Garden Bounty - Sure Wish We Had Planted More Veggies - and Thoughts on Self-Sufficiency

Enjoying the bounty of our garden and it is wonderful. The tomatoes are ripening nicely, each day I pick more, I may well end up canning some as the plants are loaded with fruit. The cucumber and zucchini plants, one of each, are keeping me well supplied. And the pepper plants just give and give and give, I love peppers, so the bounty is appreciated.
















I have a crock of cucumbers on the kitchen counter, they are well on their way to being dill pickles. I made a brine, then added a few garlic cloves and some fresh dill, popped in the cucumbers and covered the crock with a piece of cheese cloth and now they are left to ferment for one week. On Saturday I will move the pickles into a couple of jars along with some brine and then store in the refrigerator. Refrigeration halts the fermentation process. Fingers crossed they turn out nicely and have remained crisp. My next batch of pickles will be sweet, but I will probably use zucchini instead of cucumber, a nice sweet pickle is a fabulous addition to any sandwich, or so my taste buds think.

My only regret, I wish we had planted more. We haven't really done a garden properly for several years, this year we did it right but on a very small scale. I have kept up on the weeding, watered when needed, and generally tended my plants. It was much less daunting having only a small garden, but I know next year I will add kale, onions, rutabaga, radishes, and do more than one each of cucumber and zucchini.   But, I still want to keep it small scale. Gone are the days of planting fifty tomato plants, lots of potatoes, a large patch of corn, rows and rows of green beans and peas, and anything else I could fit in. I can't believe I used to keep up all the weeding on three huge gardens, and canned, froze, or stored all of the garden bounty. I would have a hundred plus pints of green beans canned, eighty plus quarts of tomatoes canned, corn, some canned, some frozen, peas always frozen. Potatoes and onions and other root veggies stored in mesh sacks in the basement. And with our four children home it all got eaten. Then I would can jars of grape jelly and make strawberry jam using our grapes and strawberries. And lots of applesauce from the fruit of our apple trees. One year I made some fabulous brandied pears. It was a satisfying way to live, but a lot of work.

I feel pulled back to my old ways, I am back to baking all of our bread, and although vegan, I miss having laying hens, and sometimes feel tempted to have another flock. But the cruelty of the hatcheries is beyond belief, and the poor little chicks are a day old and sent out in the mail, it is all rather horrendous. My motives are different now, I am trying to create less waste, so baking our own bread avoids bringing plastic bread packaging into the house. Baking cookies and other goodies for the grand children and family also avoids bringing packaging into the house. I was able to purchase thirty pounds of blueberries at a very good price, and they came in cardboard packaging, win win for me. I froze half of them for eating, and the other half Dave is going to use to make blueberry wine.  I like doing things myself, so does my husband, so a certain level of self-sufficiency is satisfying.

But in regards to self-sufficiency, it is a nice dream, but it is not really doable. Sure I can bake my own bread, but I don't grow and mill the grain for the flour, I don't know how to make yeast, I have to buy sugar and other dry goods. I can't make my own canning jars and lids for them, there are always things that we use that we cannot supply for ourselves, and I am okay with that, it is the way the world works. I think the main goal of those who desire self-sufficiency is to do for one's self as much as possible and to be good stewards of the earth and the resources provided to us. Some want isolation and separation from society as a primary reason. I would say my husband and I are quiet people, we keep ourselves to ourselves and the friends we hang with are our adult children and their partners and our fabulous grandchildren, that is our circle, and we love it.

The other benefits we reap from our way of living are enjoyment, feeling in touch with the seasons,  with nature and with the cycle of life. We find it brings great satisfaction to our mind, body, and spirit.

On another topic, today is a Triple Birthday in our family, my husband is 61, our son Ben is 28, and our grandson Peter is 5 - how cool that three generations in our family share a birthday. Tonight Dave and I will celebrate alone, and on Saturday we are having a family party, as on the 10th our daughter-in-law Taylor is 26, she is Ben's wife, and our son-in-law Brad, Amber's husband, is 34 on the 14th.  August is a crazy birthday month, our oldest grandson Henry will be 11 on the 26th, and my mom will be 80 on the 27th.  Our newest grandson, is due to arrive on September 7, but if he comes early he too could add to the August craziness!

Just my thoughts on a Thursday evening!

