Winter Time

So, I have been working on a few projects. I'm still feeling pretty tired most of the time and I've been working some weird hours at work lately. I'm almost done with a quilt top. I just have four more rows to sew together, then I get to go shopping for batting and backing! I have bought a few baby fabrics to start a baby quilt. Hopefully I can get it done before the baby is here.

We still have yet to put our garden stuff away, or rake leaves. We've been pretty lucky that we've only had flurries so far this winter season. I know our luck won't hold out much longer. I don't think it will be that detrimental to our garden if things aren't taken out before winter, but I'm not really an expert on stuff like that.

Fall is Here

So fall is definitely here. It has been very cool here and the leaves have turned their beautiful colors. We're planning on taking out the fence and other garden things sometime in the next week. We'll till it under, then put the leaves from the tree over top of it.
I'm still trying to get motivated to start some of my indoor projects. Of course, I haven't had as much motivation to clean my house either. I'm sure I'll find the energy soon.

Projects

I have yet to start dedicating time to my indoor projects. It's been pretty nice outside and hard to sit myself down and work on a project. I have been spending a lot of my free time napping since I'm pregnant. Hopefully I'll start getting a little more energy so I'll be able to work on some projects, including blogging a little more.

More Apple Butter

I have finally made the last of the apples into apple butter. I composted a good ice cream bucket that had started to rot and still made almost 12 pints. I'm very excited that I made my own, but more relieved that I no longer have a tub of apples sitting in my kitchen.....not that it was a huge problem!

It is now starting to be time to work on my indoor projects. I have a quilt that I have been working on and am getting excited that the weather has started to get cooler. I have a hard time convincing myself to work on things like quilts and blankets when it's warm out. I have squares ready for one quilt and laid them out the other day. Our cat decided to "help" and pounce on random squares that sent her flying over the others, causing me to rearrange. I didn't mind since she was so funny about it. Besides, she's my "helper"!

Apple Butter

Today I made apple butter. I actually started it last night and cooked the apples in a crock pot overnight. I think it worked a lot better this way since it used one less burner on my stove. I didn't even need to get my card table out! I even used all of my three crock pots to make the butter. Of course this batch of 12 pints was only half of the apples we got from my in-laws. I ran out of sugar and pint jars. Do not fear! I will be picking these things up in the very near future to finish the rest of the apples before they go bad.

Produce

I know it's been a while since I've blogged, but I've been very exhausted when I get home from work.
We recently visited my in-laws and parents and ended up bringing a lot of apples, potatoes and onions along with some butternut squash home with up. I'm planning on making apple butter with the apples, dehydrate the onions but I'm not sure what to do with the squash. My husband doesn't like squash, so I'll be the only one eating it. I thought about canning it, but I currently don't have a pressure canner. I'm not sure the best way to freeze it either.
We are very blessed to have such wonderful, generous families! I'm sure I'll figure out something.

Canning Salsa

I found some time to make some salsa and can it. I used the tomatoes and cucumbers from our garden. Unfortunately, I did not have enough jalapenos and didn't have any Anaheim peppers, cilantro, or onion. So it was semi-from our garden. These are the naked tomatoes from our garden, waiting to be seeded and chopped. I had to roast the Anaheim peppers before using them in the recipe.(I didn't need all of them!) This is the salsa waiting to be put in jars. Here are the eight pints of salsa, all in a pretty row! I had about a quarter cup leftover, so we let it cool and enjoyed with chips! It had some kick to it, but it wasn't anything we couldn't handle. I'm just hoping to get enough tomatoes to make another batch!

Tomatoes Galore

Today I went and picked some tomatoes out of our garden. In a day or so, I'll have to pick them again. I had so many that I decided I would try dehydrating them, along with a few jalapenos that have been sitting on my counter for a few days. With the next batch of tomatoes, I may just have to can my own salsa. I'm pretty sure I'll have enough tomatoes and the jalapeno plants are still producing. Now I need to look for a yummy recipe. I did make some of the tomatoes into fresh salsa for supper. It looked really good!

