canning peaches

I canned some peaches yesterday. Usually I like to take pictures of each step so everyone can see how hard I work, I mean how fun it all is but yesterday I forgot so all you get to see is a pic of the jars when I first took them out of the water bath. I decided to try a new recipe for the syrup because the other one had so much sugar in it. I have not tasted them yet but it sure smelled good. All I had to do was put a pot on with about 10 cups of water and 4 tsp honey, that is a 2 tsp honey to every 5 cups of water ratio. I heated this while I peeled the peaches to put in the jars and after the syrup started boiling I reduced the heat to a simmer. I then put 1/8 tsp fruit fresh (absorbic acid) into each jar to help keep the peaches looking pretty and filled each jar with sliced peaches. I then poured the syrup over the peaches and put lid on. After all the jars are filled I put them in a hot water bath canner to boil for 25 minutes and voila! I now have some yummy canned peaches. I then simmered the peach skins for a while, drained off the juice, put in a jar and put in fridge to save for making peach jelly later. I waste as little as possible. I then took the cooked skins to the chickens after they cooled. The only things that got thrown out was the seeds. Also, the few peaches I had left that would not be enough to fill a jar, I either ate or sliced and froze.

Water, dont take it for granted

Woke up this morning and we have no water. Our well went dry. This happens every summer, usually around June so we were blessed to have water clear until August. I was able to squeeze out enough to water the animals but after that nothing. Praying that if I give it a couple hours it will fill up at least enough for us to take a shower. Before I lived out here I lived in town and we really took water for granted. You know what they say, you dont know what you have until it's gone. We had to pay for our water then but we always had plenty of water unless a water main broke or something like that. I like having well water better then city water but when our well starts going dry it is really hard for me to remember that, lol. Luckily, my mom and grandma live right next door and they have a really good well and I can take my laundry down there and I can fill some jugs and buckets to bring up to the trailer to use. I try to look at the positive things but it is hard when I have no water. Maybe we are spoiled in society today. There was a time that they had to haul all of their water to use. Problem with that would be we have no nearby creeks to haul from. I think that would be cool though. Could sit by the creek and relax along with it providing my family with good water. I will just have to pretend my mom's house is my creek. :-)

Downsizing

I have alot to do today but of course I decided that being on the computer was first priority after feeding and milking the animals. I wont bore you with all of the mundane things I have to do (even though I find most of them to be exciting), but I am going to share how I am planning on downsizing our expenses. First of all I am going to go through the cupboards and refrigerator and see what all is hidden in there that I have forgotten about, then putting it all where I can see it when I open the doors. I am only going to buy things when I absolutely need them. We need to eat more of what we have instead of just what we are wanting at the time. I am also going to try and make almost everything we eat, instead of buying the snack items I am going to bake ALL of my own. I do already make alot of my own but I still give into the temtation of easily accessible items. We also need to quit eating out every other weekend. Sometimes it is every weekend. It is so much easier for me to just go through the drive thru then to go home and make a meal but make a meal is what I am gonna do from now on. These are the few things I am gonna start with, it does not sound like much but each little step will get me closer to the big picture.

HOT!

It has been really hot here lately. Praising God that our well has not went dry this summer. We usually do not have any water in the summer except enough to take a shower and that is if we are lucky. God has blessed us with an abudance of water this summer and I will keep on praising him. The last week or 2 it has been really hot out and we are not using air conditioners this year. We would like to save money on the electric bill and I have also been trying to live on the basic necessities and even though I have been really tempted to ask Doug to put the air conditioner in I have not done it yet and I dont plan on doing it. I was so proud of my daughter yesterday because I was talking about putting the ac in and I figured she would be all for it but she told me that we have come this far lets go all the way through the summer without it! She is such a good girl. Always there to support me in all my crazy endeavors. Time to go find a way to stay cool! God bless all who are reading this!

CHICKEN THIEF

Last night some very daring creature decided to reach in one of my chicken pens and drag a chicken through it so it could eat it for dinner. Well, this thief does not know who he or she but probably a he is messing with!! We will find out who the culprit is and bring him or her to justice!! I thought my poor girls would be safe inside a pen but I guess not and the girls also seemed to be too dumbstruck to run into the coop and hide. Maybe they were mesmerized by the intruders good looks!! A cute face can even turn the smartest hen into a blubbering fool. Oh well, Doug has his camera all set up and hopefully we catch the culprit and can convince him it isnt a good idea to be messing with my hens!!

I decided to go pick raspberries today. I have always believed in sharing the bounties of nature with the animals. I do not consider my vegetable garden to be a bounty of nature by the way so I do not share it. I do however believe that we are sharing the things that grow wild like the blackberries and raspberries with all of the animals that share these woods with us but however this year the deer have decided that they do not need to share with me. They eat the bushes clean and leave hardly a berry for poor me so I only have one thing to say to those deer "GAME ON!"

Today has been a long and busy day so it is time for these tired eyes to go to sleep, goodnight and God bless everyone who is reading this.

CHICKEN LOGIC

Today I worked my butt off trying to make the chicken pen roomier for my 21 silver laced wyandottes. I drug heavy things around, I broke things, I rearranged things so that now they have a bigger coop to nest in and ALOT more room to move around in. Do you think these gorgeous poultry appreciated all my sweat and energy. NO! The only thing they appreciated was the little pile of wood my husband laid beside the pen because it made it so that they can get on top of the pen and roost!! It took me an hour to finally get them all to go into the wonderful home I made for them today, we will see who does and does not get the warm oatmeal this winter when it is cold. The goats! That's who! They appreciated the nice comfy clean barn I had worked and tioled to clean out today, lol! I will still spoil all of my animals even when I am underappreciated, but it sure felt good to vent.

Jelly making day

I decided that today would be a good day to make jelly from all of the blackberries I had frozen in the freezer so I thawed them out and squeezed the juice out of them a couple days ago and today I made some blackberry jelly. Of course I had a headache today and didnt really feel like making it but I did anyway. Didnt do much else today that didnt absolutely have to be done though. Headaches wear me out. I did decide to let the baby goats run around with the bigger goats today. It worked out well until about 4 this afternoon when the youngest ones decided they didnt want to be in there anymore and kept coming up onto the porch. That is when I decided it was time to go back into their pen. Caitlyn is spending the night at one of her best friend's houses so I am here alone, her friend will be moving day after tomorrow so this is the last day they will get to see each other at least for awhile. We will miss her.