I work two and a half days a week, it is a nice schedule and allows me to be available to babysit my grandchildren. I wouldn't trade my time with my grandchildren for anything, we have fun together, they amuse me, and I enjoy them very much.
I like having time to myself, I like to crochet, knit, sew, read books, quilt, all rather sedentary occupations but they keep me occupied during the winter months, I feel at a bit of a loss if I don't have a project going.
I am looking forward to spring, it has been a long, snowy, very cold winter, it is cheering to think that next month we can begin planting a few things in the vegetable garden. St. Patrick's day, March 17 is a traditional day to plant peas, and that is only four weeks away, that makes me very happy to think about. Peas, potatoes, onions, can be started early, I doubt I will plant on March 17, but just the thought that I could if I wanted to is very cheering.
I am so glad we keep a big garden and preserve so much of what we grow and I am glad we raised a couple of steers and have a full freezer of beef.  We have had a tight six months, and the vegetables and fruit that we canned, the meat in the freezer, and the fresh eggs from our hens have been such a blessing and we have really been able to minimize our grocery expenses. Milk, butter, cheese, dog food, potatoes and onions seem to be the main items that appear again and again on our grocery lists. I think we save a lot cooking from scratch, as long as we have basic staples in the house we can make just about anything we want.
I feel very blessed, I see my grandchildren most days, most Sunday's all the kids, grandkids are here to eat and hang out, and at least once through the week, sometimes more we have a crowd for dinner, it is wonderful.Last night everyone was here, including my neighbor, for a big pot of chili, just the thing on a cold winters day, for desert we had yellow cake with chocolate frosting. It was a fun, noisy meal.
Tonight I got home from work, I don't work again until Monday, it always takes me a bit to unwind from the hectic pace at the office. I had a nice cup of tea, putzed around on the internet, then decided to work on the bag I am knitting. I finished the second piece to the knitted bag last night, so tonight I had to block the pieces then sew them together and then make a lining and sew it into the bag.  The house is very quite, I sat in silence at the kitchen table drinking my tea and sewing together the bag, then I went upstairs to my sewing room and again worked in silence while I put together the lining and sewed it into place. Silence is good! I feel calm, I feel myself again, I feel satisfied with a busy productive day at work, and a satisfaction in my almost completed knitting project, I still need to knit a handle for my bag, that I will do tomorrow.
I am reading another Alexander McCall Smith book, the third in the Scotland Street series, I really do enjoy AMS writing. And, I love the Kindle my kids got me for Christmas. It is so nice to borrow a book from the library via the Kindle, it might be three o' clock in the morning, I can browse the available ebooks at our library and once I find one it takes just a few seconds to download and have available to read - truly amazing. In my last post I mentioned I was reading Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys, I thought I was going to enjoy it, initially I was drawn right into the story, but several chapters later I just lost interest in the main character and I didn't really like any of the other characters, so I skipped to the end to see what happened and then returned the book to the library.
I have really been enjoying The Waltons over the past month or so, I purchased season 7 a fair number of years ago, so took a few weeks to watch all of the episodes as I knitted or crocheted away. At our work Christmas party I won a $25 gift card to Barnes and Noble, so two weeks ago I used it to purchase season 4 of the Waltons, it has taken me two weeks to watch all of the episodes.  Now I want to get more seasons, but will have to wait. I do like season 7 except Grandpa is not in any of the episodes as the actor who played him, Will Geer, died between seasons 6 and 7, and Michael Learned who played the Mama left the show about two thirds of the way through the season.. John Boy is still in season 4, but I believe he left the show after season 5. I really like the episodes with Grandpa and John Boy still around. I don't care for season 8 or 9 so much, the show changed a lot, of course the children had grown up, but key characters were gone, Grandpa and Grandma were dead, John and Olivia were absent, John Boy returns but is played by a different actor. Cousin Rose comes to take care of the family, I like her character but always feel as it the Walton girls are kind of mean to her and put her down a lot. And poor Ronnie Clair, who played Cora Beth really had her work cut out as the character becomes more and more over the top. But even though Cora Beth is over the top she is still a very entertaining character, and as the seasons rolled on she became more of an eccentric rather than a somewhat mean spirited gossip she was portrayed as in the beginning of the show. A few episodes were silly, The Poltergeist being one, and another where suddenly it turns out Mary Ellen's husband, Kurt, didn't die in the war after all. But there are so many really good episodes, the Pearl Harbor attack episode is just one of them. I loved that  Ellen Corby, who played Grandma, returned to the show after her stroke and was wonderful in the show.
The Walton's was produced by Earl Hammer, he is the "real" John Boy and the show is loosely based on his books and his childhood.  I have read all of Earl Hammer's books, he is a very gifted writer, with a good sense of humor, and an eye for detail, I would highly recommend any one of his books and they are probably available at your local library.
Anyway, enough already, this post was not supposed to be all about The Waltons' but I love the show and I guess that is perhaps a bit too obvious :)

Well that is all that is going on in my mind this evening.

