Never a boring day

Well, today was band monsters last day of pre-camp. She will be leaving on Sunday for a week at band camp. I have anxiety more then she does, I'm just better at hiding it. I still need to go and get her muchies, water and bug spray. We have everything else! After she is done with camp this year she will only have 2 more to go to before she graduates. Where has the time gone. Just yesterday she was a baby. Oh, well I digress!

Yesterday the little monsters had their last day of summer bowling. They both had a great time doing it this summer. The last day consisted of cosmic bowling and awards. Both of them got one! Woo Hoo! They are so competitive with each other. I went ahead and got them registered for fall. Then I took the plunge and signed up for a fun league on Tuesday mornings. I think that it will be a lot of fun. Plus, I got the schedule for the adult night classes that are being offered. I am going to be taking a sewing class. I really need to learn what I am suppose to be doing. LOL!

As I said in the last post I got a bushel of tomatoes in a moment of weakness. But when all was said and done I got 5 pints if BBQ sauce and 13 quarts of spaghetti sauce. Just got 9 quarts done tonight. I'm very happy with the amount that I got. Depending on what comes up I should only need one more bushel. I am going to see how the garden does before I go and buy any more. I still need to get 11 more quarts of spaghetti sauce. That is only 2 jars a month so it really isn't a lot for my family. I just hope that we don't want pasta more then that. Plus, I still want to make ketchup. Grim says that we are getting it for a good price at the store. I want to make it to see how it turns out. Does that sound weird? Anyways, what's a girl to do! The rest of the garden isn't doing so good, The heat has just been terrible and the plants are suffering for it. I really need to get out there and do some major cleaning. I just have been so damn busy. 

Still haven't got the living room cleaned up yet. It may stay that way until I have to clean for Thanksgiving! LOL! I have a reason other then all the canning and running around. I have been reading "Garden Spells" by Sarah Addison Allen. Oh, my is it a good book. It was a fast read and very funny. There are a few parts that had me guessing. I now am going to try and get everthing else she has written. I love her writting style. It really pulled me in.

At least all the dishes are done and the sink was scrubbed with steel wool to make it shine. Thats gotta count for something.

Gotta Run,

Yart

Another busy day

Like I said the other day, about the Earth not spinning any more... Well, as it so happens it stopped for just a split second of time. And I had a momentarily lapse in judgment. I purchased a full bushel of roma tomatoes. Since this coming week is going to be crazy I decided to get started on cooking down the tomatoes. I got both of my stock pots on the stove cooking down. Then I took and put them through the food mill. I was going to freeze it until I had time to use it right. Then I get half the bushel done and realize that I don't have room in the freeze for all this stuff. So with part of it I made more bbq sauce. This time it turned out great. It really did cook down and it looks just like store bought. Plus, this time I also got 5 pint jars canned and 3/4 pint in the fridge. So it was more cost effective this time. With the other pot of tomatoe puree I am making spaghetti sauce. My house smells wonderful! With this batch and what I have left of the uncooked tomatoes I should only need maybe one more bushel to finish out the year! This is great as I thought I would need way more. Less work... WOO HOO! 

Grim has an older pickup truck that is starting to show it's age. The bottom of the doors are rusted. So we have been on a hunt for newer ones. He was able to find all for doors over the weekend. But when we drove out all but 1 was rusted in the same way that his are. The good news is that we got 1 new door. The paint is a different color, so when we get all 4 doors on he will be getting a paint job for the truck. Last year we did the front end work. So soon he will have almost a new truck...LOL! I got a surprise when I got in my car today. There was a great big spider that hitched a ride on the door we brought home. Needless to say the spider went on to meet his maker. It scared the begessous out of me.

I had to take band monster to precamp, then pick her up early so she could be at a preformace for WWII Vets. Then pick her up and take Grim to his frist PT session. Then take her back to precamp. Plus, help a friend get stuff moved. Man o Man this day is just super busy with running. 

The living room still needs to be cleaned. And with that said I am on the computer typing this... LOL! Just not enough time. But I did figure that if I were to get rid of the computers and the tv, I would be able to as much as our forefathers. Hmmmmm, that is just too much work.... and no play! And that won't work since I am on my new notebook right now. Can't let it go to waste... LOL! It doesn't have internet yet so right now I am using it as a word processor. Which is working out great considering that I am upstairs canning and typing. Before I couldn't be on the computer while canning because it was in the basement and I couldn't leave the stove. Now it I can do two things at once.

Gotta Run,

Yart

Challenge #11

Last week was spent getting ready for the Teenage monster to go to band camp. I thought I had everything but there was a ton of stuff that needed to be purchased. I know better for next year. Got all the potatoes pulled and put up. I'm just hoping that the tomatoes all turn red soon. That way I can move on to other things.

1. Garden work: All of the potatoes had to be pulled because of blight.

1A. Harvest something: Potatoes 22 pounds & Tomatoes

2. Preserve something. 4 quarts of tomatoes, 32 pints of potatoes and 3 pounds of potatoes dehydrated

3. Food storage. Nothing this week

4. Other preparedness tasks: Cleaning and storing canning jars.

5. Try a new recipe: No just cooking the same old stand bys

6. Financial preparedness: Now we are snowballing that money on to the next bill. Still waiting to see if I get a call from either of the places I applied at.

7. Work on local food systems. Not this week.

8: Learn something. I don't think I learned anything this week. I'm sure I did I just don't remember... LOL!

9: Serve someone. No not this week. I hate to write that just because it makes me sound selfish.... But this past week has been super busy getting ready for band camp.

Gotta Run
Yart