I have countertops!

I have the day off so I put the canning stuff away.

I keep it in the basement when not in use, but from mid June (strawberry jam season) through mid October HERE IT SITS! My kitchen isn't tiny but it isn't huge either.

I like canning but i'm loving the wide open space.

With my new job, i didn't can as much as i usually do. The cool summer didn't help out the veggie growing either but we did eat a lot of fresh which is my main reason for gardening anyway.

I had an abundance of jalapenos so I made jalapeno jam. Mixed with cream cheese it makes an incredible cracker dip. Sweet with heat. mmm...

I'm still loving the job. I havent had to resort to fast food yet since the crock pot is now my new best friend in the kitchen. My kids have been helping out as well.

Another perk of the job, I missed that whole balloon boy crap and didn't find out about it until it was declared a hoax. So there's that.

My girl made this yummy frosted brownie the other night.

Its all gone now so I cant share. I'd say sorry but that would be a lie.

It was good.

Meet my salad

I don't think I will ever tire of going to the garden, picking what is ready and sharing with my family.

This salad had various lettuces, cabbage leaves, beet greens, nasturtium leaves and flowers (very peppery), lightly steamed then chilled asparagus and a hard boiled egg my hens gifted me.

This bowl didn't last long.

I hate cleaning...

...but i like clean.

This is the best my kitchen has looked in a long time. No more canning equipment, I even put the dehydrator away! The picture doesn't show the cleaned and organized junk drawer and the nicely stacked pots and pans cabinet.

We are also a family who believes if there is room on the fridge, grab a magnet and stick it on!

We even have more magnets on the garage door and more space to fill.

The magnets wont stick to the freezer, we've tried.

My dad just got a deer during muzzle loading season and gave us half, he had venison left over from last year. I ground quite a bit of meat, marinated roasts for the freezer and even had liver for dinner last night. Between the chickens, venison, 1/2 hog, fruits and veggies, our freezer is packed full.

I got my kitchen aid mixer about 10 years ago from a garage sale, new in the box. My MIL likes to give me a gift each birthday, so quite a few years back I asked for a meat grinder attachment.
I'm that kind of girl.

This is me, almost ready for winter.

Free furniture and sticker shock

It has been well documented on this blog that I don't like to spend much on my furniture. It started out that we just couldn't afford much, I stopped working to be home with my babies and really couldn't afford much, now it is just an ingrained habit and over the years we have been gifted with hand me downs, found one of a kinds at garage sales and the oh so delightful curbside treasures. There hasn't been an interesting looking trash pile that I haven't at least slowed a bit for.

Well a few years back, my sister and I were driving home from our carpool grocery shopping and I saw this beauty, yelled "dibs", hit the breaks and loaded it up.

I scored our little battery TV at that same stop!

Well over the weekend my hubbie and I decided a good house cleaning was in order. Yes he cleans AND is good looking.

I liked our old table, it was a hand me down from the 70's that had 3 leaves to add and made it huge. We got 12 at a time at that baby. The problem was even with the leaves out, we all had a bad habit of leaving paperwork and junk mail on it. The four of us each had a corner stacked with clutter. We moved the monster table to the basement for crafts and sewing, hubbie cleaned up the "new" table, power washed all the rugs, while I did the nitty gritty and de-cluttered.

Check out the corners, no clutter!

A bonus: my dad and stepmom were getting rid of this little red cart that matched perfectly, same Formica top. Swishy (aka Jaws) the science project fish from back in the 5th grade loves his new location.

So now I have this funky vintage table with a hodgepodge of chairs that are also found treasures that I re-covered that don't go with it at all. So I went on-line to find some new retro type chairs and guess what, they want a lot of money for new chairs from the store. Who knew?

The good news is I have clean, less cluttered home and I get to search for new curbside chairs!

My girl had the camera again and lookie what I discovered, a cute fuzzy Guinea Pig tooshie.

This mornings temp was 39 degrees, YUCK!

Thrifty Thursday and more

I haven't hit many Garage sales this season, trying to keep more of my $ and less stuff from coming in the house. My sister and I got a hot tip about a sale not far from me that had great prices on clothes. We loaded up in her car and took off.

Yep, It was true.