Good Night,

Bean

Okay, this is weird, and sad. I finished this post and went to Yahoo to check my email, and on the news page up pops a picture of Ralph Waite, the actor who played the father in The Walton's. Sadly he died today at the age of 85, RIP Mr. Waite, we sure enjoyed your work and will always remember you as the Dad in The Walton's.

September

This has been a busy month for me. Along with all the usual stuff, I have also been busy putting away the garden bounty that we have been blessed with. Our concord grapes did well this year and I was able to put up 26 jars of grape jelly.  Our apple trees did very well this year, the first time since we planted them ten or so years ago, and they are keeping me busy. The grandchildren love applesauce so I am making plenty of it. I have put up 6 quarts of applesauce so far and will easily have enough apples  to do another 8 quarts of sauce, and I have made 9 pints of apple butter.  My sauerkraut is fermenting away in a bucket in the kitchen, I will can it some time next month, it smells very good right now.  Our pear trees are loaded down and early next month I plan to start harvesting them and will begin to can some of the fruit.
I think this year I have canned more than I ever have; the inventory so far:

Tomatoes 65 quarts

Peaches 27 quarts

Green Beans 50 pints

Corn 35 pints

Grape Jelly 14 pints

Apple Sauce 14 quarts

Apple Butter 8 pints

Strawberry Jam 24 pints

Pickled Beets 12 pints

Pickles 22 quarts

Peppers 7 quarts, chopped up and frozen

Sauerkraut 25 lbs still fermenting, yet to be canned

Everything was from our garden except the peaches which I purchased at a very good price.  We are very pleased with our little harvest. And, we thank the Lord for the abundance. I think back to early spring when we planted the garden, I stood with the grandsons in one of the gardens, we held hands in a circle and we prayed for the Lord's blessing upon our little gardens, and we have truly been blessed.

Family Update

Grandson Henry who just turned 5, started preschool earlier this month and really likes it. His favorite part each morning at school is recess and playing with his new friend Eli. 

Grandson Patrick who is three and a half, has started to draw "proper" pictures, he suddenly has a great interest in coloring and drawing, I enjoy his art work.

Grandson Charlie who is 16 months old is into absolutely everything and I feel that all I say to him is no, no, no, all day long when I watch him! Henry says, "Bad Baby", and I say no, "Learning Baby", and hopefully he will learn soon that he cannot climb up onto everything and bang on everything in sight :) 

Granddaughter Alivia is just about 11 months old now, she is starting to take a tentative step with a lot of encouragement, but her preferred method off locomotion is speed crawling everywhere. You can hear Alivia coming from a mile away, as there is a frantic slapping of hands and chubby knees on the floor, as she races from one thing to other. Alivia now has four teeth.

The other day Henry told me about a dream he had, I want to remember it for him for when he gets older, so here it is:

In the dream Henry and Patrick are taking a bath, when they get out of the water they are different colors, Henry is blue, Patrick is green and their ears are feathers! They are able to remove the feathers and then find that they have brown ears and they cannot be taken off.

Well, what that is all about I don't know, but I thought it was quite an original dream to have! We spent a while talking about dreams and Henry wanted to know what kind of dreams I had when I was a little girl. I remember a few dreams, most likely because they disturbed me and I thought about them and they became part of my memory. One I remembered  from when I was around four years old, my family had come home from a weekend of camping and there was evidence that mice had enjoyed our home while we gone. I heard my parents talking about the mice and they put out some poison. I dreamt that a family of mice, people sized and sort of Mickey Mouse looking lived in my wardrobe, I don't recall what happened in the rest of the dream, but still can see visions from the dream. Henry told me that my dream was "very freaky"!

Everyone else is simply busy. Amber has stepped down as manager at the salon she works for and is transferring to a location closer to home, she got tired of managing people! Son-in-law Brad is away on an 8 week training course for work, he is able to come home on the weekends, and has just completed the third week. Amber and the boys will be glad when Daddy is home for good.

