A NEW DAY.......IT IS TIME TO EXHALE! AND SEW!

My girl LOVES to sew! Spent Tuesday afternoon making plush flannel PJ pants.

And darn, this girl is a good sewer, she can do curves and stay on line. 

I use that small iron for travel, (remember that, ahh!)  worked great for my girl. She told me: 'I can't touch plugs Mimi". Got it! 

Fabric on the way, picked out my the newest, youngest, sewer in the family! Next up, a simple twirling dress!

Well, we made it America, tr*&%&** is gone today. I hope not to see him again in the news til he is on his way to jail.

BREATH.......EXHALE

New Beginnings.

PS: Yes, I am knitting, hopefully an update soon.

Head over to AsKatKnits

FILLING TIME

Time has become almost surreal 6 months into this pandemic, a National Disaster for sure, that just keeps cycling around with more bad news. In the West, the more bad news - the fires! We have two burning, one within 10 miles from us, the other 40 miles. Both are burning hot enough for the smoke to block out the sun, almost daily. It's nearly impossible to sit for 20 minutes on the porch, fresh air, not at this time! Daily temps. are hanging around 99-100 degrees, we need cold and snow! The RNC is not helping my mental health

 with all the HATE they are spewing on TV! Oh, 2020 you have been one hard year!

But, a little break yesterday....Caitlin and I canned Roma Tomatoes. Jason first roasted them,    (4 cases in less than 10 minutes), never again will I do the blanching method to remove skins.

I thought we were going to make tomato sauce, the kind that is ready to pour and use for pasta dishes. Caitlin wanted to can whole tomatoes, because they are so much more versatile, open a jar, make sauce (by adding garlic and spices), open a jar and use the whole tomatoes poured over a roast, or make soup, spicy V-8 juice.......

You get the idea! So whole tomatoes it was and it was fast. We started at 1pm and I pulled the last jars out at 6pm. Not bad for a winter supply of deliciousness! 

The Brown and Pink quilt is on the machine and it is going to be slowing going!  Though it will be beautiful when completed and I have the time! 

Reading: 

~Caste: This is a hard read for me, but a much needed read for me! Please, if you are interested in Race and Race relations, this is the book you are looking for, get it, read it slow and digest the information. 

~The Mountains Sing- Is about a family in Viet Nam that survives the years of wars from the French through the Americans and last-the Communist Party. WOW. 

Connecting with Kat and Unraveled Wednesday

PEACHES

Last Wednesday was spent canning 2 cases of peaches with Caitlin. We ended up with 29 quarts and about 7 whole HUGE peaches (left over)! Not bad for about 3 hours of work. 

The kitchen 'flow' was hard, I had the canning flow down in my old house to a smooth sailing ship. This new kitchen is much bigger and lots of room to move, but have to figure out the 'flow'! Also, without stone counters we had to bring in ply wood so the jars wouldn't burn the counters and table. Yup, Caitlin and I have both done that at one time or another. 

What is on the agenda this week coming up, I am not sure but I bet their will be something and it will be fun!

ONCE A WEEK

SOAP

Smoked Ribs, Potato Salad, Corn on the Cob, Salad

Getting to 'trace' with soap

Fried Chicken, Potato Salad, Corn on the Cob

This new blogger, I am not having fun with! I can't move my pictures around and blogger won't load them in the order I try to put them, sooo, I get this mish mash sequence of pictures! Ugh....

A couple of weeks ago, Caitlin and I decided to 'make' one day a week. Our first week was...

Canning Pickles. We put together Refrigerated Pickles and Dill Pickles. We forgot to put horseradish in the Dills, ( just something to rachet up the flavor, oh well next time.)

The pickles came out amazingly! It's hard  to let the jars sit and the spices to do their magic, but patience is a virtue, so I am told.

The second week, we made SOAP. I love homemade soap, I love making it and the only thing I love more, is to make SOAP with Caitlin. Of course, while making two basic batches of soap, we are planning our next batch....Goat Milk, and what essential oils to use. It is endless our plans and Caitlin has already found a local source for that goat milk!

Two year olds can be sooo funny! Gus walked into the kitchen and told his Mom, "I going to the library to pick up books and I have my mask on!" Cuz, you know all the germs out there. 

Kids, they will never know how much sunshine they spread in this crazy world.

After replacing all our appliances , I have been cooking and Eric has been smoking. 

