Thursday, September 23, 2010

Picking, slinging, apples

Despite my best effort to quell the caterpillar uprising, there were still casualties. My patio is littered with little green bodies, yet new damage appears daily on my cabbage seedlings. Not to mention my broccoli; luckily that's well-established enough to withstand it.

My garden duties at the moment consist of picking runner beans by the handful, picking spent sweet peas, and picking caterpillars off various vegetables.

While I've loved Franklin's baby carrier, he's just getting too heavy for me in it. Its designed so that most of the baby's weight is carried on the shoulders like a backpack. Well, Franklin hasn't been weighed in ages but I would venture to say he's around 15 pounds, and that means my back is killing me! I've been experimenting with a wrap sling I made*, and though I need practice tying it, it's a lot easier on my back. Wearing it, most of his weight is on my hip and waist and only a little on my shoulder.

*Literally I just tore a big piece off an old sheet; if you could examine it close up, you'd see dangling strings--maybe I should hem it or something

He rode in his new wrap on our walk today and actually fell asleep in it. He's cuddled asleep on my lap right now because I can't work out how to get it off without waking him.

At the last moment I decided to make apple jelly instead of apple butter. It's a beautiful deep clear red and we had some with our roast pork. If I can score more apples I will make butter.

1 comment:

Gilbrides said...

Sorry about all your bugs. I hate bugs in my garden. You are much better about taking care of yours. Can you come take care of mine? :) So glad you were able to make Apple Jelly. I bet it is so yummy! Hope you are able to get some more apples so you can make your butter.

Great job on the slings for Franklin. I always tried with my girls, but with Lauren I couldn't figure out how to have her in there without her legs turning blue, and with Katelyn, I think she just seemed too big. Isn't it so fun just cuddling a sleeping baby!