From the Homesteading Journal . . .

(all the old roofing loaded up by my son and Hubby's brother-in-law)

. . . it took two days, but the leftover roofing was removed, and half of the new roofing was put on. Hubby miscalculated on his measurements and we need to do an exchange for longer roofing. 

. . .we were blessed with enough cucumbers for me to can 7 more pints of bread and butter pickles. I purchased another bushel of corn and stocked that up in the freezer.  I also purchased 5 lbs. of beets, and added 1 pound from our own garden, and canned one batch of spiced beets.  And I purchased local peaches and canned 15 - 1/2 pints of peach jam. And that's not all.  I purchased 36 hot banana peppers and canned 4 quarts of Hot Pepper Mustard Sauce. I also canned 5 - 1/2 pints of Ruby-Red Grapefruit Jelly (another new recipe I wanted to try).

Pepper Mustard Sauce

36 banana peppers, ground (hot or mild)

6 c. sugar

1 qt. mustard

1 qt. white vinegar

Bring to a boil.

Mix together:  

1 1/2 c. flour

1 1/4 c. water

1 Tbsp. salt

Add flour mixture to pepper mixture using a wire whisk while still boiling.  Boil for 5 minutes, stirring often.  Place in hot quart jars and process 5 minutes. Makes 4 quarts or 8 pints.

Note:  updated 8/18/16 - I weighed my banana peppers this time around, and 36 weighed just about 2 1/2 pounds.  

. . . the last red hen died this week.  She was the last one of the group we started with, and for some reason, they were egg bound often.  So far, we're having good health from the other barred rocks and araucanas.

. . .have been working on more stitched cards for the last Farmer's Market in September.  Our sales are down by 50% this year from last.

. . . planted Nasturtiums around the squash this year, and have only seen about two squash bugs (even though the rain prevented us from bounty, the plants are still there half alive).  I will plant these flowers again next year, just to make sure it's not a fluke, and that they really do keep the bugs away. 

Note: Due to the high amount of blog theft going on (feed scrapers), I have started to put in a page break, followed by "Read more."  They only difference for you as a follower, is you will need to click on it to read the entire post.  Sorry for any inconvenience.