Ben and Emily are working hard on their college courses.

Dave returned to work last week and has fully recuperated from his surgery and the complications that followed.  Thank you for all of the prayers.

My fun Friday night was spent in the large recliner in the TV room watching Mary Poppins for the umpteenth time with, at one point three grandchildren snuggled up with me, I thought to myself that it really doesn't get any better than this, and I felt truly blessed.

So all in all although we are busy, life is back to normal again and that is good thing, and we thank the Lord for the many blessings he pours upon our family.

Bread Baking

For many, many years Dave and I have made our own bread and I couldn't tell you when we last purchased a loaf of bread.  The basic white bread recipe that we use was given to me by my dad. My dad baked bread most Saturday's of my childhood, making a weeks worth of loaves for the family. I started to make bread in my early twenties, but not very often, and at first it did not turn out so well. Over time I started to have more consistent results with my bread making, but still it was something that I did once in a while, we still purchased a lot of bread as we had four growing children at home, believe me we went through a lot of bread each week. My husband started to get interested in the process and decided to try the recipe, his first batch turned out very well  and he has baked bread ever since. Dave is home more in the winter and tends to take care of the bread making during the winter months, and I tend to take care of it in the warmer months. Usually when we bake bread we make two batches for ten loaves this keeps us going for a couple of weeks.We have pretty consistently made our own bread for about fifteen years. I sometimes make oatmeal bread for a change, I will post the recipe another day.

Basic White Bread

2 T dry yeast
2T salt
4T shortening
6T sugar
4 1/2 cups warm water - 110 -115 degrees F
10 - 12 cups of water

Yield 5 loaves, or 4 LARGE loaves
Place, yeast, salt, shortening, and sugar into a large mixing bowl, add the warm water, stir, let stand for five minutes or so, yeast will be nice and foamy.

Add 8 cups of flour, stir in, it will be a big goopy, sticky mess.
Add 2 cups of flour, and dump the entire mixture onto the counter.

Have another cup of flour handy, start kneading the bread, by pulling up the side and pushing it into the middle, turn pull up the side and push into the middle, turn and repeat for about ten minutes. Withing a minute or two you will have a much more manageable dough, keep sprinkling the counter with the extra flour so that the dough doesn't stick, keep kneading. After about ten minutes the dough will feel different, kind of clammy, elastic, and smooth. Use a little shortening to grease the mixing bowl, take the dough and rub it in the bowl to grease the bottom, then invert the dough (greased side is now up), cover the bowl with a dish towel and let sit for 40 - 50 minutes to rise.

Once the dough has risen, dump it out onto the counter, let it rest a minute, then divide into four or five parts, depending upon how many loaves you desire. Roll each portion out into a rectangle, then fold the ends in so that the rectangle is now 1/3 of the original size, then roll up and pinch ends and place in the bread pan. Cover the bread pans with a dish towel and leave the loaves to rise for an hour to an hour and a half.

Heat the oven to 420, bake the loaves, up to three at a time, for 22 minutes.  Remove each loaf from its pan immediately, sit the loaf sideways across the top of the pan and allow to cool.

Bread Makers Treat!

Glorious Sunrise

I was up early this morning getting the bread going, and was privileged to view a stunning sunrise, I grabbed my camera and took a couple of pictures. I am glad I took the pictures immediately, because within five minutes the glorious golden light was gone and it was just an ordinary early morning again, but for just a few minutes it was truly enchanting.

View to the west, the camera really captured the strange light.

View to the east - spectacular!

Few to the west a minute or two after the first picture already the light had changed .

Sauerkraut

 Well when you have a lot of cabbage what else can you do but make sauerkraut. I now have twenty-five pounds of shredded cabbage fermenting in a bucket in the kitchen. It will start to smell a little rank around here in a few days, but we will have to put up with it for 4 - 6 weeks, then I will can the sauerkraut and the house will smell a whole lot better :)

Shredding the cabbage, thank heavens for my trusty old food processor, it made quick work of shredding all that cabbage.

The cabbage breaks down very quickly, I have twenty-five pounds of shredded cabbage in the bucket.

