It happened one Sunday

This morning the kids were loaded up into the van and I was closing the slider door from the outside when something very strange happened.

I closed the door but saw that my right index finger was still inside the van. It was a strange feeling time stood still for a moment. I could see my finger wasn't where it was supposed to be...but there wasn't anything I could do about it.

My oldest son saw it all and quickly opened the door and ran to get papa. I said, "No, I'm okay." but I wasn't. I felt very faint for awhile for some reason.

My finger is fine, it does have a bruised cut but doesn't seem to be broken at all. But I did stay home from church and it has taken me far too long to type this post. I should've left in all of the typos.

I will probably take a small break from posting until I have better use of my hand. The biggest challenges that come to mind are cooking, washing my hands, canning and knitting. I have done quite a bit of canning and have finished all of the bean, cucumbers and zucchini but was just getting started on applesauce. I was on such a roll...

On a happy note, Papa got an elk yesterday. We are very thankful to the Lord for all that good meat.

Kitti's Zucchini Bread

My friend, Kitti, sent me this recipe. She knew I had a lot of zucchini on my hands. I chopped up every single gigantic log I had from the garden. There were about 5 or 6? I can't remember. It was a pile. And they were the big ones. Well, I guess I did say gigantic, that sort of gives you an idea.

I didn't chop it by hand because my friend, Rhonda, found a beautiful food processor for me at a garage sale for three bucks!!! I was so excited about that. It really takes care of business. So much faster than chopping by hand.

Anyway...I made zucchini relish with most of it and am now in the process of making Kitti's Zucchini Bread loaves to put in the freezer with the last of the zucchini.

Back to the point of this whole story...I made the zucchini bread and had to go to town. When I came home this is what the pan looked like.

I guess they liked it.

Your kids probably will too.

Kitti's Zucchini Bread

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 Tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup coarsely ground nuts (walnuts or pecans)

1 large zucchini (enough for 2 cups, shredded)

1 egg, beaten

3/4 cup Honey

1/2 cup oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine first 5 ingredients. Stir in nuts. Mix zucchini with remaining ingredients, add to the flour mixture, stirring only until dry ingredients are moistened. Spoon the batter into a greased and floured 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan. Bake at 350° for 1 hour, or until bread tests done. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan and finish cooling.

She has a dream

This is Mrs. Brown.

She is one of two Mrs. Browns' that we have.

We have two Bovan Brown chickens that we can't tell apart, so I just call them both Mrs. Brown. They're interchangeable. They are the friendliest chickens. I love them. They are always the first to come running up to us. They also seem to be the most curious. Since we have let the chickens free-range, the Brown ladies seem to venture farther than all the rest, investigating new areas.

The other day I was taking some of the jars of pickles I've canned out to the shop. As I walked into the shop I heard a fluttering. It scared me a little, I thought it might be a rat. I looked around and all of a sudden Mrs. Brown jumped out of an old dresser my husband uses for tools. There is one drawer missing.

It cracked me up to see her perched on the drawer. What was she doing in there?

Upon further inspection it all became clear.

Do you see it?

She was setting on a bag of golf balls!

Poor baby.

She's trying!

She's so nice. I took this picture of her with my right hand as I cradled her in my left arm.

Is that not the cutest and saddest thing? It reminds me of The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck by Beatrix Potter.

Listen to the story of Jemima Puddle-duck, who was annoyed because the farmer's wife would not let her hatch her own eggs.

Her sister-in-law, Mrs. Rebeccah Puddle-duck, was perfectly willing to leave the hatching to some one else—"I have not the patience to sit on a nest for twenty-eight days; and no more have you, Jemima. You would let them go cold; you know you would!"

"I wish to hatch my own eggs; I will hatch them all by myself," quacked Jemima Puddle-duck.

She tried to hide her eggs; but they were always found and carried off.
Jemima Puddle-duck became quite desperate. She determined to make a nest right away from the farm.

You can follow the link and read the entire story, but I will leave you with something to ponder.

How does she button her cloak and tie her bonnet?

Hmmm.

Busy hens

It's funny to watch the chickens scratching in the garden. Check it out.



