Things Are Heating Up Around Here!

Yesterday afternoon was a perfect afternoon to spend in the barn working on a project with the boys. It was so windy and gloomy with the cold front moving in. It started to rain but we did not mind. We were in the barn having fun. We were busy making hot sauce. We have never made hot sauce before. Our peppers were so abundant this summer. We had plenty dried chilies for hot sauce. The boys looked around on line and found a pretty simple recipe and we went for it.

We first popped off all the green tops and stems. We then put the peppers in a large soup pot and covered with white vinegar.

We placed the pot on the stove and cooked the peppers until they turned to mush. It took a couple of hours.  We did add a bit of water after the peppers had cooked for a while. We then added a bit more vinegar to thin down the mixture toward the end of the cooking process.

After the peppers were cooked to the soft mushy consistency, we added one large, chopped yellow onion and about 7 cloves of garlic, chopped. We allowed the peppers to simmer for about 20 more minutes until the onions and garlic were cooked well. We then added about 1 tablespoon of sea salt and gave it a good stir.

We started ladling the pepper mixture in small amounts in to the blender and pureed it until there were no traces of seeds and pepper skins. It was pretty thick at this point. 

We then added a bit more vinegar and water to thin it down to the consistency we were looking for.  It isn’t as thin at Tabasco but at this point, we are thinking we will thin it as we use it, depending on what we are in need of.

I was pretty excited to get to use my new water bath caner. I think our son was excited about trying it out too. Papaw ordered it toward the end of canning season this summer and I had not used it yet. It worked out so great. It will water bath 18 wide mouth pint jars at once. Next year, canning will go so much quicker.

Our big pot of peppers yielded 21 pints of sauce. It was very inexpensive to make and it turned out quiet delicious. We are already discussing what types of peppers we will be growing next year.

My niece told me, she had always heard it said, an abundance of peppers in the garden means a cold hard winter is coming. She said, the saying makes sense since peppers are so high in vitamin C. I think there really could be something to that saying. Everyone I talked with this summer that grew peppers said, they have had more peppers than they could use. My freezer is full of red and green peppers to add to soups and stews this winter.

This is our son. He loves to get in on a good family project in the barn. He is so very helpful. He also really loves hot sauce.

Many blessings!!!

Happy Fall

Finally, I am updating my blog. I hope everyone has enjoyed this beautiful harvest season. We have had a beautiful fall here. The colors have been bright and varied. My heart goes out to all the folks along the coast that had their fall season cut short by hurricane Sandy. I do hope your lives and day to day routines are restored quickly.




           I can't believe I let most of the summer go by without posting a blog or two. I have to just be honest, I guess I was suffering from blogger's block. Even though, I was busy enough with the garden and canning and would have had content to share, I just had no desire what so ever to blog. I guess I just didn't have a desire to share my days. I think I am still suffering from a lack of words but felt I should at the very least, post something. Who knows, maybe my blogging spirit will return this winter.

Our new garden spot was a success this year. We did a lot of canning and putting produce in the freezer. I know we will be feeling blessed this winter. In the garden now, we still have kale, collards, turnip greens, spinach and sugar snap peas. All of those things like the cooler weather. We have really been enjoying our collard greens and the chickens have enjoyed them too.

Our chickens have really grown. From our clutch that we ordered in the late spring, we wound up with 11 roosters and 9 hens. We still have 2 red pullets from the past group but those gals are slowing down production. In the next couple of weeks, we will be pulling some of the roosters and putting them into the freezer. We are amazed at how much feed we are going through with the numbers we have right now. We are going to pick out two of the most aggressive males and keep them. We were in hopes we could free range them but we are not sure how Buddy will behave with them. I guess before we let go of any of the roosters, we will give them a shot. Buddy may just need to be taught a few manners and that many roosters surly can get him in line. We are also surprised at how much Barred Rocks want to hang out in the hen house even on a pretty day. As you can imagine, it sure makes it necessary to clean their house more often.

Doodlebug has been finding things to love about the cooler weather and the beautiful fall days. She has loved doing her laundry and using the clothesline. As you can tell from the photo, she is still very much so into bright colors. I am still having a hard time with how much she has grown. She is now 9 years old. Wow, do I feel old.

Well, my words are few but my heart is full. I wish you all the very best and maybe, just maybe, I'll be in a blogging mood again before long.

Blessings!

Cheep, cheep, cheep...

I realize once again, it has been almost a month since I have posted anything here. I guess other than doing a lot of canning and putting up veggies in the freezer, there really wasn’t any eggciting news to report. All of that changed this morning.

At 8:30 this morning, the phone rang and the gal at the post office said, “good morning, I wanted to call and tell you that your baby chicks are here.” My first thought was, this early? I could hear their little chirps in background. I knew we had to get moving quickly and get down there and get them.