All you need to make sauerkraut is a food grade bucket, cabbage and salt. Shred five pounds of cabbage, mix it with 3 T of salt, let sit for five or so minutes, then put in the bucket and press until water begins to pull out of the cabbage. Continue on, five pounds at a time. When the final batch of cabbage is packed into the bucket the water should be over the cabbage. Place a layer of cheesecloth over the cabbage, then add a plate for a weight, this makes sure that the cabbage remains submerged, you can add a weight if necessary. Put the lid on the bucket, not tightly, just sit it on top. Leave for 4 - 6 weeks, daily skim the scum from the top. This is the only recipe I have ever read that tells me to skim the scum daily!!  Once the sauerkraut is ready, pack into quart jars and process in a hot water canner.  Yummy, so good with pork roast and mashed potato, or bratwurst. I did not have sauerkraut until I met my husband, he loves the stuff, I learned to like it, at first I just like the taste of pork cooked in sauerkraut, but now I love the stuff too.

WOW - A Much Better Week

What a difference a week can make! Dave is home, he was discharged from the hospital on Saturday evening, he has taken it easy since being home and is feeling better and better as each day passes. Emily and Skylar are doing okay.

It has been another busy week, lots of canning, on Monday I put up 28 quarts of tomatoes, so far I have processed forty-five quarts, and it looks as if by Monday I will have a whole bunch more ready to can.

Last week a friend told me that I could get a 3/4 bushel box of peaches for $25 from a farm near Hicksville, OH and gave me the phone number. On Wednesday I called and spoke with the peach lady and she said she still had some peaches but they were really ripe and should be canned right away and she would sell me the boxes for $20. I loaded the boys into the van and we headed off to Hicksville, Henry always finds it exciting if we leave Indiana and venture into another state, in fact after a little bit he starts to get anxious and wants to know when we will be back in Indiana! I love the way little kids think about things. Patrick and Charlie fell asleep almost immediately, but Henry chit-chatted away all the way to the peach place, and all the way home, he really likes the Garmin and always has lots of questions about it, he was pleasant company for the twenty five minute drive to and fro. When we arrived the peach lady and her husband went off to get the boxes of peaches and came back with three of them, they gave me all three boxes for $40, so I ended up with 2 1/4 bushels of peaches. That is a LOT of peaches!
Once home I started immediately on the peaches, they were ripe, and oh so tasty. It took about six hours to can the peaches and when done we had twenty-seven quarts canned. With the kitchen clean again I was ready for a mug of tea and bed.

Blessings to you,

Bean

Prayer Request and Busyness

First of all I would like to request prayer for my husband who will be having surgery on Monday morning to repair a hernia, and also for my neighbor Nancy who will be having knee replacement surgery the same day. I will be taking both Dave and Nancy to the hospital as they both have to check in around the same time. Dave's surgery is outpatient and I assume we will be back home by early afternoon. Nancy will in the hospital for several days and will then spend a yet to be determined number of days in a rehabilitation facility as she recuperates from her surgery.
Dave has been off work all week, he isn't in pain, but he isn't feeling very comfortable, hopefully by the end of next week he will be feeling almost back to normal. The doctor said he should wait three weeks before returning to work as his job is quite physically demanding.  Four weeks without pay is going to stre-e-e-tch us for sure, thankfully we have a freezer full of meat, and a lot of vegetables put up already from our garden so we can cut grocery purchases to the bare minimum. I am trying to avoid thinking too much about what all of this will cost, and instead am thankful that it can be taken care of so quickly. Anyway please pray for us as this adds stress to the situation, I have faith that God will see us through, but still appreciate your prayers.

I find it best to keep occupied when times are a little tough, so busy I have been keeping myself.  Last year I purchased about four yards of blue and white pinstriped seersucker material with plans to make a jumper. I had a pattern but couldn't quite convince myself that it was exactly what I wanted so the material has sat on a shelf since last summer. As I was ironing the other evening I pulled a seersucker jumper out of the ironing basket, it is one that I like, it is in a very light brown check, so comfortable to wear in the summer. I purchased the jumper in the Goodwill store in Loveland, CO, about five years ago and have always thought it would be nice to have another one. Well as I ironed a light bulb went off in my head and thought about the blue and white pinstriped material and thought why not? I have never made a jumper without a pattern, and have never attempted to make a garment by copying one I already own. Well it took some thinking, but armed with a tape measure, a marking pen, and a seam ripper I was able to duplicate the jumper.  I made a few modifications, I simply sewed the shoulder straps in place in the front, rather than using dungaree clasps. Each side had a row of three buttons, I have never had any reason to undo them so decided they were unnecessary so simply continued the seam up the side. I could not believe that I actually succeeded with this project so well, I am pleased with the jumper and know I will wear it often. I also used a decorative stitch on my sewing machine to edge the pockets and the top front of the bib.

