Looked at the plan from last year and decided what would stay and what would go.  Some things I’m not doing again.  Nothing new I want to try.  Others I have too much of in the freezer and am taking a year’s break.  No cushaw this year, though I hate not to grow it.  Blessing is that if I decide I want some, the kid at the Farmer’s Market has it for a reasonable price every fall.

Cutting back a bit.  Not a whole lot, but some.  Different recipes to do this time around.  The tomato catchup recipe that we did as a trial is now a must have at my house.  Hot pepper jelly is on that list now, too.  We use it instead of things that are more processed.  For instance, I’ve stopped using mayo.  Hot pepper jelly has more flavor and I know what’s in it.

Buying more cattle panel to put the tomatoes and green beans on.  Makes life a lot easier when you don’t have to deal with those tomato stakes or bending down to pick green beans.  Looking at using panel for the sugar snap peas, too.  That is if I can keep the voles out of them.

Dread dealing with the voles this year.  Tunnels everywhere, which isn’t a good sign.  We’ll see how all of that plays out.

Our ducks will look like these.

We have ducks coming in April.  Scott’s wanted some for a long time, so we’ve ordered some.  Welsh Harlequins.  There’s a picture of them to the left .  Excited to see they’re coming.  Should be an interesting experience for all of us.

And then, a friend contacted us and said he knew someone with 28 chicks they didn’t want.  Not getting all of them, but I think we’re taking part.  So 10 ducklings plus 8 chicks.  This could be an interesting spring.

So much to do with school, keeping up with this site gets to be more than I can think about.  It’s been a crazy year already.  More snow than we’ve ever seen.  Too many days missed at school.  Hate it that we’ve got to go on into June, but since the garden doesn’t get a good start until late June/early July, I’m not too concerned.

I’m ready to get started again, though.  Way too much stuff in the basement to eat through.  I’m thinkin’ it’s not gonna happen any time soon.  Who knows, maybe it will.

So…what’s new?  Oh, yeah.  Dancing every night.  Scott and the kids got me a Wii for Christmas along with the Wii fit.  Hate that little weighing guy.  He and I are gonna have a long talk one of these days.  Ended up getting the Just Dance games – 1, 2, and the kids’ version.  Then Friday, I bought Michael Jackson: The Experience.  Lost 5 pounds.  Still got more to go, but I’m happy with that.  Just that stupid little scale in that Wii fit who’s in trouble.  Anyway, have a goal set for myself by reunion time.  Hopefully, I’ll get there.  Scott’s already lost over 7 pounds, but he’s got farther to go than I do.  He’s doing the Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout and then the dance with me.  He’s so competitive.  But that’s okay, I guess.

Time to change the template for the site to something more spring….but not today.  Temps back into the 20s for a couple of nights this week.  I’ll wait a week.

I’ve sort of played around with this recipe some to suit.

7 cups or 7 envelopes nonfat dried milk

1 box powdered sugar (If you buy it in 2 pound bags like I do, it’s half the bag.

2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder

2 cups creamer

2 cups mini marshmallows

1 cup mini chocolate chips (I’ve started leaving these out and adding more sugar and cocoa.  The chocolate chips all go to the bottom of your cup, which is fine if you like it, but I’d rather mine were in the drink, not stuck at the bottom.)

Mix everything together and store it in a large jar.  Takes 1/3 cup of mix to 3/4 cup hot water.

I got so caught up in dealing with summer and the pool and the garden and stuff, I lost track of the site.  Have some more recipes to add over the winter, but not too enthused about doing that now.  It’s allergy season – lovely stuff that is – and as much as I hate it, I’m trying to stay in.  Sad, but true.  Fall is my favorite time of year, or would be if not for the pollen issue.

Taking advantage of the long weekend to get some applesauce done.  Got to handle pears first.  And put up Granny Smith apples, too.  Not ours, but will make good canned apples with some cinnamon and cloves.  Maybe a little cooking gel to get them to set up a bit.

Scott’s working on the side porch rail.  He’s putting a coat of primer on it and then painting it.  Will be so much better than it was.  I’ll post pictures when he’s done.

