Canning Entry 2011

This is going to be a rather boring post.  It's more for my records than anything, because I won't lose it.  The question is, will I remember where I recorded it?  We'll see...  


It's been a busy year for canning.  Here's the list:

• 1 bushel (2 boxes) of peaches turned into 18 quarts - 2 didn't seal.
• 1 1/2 bushels (3 boxes) of pears turned into 35 quarts of pears - 1 didn't seal.
• 3 batches of salsa (2 with roma tomatoes, 1 with regular) turned into 14 pints of salsa.
• 1 case of pickling cucumbers turned into a whole lot of pickles.  We made dill, sweet relish, sweets and bread and butter. I was not impressed with the sweet pickle recipe we used.  Anyone want sweet pickles?
• 24 pounds of strawberries turned into roughly 34 pints of jam.  Some went into plain ol' frozen strawberries, also.  I was done making jam.

Still to be done:

• Strawberries
• Apple Jelly
• Black-Apple Jelly - It's the best!

Hooray!

Even though it's completely out of focus, this picture thrills me!  "N" is riding her bike again!  She has been suffering from a paralyzing fear of so many things that live outside that when we go outside, she wouldn't move an inch away from me - unless I was near the garden, and then she would wait in screaming suspense for me to return to her side.  I had always heard of paralyzing fear, but "N" was my first first-hand experience with it.  Today she even ventured outside without me.  It lasted less than a minute, but she did it!

Labor Day

We went hiking on Labor Day.  It was a overcast and drizzled a bit, but we had a great time.

It took a while for "N" to warm up to being outside.  She's developed a phobia (read: PARALYZING FEAR.  Literally.) of bees, wasps, dogs, moose ... it goes on and on.  So being outside wasn't her idea of fun.  But once she got used to it, she didn't want to go home.

We missed the gorgeous wildflower season, but still were able to some pretty flowers.

 "A" had a blast.  He needed no prodding to have fun.  He climbed, jumped, dug and got PLENTY dirty.

Flowers or Weeds?

These two are weeds.  Aren't they beautiful, though?  The white one's leaves are pretty ugly, but the flower is gorgeous and huge!  The orange one is really pretty.  Even the leaves.  I'm seriously considering digging it up and moving it to where the rest of the flowers are.  I have no idea what it is, but every day there is a new bloom, and the old one dies, something like a day lilly.   

These two are flowers.  The sunflowers grew without us planting the seeds.  The birdfeeder did it for us!  I love sunflowers, so I was very happy to see them grow!  The day lilly was a new one for us.  "N" didn't believe that the flowers really died and a new one bloomed each day.  She was constantly telling me, "Look, mom!  That one came back again!".  I finally gave up trying to correct her.  She is only 4, after all.

I don't have pictures, but a month or so ago my brother brought me some rose bushes that they didn't want at their house.  Things were a little scary for a long while, but all three of them are pulling through! Two look happy, and one is slowly greening up!

I also brought some flowers from my parents house when I visited there a while back.  Most of them are settling right in.  We lost the Johnny Jump Ups - sadly.  And my tall shasta daisy is needing special love and attention.  I planted a purple flowering bushy thing right in front of our sprinklers, so it'll need to be moved.  The peony looks like it's been there forever and the shorter daisies are still green, though not flowering.  I have high hopes!

Where We Went

We drove past these.

We saw this.

We drove under this.

We saw this (we would have walked on it, but it was pouring rain).

And at the end of the day, we saw this.

Can you tell where we went?

Confused

These geese were flying NORTH this morning.  Does that mean they're incredibly confused or that summer is far from over?

My Latest Project

My SIL and I recently ordered a gazillion bow and flower clips from Halo Heaven.  We're going to divvy them up while we're camping next weekend.  Meanwhile, all of the adorableness is sitting on my piano, tempting me EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.  So I needed a project.  And somewhere to store a gazillion bows and flowers.  Enter yard saling.

"N" loves yard saling - I'm teaching her well.  A couple of weeks ago, I had purchased, for $0.50, a used bulletin board.  My original plan was to use it for school for the kiddos.  But as I was thinking about what to do with a gazillion bows and flowers, my project was born.  I took the bulletin board, painted it, hot glued some ribbon strips, and viola!  I had a place for clips.  But just one thing on our bathroom wall looked lonely.  So I then painted some extra picture frames I had around the house, added pictures of the kiddos in the bath (modest, of course) and hung them up.  I am so happy with the results!