Hot and Humid

SO, nothing much has changed. It's rained on and off almost everyday, I swear. We had rain 28 out of 30 days in June, and July feels like it should be pretty close to those figures. It's been hot and humid. We have had some nice days, but they are few and far between. I've been picking some of the jalapenos and the tomato plants are doing really well, just not turning red. I don't think any of our onions survived and were killed off by the rogue radishes we had. I think we're going to be green beaned out soon as well. Of course I need to make room in our freezer before we start freezing anything.
Since it has been raining so much, I've started re-organizing our house. Today we worked on the computer room. It's amazing how much space you have when you move all of the junk to a different room. We'll just have to deal with the aftermath tomorrow.

Yard Work

Today we got a lot of yard work done this weekend. I weeded my wildflower patch and our little terrace. I even pruned the tree in our backyard and one of our lilac bushes. I did have some cucumbers to pick as well. They're not terribly big, but they'll do! I'm sure we'll have a lot of cucumbers soon since there are a lot of flowers on the plants yet. And I've pretty much given up on trying to weed the garden. At this point, all the plants are tangled in with each other that it's almost impossible to tell which is weed and which is plant.

And here are the beans I picked. I still have that last row to pick, and since my husband took the weed whacker to the weeds on that side of the garden, I should be able to pick them now. I've also found a recipe for Chinese Green Beans on the internet, and we love the recipe. My husband wants me to make them that way all the time now.

Weeds

So we have had an influx of green beans. I picked what I call a "popcorn" bowl just of beans in just one row. I still have one more row to pick, if I can get to them through the potatoes. Of course, I have more weeds than anything. If it isn't raining, it's too hot and humid to be in the garden. The heat index was over 100 on Wednesday. It was so humid I felt like I was swimming while I was outside. Hopefully I'll get some pictures of all of our harvest posted soon!

Harvest

I had my first harvest of our garden a few days ago. There were three Roma tomatoes that were a very pretty red color. So, I picked them! And I ate them! And they were delicious! There are a lot of green tomatoes, yet, so hopefully they will turn soon and the canning can begin! I also have a lot of flowers on my bean plants. I'm hoping to have beans galore! And of course the cucumbers are taking over their corner of the garden so I'm going to need to start looking up good pickle recipes too!

Learning New Things

My parents came down at the end of the week to help us with some projects. My dad helped us replace our sewer lines, which were disgusting and should have been replaced a long time ago. Between him and my husband, they were able to get the main part of it in one day. My mom showed me how to stain and varnish. We replaced our bathroom window two years ago, and she asked if she could stain it, since she really didn't feel she could help with the sewer line. I now know how to stain and plan on re-staining and re-varnishing our outdoor wooden furniture. The four pieces are in desperate need of it and have been since we moved in four years ago. Of course I'll have to wait until it's less humid outside to start on that project. Besides, I have plenty of other projects to work on for the time being.

Awaiting Bounty

I went out to the garden today and it's looking pretty good, except for all of weeds. I haven't been able to weed because of all the rain. The thunderstorms last night started to unbury some of our onions. There are some tomatoes and one of them is even starting to turn red. Two of our pepper plants didn't make it, but the rest of them are OK. They haven't started to flower, but they did survive, which is half the battle.

Our tiger lilies have also bloomed and some of my wildflowers are starting to bloom as well. I'm not sure what flowers they are except for pretty. Once they get bigger, I'll post some pictures.

Will It Ever End?

The rain just doesn't seem to quit. My husband went out to mow the lawn yesterday and couldn't because the ground was too wet. Most of our garden has really taken off, but we can't get out and weed because it always rains when we have the time to do it.

So I guess it's on to indoor projects. I've been working on getting some of my recipes into the computer so I don't have as many loose papers to keep track of. Once I'm done with the loose papers, I'll move on to our favorite recipes from books. That way all of our favorite recipes will be located in one area, and I won't have to try and remember what book/magazine/paper it came from. I think it will be really helpful to have the recipes centrally located, not only for a fast reference, but to help keep clutter out of my cupboard. I'll post a picture of my plethora of magazines and cookbooks, just to show what kind of order needs to be done.