I have had a number of projects in limbo. I have four balls of nice brown yarn that have been in my knitting basket for a year or more, I decided to start a cardigan and cast on the back yesterday and started the ribbing, I should have this project finished by fall.  I have some knobbly, fluffyish sort of tawny colored yarn that I purchase months ago to crochet a shawl with, I think I will start this project on Monday morning while Dave is in surgery, this should help pass the time and when my mind is concentrated it doesn't turn to worrying.

A couple of summers ago I purchased a pair of hot pads at a yard sale, they were new and were crocheted by the mother of the elderly lady who was having the sale. They are great hot pads, very colorful and they work well, I could tell they were crocheted but could not figure out how they were made. Well now, thanks to google, I discovered that they are called Magic Hot Pads, and boy are they easy to make, and they are kind of magical because of the way they are put together. I made one today, it didn't take long, although it is made out of a very garish variegated yarn, it will certainly add color to the table!

As I said, the variegated yarn is very GARISH,
don't you think?

 Another item I purchased a while ago was a kitchen hand towel that hangs from a drawer handle, I love it, and miss it so when it is in the wash, which is frequently because it is used so much.  Well I googled how to make a crochet topped towel, it is easy, and I am pleased with the finished product. A very inexpensive project, the dish towel cost .94 cents and makes two hanging towels, which is good because I will now have three of them and will always have one hanging around to dry my hands on. I will make more of these for Christmas gifts.

Yesterday I got the first major pick of tomatoes out of the garden and was able to can 16 quarts, I am sure in a few days time plenty more will be ready for picking.  We have been enjoying cheese and tomato sandwiches and toasties, egg and tomato salad sandwiches, and sliced tomatoes with most anything. Your just can't beat a super ripe home grown tomato. We are anxiously awaiting our canteloupe melons to finish ripening, they are almost ready, but not quite, it is driving me nuts. I am sure that all fifteen will ripen the exact same day and we will be eating melon until we turn orange. About all I have left to do other than tomatoes is bring in the cabbage and get sauerkraut going, I think I will work on this next weekend.

First batch of tomatoes out of the canner.

Tomorrow we are going to Amber and Brads house to celebrate grandson Henry's fifth birthday, how time flies. It is going to be an ice-cream party, so should be fun for all.

All the grand babies were here yesterday, the boys built a train out of three booster seats, a ride on car and walker toy, they had so much fun and played train for quite a while.

Anyway, thank you again for keeping us in your prayers.

Bean

Mr. Blue Sky

Today was truly a most beautiful day. I love white puffy cloud days!!! I was listening to a dramatization of Anne of Avonlea on BBC Radio 4 Extra, a story I really enjoy, as I was driving Sunday afternoon. Anne and Diana, her bosom friend and kindred spirit, enjoy a pleasant day together outdoors. As their time together comes to a close Anne says something along the lines of, "...I feel sorry for all the people who have not yet been born, because they missed this day, not that they won't have beautiful days, but they will never have this particular day...".  I think you get the drift, and today was one of those beautiful, perfect days. Nothing much happened, I had all four grand babies over, I pickled beets, did laundry, made stuffed peppers, and it was simply a perfectly satisfying day. The crickets chirping, a gentle breeze, a sun shiny day, puffy white clouds, the burble of our chickens, an occasional cock-a-doodle-do from our two roosters, the sunflowers beaming at us from the garden, babies playing, little boys imagining wondrous things as they played with blocks and toy cars. It was a day of just mundane things, yet a day so filled with blessings.

A Pleasant Day

We are still enjoying very mild weather, sunshine, puffy clouds, a pleasant breeze, simply delightful. Today I needed to get many things accomplished, and although I still have a few things to do yet, most are finished.

Yesterday evening we did the first pick on our strawberry patch and were rewarded with seven pounds of scrumptious berries.  While picking in the middle of the strawberry patch I noticed a squirming little mass a few feet from me, YIKES, I thought at first it was mice and let out a very undignified shriek, upon further investigation it turned out to be four baby bunnies, how sweet!