I will say this stay at home thing, it has allowed us to cook some yummy, comfort food. And right now, I need comfort food a couple times a week!  The other thing in the kitchen happening is making dishes from scratch that before would of  been bought ready made at the store, like potato salad and all salad dressings. The hits have been, potato salad, cole slaw, and several salad dressings. The one pictured about, not so much, its Creamy Cucumber, needs some work. 

Are you cooking? I would love to hear all about your kitchen experience. 

99 days to November 3.

Last week was a tough week here at Little House. We had to say good bye to our 'fat boy Sam! He blew his back out, not the first time, but this time the drugs were of no help. He became paralyzed and in so much pain we had him put down. I am grateful for having the decision to calmly  put a dog down, but what a decision to make, gut wrenching! Sadie, Sam's sister is here and she is lost without her mate. Just one more thing to get 'use to' in this age of weird 'get use to' COVID time. 

Friday, my daughter and I canned! I love canning and taking pics of all those jars filled with color and food. We did Refrigerated Pickles and Dill Pickles. We each had 10+ pints to put away at our home.  WE are planning one day a week 'making/doing' something in the kitchen. This week will be Lye Soap. 

Other things on our list:

Pasta noodles

peaches

raviollie with peas, or cheese or meat, etc.

dumplings, (Caitlin is a great at Chinese cooking)

Tamales?

Salsa [canned] 

etc, etc,etc.

99 days to VOTE- TRUMP -OUT -OF -OFFICE!!!!!!

APRIL HAPPENINGS

April is a Birthday month in my family. My granddaughter and I have our birthdays one week apart to the day. Of course, I am no longer able to celebrate my day for more than a nano second, since April is all about Betty's day. She started talking about her day early in the month, reminding all, that she is going to be four and that is really big! I was informed that since I couldn't go out, I should just wrap up some of my toys for her! Also, a blue cake was to be made by me, 'my mommy doesn't know how to make cakes, she can only make cookies'. Haha, her Mom owns and runs Me Oh My Pies and Coffee. 

Birthday presents consisted of 6 pints homemade strawberry jam, (Betty's favorite),  one Mimi made quilt, and a Blue Cake. Birthday was a success and a very happy day for Betty.

Yesterday, though cloudy, we went on a long drive up the canyon to look at the river, is it fishable or running to fast?  May, June and part of July, rivers in the West are rising with the 'run off'. All the snow melting in the high country, finding its waterway to the Missouri or Colorado River, depending on which side of the continental divide it's on. Though the run off has definitely started the river is not running too fast to fish. Hopefully we will be able to returned today for some socially distancing fishing. Fly fishing is ALWAYS a socially distance activity. Eric in the river and me on the river bank-knitting and reading.

April reads:

Read My Heart ****

A good 17th century  English aristocratic book. 

Rising Tide*****

Interesting story as well as extremely sad. Politics in the US  can and often is soo sad . 

This a story of taming the Mississippi River, a river that is crucial for the US economy. Though taming the river involves political, economic abuse of low income populations and especially people of color, think Jim Crow laws. 

The Mountain Between Us**

I found this book to be equivalent to a soap opera. I enjoy the part about how they got out of the mountains, but the love story, not so much. The ending was obvious from the first page....dumb.

Happy May day. Here's to hoping this month is better than the last few COVID months.

Take care and stay healthy.

HOBBIES

Deep End

The first, started and finish during COVID19

Scrap quilt using scraps most sane quilters would toss out...not me!

Eric's flying tying in full swing. He is making a few dozen for a friend.

Easter snow.

Anyone need some blue food dye? Oye Vey!

Amish quilt hand quilting.

Snow clouds building in over the Rockies, expecting 4-9 inches tonight and through tomorrow. We will see.

How has your week been? I feel calmer this week, getting out walking is soo helpful. Also, coming to terms and stop fighting-what I have no control over is helpful. Sometimes it is difficult to work out what I can control and what I cannot control, and lets face it, we really have so little control  in this world. The control I have, is how I react to situations that is thrown in my path.

I have been thinking a lot about when this 'stay at home' and life returns to normal, (whatever that looks like), what things have been removed from my daily life and what things I want to bring back. I have moments of feeling this isolation thing is a real gift (not the part of sickness and financial instability), but the gift of slowing the outside world down!  What else but a virus could do this and who ever thought in their life time this could happen?

Not me!

 I want positive lessons to be learned from this situation.

We all have time to ponder :

what is good in our lives

what to not let back into our lives

what to let in occasionally

what to change personally

what to work toward.

You?