fruit canning

It's been a busy few weeks with our fruit all coming off about the same time. I've made jams and preserves mainly and it takes some time to do all the fruit we have had this year. But it is beginning to wind down now. We mainly have a few figs coming off...most have come off...and then the muscadine grapes are at their peak now. But here are a few shots of some of the things I've made.

These are my pear preserves. I cook my pear and fig preserves in my crock pots. I have 2 large and 3 small pots and kept all going while making this. Sonny helps alot. I peel the fruit and he cuts it up. I also make apple sauce in my crock pots but with very little sugar. 

Now I'm working on muscadines. It is a little more complex. I first cook them down some on the stove and mash with a potato masher and then strain. 

My plum& peach jams and my muscadine and apple jellies I make using Sure-Jel and follow the cooked recipe in the box. 

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Lately I've been getting up early to watch the sun rise. It has been so hot and humid to be outside later in the day but today is supposed to be the last real heat day.

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I've mentioned before about our 3 grown sons. All 3 started their careers in working on off-shore drilling ships. The middle son is the only one who has continued with the same company. The oldest son was laid off a few years ago with a good severance package which he used to purchase his own semi-truck. He is leased to a company called Oakley and hauls a hopper bottom which mainly hauls grain or gravel ...things loose.

The youngest son also lost his job and went to work at a place that makes airplane and jet parts. He was laid off there with major cutbacks and just this year went to work on a supply ship that supplies to drilling ships and platforms. He finally got his permanent ship. It is really like a tug boat and they are usually small compared to the drilling ships. This one has about  a 12-16 crew where some only have about 6...compared to a drilling ship with hundreds of workers. His ship is called the Timbalier Island.

There is a cute story he shared when he got home this hitch and thought you all might enjoy it. This is in his wife's words...

Last week Sean's boat was in port fourchon(?) getting supplies to take out to a rig in the Gulf. They traveled the 120 miles or so out & start unloading. Sean hears something & tells the guys he thinks he heard a meow. Looks under a load of boxes on a forklift & sees one little eye. They coax this baby out!
So when they get anchored out they are there a week or more & now they have this teeny-tiny kitten that has a messed up eye! On a ship in the middle of the Gulf! The crew took care of her & gave her milk & tuna fish & doctored her eye.
They named the kitty "Tim" after the ship they were on. ❤ SHE got to live on the Timbalier for a week ❤
Yesterday when they came back in, one of the crew took her to stay with a lady & in two weeks one of Sean's shipmates will pick her up for her forever home!
How sweet is this story?! How could he not share??

(my favorite part might be that she is going home with another guy because I am pretty sure my house is at max capacity for animals....)

The update is Tim kitten is doing great and eye is healing. They had talked about getting her an eyepatch and call her the Pirate kitty but we are all so happy she has a home. What my daughter in law said about animals is right. They only have 4 dogs and 1 cat. But she is so like me in wanting to save all the homeless animals she sees. Bad thing is my son is the same so was surprised they didn't bring it home. 

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Now I have to show our baby Kinzey...she is settling more and more and will be 2years old this October.

She is not getting up at night to follow us to the bathroom as often but she does wake me every morning at 5 as she knows now that is my time to get up. She does get restless when there are storms but not as bad as some pets.

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Our cantaloupe plants in our front planters are beginning to die now. Two rotted before I could pick and finally got one to eat. They are miniature size but so tasty.

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Well that's all folks..

Twice in One Week

I am not usually online but about 2 times a week. I check emails from my phone but that is about it but I had taken quite a few photos lately and just wanted to get them posted. 

An update on my iris bed.....we are downsizing it drastically. It was just too hard to keep the weeds at bay especially the grass so it will now be about 1/3 the size it was. Here is the new start to the bed. 

It may even by 1/4th the size it was. I'm wanting some antique roses but have always had trouble growing them except a rugosa rose that took over one time and had to finally remove it. But I'm wanting some beige and pink colored roses. I'm also wanting peonies as well. The bulbs are expensive so not sure that will happen. 

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You know my love of weird things...especially spider webs and toadstools. Well found this toadstool by our driveway. Looks like someone took a swatch off the top.

We have to really keep cutting back our muscadine grapes. They have had a hair cut and are loaded with fruit.

We used to have 5 producing vines but they were too much too handle for us in our aging. So we are down to 2. This is what they do about spreading. These are the roots that drop down from the vines. In their natural habitat they can take over trees and strangle them.

We have some ground cover that came up voluntarily and have no idea what it is..it looks a little like tiny tiny bamboo, but doesn't grow up like bamboo.

It might be good for a terrarium. 

Well that's all folks...and as always...

Smile!!!

Been a slower week. I'm in the process right now of making crockpot apple sauce. Our fruit this year has been awful so like the peaches, I'm having to cut around the bad spots and salvage what I can. Our granny Smith apples have been dropping and they aren't near ripe enough but good enough for apple sauce. We didn't have apples last year so haven't had any homemade apple sauce in several months now.

I did manage to make it around the place to take some photos. Our clematis have bloomed all summer. These white ones are the last of the blooms.

I know I'm probably supposed to deadhead them as they finish blooming but I just can't. They leave behind the cutest whirls so I leave them for just the fun designs they make.

I think I may need to remove the back of my pink commode planter.  Water got into it last winter and it cracked it. 

It's the middle one and you can't really see the back but it is completely broken out. The green in front is an old wheelbarrow. The green stuff is a type of succulent moss and the last commode has creeping Jenny which is now covering the ground everywhere around them.

