Home Canning - Show and Tell Friday

Show and Tell Friday is sponsored at There's No Place Like Home - please don't forget to visit, you'll be glad you did!

Thursday was a super busy day of home canning - my busiest one so far this year. Waiting for me in the kitchen when I started my day were the following:

~ 23 pounds of yellow summer squash
~ 22 pounds of cucumbers
~ 10 pounds of apples

The squash and cucumbers were part of a barter with one of our pork customers that I really adore. The apples are from our backyard tree.

So, on the agenda for the day - home canning activities! I got started around noon after some morning tasks I had to get out of the way and I finished the last batch around 9:30 PM. Here are the goodies from the day:

~ 11.5 pints of apple butter from 10 pounds of apples



~ 9.5 quarts of squash pickles from 12 pounds of squash



Waiting for me on Friday will be:

~ Squash relish from the remaining 10 pounds of squash (I kept out some to eat fresh!)
~ Sweet pickle relish from the cucumbers
~ Bread and butter pickles from the cucumbers
~ Sweet pickle spears from the cucumbers if there are enough left

I was very fortunate this year that my 9 year old daughter was able to step in and help with all the cutting, dicing and slicing.



My 6 and 2 year old daughters were able to help with the food mill and with sorting and organizing my jars, seals and lids.



In all, it was a great day in the kitchen with my girls and we have some wonderful fruits of our labor to show for our hard work.



Thanks for visiting my Show and Tell today!

Thematic Photography - Animals

A blog that I really enjoy visiting is Written Inc. The photographic talent at this blog is fascinating and inspiring. You can see for yourself by visiting the link. Carmi has started a new weekly event - Thematic Photographic. His theme this week is "Animals". I'm participating by sharing with you some photos of our animals - cows from our ranch and our family pets. Here we go:

This is a picture of one of our cows - Sonia and her first calf born this June. Sonia is a red poll.


Here's a picture of Lana's bull calf that was born this January. He's turning out great:


A picture of a couple of our Beltie babies having a run:


This is M4-D Thundercloud - born at the end of Dec 2007 to Sugar Plum Princess:


Just for comparison - here is a picture of Thundercloud and Lana's calf a couple of weeks after they were born - they've grown quite a bit in about 6 months, haven't they?


Here are two more little ones, looking for something to get into:


Our trusty Great Pyrenees - Snowflake:


And his running buddy - Katy, a Fiest (squirrel dog):


Thanks for stopping in to see a few of our animals and please be sure to visit other great photos at Carmi's blog - Written Inc.

Canning Time is Here ~ Thursday Thirteen

For Thursday Thirteen this week, I thought I'd share with you 13 things that I'll be canning in the coming week(s). You can visit more Thursday Thirteen lists at the link.

1. Sweet Relish
2. Bread and Butter Pickles
3. Sweet Pickle Spears
4. Squash Relish
5. Squash Pickles
6. Apple Pie Filling
7. Apple Cobbler Jam
8. Apple Butter
9. Apple Sauce
10. Tomato Apple Chutney
11. Peach Butter
12. Peach Cobbler Jam
13. Blueberry Spice Jam

Wordless Wednesday

Fruit Tree Scarecrows - WFMW

We have 3 apple trees and a pear tree in our backyard. Disease took one of our pears, but all our apples have survived well. We planted them when we moved in 10 years ago. The pear tree and one apple tree in particular have been very abundant and this year's apple tree has given us the most apples ever.

However, it seems that we are always fighting hard against the birds, who also happen to like my apples. Nothing is more frustrating than harvesting what you think is going to be the most perfect little apple only to find a chunk missing from the top of it, courtesy of our neighborhood birds.

I read in a magazine many years ago that you can sometimes fool the birds into thinking that there is an ominous owl waiting for them in the tree - serving the purpose of keeping most of the birds out of the tree.

This is how you do it: You take a few aluminum pie pans, on both sides draw on big eyes and a beak with a black sharpie marker, and then hang them throughout the tree. Not only does the pie pan now have a face, but it is also shiny and will sway with the breeze and make noise against the branches. Here's a photo of one of ours in our apple tree this year:

We've found that it works pretty well to keep most of the birds at bay - only problem now is trying to get them into the taller reaches of the tree that are beyond my ladder!

Thanks for visiting my Works For Me Wednesday. You can find more great ideas at the link to Shannon's site at Rocks In My Dryer. Have a great day!

Tackle It Tuesday - Computer Area

For the time being, the computer area that I use is downstairs in my living room on a little antique school desk at the end of my couch. Having it here has been nice - it allows me to quickly check a recipe or email throughout the day while still being able to watch the girls.

