A homesteading Saturday

What a beautiful day in our neighborhood!  Warm, sunny, and best of all, my husband let me sleep in this morning and promptly removed the early bird LW from the bed, and hence my productivity when I did get up was quite high :)  Jim had to work (he's a cemetery superintendent, which unfortunately equals some Saturday work, especially in the summer) for awhile, so it was a great time to busy myself with the Rhubarb Marmalade that a friend sent me the recipe link for:

I should note that I'm ridiculously thankful to my parents for both instilling canning skills in me (yay 4-H!) and also for setting me up with some of the tools of the trade.

The finished product; 8.5 beautiful jars, and the fruit didn't even rise to the top.  I gave one to our landlords as a thank you for letting us harvest from their rhubarb patch, and the rest have been stocked away for yummy eating.  Unfortunately, the husband doesn't like rhubarb.. so I guess more for me :)

I also put in our tomato seedlings while LW looked on from the safety of her blanket, and then made some fantastic french toast with cinnamon swirl bread from Great Harvest for dinner.  LW had her first french toast (regular, not cinnamon bread), and dove in with great enthusiasm.

I have to say, I get so much enjoyment out of gardening and canning.  It feels good to work with my hands, and also to use the knowledge and wisdom passed down from generation by generation.  I always think of those who taught me the skills - my grandfather, my dad, my mom, 4-H leaders, etc.  For instance, Grammy Fenton (a woman who ran the canning dept. at our local fair for decades) would be proud :)

It is also fun to have mastered skills taught to you as a child to the point where you can confidently do them independently.  So many of the things that I learned growing up, I absorbed because "that was the way we did things."  Weekly church attendance, gardening, spinning, sewing, knitting, canning, baking, horses, sheep - I took for granted that this was the way most families were, but as I have grown I have found just how unique my upbringing was.  Not every ten year old is allowed to have their own fire, nor helped to start one in the winter (via a fatherly intervention with a blow torch); not every thirteen year old is given her own horse to raise and train.  I now know that my parents were sort of "Montessori" in their approach, though not strictly or even all that intentionally - but whatever you want to call it, it was a great way to grow up, and I hope LW can enjoy many of the same things.

Now, speaking of whom... time to get the baby ready for bed :)