Jam.

Yesterday, we made jam. It tastes good, fantastic if you ask David.

I used the recipe for strawberry jam from http://pickyourown.org. It recommended no/less-sugar pectin and almost halved the amount of sugar needed - it was still a little too sweet for us though. So my next attempt may have 3 cups of sugar at the most. I photo-documented most of the process and will post those below later today.

We went out to visit the sequoias we planted in late May. They're doing really well, lots of new growth and they stand at around 2-3 feet right now. We watered and weeded them. Hopefully they'll be hardy enough come winter.

Kibomi spent much time with us yesterday, first with David up in the office, and then with me doing chores, and joined us for a walk to the sequoias. He's getting much better at listening and understanding us. I can't wait to take him to Companion Dog I (at Cascade Pet Camp, the only obedience type school I can find in the Gorge). I initially thought we could learn to train him ourselves but it really is quite a task, especially since I've never really attempted to train the dogs we had at home ever. I really like that he interacts with so many other types of dogs at Cascade Pet Camp, although it's worried me several times that he might just maul a small puppy.

Today, I have plans to pick the longest strawberry row we have, the one I've been avoiding for a long while. And perhaps make four more bottles of strawberry jam. Then catch up on my thesis and bills and housework and.. oh yes, unpacking. Jam making pictures to come soon.