• Friday, March 14, 2008 - Canning Season's Coming. . .
and I'm getting ready! I have about 20 dozen flats left that I bought at the local Mennonite bulk food store last summer. Last month, I took the advice of several of you ladies here at HSB and started canning my own beans instead of buying them. We eat lots of black and red beans, and twice I've bought just enough beans to can about 12 pints. So, in preparation for the REAL canning season, I'm going to get the bean canning out of the way now! I'll be visiting the bulk food store next week, and buying enough beans to can to hopefully last us through the summer. I don't know about anyone else, but there is always a point in the summer when I say "I DON'T CARE IF I NEVER CAN AGAIN!" It's usually somewhere around the 115th quart of tomato product, when I'm tired of cutting tomatoes, tired of washing out jars, tired of running up and down the steps to the basement (I have to go outside, to the back of the house to get to the steps!), and just plain tired. Then, I take a break, think about how nice it will be to have a stocked pantry, and not have to eat store-bought, and get back to work. I know, though, that if I run out of beans in the middle of tomato season, the last thing I will feel like doing is adding bean canning to the already packed schedule. Therefore, I am going to get it out of the way now!
Enough about beans- I'm trying to find someone to shear my goats for me, and it's amazingly difficult! One of the ladies in our homeschool group has sheep and lamas that she has sheared, and the guy who does her shearing comes from almost four hours away, in the middle of Missouri! I didn't realize it would be so difficult to find someone. Last fall, I only had one goat to shear, and I sheared him myself with heavy duty scissors. I have five that need sheared now, and would really like to have a professional do it. I have been offered the use of clippers by our friends who show sheep, so I could do it myself. We'll see what happens, I guess!
I let the kids each pick out one packet of flower seeds when we went shopping Wednesday. We ended up with sunflowers, violas, and nasturtiums. My 6 yo, without my knowledge, went right outside and planted hers when we got home! I didn't realize it until Thursday morning, when I couldn't find her seed packet, and she informed me that they were already planted in the flower bed. She put a few in a pot, she said, but there wasn't enough room for them all, so then she picked a spot in the flower bed! I explained to her that it's still too cool for planting those types of seeds; that if they do grow, and then we have a frost, they will all die. She didn't take it very well. My husband is also getting antsy to start planting- he wants to go buy everything at our favorite greenhouse this weekend! I'd prefer to wait on the plants until we're ready to put them in the soil- it's just more work for me trying to keep them alive, what with the kids, the animals, and the lack of storage space! We are planning to bring in the plant nursery that my FIL built us several years ago. It has three shelves, with grow lights. Then, early next week, we'll plant our seeds that need to be started in the house.
I also need to get the freezer cleaned out, as we bought a half a beef that should be ready early in the week. I always put a lot of sweet corn in the freezer, still on the cob and unhusked. It takes up a lot of space, so we're eating it up this week to make room for the meat!
We also finally got the dining room painted- a beautiful yellow color. I say we, but my dh actually did all the work! Then, he looked around and suggested that we move the living room into the dining room, and vice versa. So, we moved furniture all day on Tuesday, and I've been spending the rest of the week just trying to get things organized I'll post pictures later, when I've gotten them downloaded from the camera.
Have a blessed weekend!
Sara |
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• Friday, March 14, 2008 - sharing
You sure have your hands full, and I'm quite envious! (But not so much that I wouldn't love a followup on your progress and pictures of your 'beautiful yellow' room, too).
I'm a fairly regular 'lurker' here on HB, and the life events mixed with the homestead happenings here are a real inspiration to me! (I have 10 acres and no time or money to do anything with it --yet!)
-Illoura