Making Liquid Hand Soap

We are another step towards complete self-sufficiency.  I made liquid hand soap for the first time.  It's not really a necessity, as we have the handmade goat's milk bar soap.  However, it is useful to have at all the sinks.

Birth of a Baker and the Cookie Takers

My youngest daughter (10 years old) has been bitten by the baking bug.  She's been wanting to bake easy cookie recipes all the sudden.

Yesterday, I allowed her to bake some, with the assistance of her older sister.

As soon as these cookies were cooled, they dissappeared.  I asked her what she did with them.

"I'm hiding them so they won't eat them all."

Later in the afternoon, I saw her eating one.  Then later, another.   I asked her, "Did you hide those so you could eat them all?"

"No."

Just about dinner time, she was walking around the house trying to sell them to her sisters for $1.00 a piece.  Her brother was at work.  I got a giggle out of this.

Her sister's were not paying for cookies, tackled her, and stole them from her.

(giggles)

In the end, everyone did get a few cookies.

Italian Tasting ~ Taco Sauce Recipe ~ Family

Grab a cup of coffee or tea.  This blogpost is a bit long.

The morning here today is cool, and so pleasant.  Rain is in the forecast.  I planted this Morning Glory from seed and it is just now blooming.

The fall weather is bringing in blooms of all colors, including this purple.  I cannot tell you 

the name of this flower without looking it up.  It's been moved from two houses and still growing strong.  The hummingbirds, butterflies and bees love these flowers.

The kids wanted another party - Italian.  There is no way I can possibly whip up another successful party, with all that food in one night. 

Stocking Up Continues

Yesterday I finally got back out to the gardens.  I must have picked about 40 pounds of tomatoes, and this pot full of peppers, and one spaghetti squash.  I picked two types of green pepper, red pepper, cayenne, jalapeno and banana peppers.

I picked a handful of strawberries.  They are growing so much better in my new raised beds this year.

Yesterday I canned 3 1/2 more quarts of seasoned tomato sauce, using up about 23 pounds of those tomatoes I picked.  

Today I will make another batch of taco sauce.  My family devoured another 1/2 pint jar the other day.   Today, I also need to freeze all those peppers you see in the pot, and freeze more tomatoes.

I plan to set aside some banana peppers for an Italian treat that we have never tried. 

In the back garden, where we planted the watermelon and baking heirloom pumpkins (and the last of the tomatoes and sweet potatoes when we ran out of room),  I noticed something has been eating the produce.  They are eating the pumpkins and the larger tomatoes.  Must be the raccoons that were trying to get in our chicken coop.  I need to weed out there, but quickly pulled the few pumpkins that I could salvage for fall  decoration.  We won't be baking any of them this year. Between bugs and animals, they are a lost cause.   I can always buy some from a produce stand as well.

Tomorrow, rain is in the forecast, so that will making future weeding much easier.  Then I need to pull the collards and plant my garlic for fall.  The fall peas and beans should start to produce after this next rain.  It's our first fall planting, other than garlic.

The finished scarf - completely with scrap yarn from other projects.  It turned out pretty nice.

Spiders!  It's that time of year again.  When they decide that my home is their home.  Yuck!  We already found an ugly wolf spider in the kitchen sink this morning.  There is another very large one (not sure what kind it is) making a nest next to a window.  I'm saving that one for my son to remove.  I better learn to shake out my clothing from now on.  Some spiders like to climb.  I better get the rest of the webs sucked down with the sweeper this weekend.

Freezer Meals ~ Clean Sweep ~ More Garden Bounty

While cleaning around the house, I found this 1963 cookbook.  This sounded like a great way to have sandwiches on hand.  I may have to try this recipe yet.  Although I'd make my own dressing for this.  I love the fact I can use own, canned sweet pickle relish.

Clean Sweep Updates:

Taken Away

Last weekend, hubby whisked me away again for a night away.  It was completely by surprise and completely at the last minute Friday.  We really enjoyed ourselves, and had some short, but well worth it, relaxation.  We brought some flowers along this time.  As parents, we are spending more (serious) time giving ourselves time away.  This stress stuff is serious and we are taking it seriously now more than ever.

I think we relax so easily, due to the quiet surroundings, peaceful sounds of the waves, and the lack of clutter around us.  Not to mention lack of kids sniveling and arguing, and lack of electronics and noise pollution.

This little strip of shops is basically downtown.  The island is only about 4.6 square miles. 

Our favorite coffee on the island.  Mmmmm!  The owner bakes all the baked items herself.

Our secluded retreat.  No people, no traffic, no nothing.  Just a few birds, waves and a few boats in sight.

It was island-wide garage sale day, so we decided to drive around and see what people had.  We were delighted to find an antique, round butter dish for only $2.00!  What a deal.  This works perfectly for the hormone free butter we buy.

The garage sale day allowed us to drive down private lanes and drives that normally are off limits to tourists.  We saw some very nice homes by the water's edge (and very expensive also).

We also found this green melmac bowl for $.25 and a set of blue rose plates (also melmac) for only $.75.  These will go in our wall tent or trailer/camper in the near future.

Hubby, being a goofball. Ha ha ha!

Although we had the luxury of cooking in our room, we try one new food each visit.  This trip we tried Plantain Nachos.  We enjoy this restaurant, with it's outdoor seating.  The nachos are delicious.  The chef slices plantains length-wise, bakes them out, and does a quick fry in duck fat.  They are crispy and thin.  Then the chef tops it with black beans, corn, green peppers, red onion and mouth watering spices (spicy).   It's topped with a bit of sour cream.  Maybe on the next trip, I will get a photo to share. 

An islander shared with us, another special treat to try on our next visit.

This week?  Back to deep cleaning I'm afraid.  However, when it's all done, it will be so nice and refreshing.  We may even be wood splitting this week.

Fall Cleaning ~ Bringing the House to Life

The lighting was bad, but the second photo is much better on showing the true colors on this fabric.

I'm fall cleaning in a big way right now.  I went through my fabric pieces and found this one.  It's a find from Goodwill and was only a dollar.  It's about 2 yards maybe and will soon be an apron.  Sometimes a farmgirl needs help from another farmgirl, and she'll soon be getting my fabric to sew me an apron.  Goodwill doesn't sell too many good deals anymore, not in our area anyway.  This was one more clutter item put to good use.


I am completely out of laundry detergent, so I grated goat's milk soap is melting in a pot of water as I type.  I'll be starting the day with laundry and more fall cleaning.  

I organized my cotton thread by using an accordion style, vintage wooden rack.  I found it at a garage sale for $.25!  Can't beat that.

I thought I would need to add longer pegs, but the cones hang on these nicely.  I haven't had one fall one me yet, and this is mounted on the inside, and above my bedroom closet door.  Not sure if they will get dusty in the closet, but I plan to use these threads over winter.  Either way, these are off the floor and not in a container, so I can see what stock I have.

Our billy goat is already in the rut now.  P-U!  I can smell him from the door.  

I better start tackling an area to clean.  It's bringing new life to our home.