More done

I got 5 & 1/2 quarts of tomato sauce done today. Tomorrow I will be working on diced tomatoes to jar up. Plus, I have some white runner beans I need to deal with as well.

Orientation went well. Band monster has decided that she wants to go to Homecoming. So now all we need is a date and a dress. She is working on the date and I am working on the dress. LOL!

Pink eye is almost gone… YEAH!

Yart

Practical Magic Blog Party 2011: It's party time again ladies......

Practical Magic Blog Party 2011: It's party time again ladies......:

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'via Blog this'

Back to the Start

Recipe Share

Here are some recipes that I want to share that I have found around the net.

Maple Brown Sugar Blueberry Cheesecake

Gluten Free Thanksgiving dinner

Lacto-Fermented Applesauce

Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies

Soft Sourdough Cookies

Cheese Crackers

Sourdough Pumpkin Bread

Coconut Oil Mayonnaise

Chocolat Peanut Butter Cups

Refrigerator Bran Muffins

Yart

Accomplishments

First let say that I tried the Chia tea. Man o Man is it good. I’m sure I will be making more before the week is out.

Today has gone by in a blur. I got started on the tomatoes. They were cut up and tossed in the oven. Both of my big roasters were groaning under the weight.. LOL! As they were cooking down, I cut some corn off the ear so that I could have some in the freezer. Then I cleaned, cut up and froze, peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots. These will make great additions to winter time smoothies. I also cleaned and cut up Hungarian Hot peppers for the freezer. This time I wore gloves to protect myself. Once all the tomatoes were cooked and cooled a bit… They went into the pulverizor. Now the sauce is in the crook pots for the night. I will can up the condensed sauce in the morning. Along with that I have two loaves of sourdough rising in the oven, also to be made in the morning. To see it on paper makes it look like I really didn’t do much, but trust me when I say that I have been busy all day.

I think when I get a chance I am going to look for another background. I really like this one, but I don’t like how the pictures are transparent and you can see the background through them.

Tomorrow is orientation for my two high-schoolers!

Busy busy busy!

Yart

Much Better

Grim and I went out on the bike yesterday for the first time in about a month that I have been back there. We did over 200 miles. It felt to good to be there and have nothing to do but think. I watched the world go by. We are both sunburnt but it was such a beautiful day.

Autumn is in the air. I thought I felt a shift a few days ago. But I was so wrapped up in bs, I didn’t take the time to make sure. Today, it hit me full force. The seasons have changed once again. Apples and pumpkins will abound in the next month. So will chestnuts and acorns. I so can’t wait. We have quite a few places we can get apples from. I need to make up sauce and butter, this year! The nuts the monsters love to go and get. Who doesn’t like hitting spiky balls of death out of a tree with a hockey stick! Yep, that’s how its done. The acorns are just across the street at the neighbors house. I need to get the pantry ready for the potatoes, squashes and apples. I want to get another 25 pounds of carrots but I will can those. I might even can up the potatoes instead of storing. You never know.

Tonight when we got home I made up a chia tea syrup. Oh, my did it smell up the house. Even the Picky monster was curious as to what I was making. Since I don’t go to the local coffee shops, I’m not really sure how much money this will save. But it will give me something else to drink other then plain iced tea. I plan on trying it with the kefir to see if this is a good use for it. You can get the recipe here at The Elliots Homestead.

Today I will be finally getting to empting the jars from 08’ and the corn from last year that didn’t quite turn out. Plus, Grims truck died so we are in the process of getting him a new vehicle.

Yart

What now!