It is an area that gets cluttered easily though, so one afternoon last week I took a few minutes to do a quick de-clutter of the area around my keyboard and on the floor under the desk. I usually have several notes of paper from phone calls or some list that I'm keeping track of - these had gotten out of hand. I cleared it all out and now have a nice little basket on the desk that can hold everything neatly. The items that were under the desk - calendar, atlas, some CDs have all been removed and put neatly in other areas.

Here's the before shot:



Here is the after:



Some tackles are bigger than others, but any time a cluttered area is brought under control, it definitely makes my heart more peaceful! Thank you for stopping by my tackle today! You can see more great Tackle It Tuesday posts at 5 Minutes for Mom.

A Simple Woman's Daybook

I'm participating today for the first time in Peggy's Simple Woman Daybook. You can find out more information at the link if you would like to participate!

For Today
Monday, July 14, 2008

Outside My Window ~
the birds are singing and squirrels are trying to steal apples from my backyard tree

I Am Thinking ~
about the beef deliveries that I'm doing with my oldest daughter today

I Am Thankful For ~
my family and God's provisions for us

From The Kitchen ~
when I get home this afternoon, 2 loaves of banana bread to send to my husband at Fort Knox

I Am Wearing ~
capri pants and a cool shirt on the makings of a hot and humid summer day

I Am Creating ~
my 2008-2009 homeschool calendar and course listings for my girls

I Am Reading ~
The Bible - Romans, Chapter 8

I Am Hoping ~
for rain on our pasture

I Am Hearing ~
the girls playing and our dogs barking at the squirrels in the tree

Around The House ~
the weekend's laundry waiting to be put away this afternoon

One Of My Favorite Things ~
a cool breeze in the late afternoon of a summer day

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week ~
preserving apples, bread and butter pickles, sweet relish, squash relish and squash pickles

some review lessons with the girls before we start back into homeschool full swing on July 28th

Here Is A Picture That I Am Sharing ~

One Local Summer ~ Week 5

Well, last week was a busy time with the holiday weekend and I completely forgot to post my Week 4 OLS meal! For our Independence Day holiday, we had pulled pork bar-b-que from our very own M4-D Ranch Pastured Pork, homemade cole slaw and homemade apple cobbler from apples in my backyard. Not local - the bread, baked beans and bar-b-que sauce my mom contributed to our delicious holiday meal.

For our Week 5 OLS meal this week, we had a very light dinner tonight since the temperatures have been in the mid to upper 90's with a heat index around 110-115 for the past few days. We are hoping for some rain this evening to cool things off a bit.

Anyway, back to our light meal for the evening. It was just me, my 6 year old and my 2 year old daughters, so we had a quick dinner of boiled new potatoes with butter and a stir-fry of our own M4-D Ranch Round Steak. The new potatoes were from our local farmer's market and the butter came from a dairy within 100 miles. The round steak came from my freezer - courtesy of our very own pastured beef. For dessert we had fresh apple slices from our backyard apple tree. Nothing fancy, but nice, easy and light to finish off a sweltering day!

You can see more lovely local meals for the week from across the country by clicking on the OLS button on my sidebar. Have a great week!

Just Heard

from the sidelines in the living room:

My 6 year old daughter to my 2 year old daughter, who wants to watch Little Bear when the current "movie" is over:

"no baby, this is not a movie, it is real TV."

Oh, if she only understood the irony in those words!

From Our Tree - Show and Tell Friday

Well, I'm just getting Show and Tell Friday done in the nick of time today! This has been a super busy week and I've hardly even had any time to sit down at the computer! Show and Tell Friday is hosted by Kelli at There's No Place Like Home - so please do take some time to go visit her!

Today for Show and Tell Friday, I'd like to show you the lovely apples that we've harvested from our backyard apple tree this year. We planted three apple trees and two pear trees when we moved into this house ten years ago. We've been harvesting apples since about the third or fourth year, but this year's harvest is the greatest so far. Last year we didn't get a harvest at all because a late freeze killed all the fruit in our area of Tennessee, so we are particularly thankful that this year has had such a bounty.

So far from this tree alone I've already put 6 gallons of apple slices into the freezer for future apple pies or cobblers. I harvested approximately another 4 gallons today and there appears to be 3-4 more harvests still on the tree.

When I sliced them for freezing, I put the slices into a bowl of lemon juice as I was slicing to keep the apples from discoloring. The little bit of lemon juice also helps to give a pie or cobbler a delicious tangy flavor!

I plan to make apple butter and apple cobbler jam from some of the future harvests. For our 4th of July celebration, I made homemade apple cobbler using these apples - although I never use a recipe for my cobbler, I'll try to share one with you today!

