It's That Time of Year Again!

Yep folks, it's that time again. I'm fixing to give you the lowdown on all we were able to preserve this summer. This season was better than last year's, even though I canned alot last year too. I'm always amazed at how the Lord blesses. Just look!

The picture doesn't show all of the jars from this summer....the rest of the jars are stored here and there in the house. There just wasn't room for all of them in the pantry. The freezer is loaded too! Just how much did we preserve this year?? I'm SO glad you asked!
Green Beans - 95 jars
Salsa - 11 jars
Tomatoes 37 jars (still canning these!)
Soup - 11 jars
Relish - 5 jars
Bread & butter pickles - 4 jars
The freezer is filled with:
Corn - 22 dozen
Apples - 24 qts.
Freezer pickles - 34 containers

Tomatoes are still coming in but they're beginning to slow down now. Besides okra, that's about all the garden is putting out now. Lord willing, we'll have turnip greens soon. Think I'll try freezing those. Anyway, thanks for coming by and putting up with my jar pictures. :O)

Ah! How Refreshing! :O)

If you haven't read my post entitled "A Dry and Thirsty Land", go read that first here...then come back here and read this post. :O) I'm very happy to report that our cow pond is filling back up again! Since I wrote that last post, it's rained alot here!! The Lord has sure sent showers of blessing our way and we are one thankful family. (So are the cows, I'm sure!)
Just look! Isn't it beautiful? :O)
Now...on a different note, Jacob started his college course this week!! I was about as excited as he was! My kids will tell you what a pest I am with the camera and, yes, I forced the poor boy to pose with his college book so I could take his picture. I shut my ears to his pleas of "But Mom! Please don't make me do this!" I pretended not to see that he had rolled his eyes in the back of his head. Hey, if I don't document their lives in pictures, who will? They'll thank me for it one day, I'm sure. Well...I'm not exactly sure, but at least their lives will be documented in pictures. :O)
He seemed to think he's going to really enjoy the Economics class. Time will tell! He was disappointed that they had one class, then there isn't another class for 2 weeks because of the Labor Day holiday! Oh well, at least he's got lots of time to get his homework done. I wonder who he thinks is the tougher teacher....me or his professor! Hmm, I just might ask. :O) I asked him a gazillion questions about his class when he got home. In some ways, as a homeschool mom, this is sort of like a "test" for me too! Lots of thoughts are whirling through my head. Have I taught him everything I should have? Did I miss anything? I have tried to be very careful through the years in making sure the kids get everything they need academically. Now that things are getting down to the nitty gritty, I'm anxiously watching. :O) Hopefully, there won't be any "smack-your-forehead-and-wonder-how-I-could've-missed-that" moments! Oh, yikes!

PS - Miss you Amy! :O)

A Dry and Thirsty Land

THIS....
is was our cow pond. We've been pumping water out of our other pond to fill the water trough for the cows. And THIS...
is a picture of that pond. Not much left there either.
The pasture is really getting dry.
Reminds me of these Bible verses:
Psalms 63:1 ¶O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
2 To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.
3 ¶Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.
4 Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.
5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:
6 When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.
7 ¶Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.
8 My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.

Ah...so much to be thank the Lord for. :O)

Edit: Just as I finished posting this, the rain began to fall!!! Thank you, Lord!! And now, I'm going out to play! :O)

Been Fishin'...

Jacob has been fishing in the Nolichucky River the past few days, in full determination of catching some carp. This time of year the river isn't deep at all and everytime he goes, he sees some really big carp. He was determined he was going to get one even if he had to end up shooting one out of the water! They'd swim all around his bait, but never would bite....until this afternoon...he finally caught one (without a weapon!).

My Critter Lovin' Girl

You've heard the old saying, "A boy and his dog?" Well, how about "A girl and her rooster?" :O) Without fail, not one day goes by that this is not a familiar scene...Katie sitting on the edge of the porch with "Roosty" relaxing calmly in her lap...getting his usual rubdown. This old rooster may have a bad foot, but trust me, this little dude lives a life of luxury. She gets up in the mornings, heads out the door, and this is always what you hear..."Mornin' Diamond. Mornin' Johann. Mornin' Roosty!!" As loyal as a dog, Roosty is always there to greet her. Always. (Of course, I probably would be too if somebody toted me around all day and scratched me behind the ears!) And so, without further ado, here you have...my little pig-tailed gal and her Roosty. :O)

Irish Fiddle and Rachel :O)

Rachel has been learning Irish Fiddle recently and I thought y'all might enjoy hearing a little Irish tune called Apples in Winter. *check out the smile at the end of the video* :O)

Delight Thyself in the Lord...

