Good to my Word!

I got started first thing Monday morning. Well, that is to say I got started after about an hour of searching for all of my utensils. My fault I asked children to put things away the last time I used them.... A year ago.

I start with carrots, celery and onion.

Then I mix in the meat and rice and spices.

Peppers are cleaned and the tops cut off.

Into the roaster they go.

Covered in a sauce of tomato soup and homemade tomato juice and of course more spices.

I let it cook on low most of the day. Sorry I didn't get a picture of them finished. But by the time they were cool enough to bag up I was tired. We ended up getting 7 bags of 3 peppers. 21 Stuffed peppers!! Now I know that if there isn't anything in the house to eat. He just has to take a pack out of the freezer and take it to work for lunch!!

As you may have guessed we are a house divided. He's a stuffed pepper man and I'm a cabbage roll kind of girl!

Two heads of cabbage blanched and cooled with the ribs cut out.

29 Cabbage Rolls cooking as I type. The only difference between the spices used is in the peppers I use something called slap your mama. And in the cabbage rolls I added dehydrated kale from last year.

These are the pepper tops from yesterday. I chopped them up and put them in the bowl. Which is 3.5 cups. Normally, to most people that would have been waste. Not here. I will be cutting up the rest of the peppers from the bushel and dehydrating them all. 

Not a bad haul, considering that I had no intention of doing anything this year...

LOL!

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Yart

Inspiration from out of No where!

You know how I said that I didn't can anything and there really wasn't a plan to can anything until next year! The best laid plans of mice and men. I was checking out a blog hop last week and I found a great blog Thoughts from Frank and Fern. As I was reading the blog I noticed that it is very similar to SciFi Chicks writings. (Miss You) It always seemed like when I was ready to call it quits with the whole homesteader dream SciFi Chick would write something that would make total sense and put me back on the right track. Well, I guess I needed to find their blog. Because it has once again lit a fire under me.

I went to the market Friday. I picked up, a bushel of delicata squash, 50 pounds of potatoes and onions. 2 huge hubbard squash and a bushel of yellow peppers, 2 giant heads of cabbage. I will be making stuffed cabbage and stuffed peppers today to put up in the freezer. I will be heading back out to get 4 bushels of tomatoes to put up, plus whatever else I can find.

Its my job as wife and mother to make sure my family is taken care of. First and foremost! And to do that successfully, I feel I need to get my butt back in the kitchen. Please, no sexist comments about making sandwiches.... LOL! So, sending blessings my way, as I feel very much like the grasshopper this year vs the ant! Luckily, I still have time.

Oh, almost forgot!

The front and the buttons are done! I actually wore it out on Friday night! Its a little akward. As I had to deviate from the pattern. But I still love it! First time making a clothing item for myself. Many more to follow I'm sure.

Grim told me not to look at anymore yarn projects. Little did he know this had already arrived. Its going to be the Spice of Life CAL.

And I got week 7 done on Sophie's Universe. Plus, I had enough time to start on week 8. It is already 4 foot. Side to side. This thing is going to be massive once its done. One day I will get the gauging correct. Until then I will just keep making them big! LOL!

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Yart

On and Off the Hook!

Well the Pink and Grey blanket is done. It only took a year! It would have been finished much sooner but after I got into it, I realized I didn't like the colors and the pattern was horribly monotonous. Maybe had I made it the size of a throw, I would have liked it much better. Making it for a Queen sized bed was where I went wrong with it. An untested pattern to me, and just way to big of a commitment. Any who, my mom loves it. So in the end I guess that's all that really matters.

These were originally were going to be leg warmers but they will end up arm guards instead. They are made out of Hobby Lobby I love this wool. I honestly, love their product. It is so easy to work with. Not a lot of snagging, and its soft. These were started last year also. Finished!