We got 4 shirts, a pair of jeans and black orchestra shoes for the girl, a t-shirt for the boy, 2 wide mouth pint canning jars, a lambswool sweater that i may felt and use for projects, a fleece vest for my chilly morning bike rides,

2 shirts for me,

a brand spanking new pair of shoes.

This is them on the way to the mailbox.

And last but not least, another set of tacky lights for the Christmas Tree.

All for the grand total of $8.75. Woo hoo!

Speaking of thrifty, we have been eating leftovers from our staycation but last night we were down to one chicken thigh and one sausage. How do I make it stretch for a family of four?

Pizza of course. Tomato & Sausage and Chicken BBQ.

In other news...

I caught something new in the trap.

I forgot to release the trap from last night, I had to get my boy up and out early for High School Orientation. Yes I said High School, how did that happen? Any way...

He was actually quite calm about the whole thing.

When I went to the store last Friday they were all out of bottled lemon juice, today no lemon juice. Now I don't want to start a panic but the helpful man at the store said there was a bad lemon crop and they hadn't received lemon juice in over a month.

Ok, I need lemon juice for some jams, pies, that delish glaze on my blueberry coffee cake, tomato sauce for canning, not to mention lemon bars. What's a gal to do? I went to the frozen juice section, scrounged the bottom shelf, way in the back and found these overpriced boxed mini bottles. Did I want to spend $14 on 7 bottles of lemon juice today, no, but I don't know how long the shortage will be so i stocked up.

I'd like to introduce you to Whiffy the Skunk Dog.

Our pup has been camping all week in the tent with the kids. Last night he let himself out of the tent for a romp with a Skunk.

I have the anti skunk smelling gene (one of the few things I remember from Human Biology) and I passed it on to the kids, but we can smell him well enough and plan on bathing him later.

He is a very smart pup but I believe he does things like this to keep me humble.

Home sweet Home

I have been so happy to be home this week.

I have only ran to town once to get scratch grains and to drop off library items.

I made salsa out of my 2nd and 3rd ripe tomatoes, 1 onion, 1 green pepper, and 1 jalapeno all from the garden. The salt, sugar and cider vinegar came from the store.

Blueberry coffee cake from the Betty Crocker Cookbook. The lemon glaze is delish.





We are getting ready for our Stay cation this weekend.
Like how mother and son are dressed up in their Pj pants?



Old Scout needed a good scrubbing.

"Do you have any Chicken News?"

"Why yes Freckles I do and thanks for asking."

Dot is wearing a French Beret.

The Dark Cornish have been out playing.

"Look at me Mom. Watch what I can do."

Wheeeee!

This breed looks prehistoric.

Ok, she looks cute.

Hamburg, our Silver Spangled Hamburg (free exotic) has been crowing quite a bit. He likes running around on those blue legs of his.

I am actually cleaning my house and I am caught up on laundry. Tomorrow I tackle the inside of the camper. I love being home.

My Turn

The kids had a snow day Wednesday, a half day Thursday, no school Friday, so when I do get a chance at the computer it keeps saying server error try back in 30 seconds, FOR HALF OF THE DAY! I tried to leave a comment on my Wednesday post and it wouldn't let me. So we'll just see if this works.

We've been.....

.....playing Webkinz and found out my girls Birthday is the same day as fruit cocktail day, or as she used to call it, fruit cottontail .......
....found a face in this potato. Had to take his picture before I sliced him up and he was part of.....

.....some mushroom and barley soup.....

....had to use the toaster oven to make cheddar biscuits because the bottom heating element went out in the oven. I was wondering why stuff was taking longer to bake....

.....Friday I got a wild sewing hair, which is good right before a show...

....made 3 totes, 2 small bags, 5 tissue packs....

...and made this quilted bag. I love those banana seat bikes!

So how was the dog filling his time?

I know what he's thinking...

Yep.

Who me?

Lucky we missed the big storm that hit Ohio but we got the winds and drifting snow.

Is this the "In like a lion part"? I want the lamb.

B & B

Bread and Bags

I made more bread. I get this natural high after eating warm

bread with butter. I'm chubby but happy.

I got 2 boy scout shirts at a church rummage sale.

Three new bags.

I made one from the smaller shirt.

Two from the bigger shirt.

I made this little bridal purse last night from a pillowcase.