Spent day in Kitchen again.

I spent the day in the kitchen again. Made tomato sauce, and sloppy joes sauce too. Got another batch of bread and butter pickles done, as well as another batch of pickle relish.
I looked at my jar supply, and have only half dozen pints left and a dozen 8 oz. jelly jars left.
If I have any more to can, I will finish filling those and then be done for this season of harvest. After the storm which hit the last 2 Fridays, most of my vegetable garden is damaged beyond repair.
I am happy I got the great harvest I did this year. I have plans already forming in my mind of what I want next year.
I am taking cuttings from perennial flowers here at house to plant this fall in areas I want to help erosion problems next year. They should come up next spring without fail.
Plan to go to farm today and start cleanup of left over damaged foliage and prepare the soil for winter.
I have to finish the shed to house gardening tools and tillers. The makeshift one I made this spring worked for summer. Winter needs a more sturdy and reliable shed. With the heat being so bad here this summer, I put off finishing it or even working on it. Now it's cooled off, it's time to re-group and start getting things rolling on that list of to-do's for outside work.

Have to add these to photos.

Kiley enjoying more cake. She loved both of them that her mommy made for her birthday.

Grandma(me) and Kiley. I taught Kiley how to tell people how old she was. She is showing her mom who is holding camera that she is 1 year old.

She's a very bright little girl. She learns fast.

Happy First Birthday Kiley Nicole

Today Kiley turned 1 year old.

Her party was a great one. Family and friends gathered to celebrate the day.

Weather was just beautiful.







She loved her cake.

And the attention she got all afternoon long.







She ate most of her peice, and fed some to Aunt Leslie too.
Of course her Dad had to smear her nose in the icing for her picture, and she didn't mind at all.







She got lots of new toys to play with and ride.

Along with clothes, for her gifts. She even got money, which she didn't want, she wanted to push the buttons on toys and dance to the music.





So today, Kiley turned 1 year old. Going on 7. Wonder what this next year will bring in her learning and growing up so fast. This last year has been so fun watching her grow and learn something new everyday.
Happy Birthday Baby Doll.

Friday Aug. 20th

Preparations are underway for the big 1st birthday party tomorrow.

Kiley turns 1 year old. Now I can really say, "How time flies".

It's been a great year. She's learned so much.

She stole our hearts when she was born, and has made them swell with love since.

Tomorrow we celebrate with family and friends.

Praying for many years of sharing her birthdays with her.

My Friday Tackle

Today I worked cleaning house and rearranging to get all my canning put into cabinet.

I started cleaning in living room, as my cat decided to move one of my plants to the floor so she could lay comfortably on the shelf where it sat in front of my window. Silly critter, she thinks she has to sun in the mornings on that shelf. Needless to say, I had potting soil to vacuum up and shelf to clean first thing. Moved out the furniture to vacuum under things, then headed to bathroom, scrubbed it all down, cleaned everything to a shine. Well, it shines til the others use it to clean up in.

Family room I just vacuumed, the catch all for papers and magazines, mail, etc. room will get gone thru tomorrow sometime.

Sheets to change in morning and then kitchen to finish up, as I worked in cabinet to get canning placed for future use took the rest of the afternoon.

Supper was simple, and now I am enjoying some reading on computer before heading to bed later. I consider my day of tackling to do's a success.

This batch down, more to go

Last post showed some of the tomatoes I am thankful my garden produced this year. More in garden ripening fast. These produced 50 pints of juice for future use this winter. Next batch I am hoping, with weather permitting, I will be able to cook down into ketchup and ready to use sauces.
Steve told me he can get me a propane stove if I want it. It can be put on porch for summertime canning. I am thinking that may be the way to go right now. Inside cooking keeps the AC working overtime, it's been working full time just battling the hot summer we have had this year.
We are so looking forward for fall coming. I actually look forward to putting on a jacket and jeans to work outside.

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, and more Tomatoes.

I picked tomatoes last night and this morning. This is my table top, and my dishwasher top is loaded also. With some not quite ready, the ones which are ready can be done up a little at a time.

We are enjoying eating them with every meal too. If I disappear, look under the mountain of red in my kitchen.

My Kids and others

Not sure if I had posted this picture til I went looking thru my file, and sure enough, it was not there. Might as well include it in the others I share online in my blog.

Front row, our oldest daughter - Leslie, and our nephews girlfriend - Tara.

