Busy Weekend and A Little Vinagar

After a ton of rain the sun came out, and we had the most beautiful weekend. High 20's which were very abnormal for this time of year.
I went into town on Friday and picked up the girls after school. We went to the general store and picked up some items we needed, and picked up a special order that was brought in for me. Gary the great guy who seems to be able to get me anything I am looking for brought me in my winters flour. He loaded the back of my jeep with 4 twenty pound bags of flour, yep that makes 80 pounds total. This should just about do us out the winter.
He also got my meat tray order ready for me. Thanks to Gary for making my life a little bit easier.

Saturday I worked in the heat in my front flower beds. Oh my poor perennials have been so neglected. Our walk way went from four feet wide to 2. I pulled weeds inbetween the bricks and trimmed my rose bushes and like magic my walk way was back. The kiddies made me laugh they could not beleive how wide it was, they said they forgot.
I was able to get another bushel of apples done up into apple sauce, and we made a homemade pizza for a late supper.

This morning we had a nice brunch of sausages, mini cheese biscuits, and eggs. Then it was outside to put in a full day. We turned on the cooler and went to butcher our pigs. The day was heating up quick, and then our new cooler decided to have trouble. The radiator completely froze up solid, and poor Hubby had worked most of the day at it. We did get one pig butchered, and hung in the cooler, while we worked at the cooling unit.

I came in doors just long enough to get some fried chicken made and into the oven. I went back out to help Hubby in anyway I could. We worked on it till 630 and it seems to be ok. Hubby is out now making sure.

The other day I mentioned I put some Vinagar on. I wanted to try in words to describe how I do this. Ok so here it goes.

First I do this when I do up my apples, I save my cores and peelings and use large jars that are I think a half gallon. I put my peelings and cores and little bits into them and fill with water just to cover.

Then because my jars are wide mouth I use a lid(seal) from my normal size mason jars on top to hold the apple down under the water. Then I use some breathable fabric or heavy cheese cloth over the tops and use the jar rings to secure it. I leave it for 36 hours or so, after about 24 hours you should see some bubbles around the lid if you take off the fabric and look. I need the fabric because the fruit flies love this stuff if I don't.

Then after 36 hours I open them and strain and give the chickens the apple parts, put into clean mason jar without the lid again use breathable fabric and the ring and leave for a month. I found that after 2 weeks it still is a bit cloudy and I'm hoping it clears up in the month. I also notice it kinda bubbles up and goes away again and it dose smell yeasty yet. But we will see in a month.

Good luck to anyone who wants to give it a try. Let me know if I can help anymore. I wished I had taken pictures as I was doing it. The girls want to do some more  so if I do I will take pictures this time around. I was hoping to make some this past weekend thats why I had not blogged about it till now. But after such a busy weekend I did not get it done.

Wednesday

I can't believe we're mid week already.

Monday I kept the house quite as the girls slept in, and made them some chicken soup to sip away on throughout the day. It was a Jammie day for them and by mid afternoon they were feeling better.
It rained all day, and it has been raining ever since.
We had meatballs,chicken fried rice,and beef fried macaroni for supper.I managed to get apple butter made and apple sauce.

Tuesday was my busy day with Mom, as it was nurse day visit. I spent most of the day with her and did not get back home till 3 and began cutting up the cucs, onions, peppers and celery for another batch of celery relish. I got 14 bottles this batch and now have enough for Winter. I made a frittata with ham and cheese and fresh herbs, I fried up the left over potatoes we had from Sunday nights supper, warm up the left over rice,meatballs, and beef fried Mac, and had a little stuffing left from the chicken as well. It made a great supper. I was pretty tired after all that cutting up and went to bed early.

Today I woke up with a headache and it bothered me most of the day. I got a few things done around the house and Jayne had called and told me that she forgot her lunch bag on the bus, so I had to make her a new lunch and drive it to the school. By the time I got back and went to my Moms it was after 10. Mom was not feeling to good today. She has became so weak over the last week or so, I find it a lot of effort to get her from the bed to the wheel chair now. My head hurt so much, I left there and came home and finished up my house work. I decided to lay down till the kiddies got home. We had a easy hotdog and french fry supper.
I went outside after supper between aim showers to help Hubby with the barn work. Te girls cleaned up from supper and I laid  back down again to watch Pioneer Woman. I feel a bit better now.