Papaw quickly jumped into the shower. I ran to the barn and turned on the heat lamp in the brooder, grabbed the car and came back to get Papaw and off to the post office we went. Papaw said, he walked up to the counter at the post office, he could hear them. He told the gal at the post office, “I hear my package is here.” She smiled and said, “yep and they are hungry too. I am glad you hurried down to get them.” 

It is amazing that they were just born yesterday, August, 1^st. The date seems so suiting since it was after all, Chick-fil-A appreciation day.  They were shipped out to us yesterday afternoon.

They are a straight run of Barred Rocks and most all of them are a bit feisty. One sweet baby didn’t make it though. We hurried to get it some water and warm it up. We kept trying to help bring it around but it died in my hands, poor little thing. I was kind of relieved in a way. It is sad but it was so weak, I do believe it would have had a very hard time with all the spunk of the others to contend with.

A little video clip from inside the brooder.

Murray McMurray Hatchery did give us one, what they call an “exotic” chick as a freebie.  We have no idea what kind of chick this is but its’ little face makes me think of an owl. It is quiet cute, don’t cha think?

Well, we will be busy the next couple of week looking after these little ones. We are in hopes of moving them to the hen house in a couple of weeks, weather permitting. These gals will have the hen house all to themselves since we are down to only two Rhode Island Reds but that is a whole other story.  I’ll fill you in on it sometime. I am to happy at the moment to go there.

Hope you all are having a blessed summer. I can tell you, we are all looking forward to fall here and a bit more pleasant temperatures outdoors. It has been a pretty hot summer here.

Until next time, God bless you all!

Canning and Gardening Woes…

I must start this blog post with an apology for the whining that is to follow.  I guess I just need to get this out of my system and then I will be fine.

I am really starting to question this whole gardening and canning process. The whole idea of being a bit more self stating is appealing but it doesn’t come without cost and sometimes huge costs. 

This is the first year that Papaw and I really jumped onto the farming bandwagon. We made some investments that would make our lives easier to continue this in the years to come; hence, a new tractor, supplies and good composting material for our garden spot, hoses, watering cans, shovels, seeds, plants, canning jars. At some point, I started to look at the way some of my family puts up and preserves for the winter. I am starting to question if it is more cost effective to find a good farmer’s market and buy the goods needed by the bushel or raise my own? Either way, I know there is no sure fire way to always come out on top but I really want to get down to the dollars and cents of all of this and make it truly a good value too. I enjoy so much about the process but it has to make sense too.

I have to say, Papaw and I up until this heat wave, have really enjoyed our garden. When the heat hit, we have really had to water and stay on top of things to keep our garden producing. I guess today, my breaking point came when canning 18 pints and a few quarts of zucchini and one side of my Jenn Air range top shorted out. My mom had been warning me about my range top and I knew better than to stay at it so long but I was so close to being finished. When I got on line to look at what the cost would be to buy the one side element replacement, which would replace two burners on one side, I quickly started getting a bit nauseous. I couldn’t believe, I can almost buy a whole new range top for the price of the replacement for these two elements. The range was in the house when we purchased it. I would have never spent that type of money to buy a range such as this one. Don't get me wrong, I do love it but it is not a practical range top and I am a practical gal. I have always known, flat surface range tops were not suitable to be canning upon. I don’t know what I was thinking today. I should have taken a break and gave the range top a bit of cooling off time. I was rounding the corner on my third batch and I heard this strange and unsettling noise. One would have thought someone in the house was sure to have been electrocuted but I knew, I was home alone and I was fine. I went to check things in the kitchen and noticed the eye on the stove was on but the light was out. I cringed, my productivity for the day was a bust. I took my last four jars in the kettle to the grill out back that has a side burner to finish the water bath process

The question my son asks me around lunch time of, how economical was canning pineapple zucchini vs. buying pineapple became a bit of a thorn, when my element burnt out. He had no idea when asking and my answer was, pretty darn economical!  It was too considering how blessed we were with zucchini and the affordable cost of pineapple juice.

I guess all in all, I know I have no right to complain. I know back in the day, when everyone worked hard to grow and preserve that which sustained them throughout their year, had times when they wondered the value of their labor. I know, farmers grew crops they never harvested and many of hours of labor and toil made them wonder if there was a better way. I guess for me, when I start looking at the process by which others are putting up goods for the winter, it makes me question what our needs are, what our cost output is and could there be a better and more economical way? We love gardening and we have our big investments already made and paid for. I guess, I already know my answer but I am just needing to whine a bit. Please forgive me. I think too, the loss of one of our hens to the hot weather on Sunday was a bit of an upset to us too. I know it happens but, we love our gals and it was just sad that we lost one. It may sound a bit crazy but we really love each one of our hens.

Hope you all are having a prosperous summer. Maybe ours will turn around a bit. I do thank God for all of our blessings. I just hope it doesn’t cost anymore this season to preserve them.

