Retrieving #1 Marine Daughter's golf cart from the crash house then turning around and going to the racetrack used up most of Saturday so I had to chore extra hard yesterday to make up for it.
I finished the batch of apple butter that I started last week. Canned 11 pints. The not-quite-full 12th jar went straight to the kitchen. I'm very happy with the way it turned out. I didn't really follow a recipe - seasoned it to taste and cooked it down until I was happy with the consistency. Pops is a Grade-A jelly snob and he gave it two thumbs up so I'll call it not bad for my first time making it.
After I cleaned up the mess left from making the apple butter I picked another five-gallon bucket of HoneyCrisp apples. Sliced up and froze enough to make three pies. A quart ziplock holds enough slices for one pie if you pack it fairly tight. Three apple pies isn't enough to get us through a winter so I'm thinking I'll repeat that exercise after work one evening this week.
I got one of the raised beds topped up with composted horse poo, turned that in, and watered it down. I'll re-fluff that this evening and toss some kale seed in for a fall/winter crop. I haven't decided what I'm going to plant in the 2nd raised bed, but I need to yank the basil plants and get the soil amended/turned before it can be replanted.
Mrs. Augie has been nurturing a Catalpa seedling in a pot all summer. We finally picked a spot to plant it. The ground is so dry that digging a hole is almost impossible so I soaked the spot it's going with hose water half a dozen times yesterday in hopes of making the digging easier. That was enough to remove the sod and leave a depression that I can continue to water until the ground is soft enough to finish a proper planting hole. I expect that it will take a day or three to get that done.
It's a little late in the season for it, but I'm thinking I might put some turnip and rutabaga seed in the ground and see if it will make something before winter gets here.
With me being gone Mrs. Augie got to spend most of Saturday supervising Howard. In spite of her best efforts to the contrary, she's falling in love with him. She even mentioned that I should clean up the big dog crate and bring it inside to see if it's possible to crate train a half-grown hound. I guess we'll find out soon enough. lol