I filled the slow cooker with apples and will make another batch of apple sauce in the morning. It is such a wonderful smell to awake to in the morning. I also started some vinegar with the cores and peelings.

I will post pictures of our new meat room as soon as it is done. We had decided to use our first ever barn to make it in.it is a bit bigger to move around in then our last one. It is 2 sections. The back part is the cooler room. Where we will hang our meat. Then the front is where we cut it up. We will store our meat saw, slicer, sausage maker, and the hamburger maker in there. We will wrap our meat in there as well.
We have 2 pigs, and 2 beef waiting to be butchered now. One beef is our winter beef, and the other s our hamburger for the winter.( a older cow)

Justin went for a drive on the 4 wheeler today after school to the back fields of our neighbour to check on and see if he could see Phoebe. He seen her with a few cattle up in the higher pasture among the trees. He said she looked fine.

Tomorrow I would like to get some apple pie filling made and canned. We still have 4 bushels of apples in the back room to use up. Hubby is suppose to take Friday off to get some work done here at home. If the rain ever stops. We are wanting to make cider over the weekend as well.

Such a busy time of year, BUT..... I would not trade it for anything.....It is so worth it......

Take care and goodnight.

Saturday And Sunday

Well my Saturday plans of outdoor work kinda got changed around. It began the way I wanted it to with getting to sleep in. I got up around 8 and began to relax with my cup of coffee.
Hubby came in from the barn work and asked if I wanted to go to the next town for a drive with him to look at a cooler unit for the new meat room. I waited till 9 till the girls got up and checked to see how they were feeling. Jill had a runny nose when she went to bed Friday night, Jayne was not feeling the best, mostly played out from her trip, and Justin well we knew he still was not feeling the best. Justin stayed in bed and the girls were not feeling that bad. We left and we had a nice visit with friends who had the unit. Unfourtally it was not the right style we were looking for. After leaving we went to get some lunch at the Dairy Queen ( a real treat as we don't have anything close by like that)
We decided to go out further and visit with some other fiends we had not seen in a long time. We had a really nice visit there. We went to the bulk barn to stock up on all the fall and winter spices,cake decorating needs, and brown sugar I needed for the next few months. I was very happy with what I ended up with. Then it was one last stop at the Dollar Store. I picked up some really nice fall decorations. We only returned home at 5, so I did a little outdoor work. We all headed to bed early as the kiddies were not feeling to good.

This morning I was still tired. Phoebe kept me up all night. She cried all night. Hubby got up twice throughout the night to check and make sure everything was ok in the barn.
Hubby went into town before I got up this morning and found a cooler unit. He picked up coffee at the coffee shop for me, and I made brunch for the family. Pancakes, sausages,and patato patties. We went outdoors and I decided to clean the chicken coop. Phoebe continued to ball even after she had her grain. Hubby got looking close at her and we discovered the problem. Miss Phoebe is is heat..... So we loaded her up in the trailer and took her down the road to the farmer over the roads barn to have a visit with his bull. She will stay there for around a month or a little more as he is not bringing his cattle in till then.
Hubby and I finished the cooler room in the meat room and worked on the meat room. I cooked a roast chicken for supper and Justin is feeling better today,and helped us in the meat room. BUT......Jayne and Jillian on the other hand are not really the best. Red runny noses, and sore throats.i will be having 2 little girls home tomorrow with me I guess.
I will use the rest of the chicken after I make sandwiches for the guys tomorrow to make some soup for the girls to sip away on for the day.
Well this old chicken is tired too. I think that it is time for me to hit the sack. Goodnight and I hope you all are well.

The Camper Returns

That's right my girl is home. After three days away roughing it in a tent, she's back.....

She had a great time. With tons of stories to tell us, and a very tired little girl. They had great weather and came back today just as it was turning damp.
We treated her to a take out supper of Chinese food at home, and she crashed on the couch with her blankey in her  pjs after along hot bubble bath. "TV and the couch is just how I want to spend my evening she said"
I picked her up just after 1 , and we had a few errands to run in town before picking Jill up at school. Hubby decided to work a bit more this evening on the meat room,while Jill made her way to the horse paddock and groomed the horses.

