MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

Good morning, ladies!  We had a great visit yesterday with David, Jess, and the kids.   It was a nice warm day and as you can see, most of it was spent outside.  If you look on the ground you can see where Daniel’s boots are.  I guess they got in the way of swinging.  

Sam and Katie.  Sam had so much fun sitting with Katie and taking pictures.  Every time the we would take a picture, he would just bust out laughing.  So of course, we took MANY pictures.  I thought this one was the best. 

David helped Hubby fix the brakes on the car yesterday.  It was a full day’s job but we think they are finally fixed.  Thank’s again Dave for helping.  Jess and I worked inside on making her some applebutter.  She ended up with 5 qts.  We had spaghetti with homemade sauce, rolls and cinnamon rolls for dessert.  Daniel told me spaghetti was his favorite.  I made a new recipe for cinnamon rolls and I really liked this recipe.  Much better than the one I had been using.  I got the recipe here.  http://homejoys.blogspot.com/2011/02/sweet-dough.html  I also posted the recipe under sweet dough in my recipe file.  I did divide the recipe in half and got 18 cinnamon rolls.    I will  definitely be making them again.  We are planning on starting a  remodel at Jessica’s on Monday.  Her kitchen is getting a facelift.  I hope to remember to take the camera and I’ll show pictures of the process. 

I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

No picture-just wanted to let you all know we have finished working up the deer.  We got 20 qts canned, 16 roasts in the freezer and 15 bags of tenderloin.  YEAH!  We are all tired and so I think tonights supper will be left over homemade chicken noodle soup.   Enjoy your day and God bless.

Today, we have been busy with school.  We did a batch of apples in the steam juicer.  We got 1 gal and 1 qt. of juice.  We then run the apples through the Roma sauce maker and got enough applesauce to make 3 qts of applebutter.  YUM!  I also made a batch of homemade laundry soap. 

Colors here are at their peak this week.  I hope to get more pictures to share.  We have been having rain but it looks like it will clear up this evening.  Hubby has been busy making a king size bed for Jess and Dave.  I will show you all pictures when he gets it finished.  I think it looks beautiful.  Here he is working on one of the posts for the headboard.  I think I actually managed to get this picture without him knowing it.  He was deep in concentration.

Tonights supper will be baked pork chops with potatoes and carrots, pumpkin pie for dessert.  I guess I better get busy, I think everyone is getting hungry.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Beautiful grapes!  Last night a friend of ours called and said they had some grapes that we could have if we wanted them.  They had already used all they wanted so we loaded up and went over to pick.  We picked about 3 bushels.  The girls and I have been busy all day, processing them.    We are using the steam juicer.  I think we will end up with about 20 qts, maybe more.    What a blessing.  God is so good!

Guess what?  We have a broody hen!  Well, where I come from we call them setting hens but here most folks call them broody.  Anyway, she is only 4 months old.  I don’t think I have ever known one to set that young.  We have kept Mr. Rooster separate from the hens so her eggs would not hatch but she doesn’t seem to know that.  The girls and I wanted to put her back in the coup with Mr. Rooster so we could let her set but Hubby said no.  No more chickens-(this year).  Anyway, we moved her out into her own little coup for a few days.  The other hens were glad as she was hogging the only nest they will use.  They have two other nests but for some reason they all prefer to use just this one. 

I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless.

Well, we have decided to give Mr. Rooster a chance.  If he is a good boy, I guess we’ll keep him.  We all think he sounds so cute when he crows.  We have decided his crow adds a little something to our day.  Wow, we really DO need to get out more.  Anyway, we’ll see how it works out. 

