Monday, October 13, 2008 - Brianna at the Symphony!!!
Posted by safords
Brianna's performance of Spring from Vivaldi was beautiful! She was quite happy with her performance, even the "lightening" part went pretty well. Her dad wasn't breathing there for a bit... I think he was more nervous than she was!! It was a great experience for her, but I think we are all glad we are done with it. I can only say the Lord has blessed this daughter of ours with talent and drive. She isn't afraid to work hard and she is so faithful. We thank the Him that she was able to play her piece so well.
I had such a struggle to get good pictures. I have a lot of blurry shots because when she plays she moves!
We took the opportunity to have our family picture taken while everyone was dressed up and we had Uncle Bob around to take the picture.
Sunday, October 12, 2008 - Vanessa's 15th Birthday and Her Symphony Performance
Posted by safords
Vanessa is 15 years old today and today was the big symphony concert!!!! Vanessa did a wonderful performance of her harp concerto. We are very proud parents of a beautiful, accomplished young lady.
My favorite picture.
Steve's favorite picture.
Here are some of the girl's friends who attended the concert to hear them. There were a lot of people who came to encourage the girls. Unfortunately I took this picture a little late and Dakota, Emily, Shiana and Sam had already left for home. However, it's a fun picture.... dear cousin Isaac is enjoying being front and center with the girls :-) We were blessed with Uncle Bob and Auntie Joy's visit this Thanksgiving weekend. It was nice of them to come and see the girls play with the symphony and see us off to Africa.
I am home from vacation.. have been for a few days now and just getting life up and running again. Hubby and I had a great time! We flew south to get some of the last rays of sunshine and heat before we burrow in for the winter months. We spent a lot of time pool side and out and about in the sun . When our time was up we felt ready to come home and enjoy kids and family and look ahead to school time, holidays and a few projects that need to get done.
I spent a good portion of my afternoon packing orders. I said orders would go out tomorrow but did not realize until I got back home that tomorrow is a holiday. So if you ordered from me while I was on vacation your order will go out on Tuesday.
Is it looking and feeling like fall on your homestead? It is on mine! On the last day of my vacation I left a 90 degree day and a couple hours later landed in the cool, damp, and cloudy Pacific Northwest.. I knew I was home! LOL.. and I knew fall had really started. The last couple of days have been cold at night.. almost 35 one night but warming up into the low to mid 60’s and sunny during the day. And there is that familiar October nip in the air.
In the Home: I am currently working on refining my home organization notebook. I am working on the chores. I wrote a master list of all chores and now plan to put together a page for each day of the week showing what jobs need to be done for that day. Our school days take up a good portion of our day so it is nice to have to put a lot of thought into the house work that needs to be done each day. I won’t be trying to remember the last time the stairway was washed or the laundry room floor was mopped. What time is not spent doing school work and chores it is spent cooking and baking! .. and of course I have my little business to keep making products for. Nice to see and experience the blessings of children that know how to help around the house!
On Budgets: Is everyone enjoying the drop in gas prices?? I know we are. Has anyone seen it go below $3.00 a gallon? A couple days ago I was in town and I saw it at $3.19. Who would have thought I would get so excited about paying $3.19 a gallon for gas! LOL..
Well I have a busy week ahead and I will be back blogging and sharing about it as the week goes by. For now I am happy to be and back to my little homestead and preparing for winter.
I made this recipe (doubled) yesterday. It's wonderful! I'm making another double batch today, as a matter of fact.
Spiced Plum Butter 4 lbs plums, quartered 1/4 tsp ground ginger 1/4 tsp ground allspice 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg 1/8 tsp ground cloves 1 c sugar 3/4 c orange juice Combine juice & plums In a large saucepan or Dutch oven. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, & let simmer 30 minutes or until tender. Place plum mixture in a mixer or food processor/blender; process until smooth. Press pureed mixture through a fine sieve over a bowl; discard solids. Combine plum mixture, sugar, & remaining ingredients in pan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, 1 hr or until thick, stirring frequently. Cool. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 2 months.
The weather is getting colder and they are saying a chance of snow this week so son and I went out and did a few things in preparation. We pulled the rest of the garden and got it in the compost piles, which I then turned with the bucket of the tractor and then added more dirt on top. We also mulched the strawberries with shredded paper and compost, so hopefully they'll survive the winter. We cleaned up all the garden tools and got them moved from the partially enclosed area between the garage and garden to the garage and then got the tractor moved in there so it's mostly out of the weather for the winter.
Then we pulled down some of my Papa's wood work from the attic in the garage that I'm going to try to sell at the school's Fall Festival in a few weeks. I'm going to take pictures of each piece and make a photo album to take with me of what I have so that I only need to take a few things as I'll also have my dress towels and my newest projects.....teacup and saucer pincushions. Plus I'll be sharing the tables with my friend who's candle business I help with.
We were going to try to do a few other things today like work on filling in some cracks in the garage with foam insulation, but it's really windy and unfortunately what I did do this morning has made my pain worse, so we are now in the house doing some baking and resting. Tomorrow we have to go to town for a dentist appt as son's teeth are still bothering him from when he got a few fillings and sealants....it's been a month and a half....they shouldn't be bothering him anymore! Then son has school T-F and I'll be working on stuff inside in preparation for the festival and for my surgery. Next weekend is supposed to be back up around 70 so we should be able to finish any outside projects that are left. At least the ones we can do while hubby is gone.
I'll leave you with a picture of my Papa's stuff, a dress towel and a pincushion. Have a wonderful evening and God Bless!
Saturday, October 11, 2008 - Saturday in the kitchen...
Posted by SimpleFolk
I like to have things in the freezer for breakfast or lunch on busy days, so I make my own "convenience foods," usually on Saturday mornings. I made stacks of pancakes (blueberry, buttermilk and carrot cake) and froze them for quick breakfasts over the next few weeks.
