babysteps

Birthday party for a newly 15 year old today. She had three of her close friends over for an old(er) movie marathon... they watched The Court Jester, Labyrinth and White Christmas.

DH and I have been recovering from colds this week so it's been a lot quieter than the week before Christmas would normally be... gotta admit I've enjoyed it! Daughters have been running errands for us and disappearing periodically to do their Christmas shopping. 

Another short cold snap going on, too... nothing like Mt Rider's, obviously, but our low tonight is supposed to be 18* which is considered "Extreme Cold" for our area, plus we have freezing fog going on. DD18 had to have help to get her car door open this morning... it was frozen shut, lol. I'm looking forward to NOT going anywhere tomorrow!

It's a lovely home, Kappy. I really hope in a few weeks this will all be an unpleasant memory and you ladies will be settled in it. 

Mt Rider, we watched some of the meteor shower. Our lows at night this past week have been about 20-25ish -- which I know is nothing compared to yours! -- but that's plenty cold for around here and so none of us were too keen on staying out very long. DH and the older girls stayed out for about 30 min. DD4 and I stayed out long enough for her to see about 5 shooting stars and then bailed for the nice warm fire inside, lol. 

But at least the list is now shorter by one name... 

3 hours ago, Mt_Rider said:

Kappy.....I've heard that blackberry brambles would grow to be impenetrable ....if you wanted to keep your backside covered.  

 

 

 

 

Ahem. Depending on your climate, they absolutely will... but they'll also take over your corner of the planet if you let them. Himalayan or Armenian Blackberry are considered a horribly invasive weed in the PNW because they grow so fast and are so hard to kill. 

So... just... be VERY careful where you plant them! 

What a mess, Kappy! At least you're in the home stretch.

Goat rap! I love it Miki, that's what ours used to sound like, too!! 

Mt Rider... I LOVE that series... I have it on kindle as well as paperback. We have friends and family who live in that area of Washington -- we've been there several times. It makes it feel just a little more real. 

Just little bits of regular life around here. DH is back to work this morning after having 5 days off in a row -- it was so nice! DS came over a couple times to "help" with the Thanksgiving leftovers, lol. DD18 is studying for college finals and stressing over her Writing 121 class, she doesn't think she's going to finish with an A. DD14 is back to her running 4 days a week schedule after taking a week off for the holiday. DDs13 and 11 are back to piano lessons. DD4 learned how to make paper snowflakes this week, so there's bits of paper EVERYWHERE. And I've picked up my knitting projects again... I tend to knit all winter long, and then not touch yarn from April to November. 

Asked my dh to pull out the Christmas decorations for me this morning. And then spent the rest of the day decorating. It feels very Christmas-y in here now. 

Jeepers, I hope you feel better! Migraines are miserable things.

Annarchy, glad you're home, but that is SO WEIRD about your mulch bin. I wonder why someone would do that.

Another year or two, maybe. The idea of these is SO COOL. This coming year we're putting braces on two of our girls and hoping to add a few cows to our little farm, so hopefully that's where our money will be going. In the past three months we've replaced the roof and two of the appliances, so I'm hoping the HOUSE won't need anything else for a while!!

This year my mom's birthday falls on Thanksgiving Day. DH, BIL, and DS have to work that day (first responder family problems), so the girls and I will head down to her place for the day (she's 3 hours south of us).

We're going to my brother's to have Thanksgiving dinner with *my* side of the family on Saturday. And everyone is coming here for Thanksgiving dinner with DH's family on Sunday. 

So I'm taking rolls and sweet potatoes and a pumpkin roll to my brother's place, and I'm making the turkey and mashed potatoes and stuffing for the dinner here. 

Gonna gain twenty pounds this week, but it's one of my favorite holidays. 

I learned last night that two of our nephews, who've been in Texas for the past year, will be here for Thanksgiving!! 

SOOOO Excited!! So I've kicked my goodie making into high gear and have been making cookies and fudge today, because DEAR LORD THOSE BOYS CAN EAT. 

BIL, DH, and I are the only ones who know the boys are coming. It's a surprise for the rest of the family, including MIL. I can't wait. 

My girls are learning, so far this week:

How to build an "H" brace for a new fence line (the 14, 13, and 11 year olds)

How to make beef stew in the pressure cooker (the 14 and 13 year olds)

How to knit a scarf (the 11 year old)

How to back a trailer (the 18 year old)

How to write their name (the 4 year old, lol).

We heard about this a few weeks ago and wondered how they were going to get into everyone's houses! Nope, not a chance. Besides, I'm home most of the time, and when I'm not, the UPS and FedEx guys just set the packages on the porch. They're perfectly safe... something about a big beautiful German Shepherd in the yard seems to make people nervous...  Fortunately the delivery guys know him and he loves them because they bring him cookies. 

This is the road up to our place. It's been a really nice fall so far. (A photographer, I am NOT. It's so much prettier in person.)

I suspect it's not that nobody is interested, but more that those of us who've been homeschooling for a long time (I realized the other day that I have 17 YEARS under my belt. That'll make you go  ) don't have as many questions anymore. I mean, I've graduated two, have one who chose to move to the public high school, and so I only have K, 6th and 8th grade right now. Easy peasy, compared to the years when I had 8th, 5th, 3rd, 2nd, and K all at once. 