This is more of a front row seat to the scratching action. I wonder what they are eating? They scratch up the straw really well don't they? There are lots of spiders and bugs hiding in the shade I suppose.

Bluebird, bluebird, through my window

This is how crazy I am, visually.

This morning as I poured some cream in my coffee this is what I saw. Well, honestly, it was better than this, but as soon as I saw the swirling colors of the coffee, cream and the beautiful blue cup I ran to the other room, grabbed my camera, ripped the lens cap off, turned it on and then took this picture.

The glory had faded a bit, but you get the picture. Literally.

I suppose I could stage it tomorrow and get a better one, but who's got time for that?



I just love these cups. I bought them the other night at a thrift store. They were .99 cents each. They had three, and they all came home with me. I even love the bottom of the cup. The colors! Believe it or not, these cups make me happy somehow.

It's so cute, my T2 son thinks that they are made of stone and won't break. He calls them "the stone cups". I guess T1 said they were 'stoneware'.

Hee hee.

So I thought I'd share some pictures I took today or yesterday and so you can see what I see.

Don't break into song.

(Do you see what I see?)




Hmmm...these eggs resemble the colors of the 'stone cups' don't they. No wonder I love them so.



Like money in the bank or chicken in the freezer, it's nice to see the wood all stacked and covered and ready for the first frost.



Dill pickles and green beans before I took them out to the shop.

I love the wrinkled cucumbers.

Yesterday they were on the vine. Today they're pickles.

Eeww!

I was looking through this old canning book and saw "Brains", or how about some Bunny Sausage?

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

And just so everyone will know what life is really like behind the camera, this is the REAL view through my window. At least it was last night in the midst of canning chaos.

Tuesday Homeschool Tips: Encourage your child's interests

This week my tip is to let your child explore and take ownership of an interest or hobby. I know I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, but maybe its worth repeating. What is your child interested in? Maybe your child needs some ideas of things to be interested in. Can you let him or her go deeper?

In some ways it feels a little crazy to go deeper. It's overwhelming at times, and MESSY!

Sure, we could just keep our life safe and tidy (ahem...boring) but lately I have been thinking, "We live in the country. Why not?! Now is the time to try things. Why not try to hatch chicks?"

Oh, did I mention that last week my son bought an incubator with an automatic turner at a garage sale?

Thirty bucks!

He was so excited (and so was I). He's thought about them and mentioned wanting one but they can be spendy. I think to buy this unit new would have been around $170. He brought his own wallet and paid the lady. He was so cute.

This chicken business has really evolved since we began in March. I honestly never thought I would ever have chickens or gave any thought to it. No interest whatsoever. But chickens have given us all (except maybe my husband) so much joy and entertainment. We love them.

After the incubator arrived, my son started saving eggs (at room temperature) to hatch.

When he had collected enough we started. First you number them and try to guess what kind of chicken it is.

Then you weigh them and record that number and then put them in the their position.

I guess these here are in the best place. Sometimes the ones on the outside don't stay warm enough and the ones in the center may get too hot. We put the best eggs in the prime positions. We got some eggs from the people we got Mr. Buff and Goldie from. They had a gorgeous Copper Maran rooster. We're hoping to get some interesting chicks from him.

We don't really know what we're doing, but it's fun!

There are 42 egg holders and we filled every one! It's not likely that they will all hatch, in fact, it very unlikely, but my son is hopeful. For now we watch and wait. We have them in my husband's closet. We will weigh them again on Day 7.

So be encouraged! You get to spend your life with your children! This is their life too! Let them live it well. And enjoy every minute together by exploring new and interesting things. Be fun and have fun!

Bonus tip for Classical teachers: V.M. Hillyer's A Child's History of Art for sale right now on ebay as a Buy-it-Now for $25 here.

To participate in Tuesday Homeschool Tips: Post a homeschool tip in your blog, with a link to this post. Then come here and add your name, tip subject, and URL to this post. Make sure and link to your individual Tip post, not your blogs main front page. If you have a tip to share but don't have a blog, just leave it in the comments section. We all would like to hear your tip. Let the tips begin!

