I think these are such cheerful flowers. I like their bright color. They are among the last of the flowers to bloom in one of my flower gardens. Fall is definitely in the air here in Floyd. Cooler temperatures at night. Upper 50′s lower 60′s. We even spotted one tree that is starting to change colors. I love fall! Many people say summer has long lazy days. This is usually not true for me. Fall is more of a slow down time for us. Most of the canning is done. We can slow down and enjoy the cooler days. I love it! Of course, I have had to slow down a little earlier than planned this year but I think I have learned a lot from this experience. What have I learned? I need to slow down a little, enjoy life more, laugh more, do more things with my girls. There is much to be said for teaching my girls how to can and take care of the house but also there is much to be said for picnics under oak trees and hikes down favorite trails. Balance-I think it is all about balance.
Yesterday the girls and I made homemade vegetable beef soup with homemade rolls. It is starting to feel like soup weather. I told the girls the other day, these cooler temperatures makes me want to open up new school books. Amazing-cooler temps does not have the same effect on them. We wanted to make chocolate chip cookies yesterday but did not get them done. I think that will be a project for today. If we get to make them, I will try to post the recipe we use. We have some corn that needs to be pulled and worked up so I guess that too will be on the list for today. My list is not near as long as it was before the back pain.
Our corn is ready! I love fresh garden corn. We have been working some of it up this morning. So far we have put 58 ears in the freezer and 9 pts cut off the cob. I have a vacuum sealer which I use for the corn and other stuff. It is a very handy thing to have. I purchase items at the store in bulk at a discounted price and then separate them out into portions we can use. Then seal them with the vacuum sealer. It really makes a difference. No freezer burn.
The type of corn we raise is called Merit Corn or where I’m from they call it Garden Creek Corn. The man who had the seed for it lived on Garden Creek, thus the name. It is an excellent corn, very sweet. It is called the silkless corn because when you shuck it the silks just fall off with the shucks. I LIKE THAT! Makes working the corn so much easy.
We have been getting quite a lot of rain here this week. The temperatures have cooled down some though because of the rain. Yesterday, the girls and I worked on apples. 16 quarts to be exact. I used my new steamer juicer and extracted over a qt of juice from the peelings. We had fresh apple juice with breakfast this morning. Very delicious!
My newest helper. It is a steam juicer. I only found out about these this summer. I think it will be very helpful for making juice. I also can steam veggies in it. Our grapes are almost ready so I am excited to try it out. Hopefully it will be a wise investment.
We had a very busy weekend. Hubby went to a shooting range with some people from church and the girls and I went to do some shopping. I’ve been having trouble with my blood pressure being high and I am taking Hibiscus capsules for it. Our health food store does not carry it so we have to go to another town to get it. We also had to go to Lowes and purchase new stove eyes. All the eyes on my stove had stopped working but one. We got those put on but still had to go back Sunday and get two new receptables. I think we are in good working order now. It felt like I was cooking on a new stove this morning, with all the eyes working.
A couple at our church celebrated their 50th anniversary this past week. The church and her family gave them a surprise party. Yes we did manage to keep it a secret. Pretty amazing! We had lots of good food and fellowship. We are so blessed to have such good examples for our young people to follow.
The decorations were very nice. One little boy asked me if the cake was real or was it just to look at. It was very pretty. It was real by the way.
Well, we have lots to do today so I better get busy. Enjoy your day and God bless.
Look at these beautiful little violas! They were hidden away beside some other larger flowers. I think they are so cute. They reminded me about how sometimes the beautiful things of God are hidden. He wants us to put forth a little effort to find them. Reading and studying His word, praying. These are all things He wants us to do in order to see His beauty. But I think also He wants us to listen. This seems to be the hardest part for me. Satan obviously knows this because he continuously puts things in my path to distract me and, of course, I allow it to work. I want to do better. Spend more time with Him.
What better place to spend more time with Him than right here. My front yard-looking down at the field. The cows are up for their morning snack. The sun is shining and for today (just today) we are almost caught up with the canning. The girls and I are going to have a “girl day”. We have some errands to run and then maybe do some fun stuff in town. We are thinking about going to Goodwill or the Salvation Army, maybe both. We might even go to Books-A-Million. I’m not sure yet what we will do, other than have fun.
One more flower picture. I thought you all might be getting tired of seeing pictures of canning jars. A little color was needed. We’re off to enjoy our day. God bless.
The girls and I made salsa yesterday. We ended up with 19 pints. Counting what we made the other day, I think this is enough to last us through the winter. We will be canning peaches today.
