Garden

The garden is doing well this year, with the exception of my squash. I am kind of stumped on that one, because squash is generally easy to grow. I couldn't resist digging up a few of my purple potatoes, just for kicks. This is the first year I've done potatoes. Guess what? I boiled those suckers up and ate them all by myself. I didn't even share. ;) We've also got a surplus of peppers and tomatoes around here, which is quite nice. I had a tomato sandwich for breakfast this morning. Mmmm! Now I've got to fire up ye old canner and get cracking! For the record I am at about 175 jars o' fruit-and-veggie goodness so far. (pickles, jam, fruit syrups, BBQ sauce, tomatoes, jam, pickled peppers, more jam...) This winter is looking tasty!

Rhubarb! Dirt! Chickens! Pictures!

(Things are growing in the garden)

I managed to procure just a wee bit of rhubarb on Friday.

Have I mentioned that we love rhubarb? I think I could've gotten twice that much and we'd have eaten it. I brought my cutting board and freezer bags upstairs and sat and cut up rhubarb for an hour or more. And I only finished half of it! Over the weekend, I made a batch of Bluebarb Jam (Blueberries + Rhubarb) and it is delicious! I also made Rhubarb BBQ sauce, and I even refrained from labeling it 'Rhu-bar-B-Que Sauce.'

(Tyler closing in on the jam: Mmm!!)

We also spent a ton of time outside. It was just too nice. I wanted to get a bunch of stuff planted before the rain came. Its supposed to rain all week. I planted purple potatoes! I really hope they do well. I've never grown potatoes before.

Tyler dug in the dirt for over an hour, which is longer than I have ever seen him stay in one thing!

Scrumptious chubby feet! Makes me want to have 12 more babies (not all at once! :)

More chubbiness!!

These two are pretty adorable themselves! Here, they were making some sort of slop for their 'pigs'

James' favorite new job is feeding the chickens. He likes giving them little treats.

I'll smile for you if you leave me alone and let me go back to my DIRT!!

Chicken Noodle (soup?) on the left, Cheepa on the right

Family Fun

At the farm

Things have been crazy around here. Jeff took a day off and we went to the farm together. Sunday we went to a local farm and picked 40 pounds of peaches, which I canned**. Ugh. I officially hate canning peaches. But I digress. We have also been replacing the floors in both upstairs bedrooms. Its a major pain, having things packed away and the kids sleeping in random places and waking each other up. But as my friend Candi reminded me it seems like we always have something like this going on. And she's right. We bought our first house in 2004 (?), did some serious renovations, bought a new house and did some not-quite-as-serious remodelling projects, and then remodeled our first house again after our tenants trashed it. So I think we have had more than our fair share of home projects. The floor is looking quite nice though!! I am so happy to have nice floors up here, as opposed to the hideous crumbling tile. Here I am rambling on incoherently. Yikes! I better go before I really say something stupid. (No comments from the peanut gallery...:)

**That is, I canned everything my children didn't devour. They have been eating their weight in peaches everyday. (The peaches are no Palisade, Colorado peaches, but good, and are pretty small)

At the orchard

Farm Fun and Craftiness

This summer we joined a CSA farm. Basically, you buy a 'share' of what is grown. Of course, given the nature of farming you are not guaranteed a definite amount of stuff. However, the farm is very diverse so if one thing doesn't grow well there are lots of other stuff that will. Each week you get to pick up your share, and there are also 'pick-your-own' crops that you can pick a specified amount of. For example, last week was snow peas/shelling peas/snap peas. We were able to pick 3 pounds of them. Also, there are always fresh herbs. Everything is organic which is a nice plus. So far, I am very pleased. The cost of the CSA works out to $20/week, and I go home with more produce than we can eat (which is a lot). I have been freezing stuff like kale, spinach and peas. I have canned several batches of strawberry jam in addition to the copious amounts of strawberries we have eaten fresh. I can't decide what I like more about the whole set-up: all the food, or enjoying the farm experience with the kids. They love helping me pick stuff, and playing around the farm shop. There is a huge walnut tree that fell and the kids think that that tree trunk is the best playground. There are also pigs there so they like to visit them. The last few weeks I have realized that I need more bags to carry our stuff home in. Last week alone, we got 3 pounds of snow peas, cilantro, dill, lemon basil, purple basil, two huge heads of lettuce, three big zuchinni, a bunch of beets, a bunch of salad turnips, a large bag of spinach and kale, a bunch of green onions, and a head of chinese cabbage. (I feel like I am forgetting something) So, even though I have several bags, they are inadequate. When I saw a tutorial for these, I just had to make them for the kids. This one is the first one, and Katie claimed it. James has requested a blueberry bag, so that's next up.