New project. I had to adapt the original pattern. Of course I used different yarn then what the pattern called for. So..... It looks a bit different. I'm also not going to add the hood, Just a large collar. I still need to the front and the edging. I'm hoping to have this done by the weekend. As this is going to be my new fall jacket. Once its done I will share where to get the pattern from.

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Yart

October Reflections

I love my blog... I really do... but the last year or maybe 2 life has taken some unexpected twists and turns. Some really good and some very disappointing.

We are making great SLOW progress on the property. I would love to be there full time, but that simply isn't possible. Everything we plan takes about 3 times longer then I plan for. At home we have friends and family that we can call on when we need help. But there we are all alone, doing the things we want to get done. Plus, its not like we are that skilled... LOL! This year we did manage to get the barn floor done and the barn itself sealed up. The doors now lock and we don't have to worry about big critters getting in. We learned how to use solar power. Very Cool! Even broke the first set of panels, thank god for Harbor Freight. We got half of the woodshed built. Built a solar oven.... It needs to be tweaked before I try it again. And have ideas for lots of other project.

At the house, we are making progress. With the oldest 2 gone exploring their educations, that left and empty room and a really trashed house. The empty room is being turned into my studio. I had always thought of it as an office... But I do so much more then just work in my space. I create, I relax, I meditate and I yarn! So a Studio it is!! So far the relaxing hasn't happened. Once the room was completely emptied for all the former occupants things, painting happened. Then curtains, then the moving of stuff, out of the living room, where it had lived for the last few years. Things are coming up from the basement and other things are going to storage. What ultimately started as a 1 room project has some how turned into a whole house project. Its coming along.

I came to a hard realization. I'm fat. Well, I was.... Since the end of August I have been exercising everyday and watching what I eat. I use myfitnesspal to track my food intake, fitbit tracks my steps and my weight tracker keeps track of my progress. I stated at 230.2 pound. I am down to 218.1 as of today. This isn't a diet. I am really trying this time to make a lifestyle change.

We should have our car back in running order before the end of the year. It has been in pieces for the last couple as Grim has painstakingly took it all apart and fixed all the wrong with it. I won't bore you with details that I don't even understand. But the engine is getting some TLC before the fenders go back on. Hopefully, we will get her out at least once this year. But if not for sure as soon as Spring gets here she will be road ready!

Now the disappointing ~

I haven't canned anything this year and I haven't put anything up in the freezer. Not sure if this is just a sign of the times for me or if I will pick it up again in the future. I use to be passionate about it, now not so much. Maybe taking the year off will help to make me want to do it again next year.

My MIL is slipping fast at the nursing home. Her doctor told us that once she went in that it would just be a matter of time. When we go and see her, her hold on reality is fleeting. There are times when she doesn't recognize us and other times she thinks we are someone else. And then there are times when she remembers who we are and remembers a reason to not like us. It is a very frustrating situation.

I lost 2 friendships this year. Both because we really just didn't have anything in common anymore. Not that there was any type of discord. They went there way, and I went mine. It saddens me though. They use to be such a large part of my life that its just weird. And then I had someone from my past show up quite unexpectedly. This brought up a lot of things. Eventually, I had to come to the understanding that there is a reason my past didn't come to the future with me. This person was very unhealthy then and is still toxic now.

Grim, had put in for another job. It would have been great. We would have been much closer to the girls. I found an absolutely gorgeous house. We would have been closer to the property. It was located in small town USA. Perfect!!! Only, problem was there was a hiring freeze just after he applied for it. So that fell through.

Tomorrow will bring more successes and failures!

Challenge Accepted!

Yart

A new Chapter

Both of the older girls are gone away to school now! Its only me, Grim and Little Miss. You would be amazed at how easy it is to clean the house now that there is only 3 of us. Laundry gets done so quickly, even with hanging it out to dry. And dishes they don't seem to be quite so never ending. Little Miss goes back to school after Labor day. So I will have a few minutes to myself. And that time I will be using to clean and go through things. I have been very neglectful of the basement the last year or so. I've got my work cut out for me. I need to get the basement in order by the Holidays.

