The Great Olive Caper

 My latest experiment: Olives! Our tree out front has decided it is happy enough to give us a meager crop. I can't tell what kind they are, perhaps some kind of arabequina. Uncle Bear helped me strip the lowest branches of the semi-ripe skinny little olives. Unfortunately, the olive flies beat us there - about 80% had little bore holes in them and had to be tossed.

I got about 3 1/2 cups worth of good olives after sorting. Of these, half I smashed with a mallet and the other half I painstakingly slitted along the sides before dumping them into baggies with water to soak some of the extremely bitter oleuropein out before brining. It took 2 weeks changing their water every day till they were mellow enough! Now the long wait to see what they will taste like...

Emily

 

Abi finally got her wish - a new guinea pig! She named her Emily after some friends she made at Jami's horse camp this year.

Suki is not impressed. In fact, he doesn't even care. I guess it's a good thing he has no prey instinct, since Abi insists that Emily join us inside. Shaun put in a lot of work fixing up a hutch that Aunt Pat and Uncle Bear found - Emily is supposed to be an outdoor pig!

Abi's Do

Since Jami taught Abi how to rag-roll her hair to curl it, I have been employed to make sure she has curly hair for every important occasion. Here is Abi on her first day of school:

And here is Abi without curls, but with a brand new haircut!