I’ll be honest with you. Ninety percent of the reason I am blogging right now is to extend the time I have my laptop on my lap. Laptop warm. Ahhh. Two days ago, the high temp was 92. Right now it is 25. TWENTY-FIVE DEGREES. And guess what? Our furnace isn’t working. Yay?

Lesson #1: Always check the furnace BEFORE it is below freezing outside.

I woke shivering up this morning when Tim’s alarm went off at 3:30. It was 62 degrees in the house. Turned on the furnace for the first time ever, threw extra blankets over the chitlins, and hopped back in bed. Realized I was getting colder as the vents were blowing cold air. Duuuude.

Lesson #2: Fuzzy socks are really, really slippery on laminate floors.

In other news, I made grape jelly for the first time ever last night. My parents were given a HUGE amount of grapes from a friend’s grapevine and as they left yesterday to go elk hunting, they didn’t have time to do anything with the grapes, so I took them to make jelly. I thought it was going to be a fairly quick process… I’d never juiced grapes before. After about two hours of work, I ended up with seven cups of grape juice and every square inch of my kitchen covered in a sticky film.The actual jelly-making process was quick and easy though. The thing is, my jelly didn’t really set up. I opened up a jar this morning to have on muffins and it is a little too jiggly still. Apparently it might still set up firmer? I hope. I don’t even really LIKE grape jelly but this actually isn’t too bad. The peach jam I made is still better though. And I still haven’t tried the pumpkin butter, perhaps I will pick up a pumpkin today.

I am finding that I really enjoy canning. I am going to grow a massive garden next year so I can do more. We’ve also got plans to put in several fruit trees. Having a large property is kind of cool. In the meantime, maybe I can mooch more produce off my friends.