Good morning everyone. Well, I think fall is officially here. Weather has been pleasantly cool and cloudy with scattered rain. Bits of sun peeked out yesterday which was a nice change. Gosh, I LOVE the fall!! Suppose to continue on this pattern I think most of this coming week.

Put the first coat of clear poly on the livingroom floor yesterday. Will work more tomorrow. I'm starting 2 weeks vacation then and will pretty much get the move done in that time.

Hit the farmer's market yesterday. Got a lot of produce, some eggs, milk and bison meat. I don't splurge too often on bison but have a hankering for it.

well, hate to cut this short but need to get some chores done. Have a great Sunday everyone!

Michele

This afternoon we went to my sister Tracy's house to see it and have dinner.  Tracy and her husband Andy bought this house a coupleweeks ago, but have just finished painting and fixing it up.   The house is cute and big, I love it.  I love the color she painted it.  This is her 1st time owning a house.  There was only one problem . "How many men does it take to hang one picture"?

We girls were laughing so hard. We kept telling each other if we did it we would be done by now   !!

From left to right is my husband Shannon, my dad Mike, my b-i-l Andy.  Shhh, it took them about 15 + minutes !

Dinner was great.  It was Tracy and Andy , our parents, our aunt and 2 cousins and Michelle, Gill and the babies and of course us 4.   We thought that the babies would come with us because when they see us they always want to come back "home".   The grand-babies cam home with us .

We had a blast and can't wait to go again.

God Bless all, mj

Was wondering if anybody has a pattern for a baby burp pad that goes over the shoulder? When my children were small I used to use a diaper but I see the younger folks use a burp pad. I would like to make some for the craft fair.. If someone could share a pattern or a link I would be grateful.. Thanks..

Brenda

Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes!  I can't believe how many tomatoes we have in our garden.  It was a slow start, but they have been growing like crazy lately.  We already canned 7 quarts of spaghetti sauce (and used 4).  We have at least 80 tomatoes on the counter right now.  After church tomorrow we will probably make another batch of sauce before the tomatoes go bad. 

Yesterday my husband and a couple of our kids killed 3 roosters for dinner tonight.  I soaked them in salt water all night and put them in my large roaster all day to slow cook with potatoes and carrots.  Everyone enjoyed them.  We are just starting to be able to eat the "fresh" chickens.  We get more than a dozen eggs a day from the hens. We have at least ten more roosters to eat.  We have at least 20 turkeys that we can eat.  We are going to let them get big enough first.  We have 3 huge males that are ready for Thanksgiving.

I am going to start preparing my family for a "no power" day.  We are going to not use any unnecessary power on Sundays to see the effect if will have on my power bill.  My power bill is way to high and I know there are things we can do beyond what we already do.  All of my light bulbs are the twisty bulbs.  We have the air set a little hotter than I like.  I hang out most of the laundry (except the endly white load of socks, and on rainy days). We limit the lights on to whatever is needed, but not to leave a light on.  Next I think we should only use the power for the air, fridge, freezer, etc., but not for lights, laundry, TV, etc. on Sundays to see what effect it has on the power, then if it is significant enough I could try two days a week.  The kids will love the lanterns and I will love the quiet.

Well, after church tomorrow I am going to take some pictures.  Have a nice one.

Brenda

We have a wonderful friend who has wild blackberries growing on her ranch. Every year she calls us to let us know when they are ripe and last week the call came in. We had several days of sickies so we had to wait for everyone to be feeling good and then we headed out. We picked for a little over an hour (final breaking point for a 2 yr old) and came home with almost 2 gallons.

I made jam

and cobbler

( I like a little cobbler with my whipped cream )

and we still have a bucket to freeze for smoothies.

Very, very yummy.

And totally worth the scratches

We hope to go back for more next week.

Blessings.

I recently posted a blog about how I went to Wal-Mart with the family last Sunday and came across person after person who gave me nasty rude looks, people who were "staking their territory" on the aisle, and just being sour pusses. Please read one reply (and feel free to look back into my archives if you wish and read all the post, including the comments on  "No Manners, No Eye Contact, and A Persimmon Face".):

Posted by Anonymous (71.102.17.207)

Just some food for thought: Perhaps you might consider giving some of those people with such "sour" expressions on their faces some thoughtful consideration. Perhaps---unknown to you---there is a valid reason for their offensive expression. I, for one, have a type of Muscular Dystrophy which makes it near impossible to smile due to the lack of facial muscles that work properly. Should you pass me in the store, I'm quite certain (from your post) that you would find my expression unpleasant. I would be heartily smiling on the inside---unfortunately all YOU would see is a frown. And for those you pass who don't have a medical reason for their physical expressions, you might want to say a quick prayer for them. Perhaps their life is in turmoil and your prayer---and smile---could brighten their day.

