Oh Sugar! (And Sheep)

So I bottled my last batch of Dandelion Wine (for now at least). When my hubby realized I was making a second batch of the same recipe he asked why. I explained it would be like my "control." If everything was equal, wouldn't we be able to truly judge if the wine was good or not?

Besides, weird stuff happens--maybe one batch will decide vinegar's its calling and the other will be wine... I would like SOME wine out of my first attempt at winemaking, after all. But I do have some neat herbed vinegar recipes just in case...

So today I tried making Dandelion Jelly. I've never canned before. I may never be brave enough to can again considering the insanity of my first attempt. There was a brief period where I couldn't locate my last 1 and 1/2 cups of sugar--a rookie mistake, not having everything handy from the get-go! How embarrassing...

I guess we'll see what happens after the 24 hour cooling period. I need better equipment--that's for sure. Deeper pots to give myself more space to achieve the 2 inch above the lid rule. A jar holder (instead of my wonky tongs). A space of a few hours when my 3 year old isn't trying to play with his cars on my kitchen floor... You get the idea.

Ah well, I knew I was on the steep end of the learning curve on this...

Today we decided to officially reserve two more Jacob Sheep. One is a wether (that means "castrated") and one is the twin ewe to another we're already getting. I saw an email from the farm's manager, Laura. She said that upon further inspection one of our ewe lambs appears to have scurs, not horns (scurs are sort of like loose or wiggly horns--not fully attached).

I did some reading and Laura also assured me scrurs wouldn't impact her health--and she might be able to be registered after all. Some people would reject her outright for that. Since we're buying these for fleece/pelt and/or meat/dairy(a little dairy), I can't tell which will have which particular destiny. Perhaps our scur girl will wind up on the dinner table and her sister will have lambs. I don't know yet. I probably won't know for at least another month. It'll depend on behavior, fleece and conformation.

Anybody else got Jacobs? Or thoughts on jelly, wine and vinegar...? ;-)
Shannon