How Does Your Garden Grow

It has been absolutely gorgeous here for the last day and a half. It has actually stopped raining for more than six hours. Of course all of the rain has really made the garden take off. Of course our strawberries didn't really produce. It's been three years since we've planted them. I see little tiny berries start, but they never turn red. The rogue radishes that cropped up are already going to seed. Of course, one of us has to be home to actually start harvesting.

I also think our raspberries are going to have a had time producing. The weeds have almost completely taken over, so I'll have to see if I can't transplant some of the younger plants to somewhere else. We have a couple of spots that need plants, so maybe they will do better there.

Rain, Rain

My garden is growing really well. It's been raining on and off all week and is supposed to continue raining all weekend. It's good for the garden, but I wouldn't mind a little sunshine for a whole day. It wasn't supposed to rain today, but we woke up to some severe thunderstorms. I suppose all this rain is good for me to work on some of my crafty stuff, but that just doesn't happen. Maybe I'll be able to work on one of them tonight.

Green Thumb

Our fence seems to be keeping out the rabbits. So far none of them have gotten in. Here's what our main garden looks like now. The white buckets are around our peppers. I was told that peppers love them because it helps to keep them warmer and they grow better that way. Not to mention it's an extra obstacle for the rabbits to get around when they try to eat pepper plants. It's a small garden, but it works for us. We usually get enough produce for us to freeze or try canning. We may have a bigger garden someday, but right now it's the right size.

Our roses are also blooming. They are so beautiful. They smell really good, too, except that you have to be right up next to them to smell them. I like these the best since they are tipped pink. Their blooms seem to last longer than the red roses we have. We do get them to bloom a couple of times during the summer, and they're very pretty each time.

Fresh Fruit

Since we got our fence up, it seems to be keeping out the rabbits really well. I'm very excited about this since I haven't been able to grow green beans since we moved to this house. I did have to go to the Farmer's Market Saturday to buy some rhubarb. We have our own plant, but it seems to be too dry for it this year. I've picked three times and this last time it didn't look all that ready. I made strawberry rhubarb sauce with it and it tasted really good! I have plenty of strawberries and rhubarb now to try to can the sauce. It will be quite the adventure since I've not canned this sauce before. It's always an adventure trying to can in our kitchen though. It's a little small, but we manage to do it!

Rabbits

I absolutely cannot stand rabbits any longer. They decided to eat my pepper plants. All of them. Down to hardly any stem left. Whoever said that rabbits won't eat pepper plants are LIARS! They love them! Can't get enough of them! I'm trying to salvage what is left of them, but I don't have very high hopes. We started to put a fence around the garden, but with the lightning storm, we decided to call it a night. They also like onion tops. Fortunately, not as much so the onions are doing all right still. I'm hoping to get the fence up before the green beans start coming up!

Finally, It's Done

I finally finished planting our garden yesterday. We went to the store and bought seeds for cucumbers and beans, and pepper and tomato plants as well as tomato cages. I got everything without incident and even got the tomato cages up. I found out our garden hose does not have any holes and had little problems rolling it up. Now we just sit, weed, water and wait. We're planning on putting a fence around it on Saturday, and I'm hoping to clean out the spot for my herb garden so we can get that planted. (I'm really hoping to get to can my own salsa this year!)

I am thinking that I have my husband convinced that we should try growing our own tomato and pepper plants next year. It was a little pricey buying already growing plants. Hopefully we'll have the capability to do it!

I'll put pictures of our bounty up, once we can harvest.

Mistake

I finally got batteries for our camera, so I can now show you my quilting mistake. This is what the square is supposed to look like. This is what I did.
It might not be noticeable since I didn't finish out the "mistake" square, but it would look funny if the squares weren't the same and since I have more of the "correct" squares started, it's just easier to fix.

