Labor Day Events ~ Rain

 We had a very busy Labor Day weekend.  We had invitations for 3 birthday parties and a cook out.  Golly, all we wanted to do on Monday was get our kitchen and front porch in order.  I have to admit, it was nice getting up this morning to a tidy kitchen.  Although I still have tomatoes on the table.

I had to start bringing in the tomatoes to ripen on the table.  They were splitting outside on the vines.  Crazy weather this year.

I'm not the only one cleaning house.  Daughter E dropped off two boxes of yarn.  Her best friend's mother was also cleaning house, and had 5 people move back in, so she sent her yarn my way.  I will need to sort it, but it's out of the kitchen now.

However, there are tomatoes in my living room too. No kidding.  Like I said, the rain/soil situation this year was causing them to split if we left them ripen on the vine.

Before the rain arrived, I was able to fall plant 80 cloves of music garlic.  It's been raining here ever since, and woke up to more rain.

I'm frantically working on the tomatoes, pulling the garden for the year, and now clearing the living room to at least get that floor fixed before winter.  The only problem is that money doesn't stretch very far anymore.  Supplies are an issue, but I will be packing up the living room to prepare.  It is a must-do repair.

Granny J, I think I wrote your email down wrong.  Well first, I got confused and emailed another person (crazy busy weekend), and then my computer said I had the email incorrect.  If you are reading this ....I apologize, I wrote it down wrong.

Rain moving in.....

 

Well, here we are to the weekend.  The one and only perfect holiday weekend day to take the motorcycle out, and my husband left at 4am.

I have tomatoes to deal with, so that is happening after I down a pot of coffee and figure out a breakfast with minimal cooking.

I put up 22 1/2# of tomatoes yesterday, but here is the situation....I brought 38# back inside (bwahahaha!).  Oh my.

My husband is laughing, but I have no idea how I dealt with our 500# year.  I do need to freeze some tomatoes, can crushed ones, and make another batch of soup and pizza sauce (will gift the kiddos).

He joked "tomato fight" as the plants are literally almost dead, tomatoes falling off and some rotting as I try to keep up.  The summer heat waves were the cause of the late ripening.

I'm hoping to get my fall garlic planted.  Rain is moving in late Saturday and for several days (unless that changes).

Sunrise ~ More Canning with Tomatoes ~ Question

I woke up in time to see this beautiful sky.  I did however, sleep in, and did not get to see my husband before he went to work.  He is taking over a supervisor position for a few months.  Let's just say the coffee pot is pre-set at 4:30am now. 

Unless I try and put up another table in the living room, I am plum out of room for ripe ones.  I'm trying my best to get things canned, but I can only do one sauce/tomato recipe in one day.

We have surpassed 200 pounds of Amish paste this year.  There are more out there, and the plants are dying.  Sheesh, but so thankful for the stock up with all of them.

The recipe I use for the Lemony -Tomato Basil soup is from this magazine.  Looks like a magazine, but thick like the ball regular canning book.  I think I bought it at TSC farm store.  I canned another batch of this soup.

It is also the same magazine that has the BBQ sauce recipe that I can.  To me, it's the best one we've tried so far. I canned a batch of this too.

Question:  I bought a  motion sensor hand soap  dispenser a year ago and paid like 20-some bucks.  The same Simplehuman brand today costs $50!!  I kid you not.  I really want one for both bathrooms, but don't want to paid a fortune.  If you use one, what brand is it and do you like it?

Loofah Update

 

August 19, 2022.  Loofah buds starting to develop on the vines.

August 30, 2022.  Tiny loofah.  Not sure it will have the chance to grow fully with it being so late in the year.

Bruschetta in a Jar and chit chat

 I decided to try another recipe from Ball.  Hopefully it will taste as good as it sounds.  I'll be doing a taste testing before making it again (if I do make it again).  Has anyone canned this?  (that is pizza sauce in the back)

The recipe is in this book:

You can also get it online here.