I guess that is where I am at. I have been cleaning like a fiend this past week. Not only to clean up after our nightly visitor… but to make sure that they didn’t nest in my house. Which I can say that they did not. YEAH!!! I still have to get out to where the garden use to be and dismantle the raised beds. The dirt will be used to re-grade that side of the house. I’m not sure what I am going to do with the tires just yet. There a few other things out side that need attention. That will happen next week. Still working on the house. Have I ever told you guys just how much I hate cleaning. I can clean, I know how. I just hate it. I believe that once I bust my butt to clean it…. it ought to stay that way for awhile. Well, as you all know with a hubby, 3 kids, 2 cats, a dog and a rabbit…. nothing stays that way for long. One of the things that I have been doing this week is getting rid of stuff. The salvation army is very happy, the garbage men won’t be… LOL! I have gotten hate mail from them before. It is a new company though…. I wonder!

I have been working on the kefir. It is a little bit to sour. Not sure what I am doing wrong. It is still edible just a bit to sour for me. So tonight I took a can of peaches and some frozen strawberries and blended them. Now all I have to do is mix some of the fruit and kefir in the mornings. This way I can still drink it but I don’t have to use the blender and wake the whole house. Hopefully, it will taste similar to the flavored kefir in the stores. I got some cucumbers and peppers dehydrated this week. With getting our produce box today I have a ton more stuff to do put up.

Oh, I can’t believe I forgot to share this. I made the lacto-fermented salsa. I didn’t have any gloves to I seeded the jalapenos bare handed. On my right hand the thumb and index finger and the left thumb burned till the next day. I used milk, yogurt, scrubbed with a toothbrush and soap, soaked my hands in ice water and shoved burn cream under my nails. Nothing helped. Please use me as an example wear gloves when cleaning hot peppers.

My eyes are feeling better today. Still itchy though. The last time I had pink eye I was like 14. Funny thing is the kids haven’t even started school yet… and no I haven’t been playing with cows even though it would be cool to do that. No cow so the goat will have to substitute LOL!!!  Should be back to my old self in a couple days. Looking forward to that… I know it was a groaner…

Keeping everyone on the Eastern Seaboard in my prayers! Post when you can to let us know your alright!

Yart

Seriously

I have pink eye... well, now it is really pink eyes. This sucks!

Yart

Dreams Put on Hold

We found out what our nightly intruder was. I’m not going to say what it was. But I will say that the wood pile has been given away. The compost bin has been emptied and cleaned out. The garden is gone. I can’t allow any hiding places or a free buffet. The city apparently knew that the area was having critter problems, because upon a through investigation of our yard we found an industrial trap set up at our fence line in the alley. Thanks for telling us. But now we have doubled our determination to get out of this area. I want to cry and hold my breath and say that it just isn’t fair. The truth of the matter is that we know that Grim is capable of splitting wood and I grow a mean garden. This has been a learning experience for us. We value that, we truly do.

The time has come for this family of 5 to get out act together and come up with a down payment for a new place and try to sell ours in the process. The powers that be have been pushing us in this direction for a couple of years but we didn’t want to listen. We were comfortable here. This was the last straw in my books. I grew up in the ghetto and never had this problem. I’ll be damned living in a nice quite neighborhood if I am going to deal with it.

Country here we come sometime in the near future!

With being said, I am still doing what I can here to feed us. The second batch of fermented pickles froze in the stupid fridge so I don’t know if they turned out or not. We will be trying the cortido in the next day or two. I will be working on fermented salsa tonight. I processed 3 cantaloupe and 1 watermelon. Oh, I stopped and picked a almost 2 pounds of purple hull peas. Half are fresh and the other half were already dry. How cool is that. They are shelled, with the help of the monsters. I will be freezing the fresh and the dry will go into fall and winter soups. I’m hoping to get back to the farm and get more peas and get a couple bushels of tomatoes. Oh, and I have pictures of the tomatoes that I already got done! I almost forgot I have kefir going right now! My first batch that I could use was ready today. But I didn’t have time to get to it, so into the fridge it went. I will be making smoothies for the monsters tomorrow, so having a little bit more will be a good thing.