But my 4 year old is a lefty. Because she had to be the challenging one.  So *I'm* learning how to teach *her* to write. It's totally different!

14 hours ago, Ambergris said:

Why can't you leave a five-foot stump standing to rot on its own?  I have one of those in the back yard, and it's well out of the way.

It probably depends on the type of tree, and the climate, too, but we've ended up with trees regrowing from their stumps. 

Mostly maple and hawthorn, but I'm sure there are others. 

Ohhhh...

We'll miss you, CGA.

I finished the grapes, so now I'm starting in on cranberries. Cranberry juice is AWESOME, of course, but with Thanksgiving coming up I'm going to work on canning some cranberry sauce/jelly type stuff, too.

And for the first time EVER I'm running low on jars.

Grape juice I was given a wonderful opportunity to glean from a local vineyard. Grapes everywhere! I'm getting them all turned into juice as fast as possible, and then will work on jelly and whatever else I can think of.

Still working my way through the apples. I'm a glutton for punishment so I agreed to take 50 more lbs on Tuesday.

Today I have 14 pints of apple pie jam, 8 pints and 10 half-pints of maple apple jam, and 16 quarts of apple juice on my counter.

Only 2 boxes of apples left!!

Don't forget to make yourself some spiced apple rings (use red hot candies)...they're a treat :-)

 

Oooohh.... do tell. That sounds like a treat I need to know about!

Apples.

I received 200lbs of apples yesterday morning.

So far I have 35 qts of applesauce and 21 of pie filling, and a batch of apple butter cooking down in my crockpot overnight... probably 6 or so pints, so I'll do at least one more batch of that.

I'm only halfway through the apples.

Hey, Babysteps. I haven't seen your posts in a while. Glad you're here!

 

MtRider

Thanks Mt Rider! Yeah, I keep falling into that trap called *life* that keeps me busy, and I think "oh, I'll pop back in tomorrow" and before I know it, tomorrow is six months later...

And then I come back and wonder why on earth it took me so long.

 

 

ps...it also appears that nobody messes with the "blogs" part so why is it taking up space? The "chat" ???

Just as an aside... any of y'all who had a blog at one time or another ought to go back and read your entries, quick-before-they-get-deleted. I got a good giggle, going back and reading mine.

Wow that was a long time ago.

And that source is the National Center for Home Preservation, which is supposed to be THE experts.

The gal who quoted it at me was absolutely insistent that water bath canning salsa was THE ONLY APPROVED way. I really think someone needs to contact the NCFHP and ask them to re-write that particular rule. If one person misunderstands it, you KNOW others will.

Of course, I'm even more of a rebel in her eyes, since I make black bean and corn salsa, and since you can't safely water bath that (I pressure can it, obviously) I'm a HORRIBLE PERSON. The funny thing is, I'm usually the one saying "um, guys, you can't can that" so for someone to say that to me, especially over something that I knew was okay, just really threw me for a loop. Now I'm trying to decide if I should address it again, since on the one hand, she IS putting out inaccurate info, but on the other hand, she's also erring on the side of uber-safety (because if it's a recipe that can't be safely water-bathed, she insists it's unsafe, period). I don't really want to be the "SEE??? YOU'RE WRONG" person, lol.

THANK you!!

To clarify, the conversation was taking place on a facebook page, but that rule that I quoted is directly from the National Center for Home Preservation. Which is why the facebook poster insisted that pressure canning salsa is not allowed. Which is why I was all ...huh???

And this:

 

 

To me it reads as though that site doesn't say you can't pressure can salsa but that they don't offer up the directions.

is exactly what I said when I first read the NCFHP guidelines, but the gal who posted it was absolutely insistent that it meant that pressure canning salsa is not approved. Because they don't give canning times for it, so it's impossible to do.

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who reads it that way, though. I didn't argue it out on FB (not worth it) but I did want to take it here to double check... if ANYONE knows what absolutely can and cannot be canned, it's the folks here!

So I'm now thoroughly confused...

A question came up on a food preserver's facebook page about canning salsas, what's approved and what isn't. And someone pointed out that pressure canning salsa is NOT approved -- at all -- under current guidelines.

I'm floored. I mean, there are zillions of non-approved and unsafe **water bath** recipes out there, obviously... but why would a recipe containing, say, tomatoes, peppers, onions, and vinegar be okay for water bath but NOT pressure canning??

The rule in question, from the National Center for Home Preservation:

4. At this time, we can only recommend tested recipes as safe for boiling water canning, and we ourselves do not offer a pressure-canning process for a low-acid salsa. There is a Mexican tomato sauce that is less acid and pressure canned only, but it is not a chunky salsa; it is more sauce-like. http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_salsa/mexican_tomato_sauce.html.
The rest of our recipes noted as salsas have enough acid in them to make them safe from botulism when canned at boiling water temperatures only.

 

http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/nchfp/factsheets/salsa.html

I thought I had a good grasp on all the rules with canning, and now this. LOL. I read it originally and was sure it just meant not to experiment with water bath recipes, and pressure canning was fine... but every time I re-read it I second guess myself a little more.

Help?