Been Busy

Summer is on the way out of here, Fall is on the way in.

Thankfully with the ending of summer, the heat has left us also. Drought conditions still, but good news, we got rain last Friday. Home received an inch and half, farm got just under an inch.

I have been canning and freezing all my produce from my garden.

List of canning done: Tomatoes - sauce, juice, pizza sauce, sloppy joe sauce, and spaghetti sauce.

Frenched green beans

Mock apple pie filling, apple butter, raspberry jam, strawberry jam.

Sweet pickle relish.

Dill pickles.

Into freezer I added: sweet corn and summer squash (shredded, chopped, diced and sliced)

Now that cool weather has come here to my area, I have gotten some of those outside things done, which I didn't do, with the heat of summer.

Also, we are building a shed at the farm. It's been hit and miss, as Steve works all day, and we work on it in the evenings and weekends. Sides and back is up. Now we are working on getting the roof on it. We had 4 more post holes to dig, when the post hole digger broke down, so the guy's dug 4 foot deep holes by hand for those last 4, and the ground was hard like concrete from no rain.

During the day, while Steve is at work, I am cutting tall weeds along the ditch and tree lines of our little corner where eventually it will be yard. Still have sticks and limbs and a couple willow trees to clean up, from spring/early summer storms. Now's the time to get to them and pile them up for a fall hot dog roast/hayride in October/November weather permitting at Halloween.

I'm sure I have forgotten to add things, as my time has been limited on computer with being gone, and coming home late, getting supper and then getting things done around the house so the next day I can head out again. So looking forward to only having one place to take care of, instead of the 2.

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.

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.

A Good Day

Today, Steve and I went up to the farm. I worked in my garden first, picked green beans and tomatoes. Wow, I hadn't been to collect tomaotes in over a week, so today I got a lot of them, considering I only have 5 plants. So I made tomato juice when I got home, ended up with 14 pints. So that should help out on grocery bill this winter, not having to buy so much for making chili and soup.
After I got my gardening done, I cut down some of the weeds which just keep growing. lol Some of them are taller than I am, which doesn't take too much, but I can't get to them. They will just have to die out in the winter. Then I hopped on the W-6 and took myself for a ride around, while Steve was shredding. The corn looks real good this year. We sure are happy about that. The weather has cooperated, could have used more warmer weather, but we sure can't complain with it being our first year solo farming. I often talk with my father and mother in law, God rest their souls, they are gone, but in my heart they still are with us. They had never put a garden in this part of their farm, so this year was the first one. I am happy to say, it grew real well.
After my little ride around on the W-6, Steve was done with the road banks and told me to hop on with him while he headed back to the water ways of the field to shred back there. So up I went, sat on the fender, rode around til my bony butt couldn't sit there any longer. lol I finally told him to let me off and I would walk back to garden, he said he was almost done, but I told him I couldn't sit on the hard fender any longer. I told him I was going to make myself a soft pad to put on that fender for my next ride. He laughed and said his butt didn't hurt. Well, NO he had the nice comfy seat. So I enjoyed the walk back to garden area. I washed the W-6 while I waited for him to get done. I only had 2 gallons of water with me, but the birds had roosted above it while parked under a willow tree, and I was able to at least get the bird dung off it. I also got the big table loaded onto the trailer to take home for using to lay all the small parts of the C on to paint them.
We have to have water run, and electric hooked up to our part of our place. So still very primitive back there for us. But I don't mind carrying TP and used walmart bags and squatting. Heck, I grew up with an outhouse for toilet and bathed in wash tubs when I was younger. But that was many moons ago.
I have a whole list of things to do this week. A very busy one which I welcome to pass the time. Til next time, God Bless.