/ruth-feeneys-mothers-sour-mustard-pickles
I am canning them, though, so I used these instructions.
http://www.pickyourown.org/makingpickles.htm

Three of the jars are filled with lemon cucumbers, and the other five are regular straight eights.  I've never actually canned before, besides making the jam, so I hope that they turn out alright.  The smell of the brine was enough to make me cough, so they should be strong enough!

My biggest problem now is running out of counter space.

Jon and I went to Old Sturbridge Village for the second time last Saturday.  We had an amazing time there in the rain, with very few people around!  I got some photos to save for inspiration when we are building our house.  I love the little house in the front of the village.  I want to live there, right now.  Can I just stay there, get paid to just work and live, and not have people ask me a million questions?

Here are some of the pictures from that day.

 I want this wallpaper!

 My parents have a fireplace in their kitchen just like this, but not used in a very long time.

 Timberframing

 Very nice step.

 The siding has something to do with ship siding

Jon, sporting his new beard

Translating

Yesterday morning, after channel surfing, I started to think...I hadn't got any translating work from the source that I always get work from in a while...So I made myself rewrite my resume, bid on as many jobs as I could find, and...I got a document!  All on my own!  The document took maybe 15 hours to do...and I did it in two days.  My mind is mush, but I can now relax for a moment and enjoy my trip to see a good friend this evening!  I'm hoping that I get much better at translating, but I am just so happy that I can get my own documents now =)  One step closer to translating full-time!

Peaches, Vermont, and Unemployment

The good news.  Peaches are wonderfully fun to bake with.

 http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1810,143179-235207,00.html

Yugoslavian Peach Cookies,

filled with homemade peach jam.

 They look like peaches!!!

My attempt to beautifully plate my homemade vanilla pudding with peach sauce.

Another piece of good news:  We are thinking of moving to Vermont!  Cheap health care, maternity included (someday...!), cheaper housing, and hopefully stonework for Jon!  Also, it is Not living with our parents-in-law.

The bad news: I stopped working as a nanny for the kids.  Their mom left her job (very good reasons for this), so they don't need me anymore.  I miss them so much!  I knew it would end eventually, though.

Better news: I have been getting quite a lot of translating work recently.  I have pretty much had enough to make it my entire income.  This will really work out when we move, because I have no idea when or where in VT we are going!  Any suggestions out there for good places to live in VT with lots of stone walls?  Jon needs to be able to keep up his work.  I have also had more time to catch up on knitting and baking projects, hence the peach cookies that took me an entire day to make.  I usually go crazy stuck around the house all day, but I am trying to keep myself busy and productive!

Raw milk and peaches

Today, Jon and I are going to go pick some peaches and pick up a gallon of raw milk that I ordered.  I'm very excited!  I've been wanting to make some stove top vanilla pudding- it's so much better than pudding from a mix, or even from a microwave recipe!  I grew up drinking raw milk and never got sick from it- I believe that it is good for you!  A farm that I know posted this link about raw milk:

http://westonaprice.org/press/press/government-data-proves-raw-milk-safe

Baby phonology

Yesterday, Iorek started moving his lower lip downwards and tensing it, while saying [i].  Today, he said [gi].
He is now 7 months, 3 weeks old.

Photos

 Baby sling!

 I wrapped the extra fabric around the back.  I'm very happy with it!  The sling works very well, and fit better and more comfortably than any other sling I've tried.  Iorek loves it!  (Ander, bottom left, approves, also)

 Ander poses for a picture.

 Iorek, aged 7 months 3 weeks, standing!  He's going to take off running any minute.

Here is my first attempt at a onesie.  It is infant sizes, so obviously Iorek couldn't model it.  I love how it came out!  The collar is a bit funny looking, so I need to think up a solution to finish it better.  The snaps worked like a dream.

Update on projects.

Summer is going by far too quickly!  I've been running back and forth quite a bit for appointments, seeing friends before they move away (JenJen!), and finishing things like the rabbit hutch and thank you notes from the wedding.

Yeah, JenJen and I are pretty much awesome.

The hutch is done, except for shingles, which we will make.  These pictures were taken before the roof was put on.

 It is a beautiful, luxury home!  Jon did such an amazing job, and I was glad to help him when I could.  The rabbits love it, too.

And here the first cucumber of the season, next to a bowl of the most amazing lettuce, all from the garden.  I've been getting a ton of greens and not much else, so the cucumber was a big treat.  The lemon cucumbers are coming along nicely, I've planted some more greens, the new beans have sprouted, there are little green cherry tomatoes, and the zucchini and summer squash have large blossoms.  Jon made me some tomato stakes, and I learned that I am terrible at tying tomatoes.  I never got assigned that job at the farm I worked on, beyond clipping tomatoes in greenhouses.  I will post pictures later how funny it looks.  Did I mention that I used orange yarn?

I finished the baby sling and one onesie.  Pictures should follow in the next post.  The sling is great!  I might want to add some padding for the shoulder, though.  The onsie is adorable in the blueberry fabric!  I finished two more skeins of yarn and made a little change purse from 12 yards of scrap silk yarn leftover from the yarn I used to make a glasses case for Jon.