Justin on the other hand is down and out with a terrible head cold. Spending his day in bed with a box of Kleenex and honey. He did get up and joined up for supper but went back to bed again. No school for him today. At least it's Friday and he will have the weekend to get rest and be on the mend for Monday. This way he won't miss to much school work.

We are expecting a very nice weekend weather wise. So I tend to get outdoors and clean up and get some fall decorating done. I was able to get a few decorations in town.

BUT.....tonight I plan on PJs, cozy fire, my crochet, and a glass of blackberry wine......

Have a great weekend blogging friends!

Green Pepper Harvest

I finally got the basket of green peppers out of the garden chopped up and froze for winter. I ended up  with 21 bags total of the green and 14 of orange. I got only 8 jalapeño ones.
I had 4 cauliflowers that I picked before the frost and the last 2 brocolli. I blanched and froze them as well.

Jayne got off this morning for her three day, two night camping trip with her class. I had one very excited little girl who could barely eat her breakfast this morning.  She sent me a message from her iPod as they have wifi there. ( I thought this was camping) :)
It is suppose to be a few nice days, but the nights as still very cool. A low tonight of 8 and 4 for tomorrow night. Burrrr!

Tomorrow I am beginning with all the apples we have picked. I am going to start with the apple jelly. I should be ale to get some apple sauce done up as well, as I am having a pork roast in the slow cooker tomorrow night for super with sweet and sour sauce that I have in the freezer and this will save me time in the kitchen and more time with my apples.

Tonight I had a lovely visit with my dear friends who's daughter is gone away as well. It was so nice for her to pop in.

Now I need to get to bed as I feel my eyes getting heavy.
Good night my dear blogging friends.

A Cool Morning Frost

This morning we awoke to frost. Thank goodness I prepared the kitchen garden for it last night by covering it.
We had to put fires on in both stoves when we got up. It did not take long for the house to heat up. I made pancakes and bacon for breakfast and the kiddies enjoyed them in the heat.

Today was a busy one as I had nurse visit for my Mom, which went well. We had to do a urine test as we think she might have another infection once again though.

I had put rolls on to rise early this morning for Jayne to take away with her on her camping trip tomorrow.

I made a lasagna for supper to go with the rest of the rolls.

I packed a big hockey bag for Jayne.

I did up the rest of the laundry as it was a cool but windy day (which is great for drying )

I made up a huge batch of high chocolate chip muffins again for Jayne to take way with her.

Now I see the kiddies coming up the lane....ahhh....my day is complete....
Take care my blogging friends

Another Productive Weekend

Dispite a very rainy Saturday I was able to get a lot done in the kitchen.

The girls gave me a helping hand and pickled and canned 20 more pounds of beets. That makes a total of 40 pounds done up in the pantry for winter.
We also had the carrots pulled were also ready to get them done up so after the beets we got busy and cut up all them. But I was super tired by the time we got finished so we put them in a big bowl of cold water and salt and left them till morning to blanch them. We got 28 bags into the freezer. I left the little ones in the garden for a little longer. So I'll get a few more bags before Winter. I made a banana bread for Hubby's break time treat for work. I finally set up the dehydrator and got 2 gallons of over grown green beans into it.


After the trays were all dried,

I bag them into freezer zip lock bags for winter use. I decided on putting them into the freezer instead of canning so that we don't lose them to mold just in case they still have moisture in there.

Sunday the Sun came out and it was a beautiful warm day after a week of heavy rains. After all the kitchen work we headed outdoors with the family to get some outdoor work done. After getting all the barn work done, we went and helped Hubby work on our new meat shop. We are using our first ornignal barn that we started out with. Our old meat room needed so much work that we decided to move it instead. Plus a little bigger is going to be a real nice change.
We were finally called it quits just after 8 and headed in to make some bacon cheese burgers and homemade fries with fry sauce.

This morning we got rain again. But it has now moved on. Besides helping Mom I have been busy getting Jayne prepared for her camping trip on Wednesday with her class. She is going to be gone for three days. They are suppose to have beautiful weather according to the long range forcast. Which is good as they are camping in tents. I will pick her up Friday afternoon after 2.

Well I better get super on as we are having oven fried pork chops, turkey fried rice and noodles.

Take care and have a wonderful evening my blogging friends.

