September Recap

This month was much more of a struggle than last month.  Last month I felt like I was kicking butt, this month has been more of a battle with my to-do list.  But at least I made a beautiful galette.

What this boils down to is the fact that my goals sort of fell by the wayside.  Let's recap:

• Watch these videos on Climate Change: the Scientific Debate.  I watched...3.
• Read an edifying book.  Nope nope nope.  I tried, but only made it a few pages
• Sell or give away some of the stuff I no longer use.  Those things are sitting in boxes, ready to go...but they're still here.  I did get rid of a few things.
• Continue to preserve food through canning or freezing.  Yes!  I did this!  I canned tomatoes, and I'm going to do some hot sauce and applesauce this weekend!
• Get ready for some September events!  I put together a slideshow of a bunch of area gardens / harvests for our annual Harvest Celebration!  The event is on Sunday and I'm really looking forward to it.
• Spend a day on a lake.  Well, I drove all the way around Lake Michigan.  That's got to count for something, right?

October looms, and I've finally crossed to the dark side: it's fall.  It took me awhile to accept it, but frost on my windshield in the morning, pumpkin cake, apple picking, a spiced cider and doughnut party, and bright red leaves don't lie.

• A home-pressed cider and homemade doughnut party!  We're pressing cider this weekend, and this friend has promised to make some doughnuts!  It's going to be great!
• It looks like I'll be going on a couple business trips to visit customers.  I have mixed feelings about this - but it's definitely a positive step for the company I work for.
• Other than that, I have no real plans except to catch up.  Things have been pretty crazy lately and I'm getting behind, so I'm HOPING October will slow down.

As always, some photos from my month...
A friend told me about some perfect wine peaches available at a can't-say-no-to-that price.  Six hours later, I had a bucket of peach wine started.

I started my first batch of beer!  An India Black Ale - and they weren't kidding about the how dark this beer is!  I only screwed it up a little bit, hopefully it was all even out in the end. (behind it:  rhubarb wine from this spring, and the aforementioned peach wine is wrapped up in a white towel.)

 The family spent a day and Gram's house picking apples.

That left us with an SUV full of apples!  What to do with all this bounty?

I used this ancient contraption to crank out my first-ever homemade applesauce, then added a little maple syrup and cinnamon for a delicious treat.

And lastly, we've been gifted some hops.  Holy mother of hops, batman!  We aren't receiving everything in this photo, but I'm sure a few ounces will find their way into the India Black Ale pictured above.  (It looks like popcorn in this photo.  I guess there are worse things it could look like)

Well, happy fall.  It's here, there's no stopping it, might as well embrace the brisk air and the ugly sweaters.