I would like to say is I am so sorry about your Muscular Dystrophy.  I have a friend who has this as well.  So I do understand a litlte about your disability.  I in no way meant to offend or upset you or anyone else with this blog.  I wasn't directing my words towards anyone with a disability.  If you had been there, at Wal-Mart with me, you would see that NONE of the people I encountered had a disability.  Most were people I know from around town in fact, and they are just sour puss people.  LOL

I also understand there are problems in which a person may not "feel like" smiling.  Laura (gokings) also brought this to my attention that perhaps someone was having a bad day that particular day, or had lost a loved one, etc.   I do understand there is sadness everywhere, and many are feeling it.  I do pray for those people I encounter also.  I have had bad days when I certainly didn't want to say, "hey how ya doin'?" to anyone let alone start up a conversation with someone I don't know. 

In my blog, I was referring to people, who turn around with a blank, although partially pleasant  face to see who is walking behind them, and then give you a nasty rude look for walking up their aisle and taking their space.  Or someone who barrels up the aisle with a nasty look on because they think they OWN the aisle.  Or the people who CUT YOU OFF and then dont say "Excuse me, I am so sorry."  No, I am not perfect.  I have been known to accidentially cut someone off (I really think they should have stop lights at the end of some stores aisles. LOL), but I have turned around and apologized immediately and made sure no one was hurt. 

I also mentioned children in my blog.  I don't know your age, or if you have ever experienced this, but it just unnerves me to have children running crazily up and down the aisles, with or without a cart, with no respec for anyone else in the store.  And the parents??  Where are there in all of this??? Ride behind the children, watching and laughing at them instead of disciplining them.  I on the other hand am forced to drive offensively with my 2 year old in the front, because these kids come out of no where, ram into the side of your cart, and then run off laughing!!!!  And the parents, again, are right there.....giggling with them.  (I did however catch one kid one time and told him if he ran into my cart, I would call the police on him.  He quietly walked with cart back to his mother, and I didn't hear another thing of him. LOL)

As you might have also seen, I wrote a small plea at the bottom of the blog.  A plea for others to be aware of your attitude, to smile and be merry if possible when out in public.  Maybe these other sour puss faced people had NO IDEA they looked as rude as they did.  Perhaps they did have a bad day.  Maybe this also had a disability of some sort.  Or maybe, they were JUST BEING RUDE!!!  LOL  I don't know.  I did pray for each and every one of them.  Much like I pray for am ambulance or life flight when they pass by, I say a quick prayer saying, Lord, I have no idea what might be going on in their life right now, but please be with them, love them, and guide and protect them.  Amen.

With all of that being said,  Mr or Ms. Anonymous, I would like to think that most of my blogs are self explanitory.  They are my words, my rants, raves, opinions, maybe a praise report or two, a prayer request, or just some ramblings of a SAHM mom, trying to take care of her family.  I don't intentionally mean to offend or hurt anyone, and if I have, I do apologize.  This wasn't directed towards you Anonymous.

I love garlic and I grew a great crop this year.  I've decided to put up a lot of it as garlic powder.  This isn't hard to do, but I thought I'd post on it.

First the onions and garlic-

(the out of focus onions and garlic)

Peel skins off of garlic bulbs and then off of cloves.-

I slice the garlic in my ancient food processor.  It goes much faster.-

Then I peel and slice the onions.  I do this by hand as my food processor doesn't like onions.

Next, place onions-

and garlic-

On the drying trays for your dehydrator.  I think you can also dry them on screens or in your oven on low.

I dry them until they are brittle and crisp and then back to the food processor to grind them into powder.-

Yes, I should have washed this off before taking a picture.

And-VOILA! 

Out of focus onion and garlic powder!

I think I just wanted to take pictures today.  I'm making beet pickles now, but I promise, no more tutorials.

Have a blessed night.

We've been blessed with wonderful, large cabbage.  We grew 40 of them and now I get to make sauerkraut.  I've never made it before and I don't really like it, but I've been told that homemade tastes better than storebought.  So here goes...

Get approximately 20 lbs. of cabbage-

(pay no mind to the date on these pictures)

Next you chop it up five pounds at a time and add three tablespoons of salt to each five.

You could use a kraut cutter-

But as you can see, mine is old and needs sharpening so I just used a knife-

After you have salted five pounds and stirred it, let it set several minutes.  It should get wilty.  While it was setting, I cut another bowl full of cabbage.  After it gets wilty, put into crock-

Pack it down with a wooden spoon or your fist-

Continue to fill the crock with the salt and cabbage mixture until it is about 3-4 inches from the top-

If the liquid isn't at the top and going over the cabbage, make some more.  One quart of water to 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt.  Bring to a boil and then let it cool.  Pour over cabbage so there is brine up to the top of the cabbage.  I ended up making about 2 more quarts of brine.  Next cover the cabbage with cheesecloth.-

Then it will need to be weighted down.  I used a plastic bag filled with water.  This will keep air out and form itself to the top of the cabbage.-

Store in a cool place.  Remove and discard scum from the top every day.  It takes 3-6 weeks for fermentation to be complete.  To can it after it's done-bring it to a simmer-not a boil- and put into hot jars.  Put on lids that have been heated.  Put in hot water bath for 30 minutes.  This is for quarts.

I'll let you know how it turns out.  I've never done this before.