Many blessings!

Summertime Goodness...

Well, it has been a month since my last post. I really thought, I would be able to work on my blog a bit more, once summer came, bah, ha, ha!  Summer thus far, has been pretty busy. With working on the garden, putting up veggies in the freezer and doing a small amount of canning, I have not had a lot of free time.

We did manage to sqeeze in an 11 day vacation, with the help of our son. We would not have been able to leave for that long, if  he had not helped us out. Daily, he cared for our chickens. He also looked after our cat Lucy and Buddy our dog. He also watered our garden. He is such a good egg, that is what I always say to him. I am so grateful to him for helping to make our vacation possible so, thank you Joey! We love and appreciate you so very much.

We took Doodlebug camping. We had a really great time. We took Doodlebug to a nearby waterfall. She and Papaw hiked up it. She loved it. She is such an adventurous kid. She stayed with us for 7 days and then she went home. Papaw and I had some well needed time to just relax. We spent our days alone there just relaxing and reading a bit. We hiked around the lake, swam and just enjoyed a bit of down time.

Below is a shot of the backside of the lake from our little 4 mile hike. We headed out early to avoid the heat. The high that day, was 102 degrees. When we returned to camp, it was about 98 degrees. The water that early was like a mirror, it was so calm. I have so many wonderful photos that I would love to share, because they are so special to me. I do think you would grow tired of seeing them all, if I posted them. I did love this shot though.

We returned home from the campout, to see the garden was overflowing with veggies that needed to be picked and put away. Thank God, our son had been watering it. With the heat we have had lately, if he had not watered it, we wouldn't have had a garden to come home to.

The garden has grown pretty well. We do know now, next year we will be expanding it outward. Right now, we have to wade through the squash to pick it. We have also learned, the tomato plants are set too closely together.

We had no idea that Roma tomato plants grew more like a bush. Next year, we will have to find a better way to stake up the plants and space them out. We have noticed that we have a bit of bloom rot on our Roma tomato plants and we have treated for that. I do hope that we solve that problem because our tomato plants are loaded and we were looking forward to canning some of those.

We have picked okra, green beans, sugar snaps, peppers, spinach, kale, several types of squash and a few cucumbers already. I do wish we would have planted more cucumbers, green beans and sugar snap peas. This being our first real attempt to plant a garden, we had no idea how much to plant. We are taking notes for next year. There are many things I know we will be planting less of and things we will be planting much more of.

We have had an abundance of squash, of all types. I am really looking forward to our fall squash. I think we are going to have a good harvest of butternut and acorn squash. I am excited about that. We love acorn and butternut.

The spaghetti squash has been a very good crop too. I wished I knew a way of canning this type of squash. We have been making refrigerator salads and eating it with sauce in place of pasta. I would love to know how to preserve this and put it away, while being able to maintain its noodle like texture.

Papaw and I have been enjoying our evenings together, spent weeding and picking. It seems like the perfect way to relax after a long day, even if we are working. Up until this heat wave, we looked forward to our late afternoons working in the garden. We are now looking forward to a much needed break from such high temperatures soon. I do hope the weather man is right and next week will bring much needed rain and cooler evenings.

I am grateful to God for all of our blessings and summer goodness. I do hope you all had a wonderful fourth of July and are finding wonderful ways to say cool and beat the heat.

Until next time,

Many blessings to you all!

Lavender Lemon Aid, Yum!

Nothing is better in the summertime than fresh, squeezed lemon aid. Everyone seems to have their spin on lemon aid and there are so many wonderful recipes. My all time favorite has to be, lavender lemon aid. 

I think lavender and lemons just go together. The flavor may not be for everyone. Many folks do not care for floral/herbal flavors in their drinks. I love all of the subtleties that floral herbs bring to a warm or cold drink. 

Years ago, I was introduced to lavender lemon aid while on vacation. I came right home and tried my hand to making it. The first few times that I made it, I over did it with the lavender and it was very strong. I have decided, a few teaspoons to a couple of tablespoons for me, adds plenty of flavor.

I made a bit today after doing a bit of housework. It was very refreshing. 

There are many ways of making it so, if you decide to try it, check out a few recipes on line. This is how I typically make it.

I start with the juice of several lemons. I will need about 1 ½ cups of juice.I add it to a sauce pan with about 2 cups of water and heat on medium to high heat. 

While that is warming, I add a couple tablespoons of lavender to a mesh teabag and toss into the pan.

Remove from heat and let it steep for 30 to 40 minutes, or longer if you really love lavender flavor.