Back row, red shirt - our son in law (better known as just our son) Dave, our youngest daughter Melanie, and my nephew (my 2nd oldest brothers youngest son) - Tony. I think this was taken in July around Dave and Melanie's anniversary time, not really sure, it could have been for Leslie's birthday, but they had gone out for the night to listen to a friend of theirs band. They had fun, as you can tell, a few of em' standing here for this picture is already feeling good.

I sit here looking at all of them, and boy, do I ever see my dad in Tony. I don't know whether my brother sees it or not. But the eyes and forehead are my dad up and down. Wow. Family resemblance shining thru.

Watching the Parade

Parade was nice to see so many participants from the small town entered.

Many people turned out to watch the parade as well. Visiting took place while we waited for the parade to come by out seating place.




Weather cooperated with us, as it wasn't as hot as it had been. No rain, shade trees were abundant for parade watchers.

Hundreds of pounds of sugar was tossed into the crowds in the form of candy, as well as paper handouts and business cards for the adults.




Cheap form of advertising for merchants and an evening of visiting with friends and relatives.

This town won't have another event like this for 3 years, so it seems everyone looks forward to 2013 for the next one.







Greenfield Triennial Parade of 2010

We too, will look forward to the next one.

Wonder what the theme will be for that one, as this one was "Remembering the Days".

Prepping for Parade.

Dave and I spent the day gathering things we needed to load on trailer with 1939 M to take for parade Steve, Melanie and Kiley were in.
Company Steve works for proudly displayed a line of there tractors and a combine along with our old tractor, as the theme was "Remembering the days".




Of course Kiley seemed to keep everything clean by wearing the dust off everything all over her. But she had a blast at Papa's work helping take off with tools, water bottles, and dust rags, along with sitting on the pedal tractors.

The guy's took time out to have some fun and laugh when the boss come up and asked where they wanted to put the flag?

They loaded up with lots of candy to throw to the children watching along the route.

The weather cooperated for the evening with cooler temps and lower humidity thank God.

The little town had quite a turn out and many business' participated in the parade itself.

Tractors gleamed with fresh wash and wax jobs, as did the little pedal tractors that I took up for them to use.

The 39' even got some fresh paint and detailing this week to lead the group as the oldest tractor lead the pack to the new ones. Years have been good to the Farmall/IH/Case-IH company, as it continues to produce quality machines.

As collectors of old Farmalls, we take pride in showing off part of our collection at times at parades and shows as well as using them on our farm.

We had a very nice evening in the little town of Greenfield, IL watching the parade and seeing people we know, saying Hi and watching with pride as part of our family participated.

Changing with Age?

30 years ago, if someone would have suggested I try my hand at making pineapple using zucchini, I would of run screaming EEWWWW.

This year, a cyber friend posted a recipe for zucchini pineapple.

Needless to say, I use lots of pineapple during the holiday season, and this year I have an abundance of zucchini producing in my garden.

So I put the recipe to a test today, and made my family our very own homemade zucchini pineapple. Oh the taste is soooo good. I like pineapple, but the canned fruit has some core in it, and I don't care for the crushed store bought pineapple for that reason.

Well this pineapple is well worth the risk of making, it tastes just like pineapple without that core crunch. I don't think I will purchase pineapple again after tasting this. I am starting to be much more daring in my age, than I was years ago. And I am proud to say I am glad I took this challenge to myself to try the recipe. I am not at all disappointed. The real test will be baking with it to see if family even notices there was no can in the trash, only a jar in sink.

Clear coating the 39 - M

Steve is participating in a Triennial town parade Thursday night, and he is driving his 1939 - Farmall M. So detailing went on Sunday afternoon, Dave, Steve and Melanie welded little paint brushes and painted all the bolt heads and nuts on his tractor after washing it really good to remove all wax.
This morning I clear coated the hood, grill and gas tank. Now it has a brilliant shine to it. The sun is too bright on it right now with this picture, but it looks real nice. Since clear coating takes just minutes to dry, the tractor will be ready for the parade on Thursday evening.

Kiley gets to ride in the parade also. We're not sure if it's going to be on the trailer on a pedal tractor, or in the back of an old restored International Scout. If it's on the trailer, I will have to get to painting it too. but won't take long, as there isn't much metal, just the rails, ramps and fenders. It would look so much better cause it really needs it. I wanted to get a new fender for it, for the guy's bent one up real bad when they loaded wood on it a couple years ago. But since we hadn't gotten the new fender yet, I have held off painting it yet.
Sometimes pressure is the best motivator though.