Brianna is the "little" sister now. I always knew she wasn't meant to be tall. She was the daintiest little baby you ever did lay eyes on and quite unlike her older and younger sister.Good things come in small packages and I LOVE this small package ;--)
Amazingly as the main plantars wart disappeared three little ones emerged right beside it. The freeze kit along with more duct tape took care of those very quickly as compared to the old, well-established original. She's very happy and pain free, and has the scar to prove she used to have a huge plantars wart.
An interesting side note: Every time I post anything about the wart I get a drove of new readers. I have this gadget on this blog that tells me who reads and approximately where they live and thus I can guess who they might be. (Hi Katie, Tina, Sharon, Melissa, Dad, Julie, Yvonne and everybody else... ) It tells me what words people googled that led them to my blog. The two most often googled words that led random people here are: Plantars Warts and African Tumbu Fly! Unfortunately for the random readers they aren't finding a lot of help here, but I will vouch for duct tape on the wart.
The gadget also tells me if you came to my blog via some other site. I know when Jason visits because he always links from his blog, etc... it's fun. It adds interest and it lets me know if I am actually communicating with friends and not just journaling life for myself ( which was the original intent).
The gadget also taught me a few things. I learned to use * in words I don't want googled. I learned not to use first and last and town names all together. Once someone googled a friend's name and town and it led them to my site. I was beside myself. Turns out this friend wrote a comment on my blog listing the town she lives in and her email address includes her full name. Whew! At least I wasn't at fault for that. Another time someone googled pr*tty girls and they landed on my site. They did not find what they were looking for, but I learned something valuable and now I use * often. I'm all for safety.
This gadget can be wrong sometimes about where a reader lives. In fact it lists me as living in city that isn't very close to here. It lists the server city, actually, and our server is from out of town. All my friends who use the same server as me are pretty anonymous. I can't tell which of my 6 friends who uses the server is reading. Sometimes it will tell me 8 people from this server visited, but it's a guess as to who they might be.
Sometimes it drives me crazy. Pray tell - who are you that visits from Denver? And Poland and Spain?
Well, back to business. The cherry pitter is calling my name.
I suppose you all noticed I had a guest editor yesterday. She was a really good helper. She did laundry, baked all kinds of goods, washed a ton of dishes, watched my canner, practiced flute, fed the animals, and took care of the garbage... but was looking for something fun to do...
Today was another busy day! Canning cherries...and cherries... and cherries. there seems no end to the cherries. we decided to do an
experiment and make cherry turnovers. It didn't work very well. the juice got on the edges of the dough and so they wouldn't stay closed.
Then after we decided it wasn't going to work. There was a huge pile of dough, and a big pot of thickened cherries. Mom poured the cherries into a pan and cut little squares of dough and placed them on top. our next problem no more cherries... lots of dough! Mom then decided to make some kugan. out of the oven came the Cherry crisp like thing. and off came a few pieces of dough. then we sprinkled raspberries, and chopped nuts on top of the cherries.
Kugan:
still more dough! I talked mom into making vegan piggy in the blankets.
the pile of dough was getting pretty small then we made pizza yumm!
then we made sesame bread sticks.
and the pile of dough? It was gone!
I also made bread today.
all in all this is what it amounted to. Christina
We are starting to get a little weary of the pace here. Even Steve was dragging this morning. He has a shorter day at work, though, so that will be good for him, and good for me since he can bring the girls home after their work. All went well in the orchard. There is a lot of concern about mildew. So many farmers are finding their cherries being rejected by the packing houses. It seems there are so many cherries they can afford to be picky and so they are. There was question as to whether there would be cherry picking going on this morning, but there was no early call and the girls went to work. Some of our friends have lost their crop to mildew. With farming if it's not one thing it's another.
