Being productive

It's peach time in South Carolina!

We had a wonderfully productive weekend. Both of us took Friday off and used it as our regular Saturday - relaxing, some yardwork, catching up etc. So when Saturday and Sunday actually came along, we got lots done. Here's a rundown:

1. Went for a hike with Kane at Crowder's Mountain State Park

2. Picked the first tomatoes in the garden. Yes, that is a penny - aren't the maters cute???? :-) These are sweet currant tomatoes that I grew from seed with seeds from Seed Savers Exchange.

3. Picked the first cucumbers. Yum!

4. Sean made a giant teabag from jute and suede cord to make manure tea for the garden. Here he is sewing it together. Sean actually once took first place in craftsman skills at his local 4H by sewing a dress for one of his sisters! :-)

5. Shopped at the local farmstand and got fresh blueberries, rhubarb (not local!), white corn and strawberries.

Blueberry Breakfast Bars

6. Made these Blueberry Breakfast Bars with the fresh local blueberries. This photo was taken 5 minutes after it came out of the oven. Haha. Just kidding. But we're chowing it down pretty quickly! If you like bluberries, please, please try this Foodie Farmgirl recipe. You won't be sorry!

7. Felt very sad at the news of my friend's 6 month old puppy drowning in a freak accident. Little Davey Crockett will be missed. I will miss your snapping kisses and your boundless energy. We love you lots, J. Sometimes, life just doesn't seem fair. Love with all you have.

8. Went to Greensboro to meet my dog training girls for an obedience training session which was great. More on that in my other blog. Here is Bronco and Jackie working on the jumps.

9. Sean weed-whacked the entire garden. Love you, honey!

10. Sean installed a drip-irrigation system in the veggie garden. The tomatoes love you, honey!

11. Celebrated my neighbor Gaye's birthday with a giant bouquet of kitchen garden herbs, coneflowers and black-eyed Susans. Happy double nickel, neighbor!

12. Almost finished cleaning the green bedroom! Yeay - I can see the floor!

13. Canned peaches. (9pm on Sunday night....). I used TennZen's recipe and canning instructions over here. She has excellent recommendations for safe canning practices which can also be found here. She has also written this post on various unsafe methods (which I have in several of my (recently published) cookbooks.

Sean made me a funnel! Nice...

14. Blogged about it.

I hope you all had wonderful either productive or relaxing weekends, or perhaps they were one and the same. Despite the productiveness, my thoughts are with everyone that lost someone this weekend, which seems to be many, both public figures and friends. May everyone eventually find some peace after all this sadness.