Bell peppers are also getting flash froze, but golly I have to keep my brain in order to remember to get them bagged before I forget they are in there.  I doubt I will be getting enough to freeze stuffed peppers this year.  Due to the weather they are small and we are not getting as many as a typical year.

Not sure if you all heard, but the BP oil company was sold to a Canadian company.  I believe the actual switch will be this coming December, and our two younger girls will lose their health insurance with us.  Not sure this is going to be good for us or not, but it's happening.  The girls have been told, so they are working on getting health insurance (so sad this is happening to them with inflation right now).  Also, the cost for our health insurance goes up for us.  I may be needing to go back to work, which would take a toll on growing a garden.  Time will tell.

Attack of the Tomatoes and other Tidbits

 The pizza sauce recipe is in this book:

Ball also has a freezer pizza sauce recipe here.  I have not tried the freezer recipe.

As hard as I try, I cannot keep up with anything but canning this week.  I gave up on weeding the flower bed, or the garden.  It's been super crazy busy with tomatoes.

It's raining this morning.  It's dark and dreary, so canning resumes.  Last night I was in a pickle.  I canned pizza sauce, and realized I needed both a breakfast and a dinner.  Problem solved - biscuits and gravy, fried potatoes and scrambled eggs.  Now we have breakfast, but a ton of dirty dishes.  I need to unload and reload the dishwasher and get this day started.  My husband said the tomatoes are screaming for me, ha ha!

We were relaxing on the porch last night, and it got very quiet for a few minutes.  Then we heard a crazy screaming sound coming from the woods across the street.  Most likely a few fox fighting or attacking something.  If you have never heard this sound just google it and YouTube has a few where you can hear this crazy sound.

I have been in contact with the island store.  She's getting back with me soon, in regards of a re-order of camper ornaments.  I asked her because I only have two made right now.  I also had to raise my price, and she may not re-order, but like everything the cost of supplies has gone up terribly.

  Like I said - attack of the tomatoes.

Happy Homemaker Monday

Tomatoes are still rolling in.  I am thankful for that.  Bell peppers were picked but smaller than a typical harvest.

Several craft/fall festivals are happening, but I have zero time to participate.  I have created one new item while watching the canner pot.

Cute watermelon keyfobs.  I only got one made, but super cute.

Today I am joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.

I will link up later when she posts.

The weather . . .

Rain.  Rain for the next two days.

As I look outside my window . . .

It's raining, and cloudy.

Right now I am . . . 

Making another pot of coffee, filling the canner pot, measuring and weighing tomatoes.

Thinking and pondering . . .

How much propane to pre-order, cleaning the living room to get the chimney swept soon, what I will can tomorrow with tomatoes, messaging the island store (they sold all of the camper ornaments I took over early summer), and packaging them this time.  I'm pretty sure we'll be gifting the kids canned tomato items this Christmas (they love tomato soup too).

How I am feeling . . .

So-so.  Overly busy.  

On the breakfast plate . . .

Most likely egg, cheese and sausage muffin sandwiches.  

What I am reading . . .

My canning recipes, ha ha!  

On the TV . . .

Mystery Channel

On the menu this week . . .

-sausage, green beans, onion and potato sheet pan
-chicken, broccoli sheet pan dinner
-possibly homemade corn dogs, I only make them once a year

Looking around the house . . .

Tomatoes!  Tomatoes everywhere!

To do list this week . . .

-can pizza sauce, more tomato sauce, more ketchup and tomato soup

-freeze bell peppers

-make a breakfast

-wash bedding

-water plants indoors

-laundry

There won't be much time for anything but making these tomatoes turn into something canned.

Something fun to share . . .

I bought two of the girls a fun pearl jewelry kit.   They had fun opening their mussel.  You make a wish before you open the can and then put your pearl inside the turtle.  Just something fun for them to do.

From the camera . . .

....from the garden yesterday.

Devotional . . .

I still have not found my devotional.  I need to put that on the to-do list too.