Deck railing to go with pretty flowers, some pickles & painted blocks

Here's another round of Random Photos from earlier this month:

New deck railing.  

Our deck is less than six years old.  And the railing is already falling apart.  Oops.  We thought we were being all clever and wise with our original design but it turns out we really goofed!  

So we're working on a simple design using STEEL.  This baby had better not break!  So far Mark has finished one panel....

Let me also explain that there will be wood board (or wood-like material) going across the top of the metal frame (it'll sit on top of the wooden vertical posts).

We can create our new deck railing fairly economically because we own a welder (and it helps that Mark knows how to wield it).  However we're waiting to do the rest of the railing when our budget can come up for a breath of fresh air.  

Like my umbrella drying rack?  I love drying towels outside...but not so much our clothes (hate how stiff clothes feel after drying outside)

Lovely spiderweb hanging out on a tomato plant on our deck.

My lovely & very red glads...

After much jealousy and coveting of my sister-in-law's cutting garden I finally decided to bite the bullet and create my own.  This year I planted glads and some dahlias (deer apparently like dahlias but I'm hoping I'll still get to enjoy them).  

What should I add to my cutting garden next year....perhaps some zinnias?  Any suggestions?

some PICKLES!

My veggie garden is in the Going Nuts Stage of Production.  Trying to figure out what to do with all those cucumbers is quite the challenge. 

I made one batch of Hamburger Dill Pickles (with dill from our garden) and one batch of Curry Pickles (not shown).  I still have more cucumbers to use!

  How many pickles can one family eat????  

Painted Blocks:

One afternoon before our most recent trip to Michigan the girls were bored, borED, boRED, BORED!

What to do??????

We found some random blocks of wood (plain old pine, not treated lumber) near our chop saw, got out pots of paint, brushes, and the ever-so-important art smocks.

And the girls went to town painting them.

Check out a new use for egg cartons:

I'll admit I'm never super excited to get out the paints- I don't love the clean-up that's involved afterwards (and finding paint all over the house later on) but it did keep the girls occupied and happy for quite some time so it was definitely worth it!

We intended to turn these blocks into place tag holders (by cutting a slit in each one to hold a card) but that didn't happen before our trip to Michigan....and the girls gave these blocks out as gifts to family.  So, I guess they're paperweights?!?

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Black Raspberry Jelly

After collecting wild black raspberries from our property and freezing them for the past two years I finally had enough to make black raspberry jelly. Yippee!




Making the jelly is labor-intensive and messy. Here are the steps to making the jelly:

1. Collect berries whilst doing Silly Walks from Monty Python's the Ministry of Silly Walks sketch to keep the bugs and spiderwebs (and -eek- spiders) that spread magically across the trails off of you. Also remember to wear long sleeved shirts and pants unless you like getting zillions of scratches all over your body. (I'd forgotten about this step. Oops.)
2. In order to make the jelly you need about two gallons of berries. I got a hand full of berries every time I went picking so just imagine how many trips out into the spider infested forest I had to make!
3. Find a black raspberry jelly recipe and make sure you have EVERYTHING you need before you get started. Wee bit of a pain to have to drive to the store for that, "oops I forgot..."
4. MASH the berries! I mashed mine using an old potato masher.
5. Here comes the super messy part: Strain the berry goop through a metal mesh strainer. I'm sure there are better ways to do this but I'm too lazy to research or buy the proper tools. Hey, it works. Be sure to have plenty of homebrewed beer on hand (wine would work in a pinch). It really does help.
6. Carefully measure the precious black raspberry juice. Also measure out the sugar you'll need into a separate bowl. I think there is more sugar in this particular recipe than juice. BUT HEY! It tastes great!
7. Cook the juice in a giant pot with powdered pectin. Add sugar when it comes to boiling. Actually, you'll be boiling too if it's as hot there as it was in our house!
8. Do a super messy job getting the boiling HOT jelly into the clean jars. Try not to burn yourself. (also skim the foam off the top of each AND clean the rims VERY WELL before putting on the lids)
9. Seal the jars using a water bath canner. I feel so smart- we set up ours OUTSIDE. Brilliant, I know.
10. Let the jars cool and then you'll have beautiful, yummy tasting, homemade black raspberry jelly! Let your little girls and husband Oooo and Aahhh over it!

Leftover black raspberry goop & seeds.

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