Monthly Archives: October 2015
Galaxy warm wishes ready to go.
Finished and ready to deliver is such a great feeling.
Warm wishes #3 (galaxy)
The quilting is done. The binding is done, but I don’t have enough energy left to apply it. Maybe on Sunday. This is another quilt going to the 4H group to give a person displaced because of the eastern WA fires.
Tomorrow is another wonderful day of rest. It should give me the boost I need to get back some creative juices. Enjoy the day and we’ll meet again on Sunday
Out of steam
Today, I was just out of steam – no preserving foods, no quilting. So, much like twiddling my thumbs, I put together some 4 patches out of scraps. I don’t know yet what they will become, but it was mindless work.
Raincoats
These 4 little raincoats just need little snaps down the front and they are done.
And you must be as tired of canning as I am. Today was 20 pints of split pea soup for DH. Often times, that is all he wants for his third meal. It makes life easier when he can just open a jar and heat the contents.
Retreaded husband and food
This morning as I was heating the canning kettle and the oven, we lost power. It was a blessing, we lost it before I started timing anything. Neither the kettle or the oven were yet warm enough. Somewhere between and hour and 1 1/2 hours later, power was restored and I was able to finish the canning I had scheduled for this morning. So now another 8 pints of carrots and 7 of pear sauce are prepared for winter.
And I baked nearly 4 dozen cookies (1 very ripe banana to one cup of oats/ Opt: whatever chips, dried fruit, nuts you choose) Cookies on the left pan are not yet baked and on the right, have just come out. So you can see that they don’t spread. The grandsons will be happy with just chocolate chips in their cookies. So now these are in the freezer for their next visit.
DH wanted to help me which is usually interesting as it sometimes involves teaching him what I have done for years, without him noticing since he wasn’t home.. I often buy food in bulk, meaning 20 or more pounds to a bag, the contents get transferred to glass jars – some to stay in the cooler place and some to bring to the pantry for use. So today we opened quinoa and rice, which I purchased from last week’s co-op buy) and put them in the glass jars. Plus we brought out for use a jar of oats to replace the oats I used in the cookies and some kibble for the bird. I’m not sure whether it is more of a surprise to him that this has been going on for years, or to me that he has never noticed. We did get the food transferred and put in the kitchen pantry where it is easy to use. I think the freezer is another mystery to him. We eat food, which is taken from it, several times a week, and yet it is nearly always full. He has mentioned more than once, that it is difficult to find items in there as it is always full. For instance, the cookies I baked this morning went in the freezer, but it takes awhile for things one doesn’t usually deal with to register. And I think he is becoming more aware of how “extra” space gets filled.
Carrots!
We wish a Happy Thanksgiving season to all our Canadian friends.
I didn’t know how many pints of carrots I’d get out of 3 bags. But I was expecting more like 30 pints. Today, after the exercise routine, I came home and did carrots, and carrots, and carrots. In fact I have been working with carrots since 10.30 this morning and ended up putting the last batch in the refrigerator to process in the morning. There are 56 quarts and I promised DH that I would do split pea soup tomorrow. I’m beginning to be a stranger to the sewing room. But we will be eating this winter and until the next garden season.
The last 8 pints to fill this box are currently processing. As soon as they are finished, I plan to relax and not think about the other 3 large bags of carrots in the refrigerator. Maybe they can stay there a long time. We do use about a pint a week with potatoes. We put potatoes and carrots in the blender, add seasonings and enough broth to give us the consistency for a gravy, sauce, or soup.
Rain, then sun and some knitting
This is what rain can look like, though rarely does in this area. Usually it is more of a drizzle, but yesterday, the rain gave all it had.
Since the sun was shinning today, we walked, then went to the feed store and purchased another 11 bags of grain (50# each) which should last a long time with just 4 sheep and a few ducks, etc. Before we unloaded it into the garbage cans, we cleaned out the feed room. There is a hot water tank under the counter and it makes the perfect mouse nesting place. nice and warm in the winter. Now that is all cleaned out and there is quite a bit of mouse “candy” in there. I don’t think they’ll eat all of that, but if they do, there is still half a package. Next, we unloaded all the grain into the metal garbage pails and had lunch.
After lunch, we worked awhile pulling out the rest of the vines, such as tomato, cucumber, and melon. We felt we deserved a rest and knitting, so we are taking the rest of the day a bit slower.
TGIF
Another interesting day – but then, most days are interesting. After canning another 5 pints of pears and going to the gym, Mary came over for lunch. Then we opened the Scan-n-Cut. Because neither of us was familiar with the machine, we actually had to read the directions which were given in 7 languages. It was not a case of open and use. We do need to take the lesson on how to operate it. However, we did manage to get this 3.5″ square snowflake cut out of cotton. I probably should put it on something I’ll save, since it is the first thing we managed. We did sign up for the lesson which won’t be until early November.
