Canning and Sewing

This morning I woke in a great deal of pain.  Not the way I was hoping to start my day.  I spent the first part of the day in bed hoping the pain would go away.  I finished reading Wild Magic by Tamera Pierce.  It is one of my all time favorite books as is she one of my all time favorite authors.  Reading helped me get through some of my pain.  Unfortunately, I missed lunch with my class mates from the FTTP.  Once a month us girls have been trying to get together to keep in touch and support each other.  I also cancelled a makeup gig I was going to do tomorrow.  I was really looking forward to the money it would bring in as well as working with Dan and Maria again but I did not want to leave them in the larch incase the pain did not subside by tomorrow.   Maybe not the wisest move since the money would probably paid my book bill for UNM this semester.  Ah well, easy come easy go.  

At about 1:00 I had had enough of laying around.  I could not stand to be bed ridden anymore even if I was in a lot of pain.  I got up and decided to go ahead with my plans for canning the grapes I had harvested yesterday from Nana's neighbor.  I got out the three grocery bags full of grapes and started washing.  

I found out several things in this process, the main one being canning concord grapes is not the easiest foray into the canning world.  If you do not know already concord grapes have seeds which means that you have to first boil the grapes then strain the juice out of the grapes before you can start the jelly making process.  It is a hot and sticky affair.  Though I will not be attempting to can these kind of grapes again for a little while I did have a wonderful time.  It was enough to get my mind concentrating on something else so I was relatively pain free for about 3 hours.   I made 6 jars of somewhat runny jelly and I am very proud of it!

After the canning, I set to cutting out the pattern and material for the skirt I am making.  So far I enjoy cooking much more than sewing.  I may get burnt a bunch when cooking- and especially  canning- but it seems like a very small price to pay compared to getting stuck with pins all the time!  Ah well, I am learning quickly which way to set the pins so I do not get stuck in the future.

This homesteading thing is awfully hard.  Still the feelings of pride and accomplishment I get from making all of these things by hand instead of going out and buying them is well worth a few burns and stuck fingers.