Kitchen Tip Tuesday: Fruit Fly Trap!

It's that time of year!

The tiny creatures that plot and scheme to drive me batty are back.

I find this little trap made from everyday household items does help in combating them. Put some vinegar in a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap. Seal the sides well, then take a knife and poke some small holes on top.

I have a lot of vinegar around right now because I'm canning pickles. A perfect example of using what you have. Simple. Non-toxic (to us) and easy to clean up.

They are attracted to the smell of the vinegar and can find a way in but for some reason can't find their way back out.

Must be their tiny brains!

One other thing I have noticed that helps is pouring a sink full of soapy bubbles at night. Oftentimes, I notice in the morning there are many dead flies that have been caught in the bubbles.

Kate said to put a touch of soap on your finger and touch the vinegar with it. The soap in the vinegar breaks the surface tension and causes the flies to drowned when they land on the vinegar. That way they can't fly out of the bowl even if they could find the way through a hole. (Thanks Kate!)

Check out Tammy's Recipes for many other kitchen tips!

Let the canning begin!

As I spent time in the garden yesterday I realized I have my work cut out for me. I made this quick list. At this point, I'm a little excited. We'll see how far I get. I will probably burn out and fade away. But, as of last night I've canned 14 quarts of green beans with just a few more to go. (woo hoo!)

I've realized that in the past, once the cold weather and rain starts, I just never want to go out and put the garden to bed for the winter, so I don't and it's a big mess in the spring. This year, I'm trying something different. I'm pulling things that are done producing while they are still green and feeding them to the cows. I'll let you know how it goes. The cows are certainly liking this new system. They just hang out by the garden fence and basically beg.

I found a bunch of great articles from Backwoods Home Magazine on self-reliant living while looking for some canning recipes. Have a look! Although I must warn you, you may get stuck there for hours.

If you don't hear from me, you'll know what I'm doing.

Our weekend

Don't ask me.

I have no idea how this happened. She was in the trailer playing with her cousin and came out like this.





We went camping last weekend. It was a good time. We always try to bring some good books when we go anywhere. In a rush, I brought our Beatrix Potter Treasury. I also threw in Papa's Bible and Ben Hur, the book he is reading aloud to the boys.

In Ms. Potter's tales we laughed at the impertinence of Squirrel Nutkin's actions toward Old Brown, and Ginger and Pickles trying not to eat their customers and eventually going out of business because they allowed people (or animals rather) to buy on credit. If you don't any of these books and you have small children, please get them. These are beautifully illustrated and don't use dumbed down vocabulary to tell these interesting stories.

Our oldest son really took charge this weekend. I went early with the kids and he packed the van, set up the tent, etc. He is seeming less and less like a boy everyday.

The campfire is always the best part isn't it? We roasted many hot dogs and marshmallows.

This is what Jack does to us. When I'm at the computer, he will come up and hang his head over my knee like this. I think it's his way of cuddling or hugging or just being 'close'.

We walked under a beautiful water fall.

And of course, took many pictures.

Unfortunately, it rained Saturday night. Sunday we had lots of mud as we packed up.

Honestly, I don't know.

We came home and son set up the tent to dry.

I got hung up in the garden after unpacking. I picked the ripe tomatoes before the chickens get them. Then picked the green beans and started the canning process. It really is fall now. My husband built our first fire in the woodstove tonight. It felt so good.

Beautiful.

Show and tell

We are getting some big tomatos from our garden. Most of them green, but HUGE. Here is one of the first big red ones.

Hmmm...I see canning tomatoes in my future.

...til sunday

Picking up Mr. Buff

Just to clarify, "Mr. Buff" is not his name. My son is leaning toward a very noble name, but it hasn't been decided so I will refrain from mentioning it yet. Until it's official I will continue to refer to him as Mr. B.

Here are some pictures of the place where Mr. B came from. This family has Nigerian Goats. This is Clover. She had just given birth the day before to triplets! They were soooo tiny and cute!




See!




Here was my favorite. Her color is so beautiful.

This was how Mr. B was caught. A group of tall giants closed in on him. (Not a good feeling!)