Well seven pounds of strawberries is a lot of berries so today I had to get busy and do something with them, I made four pints of strawberry jam and four pints of strawberry-rhubarb jam.  I then made enough pastry to make a strawberry-rhubarb pie and quiche for dinner. It always seems that I end up with a little leftover pastry, today I used it to make jam tarts since I had a little left over jam after filling my jam jars earlier. Amber, Henry, Patrick, Emily and me all enjoyed the jam tarts very much.

On May 26 little Charlie celebrated his first birthday, he officially turned one on the 27th. We had yet another beautiful day and enjoyed a cook out at our daughter Amber and son-in-law Brad's  home. Charlie enjoyed his birthday cake out on the deck, and we enjoyed watching him get himself covered in frosting. Isn't his little shirt cute, Amber made it for him. Charlie is such a sweetie.

This past Monday baby Alivia turned 7 months old! I am not sure where the time has gone, all of our little grandbabies are growing up. Isn't she a cutie? She was enjoying a graham cracker when we took the picture.

 

And isn't this potato cute? We thought it was just ducky :)

Beets, Carrots, Corn, Morning Coffee and The Day of the Triffids!!

Today has been very productive. I was up early with Dave and saw him off to work, I then left the house to drive to Grabill to meet another blogger at the Grabill Country Store for coffee. I pulled into the parking lot and there was only one other car parked, Rebecca got out of her car and walked towards mine and voila we had met in person.  We spent an enjoyable hour chatting about our lives, our children, our grandchildren, and our faith, I am sure we will get together again.  You can meet Rebecca in blog land by visiting her blog, she  maintains seven blogs!!, http://lifeandgodliness-rebecca.blogspot.com/ .  Funnily enough I found Rebecca's blog because she commented on Embers blog, http://kindredofthequietway.blogspot.com/ one day a few weeks ago, Ember lives in Hastings, England, and because of her blog I have now met someone who lives perhaps five miles away from me in NE Indiana!  Isn't that cool?!?!?!?

After coffee I returned home to can beets, carrots, prepare corn for freezing, and I had two loads of wash to hang out.  I hung the wash on the line, and then headed to the garden to pull up beets and carrots. I hauled the bounty back to the picnic table and sitting in the early morning shade of the locust tree I cut the tops and bottoms off of the beets and carrots and then hauled all of the waste to the chicken run, the girls were very excited to have goodies to scrounge around in.  Next stop the garden hose to spray down the veggies and remove as much dirt as possible and then off to the kitchen. My Dad loaned me a CD version of The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham, I had listened to the first two disks and they were very good so I was anxious to listen to the rest of the story, and really enjoyed the story as I worked my day away in the kitchen. (Another book I really like by John Wyndham is Chocky). I put the beets on to boil and started to peel and slice carrots.  The carrots were soon in jars and ready for the pressure canner. While the carrots processed I drained the cooked beets and peeled them in readiness for canning. We like pickled beets, so I prepared a mixture of vinegar, sugar, water, cinnamon sticks, mustard seed, whole cloves and whole allspice, the beets were were brought to boil in the liquid and then put in jars to be hot water canned.  I ended up with 8 pints of carrots and 14 pints of pickled beets.
After a tidy up of the kitchen I headed outside to pick the rest of the corn in the first patch, the second patch will be ready in a week or so. Once the corn was picked and shucked I brought it into the kitchen to process.  Freezing corn is easy, blanch, cool, cut off the corn, bag up and freeze.
Our tomatoes are starting to ripen and I know that I will canning many jars of them in the next few weeks, our green beans are running late, but hopefully I will have some to can soon.
Here are some pictures from this morning.

Beets tipped and topped.

My Handy Dandy "Cart", I use this old stroller to haul all kinds of things around!

Just the carrots were left to pick in this garden

Close up of a Zinnia

More Zinnia

Yummy, carrots, I wish I could put the aroma of them on  my blog, they smell so wonderfully good!

A deformed carrot, the size of  my fist, I left it outside.

The deformed carrot top was starting to flower, I had never seen a carrot flower before, it reminds me a little of Queen Anne's Lace.

A pile of beets and carrots ready for a quick hose off!

The girls eyeing their bounty!

A wonderful day to hang clothes out.

All clean and ready to go to the kitchen.

8 pints of carrots.

Corn getting a quick wash before blanching.

14 cans of pickled beets to add to the carrots.

Corn all ready for bagging and then off to the freezer.