Newest Helper

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.

August 16, 2010 1

Blackberries

Our blackberries are doing much better than I thought they would. Today makes 3 gal. I’ve picked. YUM!

Yesterday we finished the pears. Later, we went up to the garden and SURPRISE! Lots of beans were ready. We canned 15 quarts and had enough for dinner and lunch today.

Tomorrow we will be going down to Jessica’s. Sam has a doctors appointment so the girls and I will be playing with Daniel. Jess is going to make supper for us before we come back home. Last night’s menu was fried chicken, green beans, and rice. We had cantalope and watermelon for dessert. It certainly has been hot here for the last few days. Hotter than usual I think. Oh well, fall will be here soon and everyone knows what follows fall. I think we better enjoy these hot, summer days. Cold winter days will be here before we know it.

I think the girls and I will make pizza sauce to can today from the tomatoes we picked yesterday. The recipe I use is:

1/2 cup oil, 4 med. onions chopped, 4 cloves garlic, 1/4 cup dried parsley, 1 gal. tomato juice, 2-12 oz cans tomato paste, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tsp. oregano, salt, and basil, 2 bay leaves, 3/4 tsp. black pepper. mix all ingredients, simmer about 2 hours. Process pints 30 min on 10 lb pressure. Yields about 12 pts. I will be adding banana peppers and some hot peppers to mine today as I have quite a few of these in the garden.

I guess I better get busy with these projects. Enjoy your day and God bless.

August 11, 2010 1

Mountain Food

Last nights supper consisted of what we call mountain food. Kraut and weiners, pinto beans, fried potatoes, and rolls. Now for those of you who know true mountain food, the rolls should not have been on the menu. The bread of choice of all mountain food is cornbread. I already had the rolls though and decided not to take the time to make cornbread. For dessert we had something new. New for us anyway. Pear Pie. It was very good. I got the recipe from a blogger friend of mine-Thanks Cheryl. I made it just like you would make an apple pie. I put a crumb topping on it and served it with whipped creme. It was very good.

Today will be busy as usual for us. We still have some pears to work up, then start on the apples. We need to pick tomatoes, green beans and blackberries. All that seems a little too ambitious but we’ll see. I think today will be very HOT. Temperature is already 70 and it is only 8:30.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

August 10, 2010 1

Pears

Look at these beautiful pears! We went down to Jessica’s over the weekend and Saturday we went to David’s Moms. She gave us lots of beautiful apples and pears. We have 3 boxes of apples and 1 box of pears. Thanks, Donna! I think we will start on the pears today. I am thinking I will freeze them. They are very juicy pears. I’m not sure if they would hold up to canning them. The girls had a great time swimming Saturday afternoon in Donna’s pool. Daniel is making great progress learning to swim (with his lifejacket on). He can move all around the pool by himself and of course does not want any help. We also enjoyed hamburgers on the grill with corn on the cob and mac and cheese. We had a lot of fun but it was soon time to come home. Time goes so quickly.

It was a very pleasant day here yesterday. Sunshine and nice temperatures. Upper 70’s to low 80’s. After church, we came home and did our lesson for Sunday night class. I spent some time reading outside on my swing. For our evening meal at church we had polish sausage with peppers, onions and potatoes, sauerkraut, corn pudding, rolls, cucumbers, tomatoes, cole slaw, peach pie, pound cake with ice cream and brownies. I think that’s all! Really good food. We have decided to do II Corinthians next. We are almost finished with I Corinthians.

Grace took this picture the other day. I think she did a good job. Yes, Jess, I know you do not like butterfly pictures.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

August 9, 2010 2

Country Living

These are just a few pictures I took yesterday on our way into town. This road runs alongside the Parkway for a while. Then branches off into other roads. It is one of the many roads we can take to get to town. I thought you all might enjoy seeing it.

On the side of this road, fall flowers are already beginning to bloom. Joe Pie and Goldenrod.

A field on the same road.

In about another month, corn cutting will begin. This hill will have lots of activity. These are just a few things I am blessed to enjoy every day. Sometimes the beauty of this place I live overwhelms me. I haven’t lived very many places in my life but I do know this place I live now is very beautiful.

The girls and I had fun yesterday. We ran some errands, went to the Salvation Army and Goodwill, Wal-Mart of course. I found Hubby a nice church outfit at the Salvation Army and a tie to match at Goodwill. He normally doesn’t wear a tie but now that he is a deacon, they have to wear a tie on the day we do the Lord’s Supper. We also found Grace a skirt and a top to match and both girls got a swim suit. They did not have one and they hope to get to swim over the weekend at David’s mom’s pool. We are going down this evening. She has some more apples that are ripe and some pears.

Today is Ladie’s Bible Study. We are still doing it at Barbara’s house, probably all this month. However today is starting out nice and cool so we might could have done it here. Oh well. We’ll just stick to our original plan. I have dessert this week and I am taking a peach pie I made. The girls are going to play at the Horn’s while I am doing bible study. They are very excited. It will be a fun day for everyone. Vicki and I will visit when I come to pick the girls up. I’m planning on surprising her with a new type of tea for us to share. I guess though if she reads this before I get there it won’t be a surprise.

Well, I gotta go. There’s work to do. We want to be ready to leave when Hubby comes in this evening. Gotta go get me some MawMaw time. Take care and God bless.

August 6, 2010 1

Hidden Beauty

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.

August 5, 2010 1

Salsa

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.

August 3, 2010 2

Peaceful Scene

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.

August 2, 2010 1