Yesterday, we worked with blackberries.  We made some blackberry juice.  Then took the berries we had cooked down to make the juice and put them in the Roma sauce maker.  The sauce maker takes out all the seeds.  We then make blackberry freezer jam.  We had some blackberry puree left over and I wondered what I would do with it.  Then I thought HOMEMADE BLACKBERRY ICE CREAM!  It was so good.  I tried to take a picture to share with you all but I couldn’t get it to turn out right.    I got the recipe online at Cooks.com but altered it some to better suit us.  Anyway, here is the recipe I used:

2 cups blackberry puree, 2 cups sugar, 3 eggs beaten, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 6 cups milk, 1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk.  I mixed all the ingredients together and put it into the ice cream maker.  I plan on making peach ice cream this weekend when Dave, Jess and the boys come up. 

I went to work with Hubby this morning and helped him until lunchtime.  Then came home and the girls and I started working on the peaches.  We made some peach freezer jam and then canned some of the peaches.  We saved the peelings again and got 2 more qts of peach juice.  We also had a peach cobbler for supper.  I love peaches. 

I am looking forward to tomorrow as Sam and Daniel will be coming up to spend the day with us.  Enjoy your evening and God bless.

So I finally got around to making the blackberry syrup this morning.  I used about 3/4 gal. of blackberries and got three pts of syrup.  Pretty good.  I’m not sure how it will turn out but it tasted really good when I sampled it.  I put the blackberries in the steam juicer.  This is what it looks like.

This is a very handy piece of equipment.   We bought ours at our local Farmers Supply.  I’m not sure if they sell them at Wal-Mart or not but I know you can order them online.  You might even find them on Ebay.  The name brand of ours is “Back to Basics”.

This is the bottom of the juicer.  You put 3 qts of water in this.

This fits directly on the water container.  This catches the juice as it comes out of the fruit.

You put the fruit or veggies in this basket.  It fits directly on top of the other container.  Then put the lid on.  You see in the first picture the tubing.  This is how you drain your juice into jars.  Put it on your stove and when it starts to steam, you start timing.  Different things need to steam for different times.  Blackberries steam for 60 min.  You can then use the juice for whatever you want to make.  The pulp that remains in the basket from your fruit or veggies is still usable too.  I will show you all another time what I do with the leftover pulp.

Here is the recipe I used for making the blackberry syrup.  I got it from the internet and it is very simple.  I hope it will be good.

4 cups blackberry juice, 4 cups sugar, 1 tsp. lemon peel.  Combine all ingredients and bring to a boil.  Boil for 2 min.  Fill jars. (I used a strainer here as I did not want the lemon peel in the syrup)  Process 10 min. in water bath canner.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

We have been working on peaches for a few days.  I think I mentioned that we saved the peelings and put them into the steam juicer.  Well, the above picture shows the 2 qts of juice we got from the peelings.  We had 2 gal. of peelings and got 2 1/2 qts of juice.  This will yield over a gal of peach juice.  YUM!  I definitely will do that again with our next batch of peaches. 

I picked about 1 gal. of blackberries this morning.  Pretty good for the first picking.  I am trying something new for us.  I am making blackberry syrup to use with pancakes, french toast, etc.  Have any of you ever made this?  It sounds good and sometimes I just want something different.  I’ll let you know how it turns out.  I have the blackberries on in the steam juicer now.  Julie and I went up to the cellar this morning and organized it.  I think “little green men” come along over the winter and just scatter all my canned goods.  Anyway, all is in order now and ready for the new cans to fill it up.  Grace worked inside doing household chores while Julie and I worked on the cellar.  Hubby worked on mowing the yard.  It has been a long time since he mowed.  It is just so hot and dry.  He thought it was starting to look a little wild. 

Well, time to check on the blackberries.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

I just love sunflowers.  I think they are so cheerful and fun.  These come up underneath the feeder and I think they add so much to the area.  The cats have played there so much though that a lot of them are drooping down to the ground.  They still look pretty though.

