Baby It's Cold Outside

The weather has sure taken a bitten cold turn. We have even had a couple of days where we have seen snow flurries in the air.
Fires are now needed to stay on all day, and warmer coats are needed to go outdoors. The girls are wearing there mittens to the bus in the morning as well.

My Mom has been very weak lately and she has good days and bad ones. She spends a lot more time in bed now and I try to keep her as comfortable as I can.
My Dad landed up back in the hospital on Wednesday and they kept him as his gull bladder needed to come out. So I spent 6 days at my moms till yesterday when he finally got out after they missed a stone and then he took a reaction to the meds. Let me tell you it sure felt good to sleep in my own bed last night. I am really feeling it trying to run 2 households. My family was feeling it as well. But I thank God everyday for the understanding family I have.

Friday night was Jaynes Halloween school dance. She had a wonderful time.

Saturday night Jill had a Halloween party at her friends house ( they happen to be twins) she too a wonderful time.

HB has been working steading as he had lost a day with a terrible head cold. He has a jeep in the garage he is working on for a guy in the evenings and when ever he gets a moment, besides working at the mine.

He was also able to get our beef done and put into the cooler on Thursday.

Sunday he brought Phoebe home from the farm over the road, we are sure hoping she is now bred.

Tonight we butchered one quarter of our beef. It was so cold out in the meat room. There was frost on the ground already when we came in the house for the night.
Tomorrow night we will get the rest done and the ground beef grounded as well. We started to late tonight.

It is suppose to go down to -10 tonight, it is already -5 out there. Burrrr. So with the fires crackling away, and the heavy quilts on the beds we are toasty and it is time for me to go to bed. My back is sore tonight and I am feeling it now. Goodnight dear friends.

Fall Picture Update

I sure wish I was more computer literate when it comes to my blog. I take a lot of my pictures with my iPhone, and or my IPad. I have tried to download my pics from my iPad,or iPhone while I'm writing my posts and they never show up.so I always need to send my pics to my email and open and download them on our laptop. This sometimes makes me very very slow or late posting. I am sorry for this. So I sent all my updated fall pics to my laptop and finally.....

So without further ado......

The girls made a wonderful salsa

We finally got our pumpkin pies made.....

I am using up all the fall apples by making up apple crisps

I times my recipe by 4 and make 4 crisps at a time, as I get my foil trays in 4 packs.

The wood shed got underway thanks to Justin

I have switched to making my daily soups on our wood stove now.

hope you enjoy

More Fall

Fall is sure here. The mornings are cold and frosty. Fires are needed and by 1:00 it is nice and warm out. By 4:00 you can feel the differance in the air. By 7:00 the fires are needed again.

Fire wood is under way. The small wood shed is now full, and I cleaned the big one out and Justin has been busy spilting and piling.

Just when we thought tomatoes were done, we had more ripen in the house that left us with enough to make salsa. The girls did all the cutting up and they learned to make salsa.

It turned out great.

We got a little fall decorating done around the house.

I'm having trouble again with downloading my pictures on here. I wish I knew more about this stuff. But as soon as I get it figured out ill post them.

I spent the ending of the week cutting up pumpkin, cooking it, making pie crusts, and making pumpkin pie. They turned out good.
I ended up cooking my pumpkin in a roaster with a little water.

I also cooked some on the stove as well.


I really like the way the pumpkin turned out in the oven.

I purée it in the food processer and froze what I did not make into pies.

I was pretty tired after getting it all done. But those pies are sure worth all the work.

Thursday morning I got a pot of turkey soup on the wood stove to simmer away for the day. I got the kitchen cleaned up and then went ahead and got bread on to rise. Then I cleaned the kitchen again.We had chicken parmigiana Thursday night for supper with garlic bread, it was a hit the whole family loved it.

Friday it rained, and I felt terrible all day. I was very tired. My Dad had to go back to the hospital again as his stomach was so sore on Thursday. I thought he was going to take the day off Friday and get some rest,but nope, he went to work and I looked after my Mom.

I think all the stress was finally getting to me by Friday. I made garlic fingers and sweet potato fries for supper and relaxed on the couch before going to bed early.

Today I felt better. I took it slow this morning, I slept in and then had coffee on the couch and watched my cooking shows. The kids made there on breakfast, and Hubby went to the woods.

After I felt myself again, I did up all the baby carrots that were left in the garden. These were all the tiny ones. I left some out for our supper. I made sausages for lunch for the family. 

Then after getting all the barn work done we headed back to the gardens in the woods to dig our potatoes. Justin and Jill came to help us, while Jayne stayed home and made a boiled dinner for supper. 

We only got one out of the two gardens done. We have over 300 pounds already :)

If it dose not rain tomorrow we will dig the rest. If not it will be next week. 

Jaynes barn cat Aleena had 2 more kittens this afternoon as well in the hay mound. I am sure the girls will be out naming them first thing in the morning. 

We have a bear hanging around the yard a little to close. Justin seen him Friday and Hubby seen the prints this morning by the pumpkin patch. Then when we went back to the woods on the ATV we saw more tracks over Hubby's Backhoe tracks from when he went to cut wood this morning. 

