Evoking Memories with Aroma

We all have memories evoked by sights, sounds, tastes and smells. Yesterday I was able to recreate memories of childhoods for both Steve and I.

My first experience in making bread and butter pickles. Both our parents canned most of our food when were growing up. It was grown in large gardens, as children, we helped tend. As the years went by, available produce and already canned vegetables took place in our cabinets and on our tables from grocery stores. When Steve walked in the house yesterday, he said the smell reminded him of his Aunt's house when she made bread and butter pickles. I too loved the smell from childhood summers spent helping my mom prepare and cann the vegetables raised in our garden.

When Steve and I married, we both worked outside the home.
we planted small gardens, then no gardens as we became busier with our children and outside hobbies. Our children are grown, I no longer work outside the home, and we have a small farm which I have space to grow as big or small a garden as I desire.

Last year I planted a small garden, as we didn't know if the soil would be good for gardening, it had always had crops planted on it. That garden did real well with the addition of top soil added to keep it loose and not packed with rains. Our vegetables we grew produced very well, for no more than we experimented with. So this year, we moved the garden, making it even larger. I have had success and failure so far with this spot. But over all, the success will win out.

I made my bread and butter pickles using a recipe called "old fashioned bread and butter pickles" search done on internet. I know my mom used recipes for somethings, but most of them were in her head. If she wrote them down, I don't know what became of them when she passed. Also, I don't know what happened to Steve's moms recipes. Since they are gone, I have cooked by taste and smell to recreate meals they cooked for us in our childhood. My own children like most of the old fashioned cooking I do. And they tell me to write down my recipes because they can't read my mind.

My pickles will be ready to taste test in a few weeks. The longer they sit, the better the flavor will be. I know Labor Day we will for sure try them out.

Healthy Dirt

Steve and I headed to farm to mow and pick ripened veggies from garden yesterday. Tomatoes are ripening fast now. I brought home about 4 gallon. 19 various sized cucumbers, 3 zucchini, and one dirty grand child.
Kiley had such fun exploring in the garden, all the green leaves and finding tomatoes in those leaves. I tried to keep her with me so I could keep things out of her mouth, as she is one of those children that anything and everything goes to mouth as soon as it is grasped. That was such a waste of time and energy. So I went about picking ripe vegetables and she went off in search of any corn cobs and dirt clods, or rocks she could find, including green plant leaves. I have to say, she isn't afraid to try anything on her plate, or anything out of the garden. For that matter, she isn't afraid to try anything.

When we got home, and K was cleaned up, I went thru my tomatoes and the ones which had split on the bottom of the bags, and those which had soft spots, I cleaned, cut up and made 2 pints sauce. Again this year, my tomatoes are making such deep red juice, that I really hate putting them into a cabinet for storage. It sure is pretty.

Kiley, Patches and a Green bean frencher.

Patches and Kiley were playing with Kiley's toys first thing this morning.
Kiley goes into living room and starts digging out toys from the baskets and Patches waits til she sees one she wants to play with then takes off with it. They share toys real well with each other.



Looks like today will be a "Kiley gets into
everything day, for she has brought me my nick knacks so far this morning. Of course when I go to take them from her, she turns and runs away from me with them, I have to chase her down. And Patches is the same way, she too runs when I go to take something she isn't suppose to have too.





Steve and I went to Rural King last night. I have been wanting to try french styling green beans and knew I had seen one at that store. We checked the stores locally for one, but none carried them here. I am anxious not to try it out. It's a tiny little thing. Hope I get the results I am looking for.

Well off I go, in hunt of the kid and the cat. No telling what they have found to get into together when they are so quiet.

Sweet Pickle Relish Success

I made sweet pickle relish for the first time ever yesterday. It really wasn't hard, the 4 hour salt bath was the hardest thing to endure, as I like to keep busy. But I filled the bowl with ice cubes and covered with water and stirred it every half hour to keep it evenly cold. Then strained the water out of the veggie/salt soak, added to cooking ingredients and simmered, then packed in jars and water bathed for 15 minutes.



Ten 8 oz. jars of delicious sweet pickle relish now lines the shelves of my home canned items.
My cyber friend also posted a couple other recipes she uses. A Dill relish, and a Zucchini Pineapple recipe. I am going to try the zucchini pineapple one first, for I am getting a lot of zucchini right now. Since the family likes pineapple holiday baking items, I am going to use the Zucchini pineapple in them and see if they even know the difference.
Now for the weather to bring us a day for an outside Hot Dog roast to really get the taste of the relish a test. Nothing like roasting outside over an open fire and then loading the hot dog with all the favorite condiments of ones choice. The days of fall are coming, and til then, I am going to try out the relish in some salad recipes. The flavor of the relish is so yummy right out of the pan, it should do really well enhancing the flavor of other things too.

Darn tire.

Yesterday while mowing at farm, my mowers front tire started going flat after about an hour and half, Dave and I had most of the area mowed, I was finishing up the corner around the garden. I noticed the mower was turning hard and checked the tires, sure enough the front left one was going flat. That's the new one we just replaced too. So I headed to trailer, but the tire was flat too soon. I shut down the mower and walked up the drive to motion for Dave to come down to truck. We only had the area truck and trailer was parked by garden and then the west side of drive down fence line to go. We tried to air it up with portable air tank, but it was off rim enough that the portable tank didn't have enough pressure to inflate it. I turned the truck and trailer around to load it on the hill, but when tire wouldn't air up, I knew I would have to leave it for Steve to take off and bring home to fix. So I left the trailer and other mower too.

