Little Bit of this....Little Bit of That

Yesterday was a good day - I found a new junk....antique.....rustic store, went home and cleaned 1 room in my house ....that took me 2 hours to clean top to bottom.



And then Tyler had soccer. And Jessie had soccer. At opposite ends of the county, and Todd was on a fire run. Plus I had to pick up a friend's little boy and take him to soccer (same time and place as Jessie's practice, just different coaches). So I drop Cole and Jessie off, let both coaches know that I would not be there, but I would be back and Tyler and I fly 15 miles south to go to his practice. Tyler is in the green shorts, grey shirt and blue socks.



This. kid. is. fast. Coach Hud had to finally tell him - slow up and take a break - make the other kids go for the ball.

This is my nephew Kelton - Tyler finally let him have the ball and make a couple goals in their practice skrimage - after Tyler made about 10 goals. Hud has to split them up on the teams when they practice - or the other team never gets the ball - they tend to feed off one another and dominate the field. And you can see Tyler at the edge of this picture - that was about the furthest away from the ball that he was the whole hour.

Kelton and Tyler are 8 months apart - but Tyler is 4 inches taller than Kelton and Kelton outweighs Tyler by about 35 lbs. They could have been in kindergarten together, but we kept Tyler back a year - April birthday, he really wasn't ready. Now I'm thinking he might have been ready to start kindergarten, but .....next year.

Tonight the girls are coming to walk their calves - should be fun - and I'm going to finish canning peaches this afternoon when I get home. And maybe, just maybe, clean my kitchen. We'll see.

Kris

More Canning

Yesterday was peaches - have I mentioned that I LOVE being home from work by 2:30????




I started right in on the bushel of peaches that I brought, and ended up with 7 quart jars. But I still have 1/2 the peaches to go - they aren't ripe enough yet. What a pain in the butt to peel - even after dipping them in boiling water. Another day or so and the rest just may be perfect.



Todd tried out the pickles last night (I had 1 jar that didn't seal). He says they are good, better than the last time so....maybe my method of measuring really does work.

Jessie had a fantastic 1st day of school - loves her classmates, loves her teacher...it is so great when your child loves to go to school. She was a little bummed though that school cuts into blog reading time (yes, she does sit down and read some of the blogs that are out there with me), but she is so thrilled that after seeing Jacquie's quilt made of vintage sheets, Jacquie sent her the remaining pieces:

Thanks so much Jacquie!!! I was told I need to quit everything else I have in progress and get this done! I also got some more pinwheels quilted - I think I have 2 to go yet. Then the sashings and borders. I hadn't told Todd yet what I was doing - guess I just didn't want anyone in Wayne County to know (if I tanked, then oh well). Well, he found the entry slip and the tickets to the fair, and got all excited. Then he starts panicking - on whether I will have it done or not.

My response - shoot - I have eons of time left - and I work best under deadlines....

This past weekend, Todd also finished up 2nd cutting on hay - until the baler died. So he rented the roundbaler and went to town. I'm just so glad it is done - until 3rd cutting that is. Now he just has to unload it all....

And my SIL - Jenna - gave me these fabulous vintage sheets. Most are pillowcases, but oh there are some pretty ones in here...


That's all for now....off to work...

Kris

1st day of school

Well, she's off. And so excited - no bye, no hug, no nothing - just hop on that big yellow bus and GO. Hard to believe she is in 3rd grade already - where has the time gone???

I of course, have been up since 5:00 a.m. Not getting ready for her to go to school, but getting the cooler packed for Todd to take on a work fishing trip to Lake Erie. They left at 5:30, which left me nothing but an hour and a half to work on this:

And this:

Pincushion and Needlebook for a swap

It was nice having that little bit of time to do some little things that I really, really need to get done and sent off, however....I am SO not a morning person, so I don't see this becoming a part of my daily routine:)

I thought about attempting some knitting, but when I see projects that my Mom has started - why should I attempt it when I can make her a quilt in exchage for something knitted? ... although I am dying for some socks.. and I just keep pointing her in this direction so she sees all these wonderful sweaters I want someday....