Gardening

It has been really rainy for the past few weeks. We finally had the chance to get out and garden yesterday. I weeded the strawberries for almost an hour and didn't get all of it done. I did have to transplant a few rogue strawberry plants that had decided to grow on the lawn. I also transplanted some holly hocks that were trying to take over the strawberry patch. I'm not sure if the holly hocks will survive, but I tried. I also picked my rapidly growing rhubarb. Like I said, it's been raining here quite often and the rhubarb just took off! I cut it up, after giving half of what I picked to a friend, and got about 2 1/2 cups from what I picked. I made this really tasty, sugar-free strawberry rhubarb sauce. Of course we are out of ice cream and weren't able to try it out. Hopefully we'll be able to plant the rest of the garden this week, however they are calling for more rain for most of the week.

Batteries

I took some pictures of my quilt mistake. However, the batteries in my camera are dead. And of course the only batteries we have are triple A's, not double A's. And of course it doesn't turn on when plugged into the computer. So, sometime, I'm going to have to buy some more batteries. I just bought a pack of triple A's because I thought we were out of them, only to come home to two 18 packs. Oh, well. I'm sure we'll find a use for all of the triple A's.

News

It's been a very emotional week for us. I found out I was pregnant, then I miscarried shortly after. It's been tough and I haven't really felt like blogging. Hopefully I'll be back on track in a couple of weeks. Thanks for your patience!

Crafty

So, I try to be crafty. I'm not very artsy, but I try to be crafty. I try to grow my own vegetables. I try to quilt. I try to knit. I try to crochet. I'm not very advanced at any of these things. But, I do try. My handiwork isn't always the prettiest, or nicest looking. And there's always flaws that I can't always seem to fix. But it's the feeling of accomplishment of making something. Making something that, even if it's not perfect, it will still be used and is special to the one who owns it, and that's all that matters!

Mistake

I was working on my quilt project today. I got quite a bit done. I'm working on a double nine-patch and am really enjoying the pattern. Until I realized I had started sewing the wrong side of the strips together. The pattern for the one block has four squares in the corners with the matching bottom inside squares matching the middle square of the block. I did that backwards and didn't realize it until after about ten blocks. So now I have to pull out stitches so I can fix them and continue on. After I get these blocks done, I'll be ready to sew my blocks together! It's all downhill from there!

Productiveness

Today was one of my days off this week. I spent it running some errands and made my own laundry soap. I have to let it cure for a couple of days before we can use it, but here's hoping!

I was also able to do a lot of other stuff today too. I made lemonade from lemons, I worked on a quilt, knitted a little, toned, and rode with my husband for a little while. The best part was sleeping in for a little bit. My husband and I don't get to do that together very often. Our bed is quite comfy and warm, so it's hard to get out of bed.

First Day

I started my new job at food service today. It went well. I do have a slight headache, which wasn't a big surprise. When I was a student, I would get a headache the first day back in the dish room. I think it's not being used to all the noise and extra heat. I'm sure I'll have a good time for the next three weeks.

As for my "unemployment" period, I haven't figured out what I'm going to do. There isn't a temporary position posted, so I don't think I'll be able to go back to my old job. Right now, we'll just have to wait and see!

The Wheels on the Bus

It amazes me how much little kids love to see buses. We had some friends down this weekend and one friend had two little boys, 3 years and 19 months. Since my husband works for the city's bus company, we decided to take everyone to the garage to see the buses. The two little boys were so excited! They got to ring the bell and honk the horn. And the oldest one wanted to get on every bus, all 70 of them. They also got to see the bus wash that all the buses go through and even got to see the driver check-in window. It was such an exciting tour! We went to lunch afterwards and the oldest fell asleep with his head on the table. Of course he was the one that hadn't taken a nap yet, so he was overdue at that point. It was fun to get to see our friends and play with the kids. Hopefully we'll get to see them again soon!