I’ve been so busy with the garden that I haven’t had time to update.  With the dry spell that set in, everything is about done.  Though I’m sorry we’ll miss out on some things and really wish it would rain, the winding down came at a good time.  School starts in a week.

If we get some rain, we’ll have more green beans, limas, maybe a few more squash.  And the potatoes might actually mature.  Otherwise, there won’t be much to deal with except peppers that we’ll keep watered and tomatoes.  Cushaw and butternut squash need to be harvested this weekend.  They’ll need to sit for a couple of weeks.

Pears are processed and we made some pear honey, which was a neat experience.  Got more from a friend of mine.  They’re sitting in the basement to ripen.  Apples are starting to fall, but won’t see alot until later in the month.  Figs aren’t anywhere near ready.  Grapes are being harvested and frozen because we don’t need any more jelly right now.  Persimmons, when they’re ready late in August, will go to the chickens.

Time is winding down.  And gearing up at the same time.  Totals will be posted soon and pictures of the canning room.  It’s been a good summer.  No complaints except the cucumbers and the peas.  Cucumbers did little.  Peas were destroyed by critters.  Still, it’s been a good year.

When I was a kid, my grandmother used to make tomato ketchup and I never really understood why it was called ketchup when it wasn’t anything like what I had with my fries.  In the past, Scott and I have tried to make some and failed miserably.  This summer, with more tomatoes than I can could possible use, we decided to try again.  I found a recipe on a website I use all of the time, but it didn’t quite suit us.  For one, it said to run the stuff through the blender.  After making a batch that way, I realized why what my grandmother had made was called ketchup.  Those were the ingredients and the blending created what you put on your fries.

After that, I decided I didn’t want mine done that way.  I wanted to have good, old fashioned ketchup or what I prefer to think of as relish.  So I stopped blending it.  And I made a couple more minor adjustments to the recipe as well.  So I’m putting it here for safe-keeping because I’m sure this is one we’ll use over and over again.

Ingredients

12 pounds of tomatoes – blanched, peeled, chopped

1 pound onions

1/2 pound red (or yellow) bell peppers

1/2 pound green bell pepper (or banana peppers.  Hey, I use what I’ve got)

2 cups apple cider vinegar

4 cups of sugar

2 tablespoons salt (in the last batch, I left the salt out completely because we try to stay low sodium)

Spices

1 tablespoon dry mustard

1/2 tablespoon ground red pepper (I use a tad less than that)

1/2 tablespoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon allspice

Directions

You can do this part however you want, but this is what works for me, and creates that old fashioned taste I wanted but cuts back on cooking time.  Place the chopped tomatoes into a big pot and heat them to a boil.  Then, drain off the juice into another pan.  You can take the juice, strain it, then cook it a bit to give yourself a little tomato juice. I usually get around a quart.  Return your tomatoes to the pot and add the peppers, onions, vinegar, sugar, and spices.  You can cook that on low until it gets to the consistency you’d like or you can put it in the crockpot and cook it on low there.  We’ve just been using our big pot we got for such projects.

When you’re done, put it into sterile pint jars.  I get 4-5 depending on how thick I let it get.  Process them in a waterbath for about 20 minutes.

It’s wonderful on homestyle hashbrowns, eggs, peas, sandwiches.

You know, it’s funny.  Christie was the dog we didn’t choose to live with us but came as a foster and just never left.  The mixed feelings I have about her going are confusing and a little uncomfortable at times.  We loved her.  How can you not love someone who is so devoted and needs to be loved so badly?  But it wasn’t like some of the other fosters we had in the  past.

Christie was so needy.  She’d been through so much in her life.  She was happy, but at the same time, there was an anxiousness about her.  She always seemed to be on the lookout, a little uncertain, worried, lost, never quite settled.  Here with us, she found a place where she could at least be comfortable.  There were some scrambles with the other dogs, but for the most part, life was peaceful.  We crated her as little as possible; and while there was a period when she felt more comfortable in a crate, the last 3 years, she was no longer attached to it.  A great thing for a dog who had been kept in one constantly at the mill. She loved to spread out in the floor and just lay there.  She liked a soft bed, though she had a tendency to chew on them.  Christie….was Christie.