Around the house ordinary news. Grim and I got the old side by side fixed up. The one side needed a new bottom… done and one of the drawers needed to be glued back together… done! The monsters popped a breaker and now I have no power to several plugs and two of the bedroom lights don’t work… Need to wait for Grim to get home from work to pop it back into place. Yes, I can do it…. I just need to get a ladder and it is in the wall and ….. well, I’m not doing it. We had some problems with a couple of window screens so those got fixed today… gotta love duct tape!

Yart

Question

What do you do when you think there is a mouse in the house? You release the cats, buy traps or call an exterminator! I did the first two…. Let me give you a little back ground. We were gone for a week. We come home, two days later we take Teenage monster to band camp. On the way home I feel the need to get tomatoes. So we stop and buy a bushel in two containers. Once home one has to sit on the couch and the other goes into the dining room… ( open concept). Then Monday I get up to find the tomatoes on the couch half eaten. I think mice from the garden. Then the next day Grim finds a loaf of bread that is up on the buffet half eaten. Now how did the mice climb up there? Hmmm! Of course I don’t see any poo. Plus, trying to get the repair guys out here to fix the damn fridge… If you can avoid the brand LG do so… At least with the larger models. Poorly made. Anyways, the rabbit is out in the living room…. another long story. But it has taken to spraying the last couple of days also. Can you see where I’m going with this yet? Bet you can’t.

I sit on the floor next to the rabbit yesterday to talk to him… He isn’t food so I can do this. I find a piece of poo…. much larger then the rabbit poo. Behind his cage is a cabinet and under is a bit of large poo. Now I am freaking out cause the bottom of the cabinet has a hole that I knew was there when I bought the thing. Oh, god please don’t be in there! So I call Grim home… 3rd time in 10 years…. usually take care of stuff myself. He comes home we find that there are two holes in the screen behind where the fan is in the window. Then Grim bangs on the cabinet and we proceed to clean it out. No sign of it. Then we start looking for other possible hiding spots… We find ramen  and wrappers scattered under the furniture.

So we went out and got one of the live animal traps in case it is still in the house. The window has been closed and the walkway it used to come into the house has been removed. Grim thinks that this was just a nightly visitor. God I hope so! It was either a squirrel or a raccoon. We cleaned out the rabbits cage and he is no longer spraying. So I am going to take that as a good sign!

Good thing I don’t have cut rate insurance… LOL!

Yart

Just an update

Yesterday I took the entire fridge apart and cleaned it. Boy oh boy does it sparkle now. I do that at least once a year. I do spot cleaning as needed but the deep down cleaning, yep that’s a once a year job. I should have taken pictures but didn’t think about it until right now. As for right now, I am waiting for the repairman to come. It is the 12-5 waiting game. Grim, even though he is at work is anxiously waiting to go grocery shopping tonight. We don’t need much, milk, eggs, lunchmeat, I might even pick up some of the Hebrew national hotdogs. Teenage monster has never been a fan of hotdogs but those she likes. I like the fact that they have nothing in them. We need to move ever thing out of the mini-fridge to the big one once it is fixed.

I have been cleaning all day. I thought I did enough of that before we left to go camping. But alas it is a never ending job. I have a ton of produce to put up once my kitchen is put back together. I completely missed out on black and blue berries & raspberries. I need to get all the tomatoes, corn, peppers, potatoes, squash, pumpkin and apples. That way the pantry will be rounded out nicely. So far I have gotten, strawberries, peaches, nectarines, cherries, apricots put up into jams and jellies. I blanched & froze the sugar peas. I dehydrated zucchini, summer squash, eggplant, cucumbers and celery.

Even though fall is still like a month away as far as the calendar goes, I’m thinking mother nature has different plans.

Yart

Great Time Camping

We had a great time camping again. We brought up both of the tents. But the site was to rocky to get the second tent up. So the monsters were stuck with us. Good thing the new tent was big enough. We did a ton of site seeing. There was a haunted lighthouse and a haunted bar. No ghosts made themselves known to us. But the bar had great food, it wasn’t a total loss.

This is over lake Huron. The weather was hit and miss the first day.

Here is the haunted lighthouse. I only made it to the first landing. To much for me to walk. LOL!