Temperatures here are still cool and comfortable, 67 degrees. Very overcast. It is supposed to warm up throughout the week with a chance of thunderstorms. I really like the cooler temps, I just wish the sun was shining. Oh well, God knows what He’s doing.
I was wondering if anyone out there had a good pizza sauce recipe. I have one that is pretty good but I am always looking for new ones to try. I guess I better get busy-peaches are calling. Take care and God bless.
We did not get to have our breakfast picnic yesterday morning at the park. Weather was too bad. VERY foggy here. Most people would not have been able to find the park . Everything is wet, wet, wet. We did move it to the church, however, so we still had breakfast. Just not outside like originally planned. Lots of good food though. The pastors sermon was on the Lord’s Prayer. It was a very good message.
I have been told this strange looking flower is called a Naked Lady. The name suits it. There are no leaves on it what so ever. Just a tall stem and then the flower. They have filled out more since I took this picture however I could not get a new picture. It is too foggy and dreary today. The girls and I will be busy making more salsa. I did not like the recipe in the Ball canning book as much as I like my old recipe. It was given to me by a Mennonite friend, Judy. So today we are making her recipe. Much better. Temperatures have been cooler here. Low’s in the upper 50′s, high’s in the low to mid 60′s. Wet, foggy. Nice days for doing work inside or just curling up with a good book. I think I’ll try to work both of these activities in today. Enjoy your day and God bless.
I think you can learn a lot about a man by his hands. These hands say I work hard. I am married. I love to work the land. I’m sure if I were a good writer I could write a story just from this picture. This man loves the Lord. Not only in word but in action. We are very blessed to have him as our pastor. Thank you Lord!
A picture of his grapes. He has several different types of grapevines growing. I forget what he told me the name of these were but they were very sweet and delicious.
The girls and I have been busy with beans. We canned 11 quarts yesterday. One of them broke in the canner so we only had 10 to add to the canning list. I picked a gallon of blackberries this morning and we’ll can those later today. We love to make blackberry dumplings and cobblers. I also want to make salsa today. I think we have enough tomatoes. They are mostly yellow tomatoes so it will look a little different but hopefully taste just as good. Maybe even better. I know we have enough peppers.
Sunday morning is our Sunday School breakfast. Every year we have a big breakfast at Smartview Park-a small picnic area on the Blueridge Parkway. After breakfast we do Sunday school. Tom will proably have a message as well. We love all our little get-togethers we have. Our church is really big on fellowship and I am glad. I think it is an important part of being a church family. If I remember the camera I will try to take some pictures to show you all.
I guess I better get busy. Take care and God bless.
This is David Donna’s Son-In-Law, I am posting this for her so if you view this before she gets a chance to change this text just keep checking back as she will be adding some more description soon.
This is me. My thanks to Dave for putting the video on. Yesterday was a wonderfully blessed day for us. Both our girls were baptized yesterday. Praise the Lord! We had church at this beautiful pond. Then we did the baptism. Our girls and another young man were baptized. After that we had a potluck meal. You know we gotta eat. Dave, Jess, and boys came up to spend the day. It was a very special day to a mother’s heart.
This is a picture of our Grundy home. The original house was built by my grandparents. It (like most old homes) had rooms added on. I was 12 years old when I first moved into this home and 40 when I left. Leaving was hard. Life changes though and we must be able to change with it. I have so many happy memories of this place but I also have many happy memories of where I am now.
The girls and I have been busy. We had 23 qts. of green beans. We finished them today. We also put more squash in the freezer. We are going down to Jessica’s this evening. Tomorrow us girls will be going blueberry picking while Dad and PawPaw watch the two boys. After that we plan on going to Lifeway and then out to eat. We will be coming back home tomorrow evening.
The girls and I finished the apples yesterday. You can check out our logs at the right to see our total. I really like cooking the apples in the microwave. So much easier. It makes the applesauce thicker too. When I cook them on the stove, I have to add a little water to keep them from sticking, so it makes the applesauce a little thinner. Today we will be canning a bushel of green beans. Also working on cleaning the house as tomorrow is bible study day.
Beautiful weather here in Floyd this week. When we got up this morning about 6:00, the temperature was 59 degrees. This makes it so much more comfortable for sleeping. I would guess yesterdays high was in the low 80′s. Very nice. Days like we have been having remind me why I like living in Floyd and especially here on the farm. God was very good to bring us to this place. Thank you Lord.
The birds are singing such beautiful praises this morning. I think I’ll join them in their worship. Breakfast outside sounds wonderful. Enjoy your day and God bless.
