Jelly Making time comes early at the Miller Ranch

This post I have a need to talk about something other than the house!!  IT still has me very upset and we still have no resolution to the cabinet problem.  So let's talk about something more entertaining.

In the 6 years that I have been making my "award winning" prickly pear jelly, I have never had the pears start ripening before late September.  This year however, I have beautiful purple fruits and it is only the middle of August.

 It really is a bumper crop and I don't know what I am going to do with all the juice.  There is only so much freezer space available to me.  I harvested about 120 pears last weekend.  It didn't even make a dent!  If only I could sell the jelly and make a decent profit I would be in the money with this crop.  Since I can only really make a profit of about $2.00 a jar I just make it for family and friends.  Now I do have friends and family that love it and remember I did earn first place at the Texas State Fair so if anyone wants a jar they will have to let me know.

It is quite a process to get the juice out of these little fruits and it truly becomes a labor of love.  First I have to be covered from the tips of my feet to the ends of my fingers.  The spines on the cactus can really hurt and the also have these little hair like spines called glochids.  The glochids are the nasty ones because you can barely see them but they attach themselves to you very easily and hurt like hell.  I wear leather gloves when I harvest them and put a pair of latex gloves on before I put on the leather gloves for extra protection.  Last year I tried to get one out of my finger by biting it with my teeth- not a good idea! One little guy lodged itself just under my tongue.  I had to get the tweezers and find jay to have him remove it.  Try talking when you can't use your tongue because it is rubbing on the glochid stuck in your mouth.  Yes, he got a good laugh out of that one and I learned a valuable lesson.  It was so hot this early that I wore a sleeveless top and got them in my forearms and had to sit with the tweezers for a while pulling them out.

After they are picked I have to burn off the remaining glochids before I can boil them and extract the juice.

At the end of the day I had filled 11 bags of juice, enough for 55 jars of jelly.  There is still room in the freezer so I think I will harvest some more this weekend.  Anyone want to join me in the fun.....

Wheels fall off the wagon

 

Well, things have slowed a bit on the house construction.  Everything has been going so splendidly, then the wheels fell off the wagon. The first issue came when the painter came to paint.  Turns out I didn't read the contract as closely as I should have.  Original contract called for 2 paint colors, not 2 per room.  Well I had about 13 colors and we were budgeted for 2.  Also we wanted the painter to use Benjamin Moore paint because we believe it is the best paint.  Change order came in at $3,000.  That's $250 per room counting hallways and utility rooms.  We felt it was excessive, but we wanted the colors and it was either pay now or pay later (and probably pay more) so we agreed to the CO.  When we got to the house on Friday most of the rooms were painted and the colors were close (except my office which was a yellow that looked like a child's nursery).  Problem... no Benjamin Moore paint cans- zero! but lots of Devoe.  So he charged us for BM and used a different brand.  Very annoyed but contractor was insisting that the painter told him he used BM.  We decided it wasn't worth the battle but that the color in my office needed to be changed to what I had picked.

THEN.....

 Remember how excited I was about my kitchen cabinets.  Well the cabinet maker went MIA on us.  He has been promising the contractor for over three weeks to deliver our cabinets and then we hear and see nothing.  Jay even drove by his shop today.  It was all locked up and he saw no cabinets inside.  On his way back to Dallas he called and told me.   I was so angry, but when he told me we are going to have to start over with a new cabinet maker, I just started to cry.  I don't have the plans for the original kitchen, because AJ never sent them to me.  I threw away all my pictures of what I wanted once we had completed the design and don't remember how everything was laid out.  Let's just say I had a total meltdown.  The kitchen was my special room, designed by me for me.  Like Jay's man palace it had all the things I wanted and even some things I hadn't thought of before.  Now it is going to delay the completion of the house by at least a month- so it's going to cost us more in interest charges plus it messes with us trying to sell our house!  It's not even safe for me to think about what I would like to have happen to AJ!!!!!!

I'm going to meet with the new cabinet maker tomorrow, but I'm just so depressed and angry who knows what I'll end up with!

Sorry no pictures this post!

Looking better every week

It was exciting to see the house this week.  The great room ceiling was put and it looks fabulous.  They had also started the fireplace which they completed Saturday afternoon.  The room will make quite a statement when it's done. All the windows and doors are in and they had also completed putting up the wainscoat in the utility hallway.  Now to make the final color choices.  As I wrote last week, picking colors is very stressful.  You are going to be living with these colors and everything needs to blend (okay it doesn't have to, but in my world it does).  After spending two hours with the flooring specialist I had picked all the flooring and wall colors.  My natural tendency is to pick beige or offwhite to keep it simple.  Jay, the artsy one of this couple likes the big bold color statements.  However, this time he left me to my own devices and we decided that I would step out of my box (ever so meekly) and pick all the colors except the great room (which is the room he has really designed himself) and the utility hallway.  Here's what I've picked
Master Bedroom- a light grey
Master Bath - a shade or two darker grey
Guest Bath- a soft green
Guest Room#1- Peachy
Guest Room #2  Beige with yellow tones
My Office-Beige or sage green- still debating
Kitchen- Yellow

Now it's time for window treatments.... do the decisions never end?  Shutters for the great room or not, that is the question?  Guess you'll have to wait until I post again to find out what I will decide.

It's been a while since I posted a picture of the cows, they were taking it easy in the shade (as they do every day) and I snapped this one.