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babysteps

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Everything posted by babysteps

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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).
  4. 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.
  5. 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.)
  6. 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!
  7. 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.
  8. Ohhhh... We'll miss you, CGA.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. 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!!
  12. Oooohh.... do tell. That sounds like a treat I need to know about!
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. 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.
  16. 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.
  17. 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: 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!
  18. 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: 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?
  19. I think it's the current issue of Mother Earth News that has an article about canning... and starts off by telling about some family who experienced a power outage and used their "All American Pressure **COOKER**" to can up the meat from their freezer... Sigh... ETA: and does anyone know why my font is so danged tiny all of a sudden? I've changed it to larger font three times and it won't stay!
  20. Our fair was last week. I spend all day at it, too, but for a different reason... my kids show livestock each year. So we're there several days before the fair opens. They did well, and had a great time as usual. I had a harder time of it than I normally do... something about being 8 1/2 months pregnant makes it hard to pull 18 hour days on your feet for a week... Next year I'll be juggling 3 kids showing, an 8 year old, and an 11 month old. Not *quite* sure how I'll do that, yet... but I'm sure I'll figure it out!
  21. I read about this guy a couple days ago and just shuddered all the way through the article. It just floors me how many people there are that still think you just have to cook it long enough to get the JAR to seal. Or that if you boil it long enough it'll be fine, like the green beans for 3+ hours. A friend of mine did that a few years ago and to the best of my knowledge, didn't toss any of them either despite my horror and pleading with her to get rid of the whole batch. Her mother in law had always done it like that and so by golly it was a perfectly safe thing to do. Sigh.
  22. Blueberries now. Juice, jam, etc. And blackberries are following hard on their heels... they should be ready this weekend. I do love summer, even though I can't do much this year!!
  23. Raspberry jam and raspberry juice. I have three different jelly bags dripping in my kitchen at the moment... one of the little teeny store bought ones and two that I made a few years ago. My homemade ones hold a LOT of fruit, which is SOOOOO much nicer than the itty bitty ones you get at the store. But I had just a teeny bit more than they could hold this time. I still have 5lbs of raspberries on my counter. Hmmm.
  24. I dehydrated a batch of raspberries the other day and... wow. Those buggers are TART!! A couple of my kiddos liked them, but most of us were kinda "eh" about them. Any suggestions? or do they just turn out like this? My hubby thinks they'll be good on cereal, at least. lol.
  25. Accckkk!!! So I wasn't expecting today to go *quite* like it did... sorry it's taken all day to update! DS was scheduled to have "minor" surgery this morning. It ended up being more extensive than the doctor expected AND his recovery has been rough so far. Each time they've tried to get him up walking around a bit, he's passed out or thrown up... not a good thing when you've just had abdominal surgery! He was supposed to go home by 2 this afternoon, now he's staying at least overnight and they're iffy on him going home tomorrow, either. So I spent the day at the hospital with him instead of being home with time to update! At any rate, things have been going fairly well for the past couple of years. Just general busy life, nothing really of note. God keeps pouring out blessings on us even though we certainly don't deserve it! Glad to see you all again, I've missed it here.
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