Do you ever start out the day thinking, I'll get this, that and the other thing done today and before you know it, it's 5:00 pm and time to start thinking about wrapping up the day? My list of things to do usually includes things like, weeding, canning, finishing the retaining wall, mow the fields, reseed all of the pastures, move the barn. You know, the usual stuff. Unfortunately, I'm not Samantha and a wiggle of my nose gets me a good laugh, but that's about it!

So, today began like all of the others, hoping to get a ton of things done...

Off to the Milwaukie Farmer's Market to get Akane apples. My friend Elena informs me that those are the best for apple sauce. I talked my wonderful husband into joining me for my outing. Pouring down rain when we first got there, but the sun was out and it warmed up nicely within 15 minutes. As always, I end up with way more than I intended to buy at the market... Fresh baby carrots, 1/2 flat of blackberries, a Key Lime cheesecake from Zoe Anne's cheesecakes, bacon from SweetBriar farms and, oh yeah, the apples!

So, when we got home around 1:00 (after a side trip to Home Depot and Freddy's) My attention was split between canning applesauce and darting outside between showers to clean out the garden shed so I can help Jason w/ his project too (putting the finishing touches on the storage closet on the North side of the house). Yesterday a smashed my pinky finger between two large boulders so it's still pretty puffy, but I started bending it right away after it happened, so it's blue, but still working. Anyway, I digress...

I finally got started canning my 24 lbs. of Akane apple around 3:00. God bless the person who created the Apple Corer/Peeler/Slicer! :) I shared the peels and cores with the goats, chickens and cows. The cows didn't quite know what to think. They sniffed and licked a little. I didn't have time to wait and see if they ever ate them. They were pretty doubtful about the sweet stuff though. The goats and chickens loved the scraps.

I ended up with 20 1/2 pint jars and 10 pint jars of applesauce. I tried a new recipe and added a little bit of Allspice and vanilla. Jason thinks it's great! Thank goodness, since I mostly do it for him.

I also canned about 8 1/2 pint jars of seedless blackberry jam. It turned out really good too. I let the jars cool too much though, because I was doing multiple batches of applesauce. So, when I put the jam in, one of the jars burst and the bottom came off. What a mess, but I processed the batch anyway, jam in the water and all.

So, despite frequent distractions, I got my original goal accomplished. It's always cool to see the outcome of a hard day's work. Hope your day was productive too!