Our cantaloupe vines have 5 baby cantaloupes and are taking over the place.

Even up my metal garden pointing hand. 

Our yard dogs are really getting old now....think maybe about 13 years old. They were rescue dogs. Lulu is in front and Freddy behind.

And of course our house dog .....think there must be something backwards about our yard and house dogs. Shouldn't the big dog stay outside????

Kinzey has gotten about as big as she is going to get but at 80lbs she is almost too big for us to handle. She does well at following some commands but is so hyper that she forgets the main one of jumping up on us. She has knocked me down a couple of times. She doesn't realize her strength and just bulldozes you down. But she can do "come", "sit", "lay down" and does well on her halter leash. 

My "Naked Lady" lilies have been blooming though not as spectacular as usual. 

The week I made peach jam, Sonny processed some pork and venison into sausage.

It is so much healthier with very little grease. And he doesn't over spice it. 

I also have made a great no bake peanut butter pie. I took to pot luck at church and there wasn't a crumb left.

It is fairly easy to make and since I don't use recipe amounts it is hard to explain how it is made. But basically it is a box of instant vanilla pudding, 4oz. of cream cheese (half a bar) or more and 1 cup milk beaten together and then beat in about 3/4c. peanut butter. We like chunky style. Once that is all beaten, I had about a half small container of cool whip topping. I pour all that into a graham cracker pie shell and then squirt Hersheys chocolate syrup over the top and then top with other half of cool whip topping. Put in refrigerator to set up. Sonny is crazy about them and no heating the house up with the oven. 

Well that's all folks...and as always....

Been busy as usual

It has been fruit season here and still will continue. I spent several days making jam. Peach, plum and even fig. 

I've also organized and cleaned our laundry room. Our largest chest freezer would not shut and found out the seal in the lid had come loose and ice had built up in the insulation. Got that that fixed and freezer cleaned so it has been a good few weeks. Sonny finished pressure washing around the house and storage buildings and has cleaned up the yard. 

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In sewing, I took a couple of  old jeans and made some book bags.

I used the remaining parts of the jeans and a piece of fleece I had left over from a baby quilt and made a small bath rug.

I am steadily working on redwork embroidery.

My next project is a request made by oldest granddaughter. 

I'll have to buy some denim and then hopefully find some old jean pockets somewhere.

Speaking of oldest granddaughter....she and her boyfriend finally made a decision on the wedding venue. 

Here is the link....

The Barn at Lost Creek

It is a gorgeous place and is between where we live and Hot Springs so less than 50 miles. I have printed her a wedding planner I found online. Her mom is getting a ring binder and will decorate the cover.

We are all excited but still a year and 2 months off. 

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Our youngest granddaughter got a new puppy ...her name is Bella and she is a Cockapoo.

And as always....

Busy busy busy 2 weeks

It has been a very busy 2 weeks. I had cataract surgery in the other eye a week ago and then the rest of the week was crazy busy. Put up tomatoes and made peach jam.

I was so blessed with the Daughter-in-Love Jackie bringing me not one box but 2 big boxes of tomatoes from the tomato farm down south. These are Arkansas pink tomatoes. They are not near as acidic as most. 

I managed to put up 43 pints of salsa and even saved a few to eat. 

This has been an awful year for gardening of any kind...just too wet and cool. Our tomatoes have not done well at all. We will get a few to eat along the way but not much to put up.

As for the peaches and plums. I did put down 3 gallons of pulp of plums to later make into jam. Three of our peach trees were stripped by the squirrels so we declared war on them. We managed to get enough off another tree to make about 19 pints of peach jam. The other 2 trees are late ripening and now they seem to be rotting on the tree. Hopefully I can get enough to make 36 more pints. This was to be my Christmas presents this year. 

We have been picking blueberries about every other day and put up about 10 quarts in the freezer. 

We will hopefully have apples and pears. One of the pears has been dying off some as well so not sure what is going on. It was supposed to be an Asian pear which is blight resistant  but it looks more like a Bradley which is bad to get blight. Our Arkansas black apple tree is strange as well. It has very few leaves but it does have fruit..we will see. 

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Another 2 baby quilt linework tops.

These 2 are blue puppies.

I have 2 more finished sets in the embroidery but haven't put them together into tops. I'm also still working on the wedding ring quilt top and the sunflower quilt top. These 2 will go to the long-arm quilt shop to be quilted. 

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I have been gathering things for my Daugher-in-Love's yard sale and came across a bin filled with old hand dyed chenille bedspreads. I plan to use them for the baby quilt backings. 

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I have a few old photos I have wanted to share. This first one is a picture of Sonny's grandparents old home place in the delta area. They were rice farmers. 

The house is long gone but the trees still stand. 

This next picture is of what is called the "Hog Trail". The University of Arkansas's mascot is a Razorback. It was also my high school mascot and so there is a road in north west Arkansas that is named this.

It is not a real easy drive but fun if you take your time. 

And then there is a place in north Arkansas called Hawks bill crag. My sister is wanting her ashes dropped here when she dies. I told her she would have to get someone else to do it as I don't plan to attempt it myself. In fact a woman did fall off here last year to her death. 

And last this is the Little Missouri falls. The Little Missouri River heads up near where I live and these are some low water falls near us. It is fun to play in them but they really aren't big at all. Just a fun place to visit.

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And as always....