Nineteen Quarts of Apple Pie Filling and Some Lettuce

I’ve made four trips to town in the past three days. I find that a bit horrifying because I try to keep my trips to town to twice a week, usually Monday and Thursday. Some of that was due to poor planning on my part; some of it was due to events beyond my control. I had errands to run Monday morning that couldn’t wait until Tuesday, when I had a dentist appointment. On Monday afternoon, I got an Amazon order for knitting books, but when I went to pack them up, I discovered that the boxes I had for packing were the wrong size, even though they looked like the correct ones, which is why I hadn’t put any more on the shopping list. I got more on Tuesday after my appointment, but had to run the boxes into town yesterday. UPS charges $15 to pick up here. Amazon is very picky about how orders are packed and when they are shipped and will ding your account if you don’t follow their rules exactly.

[Town is 17 miles away and a good 30-minute drive depending on traffic. On Tuesday morning, it took me 45 minutes because I hit traffic on my way to an 8:00 a.m. dentist appointment. Seventeen miles may not sound like much, but it gets old quickly. It’s rather like when I drive to Great Falls—which is a four-hour trip over the mountains—and I realize that that same route took Lewis and Clark months to traverse.]

I came home from town yesterday morning intending to transplant lettuce, but just as I got out to the garden, my cell phone rang. It was the husband. He had met with an equipment rep (which I knew was on the schedule) and decided to go ahead and purchase the piece of equipment. The rep was heading back to Idaho and preferred a cashier’s check for payment. I said to the husband that I could go back to town, but first I had to call the bank and find out how they wanted to handle this as all the lobbies are closed.

Thankfully, this is a local bank where we have done business for over two decades. They know us and were happy to accommodate my request and said they would have the cashier’s check waiting at the drive-through within the hour. I picked it up, called the rep, and arranged to meet him in the K-Mart parking lot. His GPS sent him to Target, however, so I told him to stay put until I got there. I handed off the paperwork and made it back home by 2:30 p.m. I got the lettuce transplanted but still have to put up the hoop.

The new piece of equipment is supposed to arrive on Friday. I need a demonstration of what it does before I can explain it to anyone, but it will save the husband some labor and that is significant.

So, what have I accomplished this week besides driving around the county? I canned 19 quarts of apple pie filling on Monday and Tuesday:

These are the State Fair apples I got from Susan. I was going to add in the Golden Delicious apples from our tree, but they still don’t seem to be ripe. This is the first year that tree has produced fruit, so I don’t have a frame of reference. I don’t think they need a frost. They clearly need another week or two, though. If the husband doesn’t eat them, they likely will end up as applesauce.

The dentist pronounced my teeth “very healthy.”

I got a flu shot yesterday. I took some ibuprofen immediately afterward but forgot to take some after dinner—because I felt fine—and woke up around 10 p.m. feeling just awful. That always happens when I get a flu shot. I took more ibuprofen and I’m feeling better this morning.

After I get the hoop up and bring in the cantaloupe and tomatoes, I plan to spend the rest of the day sewing.

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I was going to go to Seattle again next weekend, but the wildfire smoke has been so bad that I-90 has been closed periodically across the middle of Washington state due to low visibility. I’m going to stay home. DD#1’s wedding is less than a month away and little details that need to be handled keep popping up here and there. A wedding with 25 family members seems to be no less complicated than one with 125 guests, but we’re looking forward to it.