Tomorrow morning we will have our usual Sunday morning brunch, then after all the house and barn work gets done I will do up another pumpkin. 

Hubby has to finish working on a body job on a jeep that he is doing in his spare time for a guy. 

Well time for this old girl to hit the sack. Take care my dear friends and happy blogging.

A Little Late Catch Up

It has been way way to long since my last blogging post, and I so apologize for that. I kinda got swallowed up by Fall  preparations around the farm, and having both parents not well.
But I'm back, and wanting to bring you all up to date on what I was so busy with.

So I'm going to back up a week ago or a little more and start. Lets start in the kitchen.

I finally got the last of the cucumbers used up and finished off with another batch of Celery Relish.we have had some heavy frosts the last few nights.
If any would like the recipe let me know.

I got 2 batches more of apple jelly made. I only get a crop of apples every second year here so I have been trying to make enough apple items for two years.


If you would like my apple jelly recipe again I will certinally share it.

I also tried out Donna's Apple pie filling Recipe over at Merry Heart Crafts. Thank you Donna it turned out lovely.
I highly recommend it for you go to pie filling. :)

We picked tomatoes, and more tomatoes, and filled our baskets with ripe ones. It seemed like it took forever this year for them to ripen, but once they started.
We also had way to many cherry tomatoes. I planted to many and my mouth is all broken out from eating so many. But they are so good.

I bottled 18 quarts for the winter,and made Ketchup in the slow cooker with the rest. We ended up with 16 pint jars of ketchup.
Then a neighbour dropped by and gave us more tomatoes. I did up another 11 quarts of sauce. They also brought me 6 more heads of cauliflower so we did 4 up and blanched and froze them. We are still eating the rest with our own.

I have my windows sills in my home filled with green ones waiting for them to ripen.
I should be making a batch of chow with the green ones,but just have not had the time as of yet.

We got the corn all picked and I have been storing the bags in the cooler to preserve it longer. The girls helped me and we were able to do up some cream corn. I also blanched and froze some on the cob for winter eating. There is still a half bag and we have been enjoying a lot of corn on the cob with our suppers.

As for our pork.....

2 Thursday evenings ago we cut up the first one. It went well and after babysitting a cooler for the week  I was happy it was done. Well most of the week that is.Then our weather changed back to rain and cold about mid week and the cooler worked perfect.

2 Friday evenings ago  we butchered our second one,and hung it in the cooler. We grounded up all the pork that was left from the first pig,and put it back into the fridge for Saturday to make Sausages.
Saturday afternoon we made our first batch of sausages with my husbands cousin that had came to help out. We were only able to get medium casings for the sausages as we were completely out and I was having trouble finding them as our normal rep was out of province. But they worked. We usually always made our maple ones in the breakfast size and our honey garlic in the large size. But this year is a it different. No worries they still taste wonderful.
This year we were able to try a new flavour.. Donair ......  They are wonderful and I bet they would be even better wrapped in a pita, added with shredded lettuce, a little tomato, onion, and topped with Donair sauce. Can't wait to try this out.

Tuesday evening we cut up our bigger more fattier pig. It went well as well.


Here you can start to see a little of what the meat room, and cooler looks like

long ways to go yet, but it sure beats where we were before. We have not had enough time yet to get the counters built so we had to use a table for now to wrap the meat.

Jill loved to help wrap the meat.

Wednesday  morning we had our annual family breakfast at Jill's school. It was family week and every year they host the most wonderful continental breakfast of pancakes,cereal,toast, muffins,fruit, cheeses,tea,coffee,and juices.
After sitting eating and chatting I said my goodbyes to Jill and Jayne and I headed over to her school to drop her off. Then it was off to Moms for my routine day.

The kiddies had the remainder of the week off for teachers meetings, and with it being Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada, they will not have to go back until Tuesday.

We had a very easy chicken burger and fry supper, as I had a meeting for Jill's grade 5 end of year trip at 630 which went well.
I got back home around 740 and Hubby has just finished grounding up the pork for the sausages. We all got involved and got more made.

Another job done. It feels great to have all the pork done up in the freezer. Along with all those Sausages.
I am not sure if we will need a deer this year for our sausages. We have a little time to think about it. We still have our beef left to do.
Partridge season has started here as well back on the 1st, and we have not had time as of yet to go hunting.Justin has gotten one so far. I was hoping over the long weekend we will get a chance to start. I have been craving a bouillon, but this was not the case as Friday after noon my Dad ended up in the hospital with very high blood pressure and a gull bladder attack. So I spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday running back and forth to the hospital and looking after my Mom. Thank goodness I have such a understanding family. No pumpkin pie got made, no pie crust got done, and no apple pie. But my family says that we have all this week to get them done and we will eat pumpkin pie all next weekend. I love my Family.

Dad is feeling a bit better. he still wants to go back to work tomorrow.We had a  wonderful brunch with my family this morning.

We worked on our wood shed filling it today and cooked a turkey for Supper. It will certinally be a Thanksgiving to remember that's for sure. 

Take care and Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian Friends.

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.