Christina and I picked these cherries yesterday with a little help at the end. I was suppose to send one box to Katie this morning, but I think in this morning's rush, Steve forgot it. Christina was kind of doodling along while we were picking when she noticed how full my bucket was getting and verbally processed the fact that her bucket wasn't near as full. ( Everything about Christina is verbal!) I just commented that that was probably a good reason not to hire an 11 year old. She is so used to doing everything with her sisters this job of theirs has been a bit of a trial. Anyway, after that little exchange I was hard put to keep up with her. The boxes really started to fill up fast from then on.
Paul invited us to pick his raspberries when we were done getting the cherries. By the time we were done we hardly had time to get back to the girl's youth group meeting at church. That wasn't over until almost a quarter to 8 and so they ate their baked potato before 9 and fell into bed to prepare to do it all over again in the morning. At any rate, I certainly have work to do around here.
Emily and Brianna hard at work. You can see why they are tired after 8 hours.
Paul supervising
Loads of cherries. Becky was run over by the four-wheeler trailer yesterday. If it had been one of the girls their leg would have snapped. Thankfully, Becky was walking when I saw her.
Vanessa riding the trailer with a load. Her crew leader told me she was the hardest worker on his team. I blew it off as him trying to make her feel good, but when I commented to her about it she said, "I have no idea what his measuring standard is but he keeps saying I push the crew hard and fast". She was totally impressed with the Hispanic pickers. She said they work HARD and don't take a lunch break. They arrive at 4:30 AM and WORK. One family picked 100 lugs yesterday. At $7 a lug that's not a bad income. You do the math! Pictured here are bins... lugs are smaller and dumped into the bins.
Christina and I picked a bunch of the vans which the owners have no market for this year. I have more than one kind of pitter. This one is fast but it shreds the cherries so I was experimenting with cherry preserves.
My hands in 15 minutes...
Ready for canning
The set up outside. Hubby was having a paranoia attack about canning. He took care of a botchulism patient all day and it is a pretty serious matter. I explained that I know all about botchulism. Botchulism doesn't grow in canned fruit or pickles because of the acid. I also explained that I don't can vegetables and I add citric acid to my tomatoes. I also had to assured him that I follow the state recommendations on all my canning. I have a booklet with all the proceedures and such laid out that I follow. I told him I would get an updated booklet from the State agricultural department if that would make him feel better. I really do need to get a new seal for my pressure canner for doing tomatoes.
Ready to eat. I had the girls try them with toast and peanut butter at breakfast at 5:45 this morning. They loved them. So, guess what Christina and I will be doing this morning?!
Chelsea is making slow recovery. I snagged a few pictures of her because I want you to see how serious her need is. I want to stay friends with her, though, so I am only putting them up for a few hours ! If I were her I would want people to know why they are praying for me and then I would put the pictures in a chest somewhere to remember, but not look at everyday. Chelsie and family are asking for prayers for another 16 year old girl in the same hospital with the same syndrom. The only difference is this girl Haley is not doing as well as Chelsea.
35% of her body is like her face. You can imagine there is a lot of pain. She says when she gets out of there she would like to go back and help other kids with this problem someday. She still has spunk!
Cherries are on! There is an abundance of cherries this year. We've been enjoying the ones from our tree. Our preditor bird call cd has done a good job of keeping the birds out of the trees once again. Last night though, my husband left the cd player outside, which would have been find if he hadn't turned the sprinkler on. I think we have a dead player this morning. We might just have to pick the whole tree today.
Vanessa and Brianna were hired for cherry harvest. They leave the house at 6 am and come back dirtier than you can imagine. They were hired to help raise the money for Watson's motorbike. They are very happy for the opportunity. It's so exciting to work in an orchard. They love it. They work alongside Becky and Emily, Paul and David, so that's nice, too. Vanessa actually picked cherries, but Bri did a lot of loading and unloading of cherry lugs and some sorting and a lot of riding on the back of a four-wheeler. The job should last a week. Apparently, there are some trees that are not going to be picked. I'm thinking to ask if I can pick them for drying. I'm not going to update the fundraiser ticker on the sidebar until we have money in hand. Don't want to count our chickens before they hatch!