Rain On The Roof

It's 8 PM and I just finished up my day. I did my normal daily routine, made lunches, sent Hubby off to work,made the kiddies breakfast, walked down the lane and sent them off on the bus for a day of learning, tided up, did the barn work,and went to my Moms, helped her for the day, came home and made a wonderful baked salmon dinner, met my kiddies at the door and fed them a warm bowl of chicken noodle soup, got supper on the table, tided up again, got Hubby his supper, ran to the feed store with Hubby, fed the animals there supper, and washed up for the night.
During all of this day it rained. It rained very hard. And it is still raini g very hard. As I type I hear it pouring down hard on the roof of the house. It has been a very foggy rainy day. A very sleepy drury kinda day. We are expecting 4 more days of this. Sigh...... Where did Summer hot and humid go?

PS..... I did not get to my beans....it's on the top of the todo list tomorrow.....

Another Cool Morning

The last 2 mornings we have had to put small fires on in the kitchen stove. Just enough to take the chill out of the house at 4:30, so by the time the kiddies awoke for school the house was warmed. I took out the winter quilts and hung them on the line yesterday to air out before placing them on the beds. It is so strange how as soon as September hit, it was like someone turned a switch to Fall.

We had a lovely roast chicken dinner for supper last night. I also made 2 pans of rolls. We all ate to much as usual, and I had enough chicken left over to make sandwiches for the lunch boxes today. Tomorrow I will use the rest to make a noodle soup. 

After I got back from Moms this afternoon I decided to clean off my desk in my crafting corner, as it has became a collect all over the summer. I was in there and heard the dogs barking. I came out to look out the window to see what was going on. Jayne was coming up the lane as she took the early bus home. I was very surprised because she had washer toss after school today. But poor Jayne had a ear ache and was not feeling the best. I warmed up some ear drops,placed a piece of cotton and gave her a Advil. She had a bowl of soup with a roll, and began to feel a little better. 

Tonight we had shepherds pie, toss salad, and mini biscuits. I so love to see my family come home and enjoy a good hearty meal after a long day away. They ate up the rest of the turkey soup that was left in the soup pot before supper was ready. ( I guess school makes you hungry) :)

We worked in the barn yard tiding up after supper, Hubby worked late and joined us after he got home and ate. Hubby took the backhoe and scraped out the horse paddock. We were just finishing up when friends of ours pulled up the lane. They are farmers as well and wanted to come and see Phoebe our new addition to the family. We had coffee and then they headed on their way as it gets dark so early now and they still had to bring there sheep in. 

Tomorrow is a drying green bean day. ( at least I'm going to try) I have never done this before but I'm willing to give it a try. Thanks to Donna over at Merry Heart Crafts, I feel I am ready to take on the challenge. 

We are expecting a lot of rain over the next few days well right till Monday I guess. So I was busy pulling and picking in the garden before the rains. 

Beets, relish, brocolli,cauliflower, and apple jelly is on the agenda over the week end.

We ladies I guess my eyes are starting to get heavy so good night, and I wish you all a great evening.

Catch Up On A Fast Past Week

The first week of routine is complete. We survived and man it went by fast. This is such a busy time of year.

I'll give a little recap of the past week here from our neck of the woods.

Let's start with the weather. We had a rainy , humidity week. We had a lot of thunder storms that left us without power a couple nights. Heavy rains did not help the grain fields, and made it to wet to bring home hay that is still in the fields. We had a couple of cold mornings where we even almost had frost. We covered the kitchen garden but were lucky. We did however put a small fire on in the house burning the paper garbage and warming up the floors. Then by 2 in the afternoon we could see the temps raising from 5 degrees to 32 with the humidity. Talk about wacky weather.

Coming home after picking up my Dad one day we had to go into town as he needed to pick up a few items for Mom. We were not sure we were going to make it home ahead of the rain and thunder storms.


Mom is still holding her own. She did not have to bad of a week. She rested a lot yesterday for my Dad and was a bit weaker. It seems to be a day to day lifestyle with her. Up and then down. I wish I could do more for her. But for now I'll keep going everyday and try to help her the best I can.

