Updates from the Homestead

-

 



After what has seemed like a looong, cold and wet winter we finally have had a few spring like days to bask in.  Sunday and Monday were in the 70’s and yesterday was in the 60’s with sunshine!  It has been so nice.  Today is more cloudy and transitioning back to the rain and cooler temps..  but hey…  I am just thankful for the few days we had!   


On Sunday after church my girls and I (including my daughter Hannah and my grandbaby Elizabeth) headed into the city to do some shopping and just be out and about in the warm weather.  We had such a fun day together.  Elizabeth is 6 months old now and growing and growing!   She also is such a good baby and loved all the attention from her grandma and aunts for the day.   


On Monday Tobin and I spent the day in town running errands and enjoying our Starbuck’s coffee stop.  We are probably different than most Starbucks lovers but all we ever order is a “coffee of the day”.  On a very rare occasion I will have one of their drinks and my girls always want me to try which ever one they buy (I do love their Pumpkin Latte in the fall once in awhile),  but I really love my coffee and love their “coffee of the day” with some half and half in it.  After that stop we headed to do some other things and eventually stopped and got a bite to eat.  It was another long but fun day in town.   


Yesterday Tobin took advantage of the nice weather and rototilled the garden!  Seemed like the first time so far that it had actually dried out enough to rototill.  Now I need to get some seeds ordered.  After Tobin was done with that job he and the younger kids worked on the property picking up and raking sticks and the leftovers of winter damage. After all the work was done Tobin took the kids down to our local mom & pop store and let them each pick out their own Haagen-Dazs ice cream as a treat for all their hard work outside. The kids and I made pizza in the evening.. well they did more of it than me!  I helped make the pizza dough and that was about it.  They did the rest.  They were topped with salami, pepperoni, pineapple, mushrooms, olives and onions.  Not real NT but oh well..  sometimes you just have to have some pizza!  LOL..  We all enjoyed pizza and ice cream while we watched a couple more episodes of LOST (we are about half way done with season 4 and will have to TRY and patiently wait for season 5 to come out on DVD!! )… it was a fun family evening.  


Today I have salsa to make, bread dough to get soaking for bread baking tomorrow, orders to pack and some packaging of  products to do and homeschooling.  We are in home stretch with the schooling.  The kids should all be done by next month!!    Leanne has been studying for her last GED test which she should take in the middle of this month.  Emily keeps plugging along with her studies too..  she took and passed her Financial Accounting CLEP and within a couple of weeks now should be enrolled in her first class with Thomas Edison.   


That is all from my homestead..  hope you all are enjoying some nice spring weather in your area! 


 


 


 

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 8, 2009 at 7:29 AM

    Sounds like you've been busy! We have too. Lots of things going on.


    I think we stopped at that store after we left your house last May!


    Erica

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousApril 8, 2009 at 9:25 AM

    You don't have to wait till season 5 comes out on dvd! You can watch full episodes for free at ABC.com!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

All messages are moderated. After approval your message will be posted. Thank you for your comments!! Crystal :)

Popular posts from this blog

Canning Chicken Noodle-less Soup

-
Image
Today was one of those busy days that it seemed I was moving from the time my feet hit the floor until this evening.. But, I got so much done and that is a great feeling! :) One of my accomplishments today was canning 14 jars of chicken noodle-less soup. I call it “noodle-less” because you can’t can noodles. They end up falling apart. So I canned the chicken, veggies and broth. When I go to use the soup I will bring it to a boil and then add a handful of noodles (any type of pasta will work) and cook it until the noodles are done. Because I plan to add the pasta after the fact I wanted to make sure there was enough chicken broth to do this. So I only filled my jars about half to two thirds with chicken and veggies and then filled with chicken broth. Here is how I did this…. I started off with 2 chickens that were a total weight of about 10lbs. I put them in my 14 quart stock pot… I then added 2 gallons of water.. And 3 tablespoons salt.. I brought this ...
Read more

Canning Cabbage

-
Image
I had 4 large heads of cabbage that weighted about 25 pounds. We had some really hot days and I figured I better get the last of them picked soon. My daughter Sierra and I ended up processing 3 of them yesterday and I have one left for a meal on my menu this week. I made pickled cabbage and then canned up the last of the cabbage. Here is the recipe for the pickled cabbage (according to how I made it)… 8 pounds cabbage 1 large onion 1 ½ red peppers 1 lb carrots ¾ cup salt 9 cups water 12 cups white vinegar 10 cups sugar 1t mustard seed 1t celery seed Slice cabbage thinly. Slice onion and peppers. Grate carrots. Mix all veggies together in a very large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and mix in well. Let sit for 2 hours to soften veggies. Rinse veggies well.  In a large stock pot (mine was 14 quarts) combine water, vinegar, sugar, spices. Bring to a boil. Add cabbage/veggies. Bring to a boil. Fill hot pint jars with veggies using a slotted spoon. Fill jar with brine...
Read more

Canning Beef Stew

-
Image
In my last blog post I shared that I had bought 10 pounds of beef roast. I cut it all up and used 4 pounds in 2 crockpot freezer meals ( http://homesteadinghomemaker.blogspot.com/2012/02/two-more-crockpot-meals-for-freezer.html ) . I used the other 6 pounds of meat along with potatoes, carrots, onions and celery to can beef stew. Here were the general proportions I used in canning 7 quarts of beef stew.. 6# beef 2# potatoes 2# carrots 1# onions 1# celery After I cut up the meat and got the freezer meals done I moved to the beef stew. I peeled and cut up the potatoes and carrots. I chopped up the onions and sliced the celery. I pulled out 3 quarts of veggie stock from my freezer to use for liquid in the stew. You can use beef or chicken stock or you can use water. I did not add anything to thicken the liquid as usually thickeners don’t hold up in canning. You can thicken the broth after it is opened if you would like. I added 1 teaspoon salt to each of my ...
Read more