I have been kinda busy for the past few days.  As you all know, we went down to Jessica’s on Friday.  We had a great visit and enjoyed play time with the boys.  Then we went to pick the apples.  She didn’t have very many but we got what was on the tree.  I haven’t worked them up yet so no picture of pink applesauce.  On Saturday, we went to pick apples at Faye’s sisters house.  We ended up with about 4 bushel.  When we got home I started working on them.  I have told Faye all about our steam juicer and sauce maker.  She has been wanting to buy them for herself.  Sunday evening at church Gene (her husband) said he was going to buy them for her.  We met them yesterday morning in town at the Farmers Supply.  He bought the steam juicer, the sauce maker and a steam canner for her.  She was so excited.  We then went home with them and showed them how to operater their new equipment.  She had a 5 gal. bucket of apples to work up.  From that she got 2 qts of juice and 5 qts of applesauce.  It was a really fun day.  I really want one of those steam canners.  It takes my water bath canner about 1 hr. to start to boil.  The steam canner is ready in about 10-15 min.  Amazing.  We definitely would be saving on the amount of gas we use.    Hopefully, we will be able to get one soon.  Much faster and more economical.

I worked up some more of our apples yesterday evening after we came back from Faye’s house.  We will be working on them more today.  So far, we have 8 qts of applesauce and 4 qts of apple juice.   Grace has been taking some more pictures.  This is a picture of the sunset God gave us yesterday.

I forgot to tell you ladies about the nice weekend we had.  Remember Thursday evening I said temperatures were cooling off.  Well, Friday and Saturday morning the temperature when we got up was 58 degrees.  Can you believe that?  Then Sunday and Monday morning it was 61 degrees.  The highs for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were only in the mid 70′s.  Wonderful!!  Thank you Lord!!  Yesterday, it started warming back up and today I think it will be back to normal but it certainly was wonderful to enjoy a few fall-like days in summer.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Look at these beautiful cherries.  David’s mother has 2 of these cherries trees in her yard.  She graciously gave them to us.  Thank you, Donna.  We went down Friday morning as Hubby was having difficulties with his computer too.  While Dave and Hubby worked on the computer, Jess and I with the kids went to pick cherries.  We picked 3 gal. and didn’t even hardly take a step.

Look at how the limbs are just bowed down to the ground.  You could just stand and pick.  No tree or ladder climbing.  I really liked that.

We ended up staying Friday night and most of the day Saturday getting Hubby’s computer up and going.  When we came home I put the cherries in our steamer juicer.  We got 5 1/2 qts of juice.

Sunday morning just before we left to go to church, Jess calls and says Dave needs Hubby’s help.  Their shower drain has come loose and flooded under the house and the heat pump was not working.  This of course means no air conditioner and for a pregnant woman that was bad.  It is really hot where they live with lots of humidity.  Well, we changed clothes and headed down to help Dave.  While the men went to Lowes, the girls and I went to pick more cherries.  We got 2 1/2 gal.  I have one batch in the steamer juicer now.  I think I will make jelly from some of the juice and then just can the rest.  It is very good.  We had fresh cherry juice with our breakfast this morning.  The Lord is so good to provide us with treats like that.

Well, I have clothes to go on the line and much to do today.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

I know.  I’ll make tea.  Yes, it is sassafras root.  We found quite a lot of it up on the hill where we cut wood.  They had pushed over a few sassafras trees so we got the roots, brought them down and made tea.  First you wash the root.  They usually are pretty dirty. 

Then I broke them into smaller pieces.  Put into a kettle with water.  I used about 1 1/2 qts of water to this amount of roots.  Bring water to a boil and let simmer for about 15 min.  Then strain the water, add sweetener of your choice and you have a delicious cup of tea.  We love it.  It is probably Hubby’s favorite.

We went to visit Jessica over the weekend.  They have much warmer temperatures than we do.  They have some forsynthias that are already blooming.  Her Easter lillies are almost ready to open up.  We even saw some creeping phlox blooming.  Then we came home, temperature was 34 degrees, very overcast.  YUCK!  We even had a slight dusting of snow this morning.  I don’t want to complain though.  I am working on enjoying the seasons without complaint.   It is still cold but the sun has come out so that makes it all seem so much nicer.

Lunch break is over.  Enjoy your day and God bless.