Wednesday

Hi everyone! Just a short post on how our day is (hopefully) going to progress. We are first working on tomatoes. We picked about 3/4 of a bushel yesterday evening. After the tomatoes are done, we plan on working with grapes. I have a plan of working up about 1/2 bushel everyday. We made 14 pts of grape jelly yesterday so today all the grapes will go to making juice. We had some fresh grape juice this morning with breakfast. Also some of the grape jelly. Both were delicious. They taste like eating fresh grapes. I used the Pamona Pectin to make the jelly. I really like it. With SureJell, to make a batch of jelly you need 5 cups of juice and 7 cups of sugar. With the Pamona, 4 cups of juice and only 2 cups of sugar. That is a really big difference.

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

August 29, 2012 4

Grapes

The girls and I are starting on our grapes today. We picked 1/2 bushel this morning. We plan on making mostly jelly from these. Tomorrow we will start making juice. Yesterday I went to our friend Mrs. Faye. I helped her with her grapes. She wanted to make jelly and juice. Last year, they purchased a steam canner and a steam juicer like ours but they were not too confident with using them. So I went over to help them a little. It was a fun day. We had green beans, corn, cucumbers, cole slaw and cornbread for lunch. YUM!

Not much else going on here. Just mostly canning. We plan on picking more tomatoes this evening. We have been blessed with lots of beautiful tomatoes. Our temperatures have been cooler at night here. You can feel fall in the air. The dogwood trees are starting to turn colors. Apples will soon be ready. I love fall. As I am sitting here typing this post, the sweet smell of grapes fills my home. God is so good to us.

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

August 28, 2012 2

New Canner and Homemade Deodorant

This is my new canner. I stopped at a yard sale a few weeks ago and the lady had this canner for sale. One of the handles was missing so she sold it to me for $5.00. Yesterday, I stopped at Farmers Supply here in Floyd to see if they could order new handles. I had no idea if they could or not as the canner appears to be old. Well, they could and they only cost me $8.00. I then went to the extension office and had them calibrate the guage. It was off 1 and 1/2 pounds so I thought I probably should get a new guage too. This cost $l8.00. Amazing. These parts will be in by Friday. So for roughly $30.00 I got a new canner. This one is much taller than my other ones. It will hold 1/2 gallon jars which I plan to use for our juice that we can.

Then we went on over to Vicki’s and had a great visit. We ate lunch together and then Vicki and I made homemade deodorant.

We used tea tree oil in the solid deodorant and lavender in the powder. I really like it. It smells so fresh and clean. I am impressed. I definitely will be making it again.

Today the girls and I are making spaghetti sauce. This will be our last batch of spaghetti sauce. I think the rest of the tomatoes will just be used to make tomato juice. Our tomatoes are doing very well this year. I think this isthe best ours have done in a long time.

I better go stir the spaghetti sauce as I do not have Mrs. Sally’s good kettle any longer. I took it back to her Sunday. Enjoy your day and God bless.

August 21, 2012 3

Piebald Deer

Piebald deer, a genetic variation that occurs in less than 1 percent of the whitetail population, have white bodies with brown spots, short legs and an arching spine.

We saw one of these last night on our way home from church. It was very exciting. I have never seen one before. The one we saw had a little more brown on it in the front and it was a buck. It was down close to the road so we got a really good look at it. Amazing! I am not sure what the girls and I will be working on today. I want to check the tomatoes and see if any more are ready and see how close the grapes are to being ready. If no garden harvest is ready, I guess we’ll just do normal housework. I hope you all have a great day. God bless.

I got the picture at http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/nov/27/piebald-deer-a-rare-find-in-area-woods/

August 20, 2012 2

Divide and Conquer

Yesterday we divided up to get more done. This is not something we usually do. We normally all work together on projects, However, Hubby wanted to start boxing in the remainder of the back porch and we had lots of tomatoes to work up. So Julie helped me with the tomatoes and Grace helped Hubby with the porch.

The girls worked with me today on more tomatoes and Hubby worked alone. We had to run into little town first to get a few supplies that he needed .The walls are now up and there is a window where they are standing at. He still has to put a door on and the siding but it is almost finished. T.

I better get busy working on my Sunday School lesson. I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

August 18, 2012 3

Thursday

I thought I would share with you all this picture of a beautiful hawk we saw the other day on one of our rides in the bumpy truck. I know the picture is a little blurred but you can still see how pretty he is.