VEISHEA is Here

Today is the big day. Today is the official start of most of the VEISHEA events. For those of you not familiar with VEISHEA, it is Iowa State's annual spring celebration where the different colleges/clubs/groups/etc. get to show off what they've done and try to make some money. The celebration has lots of things to do and see, it's just that so many people from out of town come that traffic gets really bad. And since we live on one of the main roads, it's hard to get anywhere. Tomorrow there's a parade, so that makes traffic even worse. It's not all bad though. There are a lot of food stands to try and there are some really neat displays at the different colleges and on main campus. They even do some medieval sword play! It is a good time, but it always seems to rain on Saturday. Usually during the parade. The weather looks good for tomorrow though, so hopefully we'll luck out!

Kitty Bath

Since our cat has been shedding like crazy, we decided to give her a bath tonight. She always sounds so pathetic. She is getting a little better. It takes her longer with each bath to try to escape. She's never very happy with me afterwards since I do the actual bath part. Jason helped dry her off and usually helps with the soap. And the hair that is now covering our bathroom drain is way more than what is there when I wash my hair! She does get treats, but she usually for gos them so she can give herself a bath. Sometimes the bath winds her up and she runs through the house like something is chasing her. Not today! She is being pretty sedate and sniffing at Jason's tuba.

Flowers

So I finally took a picture of some of our flowers. We had a really nice day on Sunday where I was able to get a picture of the flowers blooming. I'm hoping to plant some wildflowers in the next week. I've also looked at some flowering shade bushes that I think will be really pretty to have.

We're starting to get things together that we want to get done this summer. It seems the list just keeps getting longer. It started out as re-doing our plumbing. We've added cleaning out the shed, power washing our siding and porch, sealing the porch, sanding and sealing the outdoor benches, and replacing our windows. I guess it's going to be a really busy summer!

Spring Time

I was able to be out and about for a little bit this morning. It was really nice and sunny...a gorgeous spring morning. I went to my second job for a little bit and came home to our daffodils and tulips blooming. They were so pretty! I had a dessert to make, so I did that, thinking to go outside once I was done to take some pictures of the flowers. Of course by the time I was done with the dessert, it had cooled off outside and the flowers had started to close. I was fairly disappointed. Then, it started raining. I know it's April, but it would have been nice for the flowers to bloom just a little longer!

Rain, Rain

So, I have cut our seed potatoes Saturday so they can "cure" before they are planted. We were hoping to have them planted Tuesday, but alas, they still sit "curing" on my counter. It thunderstormed Monday night and rained on and off on Tuesday. There was even a chance of tornadoes. Today, it has been raining on and off again. Pretty soon it's going to be May and we're going to have a very late crop of potatoes. If my prepared potatoes are still good, that is. We still have a large quantity of seed potatoes, so we have an ample supply to try again. I don't know if they keep from year to year or not. I guessing not.

My husband and I aren't completely new to gardening, it's just been so long since either of us remembered planting some of the stuff we've decided to try this year. We've also decided to try the hanging tomato plants in hopes that the rabbits won't eat them off the vine. Of course gardening for us is always and exercise in patience, and somewhat futility, since there are so many rabbits in town. We're thinking about live trapping them and taking to them to the wildlife care center. We may even get some stray cats that we'll take to the shelter.

For now, we just wait for the rain to stop long enough to work in the garden again. I have some wild hollyhocks that need transplanting since they are in with our strawberries. But our strawberries looked to have survived another winter and our rhubarb has started to come up. Maybe this will be the year I can make strawberry-rhubarb preserves!

Our Lawn

My husband and I did some yard work yesterday. I went around and collected all the garbage (we live on a main road through town) and came up with a full garbage bag. Jason raked up the leaves and sticks in the front yard. He ended up with a very heaping wheelbarrow full. We decided to get an outdoor fire pot so we could burn the leaves and sticks in stead of hauling them somewhere. Once we got our fire pot put together, it burned merrily. Of course we didn't burn the whole wheelbarrow full seeing as it was starting to get late. We'll continue to burn it throughout the week. Now we get to work on the backyard and our gardens. I have some flowers to plant/transplant and more weeding around the strawberries. We have creeping Charlie everywhere, so it seems like weeding is a never ending chore.

