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!!!!!!

WEEK ENDING

the garden is coming along, have been enjoying lettuce, beets, radishes, and cukes.

the potatoes are not to be this year...darn i was so looking forward to garden spuds :(

otherwise i am very happy with 2013 growing season.

when i need mindless knitting i go to dish clothes.

as you can see my basket is filling up with all different kinds of dish clothes

in a variety of colors , shapes and patterns.

most of the dish clothes will be added to some christmas presents that i send around the country

to relatives.

caitlin trying on her dress that i finished this morning, it fits like a glove .

i am thrilled how it turned out as is caitlin !

buttons are a learning curve for me. I did the buttons on the bodice with my bernina 1020 until it got stuck in reverse...grrr !

the skirt i used my 440Q bernina and i struggled getting it just the way i wanted it. actually i never did, i will be fixing some button holes with some hand stitching.

any advice on how to make perfect button holes would be appreciated.

i need to make another dress for my other girl, erin !

i have been working full time the past several weeks and am unsure how long i will keep this schedule.

i must admit i have enjoyed what i have been doing at the hospital, getting use to our new computer system. 

we have had some hot, hot weather here ! and we have been having some rain too.

today is delightful, raining, low 70's - my kind of weather.

their is a nap on the agenda today for me.....

don't you just love naps on rainy afternoons :)

YARN ALONG

IT'S WEDNESDAY!

i haven't posted for yarn along it seems for ages !

i'm not sure what i have been doing the last several weeks

but i have been busy.

the past 3 days i have plowed through these 2 books----

great reads!

i have one more to read then off for more at the library :)

when i find really good reads , nothing and i mean nothing else happens till i finish the entire book.

i've been looking some time for a good read and Craig Johnson fits the bill,

intriguing, funny and i "just can't put them down" kinda read.

tomorrow i will be carding all 4 pounds of this fleece at a friends place, ( she has a drum carder )...

yippie !

will let you know how it goes.

i'm pretty excited but

i have to finish the third book today...sooooo

see ya later !

happy yarning and reading!

TABLE NAPKINS

i'm always trying to par down on consumables and simplify my home life.

and of course as i have confessed here often i love to collect things from by gone times.

{ my favorite books to read is anything from the mayflower to around 1950's }.

so i got to thinking about paper napkins that are on my kitchen table.

my thinking went like this: they are expensive, non reusable and only take up space in the land fill.

i could find no redeemable use for them in my home :(.

then i got to thinking.....land sakes i have been collecting real dinner napkins at estate sales,

lots of them.

so i started going through every nook and cranny in my home and look what i found :)

all those great napkins that so many women used in their homes and i had the privilege to bring into my home !

so i cleared off the drop zone

cleaned the table

ironed a vintage table clothe

pulled down a favorite blue bowl

wash and lined dried all the clothe napkins

{ no ironing }

folded and placed my lovelies in the blue bowl on the vintage table clothe

on kitchen table and

viola.

i'm smiling 

how about you ?

how are you simplifying your nest ?

GARDEN JOURNAL

i spent a large part of the cool morning in the garden. 

i had beans to pick and even a hand full of peas :)

also their was plenty of weeding needing to be done. 

as one can see the beans a thriving !

i put in two full beds of beans, mainly  to put up for the winter stew months.

we love green beans here and as with tomatoes can hardly stand the cardboard taste of store bought beans.

this morning i picked a basket of beans, the rest of the lettuce and to my complete joy

the first two red tomatoes !

what a treat ;)

garden tomatoes for us is like eating in heaven.

the sweetness, juicy, meaty homegrown fruits of loveliness is worth the wait.

and no, oh no, they are not sliced and put with anything else. the first tomatoes are eaten all by themselves.

i also picked the first zucchini.

medium size, great for shredding and freezing.

i can use shredded zucchini in breads, cakes and tomato sauce, { adds an extra vitamin punch }

i do have two sunflower plants way back in the corner.

sunflowers make me smile every time i see one.

they are my happy flowers,

a ray of golden sun !

i put in a total of three squash plant, three different squash plants.

at least that's what i remember thinking i planted.

sometimes my garden is a surprise for me. 

i'm not great at marking things, { it's that organizational thing } takes too much time

so i get surprises when it is time to harvest some plants.

i have never been disappointed yet in my gardening career.

marigolds are such a simple sweat flower, and gardens love them.

marigolds help with bugs that are not helpful to our vegetable plants.

i'm not keen on spraying anything on the garden,
something that has caused many a conversations between mr.p. and myself.

eric is not a marigold fan, i think it may be his least favorite flower plant.

but i figure if our fore- fathers/mothers used these beauties in their gardens, well that is enough for me.

they must be helpful, plus they add some color.

 bean beds.

all this weeded goodness will go into the compost bin to make good organic stuff, that will go back on the garden beds next spring.

it is all in that life cycle theory.....

i have several knitting projects going too.

and i hope to get in some sewing today.

my sewing mojo is really in the tank, and i have no idea why !

i look at quilting pictures every day on pinterest and my heart swells with their beauty,

but i just can't seem to get to the fabric and the sewing machine.

today maybe today i will be moved in that direction.

linking up with

small things

and saturday gardening.

FINISHED SKIRT

caitlin in berkley, ca. wearing her newly finished skirt. 

doesn't she look great!

i can't tell you how fun it has been sewing with caitlin and her friends.

seeing these girls finish projects is amazing and so satisfying since it seems i can not finish a thing.

oh how i want my mojo back, but a season for everything and now my season is helping the girls learn to sew!

oh yeah, caitlin is teaching english to 15 chinese students at berkley......she suffers so:)

and looks so unhappy.

not, she loves to teach english and loves to be around chinese students to sharpen her mandarin language skills.

see you in mid august sweetie!

SKIRT SEWING 101

the girls and i got together to finish sewing the skirts and did they turn out 

CUTE!

these guys are doing so well and picking up the basics of sewing fast.

After each girl cut their pattern, i fitted the pattern to them individually.

then they cut out their fabric AFTER i checked the lay out of the pattern first,

did not want to ruin any of their beautiful fabric

measure twice, cut once.

and no mistakes were made.

they are all so patient with me and each other.

helping each other

no funner way to sew

watching, asking questions, lets not cut any fabric wrong

pin, pin, pin 

then i will cut

ready to sew

lets fit this one more time before stitching.

a little nervous cutting into her fabric.

so happy to be sewing

concentrating

checking once, twice and yet another time.

they did so well!

by evening end all that was left to do was the blind hem,

but it was late and i needed sleep .

caitlin will be over later in the week for those instructions and then the girls will meet at mel's to get that done. 

next time i see them they will be dressed in their beautiful hand made skirts :)

these sewing sessions have been so fun for me. i am amazed how fast we are getting through projects.