Kris

Fend For Yourselves

When I picked up our 3rd (and final) batch of chicks this summer, I asked the gal how we go about integrating them with the 15 chickens we already had (which are already 8 and 9 weeks old). Her response - put them together when these little ones are 3-4 weeks old. If we wait much longer, the older chickens will have already established their pecking order, and things could get nasty.

Tonight is the night Todd is cutting the hole in the chicken coop so the chickens can have access to their run. He told me that I ought to put them together - it would be much easier to catch a little chick in the smaller area than trying to catch them out in their big run if there was a problem and someone wasn't getting along.

So when I got home from work, I tossed little chicks in with big chicks:

The littler chicks are content to stick their heads in the corner and ignore the world.

And the bigger chickens are pretty content to take a few pecks here and there, but stay in their corner of their pen.

Tyler is sitting out there keeping an eye on everyone to make sure there isn't too much fighting going on.

Kris

Grey Hairs

I think after yesterday morning, I acquired a few gray hairs.

My SIL is going through a rough time right now - divorce, figuring everything out, and 2 young children (4 and almost 2). Yesterday, as I'm frantically slicing cucumbers before church, my cell rings - it's Jenna. Well, not exactly, it was my 2 year old niece!

All she would say is hi and no!. I'd ask her can I talk to your mommy? NO!

Then she hung up on me (little bugger)!

So I call back to their house phone. Same routine. This went on for about 15 minutes, and I start to worry - I call Jenna's cell phone - no answer. Call the house - I get either the answering machine or Avery.

Just as I'm ready to drive the 15 minutes to get down there, Jenna finally answered the phone - she was in the shower and in the basement doing laundry. She wondered why Avery wasn't bugging her, and we figured out it's because she was bugging me.

I told Jenna - if she didn't give me gray hairs over this - she will definitely be giving you gray hairs in a couple years!!
Kris

Food preservation haul #2

This weekend I froze 10 dozen ears of sweet corn.

Canned 17 jars of tomato juice and 3 jars of whole tomatoes:

1 bushel of cucumbers turned into pickles:

4 quarts of plums were frozen:

All in all - it really wasn't a lot of work, except for the pickles. The tomato juice I didn't cook at all - just heated it good and hot and canned it. The corn - I cut mine off the cob before cooking it and add water, sugar and salt to it while cooking - tastes exactly like corn on the cob would come wintertime (and somehow, it's quicker to cook it off the cob than cook it on the cob, wait for it to cool and then cut off). The plums I froze whole in baggies, and the pickles were.....let's just say we love them, but if I do a bushel of them at a time, I don't have to do them every year, which is a good thing as they are labor intensive!

Note to self: When I need to do pickles again during the next decade - don't even remotely think you need to do a whole bushel - I have pickles coming out the wazoo!!

Sweet Pickle recipe:

6 lbs. cucumbers

1 lb. onion

1 head garlic

1/3 c. salt

3 cups cider vinegar

4 cups sugar

1 1/2 tsp. tumeric

1 1/2 tsp. mustard seed

2 Tbsp. celery seed

Slice pickles and onions - mix with salt and garlic cloves. Let sit in sink covered with 3 trays ice per side of sink and towels for 3 hours. Rinse and drain.

Mix up cider vinegar, sugar and spices - add pickles. Heat through. Place in jars and can in water bath canner 10-15 minutes for either quarts or pints.

(and if you are like me doing a bushel at a time - I'm not measuring any of this exactly, and they still come out just great:)!!)

Kris

A Little Sewing

In between canning tomato juice yesterday I did get in a little quilting:

I have about 1/2 of the stars quilted around, and hope to by the end of the week have the sashings and borders done. I picked a super easy pattern for the sashing and borders - I don't want to have to work entirely too hard at this!! And seeing as it has to be into the fair by September 3rd for judging, I don't have a whole lot of time. But I think I have enough....if I don't get too many more tomatoes out of the garden...

Oh, and we also went on a 4-H field trip to a fruit farm (where I brought my peaches and some plums) and went to my nephew's birthday party and swam all afternoon.

Tomato juice is too simple beyond words.

Today it's pickles (and church and more quilting) and Monday night or Tuesday night it will be peaches.

Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their weekends!
Kris