This picture was taken with my iPod.  It's the only way I could

get the entire group into a photo.  Sorry for the bad picture!

I'm ready now for next week, when I can hang my gazillion clips onto their board.  {huge smiley face here}

*The lime green from the bottom photo is the right color green.  All of the green is that color, even though it shows up an ugly green in the others.*

A Story of Feeding the Ducks

A mama and her 3 kiddos learned of a nearby pond that had ducks.  The directions were a little sketchy, but they found the pond, tucked back in a neighborhood.  They started walking along the swamp-side pond-side path, and saw ducks!  The kiddos were so excited.  As they started throwing bread, the ducks came closer.  Then, a neighborhood dog heard the ducks' happy quacking and come over.  Good-bye, ducks!

The mama and her kiddos continued walking along the path, which led them to the opposite side of the swamp pond.  Whither the ducks had fled.  They found more ducks!  So, they proceded to throw them bread.  

As more ducks learned (no idea how) of the bread throwing, they came to join the fray.

When most of their bread was gone (as in the last two slices were in the kiddos hands), this duck, who was twice the size of the others (not even joking) arrived.  He wanted bread.  "N" was holding a piece at his mouth level and he marched right up to her.  She not-so-quickly threw a piece to divert him, then froze in place, not knowing how to get past the giant duck to the safety of her mama.  Mama went to her, then quickly got back to "A", who the giant duck had then targeted as the holder of the last piece of bread.  The giant and "A" were close to the same size.  Mama took the slice of bread, threw large pieces over her shoulder, and got away as quickly as was possible with 2 fearful children and 1 who had no clue what was happening because she was safe in mama's arms.  "N" took off running, with no direction, just knowing that she wanted to get away from the giant duck.  "A" stood and cried, wanting Mama to pick him up.  When he realized that wasn't an option, he settled for her hand and ran.

The ducks followed a little ways down the path, but once the realized the bread was no longer being thrown, they lost interest.

When they were safely on the opposite side of the pond, Mama pointed out to "N" that the duck was still on the other side and that it wasn't following them.  This is when she finally began calming down.  Just in time to see the plethora of "itty-bitty-balls" strewn across the path.

Garden (-ish)

How does your garden grow?  Ours has finally started to ripen!  We've had a few cherry tomatoes and yesterday we ate our first (and last) peas!  We barely had enough for dinner (everyone wanted more), but we had them!  And the kiddos are still finding pods that weren't large enough to pick for dinner.  They love to pick them and eat them fresh (I have to admit, fresh, uncooked peas is not something that I can do).  

We have pet snails.  They really do make great pets.  Give them a bowl of water and a few leafy greens and they're happy.  Forget the water and greens for a few days (maybe a week or more)?  They'll be fine.  No need to find a pet sitter.  They don't make any noise.  There are no major messes.  Added bonus?  If you keep them as pets, they won't eat your garden.  The only problem is, there are an awful lot of them, and if you have a child like mine, when they find them, they add them to the "Snail House".  I thought we had 8 snails.  WE HAVE 12.  Oops?

And just in case anyone is grossed out, we do have a rule that you must wash your hands with soap and warm water after touching them.  'A' loves that rule (Playing in the sink ranks pretty high on his list!).  'N' doesn't so much like the warm water part.

Perspective (a.k.a., PARKS)

Things change.  So does perspective.  I was recently planning a get-together with an old friend.  In a town where I lived for 4 years of my life (aka, COLLEGE).  Now, we both have children and I haven't been in that town for {ahem} a while.  I had NO IDEA where to find a good park.

I lived in my current town for 3 years when I was single.  My last year here, I ran a couple of days a week with a friend, at a park near her home.  I recently found a "new" park for my kiddos and I to visit (one of my summer goals is to go to a "new" park every week).  Lo and behold, it was the same park where I used to run.  I had NO IDEA there was a playground at the park.  I had never noticed it.

Now, as we're driving around town, in any town, parks are one of my top priorities to find.  Road trips?  Parks are a definite must.  We were driving to Las Vegas and needed a park.  Any one know of a park in Beaver?  There is one.  And it's the BEST PARK that I have ever seen.  There is something there for everyone (adults, too!).