I had a welcome back BBQ on Friday afternoon at Jaynes school. The weather was perfect for it and I got to talk to people I have not seen in a long time. We left there and went to pick up Jill after she got out of school. We picked up take out and headed home to meet Hubby and Justin ( as he took the bus home) had supper and loaded up the horse trailer and went to pick up our new Diary cow.
She is a purebred jersey with her papers( I did not need all this, but this was the deal we got) she just turned 3 and we are awaiting her to go into heat. We have 2 options we can bring her over to the neighbours farm as he has a couple of bulls there. Or we can have her artifically bred with jersey. This will cost us a bit but we will either way have a purebred again. Another Holstein for us to keep or a purebred bull to sell and get our money back. ( a win win story) so while we wait for her to into heat we need to make up our minds.
Our new cow is named Phoebe. I have always wanted a jersey named phoebe and now I have one. We need to get a couple more beef cattle for the winter now. Hubby works Sundays for the livestock dealer doing his mechanical. He has banked his hours since spring and then we tell him what to look for in livestock and he brings it home for us. So far a new ram after losing my old one, and now Phoebe.

All the farm family are getting along.

 look how much Cookie has grown over the Summer

Here is Malbec the new ram.

Saturday we all slept in. It felt great. We got up and had a pick breakfast. (Pick your own whats left over) lol  after we cleaned up the house, and did the barn work, Hubby headed to the field, Justin went to help my Dad with his firewood,and the girls and I went to the fair in the next town. We go every year, we go to stock up on our winter honey supply, as I find the bee keeper there has the best honey. We always pick up some bees wax for winter, and honeycomb for those winter sick days...
The girls had ribbon fries, cotton candy and snow cones.


We came home and made pizza dough and while it was rising we made up a banana bread.

We headed out doors and picked more out of the kitchen garden for Sundays nights supper. We all went to help Hubby put up a new fence that he got from a guy. It was called a deer fence 380 ft roll. Never been used and was given to us. It makes great goat fence. So we all worked together and got it up around the back pen. We headed in at 8 and made up a homemade pizza. We were all pretty hungry. I sat and relaxed with the family while they watched TV. I worked on my crochet,and had a lovely glass of green apple wine.  It began to rain and the winds picked up again. It rained hard throughout the night.

Sunday morning it was windy but it dried up we worked outdoors all day. It was firewood day. We put in all the wood in the small wood shed.  Over 3 cords cut,split,and piled in the shed. I made a wonderful pot roast for Sunday supper with all the fresh veggies from the garden in it.
We all headed off to bed around 9. and were ready for routine once again this week.

Busy Blanching

Today while my turkey was in the oven cooking and the devil chocolate cake was cooling, I decided to go to the garden and pick. I have had a lot of brocolli and cauliflower ready and brought it in saved a bit in the fridge and blanched and froze the rest. I also to to Blanch and freeze 4 cabbages as well. The cabbages are really tuning out nice this year and we are g owing to have a lot if they keep growing this way.
The kiddies and hubby got home and we all had a nice turkey supper with all the trimmings from the garden. Yum! I ate way to much.
Even the kiddies decided to wait and have cake as there snack tonight. Instead of desert.
Justin's first day went well he has a busy semester of hard courses. He will have to work really hard.
Tomorrow evening we are going to get our new milking cow. Hubby just got the call and our buyer has found the perfect one we are looking for. I am super excited.

Routine....

Today began routine once again in our household. The children are back in school after a wonderful but way to short summer.
I began my morning bright and early by sending Hubby of to work and getting some bread on to rise, and some pork ribs on to boil.then into the slow cooker for the day in some sweet and sticky sauce.  After a couple morning coffees I packed lunch boxes and made a wonderful pancake breakfast of chocolate chip and blueberry pancakes with a big big old pound of bacon. Apple juice and orange juice and some homemade warmed maple syrup.mmmmmm no better way to start a school year off.

I drove the girls into town to school for their first day and headed to my Moms for a busy nurse day visit.

I made rice and beef fried macaroni to go with the ribs for supper. It sure was a pleasure seeing them all eat and enjoying supper after a long day. (Even though tomorrow is Justin's first day he was still hungry after working in the garage all day on his motors :)
The girls had both a great day, and had so much to talk about.

I have always cooked a turkey the first day back to school as a little family tradition here, so we have decided tomorrow will be our turkey night. With all 3 children going to school tomorrow.

I am happy for routine. I love summer but miss routine.

I'll be back later this week with a little recap of my weekend get away. But for now this girl is staying on routine and going to kiss my little ones goodnight and hit the sack myself as I'm back on ROUTINE...... Goodnight......