We love to eat buttermilk biscuits and would eat them with every meal! While I do enjoy cutting in the cold butter and working the dough, some mornings just do not allow for it. So today, I made a triple batch of dough, cut it with my biscuit cutter and froze them individually on cookie sheets until firm. From there, I put them into bags. When we want fresh biscuits, I just take out as many as I need and pop in them in the hot oven. I did bake one batch and turned them into sausage biscuits for the freezer.The boys each managed to grab one before they went into the bags. :-)
I thawed seven loaves of bread dough and made stromboli for the freezer as well as olive cheese bread. Since I had some sausage left over, I made gravy to freeze in individual portions. After everything was tucked away in the deep freeze, I decided to go ahead and finish processing the apples into sauce. My youngest was the "taste tester" and reported that the applesauce needed no sugar. He said it tasted so sweet because Betty (the woman who owns the orchard) is sweet and she grows them. (I think he's right!)
As a surprise, I also made come caramel apples for the boys. Youngest Son has a very loose tooth and we're hoping this will do the trick in a sweet way. It's been a very productive day. Though my apron is pretty dusty, my freezer is full, and I enjoyed every minute.
Sunday, October 12, 2008 - The Final Entry of the 2008 Lasagna Garden Experiment
Posted by safords
We had our first frost Friday night. The upper garden looks desolate. Brianna and I picked all the peppers, pimentos and tomatoes, the last of the leeks and onions and eggplant this morning. The lower garden was only lightly touched with frost and there are still huge green tomatoes down there, however there won't be anyone here to pick them, so this is the final blog entry dedicated to the 2008 garden experiment. The pictures aren't so pretty as a few weeks ago, but it's all part of the cycle of a garden.
I am going to have to freeze the peppers quickly today. It shouldn't take too long if everybody pitches in and gets the job done.
This is one huge pepper. It was suppose to be yellow, but it didn't have enough time to finish growing.
This is a picture Brianna took on our Sabbath walk yesterday. The leaves are beautiful. This is where a landslide caused the river to re-route and take over the road. If you look really closely you can sort of see a little of the first snow on the top of the mountain.
Good morning! I hope y'all are all having a blessed day! I haven't posted here in awhile as I've been extremely busy. Along with normal homeschooling and work, I'm now reviewing homeschool products through the TOS Homeschool Crew and I'm also participating in the TOS Marketing Class. So, over the next few months, in addition to my normal homesteading posts, you may be seeing more homeschooling product reviews as I go through them. I must say there are some pretty exciting curriculums out there and I can't wait to share them with you! I know that many of us homesteaders on this site also homeschool, so hopefully these posts will give you some insight into additional curriculums.
On a different note, we're getting ready for winter around here. While I didn't do much canning this summer (at least not as much as last summer), we've already started hunting season (bow season). Hubby shot a buck about a week or so ago and we've already got it canned or breakfast sausage in the freezer. I'd love to get a sausage stuffer for my KitchenAid as I'd love to make sausage links, smoked sausage, etc. Right now we tend to make ground venison for chili, spaghetti, etc. or breakfast sausage. But, I'm not complaining!! I love venison. Oh..we've also got the backstrap and tenderloin all ready to go in the freezer as well.
My fall garden is doing quite nicely as well. The tomatoes are doing better this fall than they did all summer. I think it was just too hot this summer. We had 50+ days of 100° ... talk about hot!
Anyway, I just wanted to give everyone a heads up as to what's going to be coming in the next few months.
Saturday, October 11, 2008 - Crockpot Refried Beans
Posted by Mommaofmany
These are a frequent dish here on the Homestead! They are so tasty and take so little time to prepare!
Crockpot Refried Beans
1 onion, peeled and halved
3 cups dried pintos, sorted and rinsed
1 to 2 jalapenos, seeded and chopped fine
2 Tbsp minced garlic
2 1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/8 tsp cumin powder
9 cups water (you may used up to 4 1/2 cups broth instead of all water, if desired)
3-4 Tbsp bacon grease
Soak beans overnight.
Rinse beans. Combine all ingredients in the crock, stirring to mix. Cook on high for 6-8 hours. When soft, strain, using care to collect the cooking liquid.
Remove beans to a large skillet. Add a few tablespoonfuls of bacon grease and some bean juice reserved from the crock. Fry over medium high heat, mashing with a potato masher till beans are as 'smushy' as you desire. I like to let some whole beans remain. Add more liquid as needed to avoid dried-out nasty beans!
Welcome to our farmette-ette-ette-ette (9000 sq foot city lot). Come on in! I may not stop what I'm doing while you're visiting, but feel free to join in. Mi casa es su casa!
Brianna's performance of Spring from Vivaldi was beautiful! She was quite happy with her performance, even the "lightening" part went pretty well. Her dad wasn't breathing there for a bit... I think he was more nervous than she was!! It was a great experience for her, but I think we are all glad we are done with it. I can only say the Lord has blessed this daughter of ours with talent and drive. She isn't afraid to work hard and she is so faithful. We thank the Him that she was able to play her piece so well.
My favorite picture.
Steve's favorite picture.
We were blessed with Uncle Bob and Auntie Joy's visit this Thanksgiving weekend. It was nice of them to come and see the girls play with the symphony and see us off to Africa.
. When our time was up we felt ready to come home and enjoy kids and family and look ahead to school time, holidays and a few projects that need to get done. 
This is one huge pepper. It was suppose to be yellow, but it didn't have enough time to finish growing.
This is a picture Brianna took on our Sabbath walk yesterday. The leaves are beautiful. This is where a landslide caused the river to re-route and take over the road. If you look really closely you can sort of see a little of the first snow on the top of the mountain.