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!