My garden is doing well. We can hardly keep up with the greens. I harvested a lot yesterday. It takes so long to wash each leaf. That's the only trouble with growing your own food. It takes too long to prepare a meal for scratch. Wash each lettuce leaf, wash each spinach leaf, cut and wash all the herbs, pick and clean the onions, etc... But it all tastes wonderful. Christina picked a large bowl of peas yesterday. They are so sweet and yummy.
I took time to prune and tie up my tomatoes in the lower garden and get it all weeded. We have zuchinnie just about ready to pick. Today I will work the upper garden with Christina. (She'd rather be picking cherries, but is a bit young to be hired out ;-)
Chelsea is holding her own. She has Steven Johnsons Syndrome as a result of a reaction to medication. She has had skin graphs all over her face and body. Her hair had to be shaved. She is on a feeding tube, but they were able to keep her off the trach. I have heard that she is in ICU and I have heard that she is in a burn unit - maybe a burn ICU ? We are thankful that she is stabilizing, but she could still go either way. Please pray for this 16 year old!
Rocky and Maria's granddaughter is being airlifted to H.View Hospital. Please pray for her. She is in serious condition. She has been in our hospital for several days and has taken a turn for the worse. It has been decided that Children's is not equipped to handle her case so they sending her by copter to H.view.
We can never get it right! It doesn't matter what the holiday, we always screw up the schedule. Christmas is rarely celebrated on Christmas day, birthdays are always shifted to a more convenient date, and father's day is no exception to our shuffling of the calender. The dad of this house had to work the usual 12 hour shift and by the sounds of it, it wasn't a super fun day. In fact, it was heart wrenching. He did his best to care for the mother of the six youngsters and husband huddled around the hospital bed. Her diagnosis is devastating and he couldn't even share a kind word of encouragement as the Russian language is bit beyond his abilities. We pray for them. Anyway, not the kind of Father's Day most people celebrated.
Christina decided to make her dad a blueberry pie for lunch today! It was pretty yummy! She did a great job and was creative in her decorations. She had had good intentions on Sunday to make a raspberry pie, but she was so busy fixing all the powerpoint slides for the VBS song service she never got a chance. Today she found out there are no raspberries... so blueberry it was!
I think he was pretty happy with his treat and the nice cards from the girls. Vanessa made him a special gift, also. I was just thinking.... I wonder if my dad would mind a late card? I'm sure he would rather the blueberry pie. I told you, we NEVER get the holiday quite right around here. Sad, isn't it!
Vanessa is pretty much in charge of VBS this year. We had a surprising turnout for the first night. There were so many aduts it gave the storyteller a bit of a panic attack. I don't believe we have ever had that many adults show up. I'd say Vanessa has done a good job organizing. The kids decorated their aprons tonight and tomorrow they start cooking. What fun!
The more blessings we receive the greater our obligation.
"Our heavenly Father requires no more nor less than He has given us ability to do. He lays upon His servants no burdens that they are not able to bear. "He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust." Ps. 103:14. All that He claims from us we through divine grace can render.
"Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required." Luke 12:48. We shall individually be held responsible for doing one jot less than we have ability to do. The Lord measures with exactness every possibility for service. The unused capabilities are as much brought into account as are those that are improved. For all that we might become through the right use of our talents God holds us responsible. We shall be judged according to what we ought to have done, but did not accomplish because we did not use our powers to glorify God. Even if we do not lose our souls, we shall realize in eternity the result of our unused talents. For all the knowledge and ability that we might have gained and did not, there will be an eternal loss.
But when we give ourselves wholly to God and in our work follow His directions, He makes Himself responsible for its accomplishment. He would not have us conjecture as to the success of our honest endeavors. Not once should we even think of failure. We are to co-operate with One who knows no failure.
We should not talk of our own weakness and inability. This is a manifest distrust of God, a denial of His word. When we murmur because of our burdens, or refuse the responsibilities He calls upon us to bear, we are virtually saying that He is a hard master, that He requires what He has not given us power to do."