In the mean time, we are still plugging along trying to get things done around the house so that we can put more effort into the property. When we were up there a couple weeks ago, we started building a wood shed. We ran out of wood. I'm using a pallet and old privacy fencing that my mom needed to get rid of. I need to rip apart more sections of fence and get it up there. Its going to be a really nice wood shed. Once its done though Grim is going to have to get his butt in gear and get to cutting down some of the trees. So I think he was happy to not get the wood shed done, just yet!

We also were able to get the water from the well tested!!!! It came back fine! So we have drinkable water! I am so happy its good and I'm so happy that the guy across the road was wrong. The next thing we need to do with that is get the Well guys to come out and help us understand the Well Head. Its rusted really bad and not sure if it needs to be replaced or if its fine the way it is. Once that's done we will build a Pump House. Hopefully, we can find more scrap wood to build that.

The tractor..... So far we have replaced the battery, the solenoid, start switch and went and got a new starter today. My brother came over yesterday with his electrical device to see where we didn't have power. We were all good to the starter. Hopefully, Grim will have time before work tomorrow to get it on there so we can get this thing up and running!!!! Then we only have a few little things to fix on it. That's if the starters the problem.... LOL! I know ye of little faith!

The weather around here has been horrible. It goes from hot to cold, like shut the windows, pull out the winter blankets cold and then back to OMG I can't breathe because its so hot!! Because of that I have been very limited on my time with my precious yarn. I was able to get week 6 finished on Sophie's Universe. 

I was able to make it to about half way with week 7. As soon as it cools down again I will get back to it. I have so many projects waiting for me to finish something before I begin again! LOL!

Hugs,

Yart

Big and the Smalls

As you might or might not know I sell Thirty-One Gifts. It is a home based Party business!!!! I have been with the company going into my 4th year! Grim and I decided that it was time to go to the National Conference.... WOW!!! It was Amazing!

When we got home from all that excitement.... I took some quite time to enjoy the little things that make me so happy!

Hugs,

Yart

Living for the Weekends

That phrase has taken on a whole new meaning for us. We took Picky monster to her College orientation a couple weeks ago. We stopped by the property and cut the grass and dropped off a couple things. Then again this weekend Grim and I went up to again cut the grass and drop off a bit more stuff. You know the stuff that isn't needed here but might be needed there. Like my mom's privacy fence fell over on one side of her yard. So me and the monsters went over and ripped a few of the fallen sections apart. Grim and I took that up. It will be used to build the woodshed. There are more sections of fence that needs to be taken apart. I'm hoping those will be ready when we head back up in a couple more weeks.

 This was Saturday evening after the grass was cut.

In the morning looking towards the well

These next two are of the future orchard. As you can see we still have some work to do. More brush hogging and trees to come down. The clump of trees I would have liked to have kept. But can't do to the colony of ants that have uplifted the entire clump.

Here is the makeshift clothes line... One of the monsters set it up. Hoping to get a more permanent one up next time

We floored our shed. We know that it won't last 100 years but its doing what we need it to do right now. And that's keep the critters out and our stuff safe.

Since life can't be all about the homestead for us just yet....

Here are some of the berries I picked off the bushes at my mom's!

This is the progress of my Sophie's Universe. I'm in week 6 of 20. Lots more to do, so little time! Especially, since I have like 10 more projects picked out to do... LOL!

Here is the front end of what I thought was a riding lawn mower. I was wrong.... its a riding tractor and it was given to us last year. We were told that there was work needed and we were never able to make the repairs happen. This year that is about to change. It needs a tie rod, there is something wrong with the deck, a new battery and maybe a belt. I will keep you updated as "Old Red" comes back to life! :o)

Wish me luck... I have something going on with my shoulder / arm.... pinky and ring finger are tingly. Hoping I didn't damage anything important.

Hugs,

Yart