This little guy is at a bear sanctuary. They are rescued from the wild. They have huge roaming areas and they come out to visit only if they want to. That part I think is awesome.

This is the bell from the Edmunds Fitzgerald

Gotta Love waterfalls…. Good thing I was very far away… Yep, water and heights scare the crap out of me.

Told ya the weather wasn’t all bad.

This is the mast from the coast guard cutter that patrolled the great lakes for over 50 years.

Yart

Back from Vacation

We got home late yesterday and had to spend all day getting ready to take band monster to camp tomorrow. I will be back to regular posting on Monday!

The water our last night there!

Yart

Alost Week

Yep, I’m still here. I know you all have been wondering where I went…LOL! Let see first of all let me just say for those of you out there that are in the know…. Mercury is in Retrograde…. Since my ruling planet is Mercury, you would think that everything that could go wrong is… well, you are partially right.

I have been cleaning house because we no start the stupid season… Not Yule…. Band Season. My life won’t pick back up again until November. With that said, I have been really busy. Most of the house has been washed down. This is when I do the whole house clean. Might as well add insult to injury, Right? So back and forth to pre-camp all week. Take care of all the errands, do some grocery shopping and process some of the fresh food in the fridge. Sounds like an easy week. First my mom gets hurt at work and needs to take her truck in for repairs so I have to go get her from the shop since she can barely walk. Then I have to take her back when they call. Next Band monsters Sax breaks a spring off to the shop it goes, only to be told that it will be a week. Talk about cutting it close to her leaving for camp. Oh, did I mention that we are going camping, so all that packing needs to be done. So even with these curve balls, I’m still on track…. Until…..

I get home Thursday from dropping her off at the second session of the day. Open the fridge to finally get something to eat. What is that smell…. familiar… Hmmmm…. Close the door and decide to check on it in a few minutes….. Go wash the bathroom tub. Come back and open the door…. Melting plastic… How can that be the smell…… Close the door… Open it up and touch the top unit that has the temp controls…. Super hot… Oh, shit. I have the fridge that is one size down from a commercial fridge. Grim is at work and Band monster is at band. I have to move the full fridge out so that Picky can climb on top of the thing to reach behind and unplug. Good thing all the coolers are in the house for camping. I knew I was going to clean out the fridge just not like this. So I filled up the cooler with what needed to be saved and some of the stuff went to the freezers in the basement. What a mess. By the way it is only 4 years old. Luckily, I bought the extended warranty. It is covered for 5 years. YEAH! So they are scheduled to come out and fix it…. But not until we get back… LOL!

Today I is the day that we get the food box. So I have been going like crazy to get everything put up. Plus, what is coming out of the garden. I have zucchini and cucumbers in the dehydrator. I took all the tomatoes, peppers, basil and made a sauce for dinner. I cut up all the strawberries and some of the bananas to mix with the blueberries for smoothie mixes… those went into the freezer. Tomorrow I will be drying kale and celery. And I had apricots from the box last week that I made into a apricot rosemary jam… I got the recipe HERE. Oh, is it good.

I guess I have rambled enough!

Yart

Happy Lammas!!!

Since today is 310 degrees out, I won’t be making anything for todays celebration. We are going to eat leftovers and be happy that we don’t have to use the stove. It’s a good thing I made jello the other day…. Cause we are living off it… LOL!

I am thankful for this first of three harvest celebrations! This year I have the largest tomato plants ever…. some reaching over 6 foot high. They are loaded with green fruit waiting to become red jewels. Still no sign of watermelon, but the cantaloupe are growing bigger everyday! I am very thankful that I planted dry beans this year… They are flourishing in this heat.

There is one apple on my tree and it is not ready to pick and no grain in the fields…. come to think about it no fields either… LOL!

I wish  you all a blessed and joyous day!

Yart

Vintage Remedies: Premade Herbal Owie Compress

I found this site and just had to share.... There are several different videos but this is the first one that I watched.