Psalms 37:4 tells us to "Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart." Now you may think it a very simple thing what I'm about to tell you...and honest, I wish I delighted myself in the Lord more often than I do...but the Lord does at times give us the desires of our heart because He's kind and merciful and He likes to give good gifts to His children. The "simple" thing I'm referring to is almost two bushels of apples. :O) That's pretty simple in and of itself. So what's the big deal? Well you may remember back HERE I told you about my poor old beautiful apple tree that just fell over one day. :O( Oh, how I miss that tree!! It's apples were SO good! Anyway, for several weeks now I've been wondering where I can get some apples to make apple butter, apple pie filling, cooked apples, and applesauce to preserve. I've even asked Matt to ask around at work. We never could come up with a source for apples. But this morning as we were doing school, a neighbor called and asked....yep, you guessed it...if I wanted apples!!! He said his tree was almost bent over touching the ground it was so loaded down!! From the moment I got that call, I absolutely positively 100% for sure KNEW that the Lord had just done that on purpose for me. Just for ME!! So, yeah, I guess that few bushels of apples is a simple thing...but not in my book! I am so thankful to get them!! I've thanked the Lord many times already for them and will continue to do so. Just look at 'em!! :O) Tonight the kids helped me peel one bushel of apples and I've made about 10 quarts of cooked apples for the freezer!! (Thank you again, Lord!) :O)
Before I could even get started on those apples, I had to can another run of tomatoes! :O) Didn't want them going bad. I also canned some vegetable soup base this week. Okra, tomatoes, onions, and peppers. That'll be nummy this winter. (Here's a pic of the soup, so just scroll down, Papaw) haha!
The corn is all puckered out now, so Jacob cut the stalks and fed them to the cows. I'm here to tell ya, those were some happy cows. They also got the apple cores!

By the way, isn't this just the sweetest looking heifer you've ever seen? I think she's got the cutest little ol' face. :O) We have never ever never had a white cow before so she just sorta stands out to me.
School is going just great! The kids are learning. I'm learning. That's what I call progress. Can't beat that. Um, let me see...yep, I think that's about all I wanted to post about. So til next time...see ya later! :O)
PS - Joel and Ivy...we're looking forward to seeing y'all next week!!

Tater Digging Day!

Today we spent several hours digging up the potatoes.
It was just Matt, me, and Katie. Rachel wasn't feeling well and Jacob was gone. (I know they were both SO disappointed to miss all the fun. Not!) But ol' Katie Girl put in a good day's work without a grumble. Here in the picture below she was just taking a short break but it wasn't long she was right back at it. :O)
Considering it was fairly dry this season (though not near as dry as last year!) we ended up getting more potatoes than we thought we were going to end up with. The blessing of God, no doubt. :O) Proverbs 10:22 "The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich"
No complaints here...God is good. :O)

School is Back in Session...

We started school this week!! Yay! It's gone really very well. I think the kids were about ready for "routine" again. Haven't even had any trouble waking them up early in the mornings! Well...I won't go that far...let me just say I haven't had any trouble waking up Jacob and Katie. Rachel is my sleepyhead. She walks around with her eyes closed for the first 30 minutes of her day! :O) But she's generally ready to go when it's time to hit the books.

Speaking of school, Jacob's college course, The Principles of Economics I, starts Aug. 25. He's looking forward to it...a bit nervous perhaps, but looking forward to it at the same time. :O) He'll be taking an evening class one night a week. It's a 4 hour class! I hope above all things, that he enjoys it.
Aside from school work, I've still been busy with the garden. I was able to get five more dozen ears of corn worked up and put in the freezer! We have really been blessed with corn this year...especially considering we didn't get a single ear last year!
The tomatoes are coming in now. I've already canned one run of them and I hope to get many more. I also made salsa last week....
And boy, did I make it H-O-T! Yikes! It's a bit hotter than I like it, but it's still quite yummy...
I think I may have put a few too many peppers in it! :O) Speaking of peppers, they're coming in fast now! We've got jalapeno, cayenne, and banana peppers. Here is a picture of some cayenne and jalapeno that I'm drying...
Guess that's about all for now. I'll be posting more updates soon! Tootaloo for now!

Got corn?

We sure do! After Matt left for work today...(hmm, why is it that he always leaves before the real work begins?)...the kids and I went to the garden to "pick a little corn." We ended up with about 20 dozen ears! TWENTY dozen! That's alot of corn!
It was really pretty corn too. See?
Picking was the easy part. Then came the shucking. That was a job, but the kids all worked hard. And you know the old saying....many hands make light work. I love repeating that to them over and over again. :O)
After we got it all shucked...well, not quite all of it....we stopped shucking at 17 dozen and called a neighbor to see if they'd want some. Thank heavens they did, or we'd still be shucking! :O) We brought it all in the house...washed it...silked it...and got it ready to freeze. What a job! But what a blessing to have it all put up for the winter!! Thanks to my hard-working youngens, we got it done in a pretty timely manner too. God bless their little pea-picking, um, I mean "corn-picking" hearts. :O) I still have a little bit to put up, but I'll finish that tomorrow. We gave the corn shucks to the cows, and they always love getting those...
Just how much do they like eating corn shucks? Enough that this little Jersey calf was not about to miss out on eating his fair share. Look closely and you'll notice he had jumped up into the trough and was standing right smack dab in the middle of it! Those big heifers weren't gonna bully him out of his portion! No way!
We've got alot of tomatoes coming in now too, so tomorrow I'll start making and canning salsa. A little later I'll start canning tomatoes. We use tons of those during the winter for soups and chili and spaghetti.
Now that I've got the kitchen all cleaned up (ugh, what a sticky mess all over the counter, the stove, and the floor!) and the floors all mopped, I'm going to go make some homemade chocolate syrup so the kids (and Matt) can have chocolate milk next week. :O) And to think that some people (I won't mention you by name, PAPAW) actually accuse me of laying around on the couch all day! Can you imagine? :O)
By the way, we're on the countdown....five more days til school starts back!