Planting

So it's Easter weekend, and we plan on planting potatoes and onion seed today. First, we have to re-till the garden and put up a fence to keep those pesky rabbits out of it. I don't know why, but there is a huge rabbit problem in this town. I haven't been able to keep green beans or carrots since we moved to this house. And it doesn't seem to matter how much blood meal we put out, they keep coming. And they will eat tomatoes, if that's what's left. We have about a month before we should plant anything else in our vegetable garden. I do have some bare spots around some fences that need some plants. Hopefully the begonia's I picked up will survive. I have a nice shady spot picked our for them.

I'm also hoping to plant herbs in the next couple of weeks. We're expected to have mostly sunshine next week, so that will be really helpful in planting.

Libraries

I have just got to say how wonderful libraries are! I don't go to ours very often, mostly because the books I want to check out are either not found, or already checked out. But, today I took advantage of the beautiful weather and walked to the library. I came home with three books on knitting, two books on crocheting and two fairly new release movies that I need to take back next week. I do go to the library more often in the spring and summer, mostly because I like to walk. And since the weather is finally getting nicer, I'll visit more often!

Simple Things

I always forget how some of the simple foods we make are some of the yummiest you eat. I made sloppy joe's tonight since we came back from visiting family. It was so simple. Brown some hamburger with some onion. Add ketchup, mustard, Worcestershire sauce and spices. Heat and put on a bun. So easy, so yummy! Heat some fries, add a salad and wallah! A complete meal! Isn't it amazing how so many easy things are overlooked sometimes?

Sweet Potato Fries

Our local restaurant started serving sweet potato fries. They are absolutely awesome! So awesome, I decided to try them at home. I took two sweet potatoes and cooked them together, but differently. I started cutting the one sweet potato and had some trouble cutting it. I used mt microwavable potato baker pouch to bake the second one for a minute. The second one was much easier to cut. I put the slices in a plastic zipper bog with some olive oil, salt, pepper and some ranch popcorn seasoning. I mixed it up and put them in a greased 8 inch square baking pan. Cooked them for 30ish minutes at 375 degrees F. I think they were pretty good, not quite as good as the restaurant (those are fried), but good enough to eat the sweet potatoes we have! The only problem I have with the restaurant fries, other than having to go to the restaurant, is that the serving they give you is too much. Have you ever eaten something and had so much that you just get full of that food? That's how many they give you. They are definitely made to share! Definitely try making some for yourself and enjoy!

Why

A little information before I get into why I've started this blog. I work for a state university. And if anyone has worked for a state institution in an hourly position, you'll understand my plight. At the end of August of 2009, I was approached by a different department head and "encouraged" to apply to transfer to a position in his department. I did and he promptly retired. Nice, I know, but he was tired of what was going on and he didn't like being helpless. I don't blame him. It's not his fault. In October, I was called into a meeting with human resources and was told that my position was being offered for someone else to bump into. Needless to say, I have been very stressed out ever since. My husbnd and I have been doing what we can to keep our sanity. Tomorrow, March 26th, I find out what happens. Do I get to bump someone else, or do I have to take the layoff.

So, since my employment is uncertain, I have decided to try my hand at blogging for others to read. I do have a blog that I write for my family and another I write for my gaming friends. (Yes, my husband and I are gamers. Both table top and computer!) I will try to blog once a week, possibly more. However, I do have projects that I do, and I have learned that I need to set time to do these projects or they don't get done.

My plan is to blog about my projects and other things I've learned. I quilt, knit, garden, bake, cook, play computer games, table top game, play piano and other things. I've been trying my hand at making my own food mixes and own laundry soap. I've even made my own dishwashing soap, without great results. I'm still learning.

Please feel free to comment on my blog at any time. Ask questions, even! I do check my blogs on a daily basis, so I will try to answer everything I can!