Yesterday, the girls and I made 13 pts of pizza sauce. The Horn’s came over for a visit. We had 15 bean soup, sourdough biscuits and molasses cookies for dessert. It was a fun visit. We had planned on picking apples but when we got up to the tree, we discovered a huge hornets nest on one of the limbs. We decided to wait to pick apples.

Today we are making salsa. I hope to make either ketchup or spaghetti sauce tomorrow. We will pick tomatoes this evening and see how many we get. I mentioned we had sourdough biscuits with our soup yesterday evening. Well, I think I have finally found a biscuit recipe that we like. I am not very good at making biscuits but these turned out really well. I made them again this morning and they were really good with sausage gravy. (But then almost everything is good with sausage gravy).

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

August 16, 2012 3

Salsa

Given to me by Judy Yoder

7 qts tomatoes-chunked, 6 garlic cloves-chopped, 5 onions-chopped, 4 green peppers-chopped, 1/2 cup hot peppers-chopped (or to taste), 2 cups vinegar, 2 tbsp salt, 2 tbsp sugar, 2 tsp oregano, 2 tsp cumin, 2 tsp cilantro.

Simmer until thick. Process 20 min. in water bath canner. Makes approx. 11 pints.

August 14, 2012 0

A Beautiful Sunset

For the last few days, we have been enjoying beautiful sunsets. We thought this one was exceptionally pretty. My thanks to Grace for taking the picture. It looked like a highway and it stretched almost all the way across the sky. God certainly is awesome.

We have been doing the usual around here. Cleaning, canning etc. Tuesday evening we visited with the Horn’s. Vicki made her delicious potato soup. Madison made a tomato pie, with fresh tomatoes and herbs she had raised and dried herself. It was delicious. It tasted amazingly like pizza. We all loved it.

Today, I am meeting Mrs. Sally in “little town”. She has a stock pot she is going to let me borrow for making spaghetti sauce. I think the brand name is Calphalon. She says it is wonderful and that her sauce never sticks. I am excited about giving it a try and grateful to her for letting us use it. Mrs. Faye from our church will also meet us there in town. I picked up an outdoor canner for her yesterday and she wants to get started using it as soon as possible.

Well, I thinks that’s it for now. I have lots to get done so I better get busy. Enjoy your day and God bless.

August 9, 2012 4

Blueberries and Squash

The girls and I picked a gallon of these beautiful blueberries yesterday. It was a nice day for picking. It rained on us before we got to the blueberry place but stopped before we got there. The bushes were wet but the temperature was not bad and the bugs even left us alone.

Today we made this zucchini pineapple recipe. We used yellow squash instead of zucchini. It actually tastes like pineapple. You would never know it had squash in it. I got the recipe from here. http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/zucchinipineapple.htm A blogger friend of mine had made it the other day. She posted about it here. http://holcombhappenings.wordpress.com/2012/07/11/a-day-of-canning/ I think it will be really good.

Now, question time. I found out from the internet this squash is called a patty pan squash. Do any of you ladies have a recipe for it? Our pastor gave them to us and I really would like to try them. Online it says it pairs good with tomatoes but I thought I would ask you all.

Our weather change here has been amazing. We had rain yesterday which we so much needed. We laughed and said the plants in our garden were doing a happy dance for God. The temperatures have cooled off so much. We are right now at 73 degrees!!! Thank you Lord.

Well, that’s about all. I hope you have a great evening and God bless.

July 12, 2012 5

Dollywood

Wednesday, we had a GREAT time!! We went with the Horn’s to Dollywood. They had bought season tickets and got free one day passes to take a friend. We were their friends. Thanks again, guys. We left Floyd at 7:00 that morning and got back home around midnight. It was a long day but filled with fun. Everyone was tired but happy. Please be in prayer for Vicki and Quentin. Quentin’s grandfather passed away yesterday morning.

Yesterday was a dry day here in Floyd so I jumped in and started working on the garden.

I tillered both gardens and got them ready for planting. It was a full day. This morning I started getting the plants in the ground. So far, I have planted the potatoes, corn, onions, broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower. After lunch, beans and tomatoes. The girls will be helping me with them. They have been inside doing the housework this morning while I worked outside.

These are the seeds the girls and I planted in the greenhouse. They have done really well. Maybe all we needed all along was a greenhouse. They certainly look the best of any seeds we have started before. Hopefully, they will do good when transferred into the garden.

The squash and cucumbers have really grown. Speaking of growing, look how big the goslings are.

They were up in the field watching me while I worked. Well, I think that’s about it. I better get back into the garden. Enjoy your day and God bless.

May 18, 2012 5