 

Then I added some water and ice to a ½ gallon Ball jar, leaving enough room for the lemon/lavender mixture to be added. While the lemon/lavender mixture is still warm, add your sugar or sweetener and stir until dissolved. I used Agave sweeten my lemon aid. I do not use much sweeter of any type so, I only add a couple of teaspoons of Agave. Agave seems much sweeter than even honey so, it doesn’t take much. If you want to use regular sugar, a basic lemon aid recipe calls for about 2 cups of sugar for a half of a gallon of lemon aid. That just seems like a lot of sugar to me, for only a 1/2 of a gallon.

I poured the mixture over the ice and added more water to fill the jar to the top and stir. Remove the mesh teabag of lavender. If you really want more lavender flavor, you could let the bag rest in your lemon aid. The more lavender you use, the deeper pink to even purple color your lemon aid will be. 

Serve over ice and enjoy. I do think, the next time I make a jar of lavender lemon aid; I am going to add a few sprigs of fresh mint to it while it steeps. I have never had it that way but lavender and mint do work well together. 

I like to save my lemons rinds. I add them to a jar of white vinegar and sit in the window sill for a week or so. Then I strain the vinegar off and store in a jar. I use the vinegar as a citrus infused household cleaner. You can add a few more drops of lemon essential oil, if you would like. 

When I am ready to use it, I add ¼ cup of vinegar to a spray bottle, fill the rest of the way up with water and shake. It is great for cleaning in the kitchen or bathroom. I do not use it on the windows or mirrors. The oils from the lemons will leave oily streaks on glass surfaces. 

I just love how pretty and colorful the lemons mixture looks sitting in the window sill too. It just says, "summer." 

May there always be work for your hands to do.
May your purse always hold a coin or two.
May the sun always shine upon your window pane.
May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain.
May the hand of a friend always be near to you and
May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.

Until next time, many blessings!

A Bit of This and That...

The past couple of weeks have been relaxing. We finished up our homeschooling a couple of weeks ago. We really just took a break from it all for a couple of weeks. Doodlebug will be continuing on with math and reading throughout the summer. She also will continue her ice skating lessons. She just started taking horseback riding lessons with a young fellow from church. She is really excited about the riding lessons. So, we will be busy.

Now that our traditional school day is on hold for a few weeks this summer,  Papaw and I have been having a day or two to ourselves here and there. A few days ago, we pulled out our motorcycles and went for a ride. It was a beautiful day for it. I had forgotten how much I love riding. We went for lunch at a little BBQ place and then on into the park. We stopped for a while just to sit on a rock and watch the fish swim. It was so good just to relax for a bit in nature. The outing was just enough to get my mind reeling and working to plan a camping trip before the summer ends. 

               Papaw relaxing by the creek.

Our garden is doing really good. We have had some trouble with cabbage worms but I think that season is about behind us. Last night we had our first bits of squash from the garden, zucchini and yellow. I cubed them up with an onion and we grilled them, they were delicious.

We are so thrilled over our sugar snap peas. We love them so and our plants are loaded with them. Yum!

Hope you all are having a wonderful summer.

Many blessings!

Make Your Own Insect Repellent

What's the bug situation like where you live this year? Due to our very mild winter here this past year, the bugs are so bad already. We really do not like using the store bought brands of insect repellent. I never knew how simple it is to make your own but it is very easy. The absolute best part too, it has a very nice, fresh fragrance. I really hate those nose burning sensations that come after using aerosol insect repellent. You just know, those can't be good for us to put onto our skin.

I did a bit of searching around on the internet and decided to make my own concoction using essential oils. I love using essential oils but was skeptical about how well homemade repellent may work . I decided to give it a go and just see. Here’s what I used. 

Using the ½ pt. jar, I filled it almost to the top with Witch Hazel. Then I just added 15 to 20 drops of Citronella and Lemongrass. You could stop there and that would work just fine at repelling the insects but you can take it a step further, by adding 10 drops Lavender or Peppermint e/o. I really love peppermint because it has a nice cooling effect on your skin. It is great for cooling off and keeping the bugs away at the same time. I also added 10 drops of Tea Tree and Geranium oils, to help repel ticks. The ticks have been really bad around here too.

Papaw and I both were pleasantly surprised by the spray. He really hates insect spray of any type and heavy citronella fragrance makes him a bit nauseous. He liked this spray. We both misted ourselves good and even a bit on our clothes, before going out to work in the garden yesterday evening. We were really pleased by how well it worked.

I felt very good about repelling the insects this way. The spray has a light and refreshing fragrance and no heavy chemicals being absorbed  into your skin. I have sensitive skin and those store bought repellents seemed to leave my skin with a burning sensation. 

After adding the drops of essential oil, I just placed the lid on the jar and gave it a good shake. It will look cloudy after shaking. Then using a funnel, just add to a mister bottle. Make sure to label the bottle. I tried using a sharpie but the ink came right off the bottle so, I had to make a label for it. Oh, one other thing, the oils will settle to the top so, shake well before each use.

          

                                         Love and Blessings!