Looking back over those last couple of weeks, I think there were some signs and we just mistook them for other things.  Suddenly, she wasn’t able to go all night without peeing in her crate.  She actually peed in the floor a couple of times.  The other dogs got on her nerves more.  She was more talkative than usual.  The shaking was a bit worse.  But with a dog like her, sometimes, you mistake things for just being who she is.

No matter what, Christie was happy.  That was always the case.  She was happy to be alive and happy to have a place to lie in the sun or in the shade.  To stand on the deck by the puppy door and survey her world.  Christie was just happy to be.

In our minds, I think, she was a permanent foster.  We took her when she had no place else to go.  We gave her another chance when all of her chances seemed to be used up.  We bought her time to see what the world should have been like.  And yesterday as we held her and watched her slip away, I think she loved us back.  She passed with people who loved her, held her, talked to her, who chose to be with her.  And in the end, I think for any of us, that’s what matters.  We should all be so lucky.

Today, I said good bye to my puppy, the one I drove 5 hours to pick up after she was rescued from a puppy mill with 5 other bassets.  At 10 years old, her body had reached the point where it was much too painful to go on.  My last foster, we kept her when no one else wanted her.  I love you, Christie Carol.  Miss you, sweetie…

Christie’s tribute page is listed under Pet Memories.

A few years ago, my ex-husband and I took the boys to a local restaurant one summer.  When we were ordering our drinks, the waitress suggested some fruit tea, which she proudly announced as her own creation.  I told her I didn’t like the white grape stuff and she said it wasn’t that at all.  So, we ordered it.  While the ex wasn’t too fond of it, no surprise since he doesn’t like fruit, the boys and I loved it.  I asked her what was in it, and she smiled secretively and said she couldn’t tell.

We went back a couple of times that summer, and always ordered the tea.  But the next time we went in the fall, it wasn’t on the menu and we were told it wouldn’t be served again.  The story we got was that it was expensive to make and they just couldn’t charge the same price for it as they did other beverages on the menu, so they weren’t offering it any more.

Not a problem.  The boys and I set out to make our own.  It took a few trials and some rather nasty errors, but we finally got it right.  I’m sharing the recipe after years of keeping it to myself

This is more of a fruit drink with a little tea than a tea with a little fruit.  You’ve been warned….

Ingredients

2 2/3 cup pineapple juice

2 2/3 cup tea

1 1/3 cup orange juice

1/2 cup lemon juice

1 cup sugar

Directions

Easy.  Mix it all together and stir.  It’s better cold and iced.  Too much melting ice sort of messes with the flavor.

Now, before we start, let me explain something.  I made this recipe the first time without some of the ingredients (I’m not telling you which ones but you can probably guess.) and the kids didn’t care much for it.  In fact, they said it wasn’t right.  So I added a couple of things to it and they’ve loved it ever since.  So I’m just going to put the recipe down the way I make it.  I’m going to figure that anyone who reads this knows how to scald tomatoes to take the peel off, so I’m not going into that.

Ingredients

5 pounds ripe tomatoes (approximately 8 cups)

3 cups chopped onions

1 cup seeded and chopped chili peppers (We use jalapeno.)

1/2 cup green peppers (I’ve used banana pepper instead.)

1 cup cider vinegar (labeled 5% acidity)

3 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 can tomato paste

1 can large can tomato sauce

Directions

After peeling, core and chop tomatoes.  In a 6 to 8 quart saucepan, combine all ingredients.  Bring to a boil, stirring often.  Reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes or to desired thickness.  I cook mine down quite a bit because we like a thicker salsa.  Immediately fill hot pint jars with salsa, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.  Carefully run a nonmetallic down inside of jar to remove trapped air bubbles.  Wipe jar tops and threads clean.  Place hot lids on jars and screw bands on firmly.  Process in Boiling water canner for 15 minutes.

It’s supposed to give you 6 pints but that may vary if you cook it down as much as I do.  Stores well and is very pretty in the jar.