Quick and Easy Apple Cobbler:

1 can biscuits
1 gallon of sliced apples - firm, tart apples work best
1 stick of butter
1-2 cups of sugar - use to your discretion depending on the sweetness desired
2-3 Tablespoons cornstarch
Cinnamon to taste
Nutmeg to taste
1/4 - 1/2 cup water

Okay, when I am pressed for time, I cheat and use biscuits for my cobbler dough. I prefer to make my dough homemade, but sometimes you just gotta use a shortcut!

Grease the bottom and sides of a 9x13 inch pan with butter. On a floured surface, take a biscuit and roll it out very thin. Place on the bottom of the 9x13 inch pan. Continue with about 1/2 the can of biscuits or until the bottom of the pan is covered with dough. Don't worry if the dough overlaps some.

Place the gallon of sliced apples on top of the dough. In a bowl mix the sugar and cornstarch. Sprinkle over the apples. Sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg to taste. I like both and probably use about 1-2 Tablespoons of cinnamon and about a teaspoon or two of nutmeg. Slice 1/2 a stick of butter and place the slices on the apples.

Cover the apples with the remaining rolled out biscuit dough. Sprinkle the dough generously with sugar and cinnamon and place butter slices on top. This will make a crispy crust that is just divine.

Carefully add some water around the edges of the pan to keep the cobbler from being too dry. Remember the apples will make some juice of their own - I recommend 1/4 to 1/2 a cup of water depending on your preference for a juicy cobbler or a drier one.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour - cobbler will be bubbling and crust on top will be very browned and crispy when done. Top with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream or both! Delicious!

Thanks for visiting my Show and Tell this Friday - have a wonderful weekend!

Wordless Wednesday

Preschool Activity Bags - WFMW

For Works For Me Wednesday this week, I'd like to show you the Preschool Activity Bags that I put together this Tuesday.

We homeschool and this year I have a very active 3 year old that I need to keep busy with her own "school" work while I'm working with my 6 and 9 year old daughters. In about an hour this afternoon, my 9 year old daughter and I put together about 2 dozen activity bags that my 3 year old will use during her "school" time when we start our lessons in a few weeks.

Here is a photo of the ones we put together today. I used various sized baggies that have the zipper-pulls on the top so my daughter will be able to open and close the bags herself.



Each bag has an activity that should keep her occupied for at least 30 minutes. Some are educational; all should be fun for her to do. Here's what we came up with so far in individual activity bags:

~ pipe cleaners and large pasta noodles - she can string the noodles onto the pipe cleaners and bend into shapes.
~ paper with large, straight black lines that she can practice cutting along
~ paper and a variety of stickers - she can sticker to her heart's delight
~ a pizza tray and magnetic numbers & letters she can manipulate on the tray
~ paper with shapes drawn on them - she can put stickers inside the shapes
~ sandpaper and crayons for textured coloring
~ self-stick foam shapes and construction paper
~ a bag of nuts and bolts that will work her fine motor skills
~ a magnifying glass and misc. items to look at
~ a magnet and misc. items to pick up with it
~ craft pom poms and small containers for her to organize by color
~ a small spool of yarn
~ a ruler and colored pencils
~ stackable containers
~ various sizes and colors of buttons to glue on construction paper
~ yarn and pasta noodles to thread on the yarn
~ a sand shovel and bucket for scooping dry rice or beans or the like
~ playdoh
~ paper for practicing cutting skills
~ water paints, paper and cotton swabs for painting activity

These are just some of the ones we managed to get put together today. I have more on my list that I'll put together in a few weeks once I see how these are working and how quickly she is getting tired of them.

I'm keeping all the baggies in a banker's box with her name on it. My plan is to let her pick out her "school" bag to work on while I'm doing school work with her sisters. Also, when I'm spending one-on-one time with one of her sisters, the other sister will work on a activity bag with her that requires some assistance - perhaps one with glue or painting involved.

The website I found that has a ton of examples for preschool activity bags is Paula's Archives if you want to see the great ideas listed there - many of which I used when putting our activity bags together.

EDIT NOTE: I've also heard of mom's having activity bag "parties" - Say you invite 20 moms. Each mom puts together 20 bags and brings them with her - then each mom gets one of each bag that was put together. Each mom then ends up leaving with 20 different activity bags - sounds like an idea to me!

Thanks for visiting my Works For Me Wednesday! You can see lots more great ideas at the link!

Catching Up

I'm catching my breath from a long and busy weekend and a day spent delivering beef on Monday - I have lots of things to post coming later today! Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend, with some fun and relaxation mixed in!