Steve stopped by farm and got 706 to bring home to work track for our antique tractor pull on Aug. 1, so he also took tire off mower and brought it home.

This morning he and I headed to farm to finish mowing and put my tire back on. While he was mowing the west side of roadway, again, he got stuck and I had to go pull him off road bank. I think he likes to see how far he can mow on the bank sideways so we have to pull him out. Last time we mowed together, I pulled him out like 4 times, and then hooked to his mower and let him mow the bank while I was on top of bank driving along so he didn't get stuck. Oh the things that man has me do. Hahahaha

He just called and he is mowing at track while I can green beans and now I have to run out there and give him a hand and take him something cold to drink. See, off on another mission, Lord only knows what this time. lol

Another Celebration

Blogger must have been busy yesterday, as I tried to post and nothing would upload. Bloggers must have been catching up, like I was trying to do, for I had a few minutes.

Melanie and Dave celebrated their 4th wedding anniversary yesterday. Life seems to be good in the Davis house. So glad we got a good son in law out of the marriage. And I wouldn't trade our little granddaughter for anything.

I pray life for the two of them many many years of celebrations and they keep falling madly in love over the years. And may God Bless them all the days of their lives.

Open House at Greenfield Store

Open house was held at Siever's Case-IH store in Greenfield, IL on Thursday evening. Congratulations to them on aquiring 2 more stores to their business, bringing their total Case-IH dealerships to 5.

The Greenfield store is where Steve has been employed for the last 18 years.

After he took employment there, we became interested in collecting the old Farmall lineage, which then became International Harvester, McCormick-Deerling was in there somewhere too, then Case bought the company. Today the company goes by the name of Case-IH. Most likely if you see red in the field, it will be Case-IH product.

At the open house, Steve and I were


honored to be asked to display one of our collection. Steve chose the little 1948 Farmall C, which we restored last year. It now belongs to our granddaughter Kiley, as she will learn to drive it when she gets older.

The Greenfield store hosted a fish fry for

customers in appreciation for their business and loyality over the years. Many turned out for the evening, and all had a good time and got to see some of the new equipment, tractors and combines offered. The GM of store worked hard getting things ready, and did the employee's this past 2 weeks for this special evening.

Melanie, Dave, Kiley and I attended the event for a while. I couldn't resist taking pictures, but I didn't take enough to really do justice to the changes which have taken place. Under new management and dedicated employee's, I am sure the farmers will be stopping in often, even just to visit and shot the bull with them all.

I know I wear the logo of the Case-IH company proud and I am not employed there. lol And I am sure for years to come, the collection of the older tractors will still flow through our blood.

She said so Pa.

Enjoyed the day with Kiley on Monday. Steve and I picked up my mower from farm to fix front tire. He said I should watch closer for those twigs and larger fallen limbs, as the tires on the mowers are getting worn and old. LOL I punctured a hole in one, non fixable. At least I get a new tire for mine out of this flat, the others he just uses junk called slime or fix a flat.

When we got home, I put Kiley on the mower, and when Steve saw her, he asked her, "Who said you could play on mower?" She instantly pointed to me, as I was taking pictures of her on it. For 10 months old, she's a smart little thing. When she sees any tractor now, she points at it and says, "PaPa", then makes a humming sound. We tell her Papa's tractor and do the motor sound to her afterwards, so she has picked up what she thinks is the sound. Just too cute. Anyone with small children or grandchildren can relate, for as we teach the little ones, they just amaze us with their knowledge at such a young age. Raising 2 of our own, as they are grown, they still amaze us.

View of my garden.

I took advantage of having a day to myself and headed to farm to enjoy the beautiful cool weather and the time to again battle the weeds which seem to sprout in minutes.
I walked the garden and hoed out any sign of weeds growing, figure get them while they are small and they won't make the garden look shabby.

After I got the garden hoed and re-checked, I walked the outside of the fence and got the weeds along the edge where the mower can't get. Top photo is of one of my zucchini plants. This one I am watching close, for it has the first one on it about 4 inches long. If the blooms are any indication of what produce will come from them, I am headed for several hours of prepping for freezing come later this summer.

Everything looks real good. After I got the weeding done, I checked the mower oil and gas, and started mowing.

Wouldn't you know it, the front left tire started going flat on me, and I didn't have any fix-a-flat or the portable air tank with me, so I mowed til it looked real flat and parked it and put things away and headed home. I am sure Steve will stop by farm on way home and see that I got the drive lane mowed and top part of the garden hill done, and started on the lane back to equipment mowed and then stopped. If he checks the mower he will know what happened, if not, he will come home and ask me why I didn't finish it up. lol

So in the morning when Kiley gets picked up from spending the night at Grandma's and Papa's, I plan on heading back up and finish mowing. Seems like the last few times I have been up at farm working, I only get to spend a few hours and either I am done, or something goofs up and I have to leave. I love spending the day up there. So peaceful and serene.