The girls and their lemonade stand. Christina wrote the sign... it was fitting, but we might need to work on our spelling a little. They really had fun with this. People kindly bought "lemon aid" from them, too, but occasionally they wandered off to play... and so this little miss would take over.
But when she wasn't tending the stand she managed to beg rides off of Kota, and sell her cousin's toy cell phone ( which wasn't meant to be sold).
People very generously donated a lot of stuff to the yard sale and I think they made several hundred dollars towards the Kahl*r's adoption. There was a bunch left over, though and it went to thrift store.
It was a pretty high day for Vanessa. She and her dad went to the DMV to stand in line to take the learner's permit test. She was so excited. She had studied that book forwards and backwards and was ready.
They stood in line for several hours. Steve had called ahead and asked what was needed. They told him to bring ID, so he did. He brought his ID with him.
Finally their turn came and they were asked for their ID. . . To make a long story short, they ended up grabbing another number, drove thirty minutes home, grabbed HER ID and the sack lunch waiting for them, and drove back 30 minutes and then waited in line again.
Vanessa passed. She even drove home ~ by the back roads. She drove the girls home from swimming and all of us home from prayer meeting. I don't have much nerve for this kind of thing. Steve will be doing all the teaching.
If you don't mind, she could use a little prayer for safety.
While Steve was waiting for her to write her little test he decided to take the motorcycle driver's test.
I don't know why.
He doesn't own a motorcycle,
he isn't likely to own a motorcycle,
a motorcycle does not fit in the budget,
his family doesn't fit on a motorcycle,
his wife is NOT in favor of him driving a murdurcycle
and If he really wants to save on gas he can ride his bicycle to work!
But for the record, he passed.
I always knew she wasn't meant to be tall. She was the daintiest little baby you ever did lay eyes on and quite unlike her older and younger sister.Good things come in small packages and I LOVE this small package ;--)
) It tells me what words people googled that led them to my blog. The two most often googled words that led random people here are: Plantars Warts and African Tumbu Fly! Unfortunately for the random readers they aren't finding a lot of help here, but I will vouch for duct tape on the wart. 
Canning cherries...and cherries... and cherries. there seems no end to the cherries. we decided to do an
experiment and make cherry turnovers. It didn't work very well. the juice got on the edges of the dough and so they wouldn't stay closed. 
then we made pizza yumm!
Emily and Brianna hard at work. You can see why they are tired after 8 hours.
Paul supervising 
Loads of cherries. Becky was run over by the four-wheeler trailer yesterday. If it had been one of the girls their leg would have snapped. Thankfully, Becky was walking when I saw her.
Vanessa riding the trailer with a load. Her crew leader told me she was the hardest worker on his team. I blew it off as him trying to make her feel good, but when I commented to her about it she said, "I have no idea what his measuring standard is but he keeps saying I push the crew hard and fast". She was totally impressed with the Hispanic pickers. She said they work HARD and don't take a lunch break. They arrive at 4:30 AM and WORK. One family picked 100 lugs yesterday. At $7 a lug that's not a bad income. You do the math! Pictured here are bins... lugs are smaller and dumped into the bins.
Christina and I picked a bunch of the vans which the owners have no market for this year. I have more than one kind of pitter. This one is fast but it shreds the cherries so I was experimenting with cherry preserves.
My hands in 15 minutes...
Ready for canning
The set up outside. Hubby was having a paranoia attack about canning. He took care of a botchulism patient all day and it is a pretty serious matter. I explained that I know all about botchulism. Botchulism doesn't grow in canned fruit or pickles because of the acid. I also explained that I don't can vegetables and I add citric acid to my tomatoes. I also had to assured him that I follow the state recommendations on all my canning. I have a booklet with all the proceedures and such laid out that I follow. I told him I would get an updated booklet from the State agricultural department if that would make him feel better. I really do need to get a new seal for my pressure canner for doing tomatoes.
35% of her body is like her face. You can imagine there is a lot of pain. She says when she gets out of there she would like to go back and help other kids with this problem someday. She still has spunk!
The more blessings we receive the greater our obligation.