I've Hit the Motherload!

I have managed to become the grateful recipient of an enormous bag of rhubarb, thanks to my Aunt's cousin's neighbor's friend's goat's nephew, or something like that. Actually, long story but a friend of my Aunt has an 'in' with the farming/Amish community in Lancaster and found out that I was in the market for some rhubarb. She called around and found someone who needed to unload some rhubarb. My parents came home armed with rhubarb stalks as long as my arm. To say I was thrilled would be an understatement. We love rhubarb around here. I got it all cut up and stashed away so that I can make various Rhubarb concoctions throughout the year. To make room in my freezer for the rhubarb, I decided to finally use up the cranberries I bought at Christmas time. My canner sprung a leak around then and I had to get a new (to me) canner. I made Cranberry Ketchup and while it sounds really weird, it is oh, so good. I was eating it with a spoon yesterday. I also managed to get my first steam burn of the canning season. Ouch! Later today I am going to make Rhubarb Jam with Vanilla Bean and Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp (to celebrate Jeff being out of school!!). Mmmmm.....

Now that its getting cooler, I decided to put all my canned stuff in the garage. Boy, was I surprised to line it all up! I have canned almost 150 jars of stuff, but when I saw it all together I was a little surprised. We have already eaten a lot of jam. Next up, Mango Jam and Cranberry Jelly and another cranberry recipe I want to try. Mmmm....

Today

Today was one of those days where you feel like it was three days long. This morning we went the grocery store, which was as almost as fun as reciting the quadratic equation while someone is lighting your hair on fire. It led me to an important conclusion: the kiddie car shopping carts are directly from the pits of hell. In addition to being petri dishes for swine flu and other nasty germs, they are really not made for two children despite the fact that they have two seat belts. They are designed for 1.34 children, otherwise known as the average American family size. They provide the perfect environment for massive sibling squabbles, not to mention the fact that they are stinkin' hard to navigate with. But I digress. Grocery shopping. Then, my friend Merry Jo stopped in for a visit. We haven't seen each other for almost a year and a half, so it was especially nice to visit in person, and we got to meet each others' littlest babies. Here is a picture of all our kiddos:'


After they left and the kids were up from their naps, we carved jack-o-lanterns. James was so excited he could hardly contain himself. I raided Jeff's toolbox for his drywall saw, which worked splendidly in case you are wondering. I put the kids to work scooping out the seeds and goop.


I scrounged around for a few candles and a match, and lit 'em up. The kids loved it!!! Can you guess which Jack-o-lantern is which, and why??


After the pumpkins, I made a batch of apple butter...11 jars to be exact! Then dinner, clean up and all that jazz and now, I'm tired! Goodnight, peeps!

Purgatory and BBQ Sauce

If there was such a place as purgatory, I have determined that it would have something to do potty training small children while listening to rap music and with the smell of patchouli wafting in the air. That would be punishment all right. Enough to make me want to purify my soul reeeeeal quick. Seriously, I forgot how much I hate potty training. If I didn't hate buying diapers even more, I would let them pee themselves from now to all eternity just so I could avoid this scenario:

'Pa-eeee! Pa-eeee! Mon! Mon!' (Translation: Potty! Potty! Come on! Come on!) This statement must be taken seriously, and acted upon quickly, or else there might be no reason to sit on the pot by the time we get there. Get my drift? So, at the sound of 'pa-eeee!' I must immediately jump up, run to the bathroom, where we throw on the midget-sized toilet seat, strip off clothes and diaper and hastily plop the buns down on the seat. This is also complicated by the fact that I have a newborn who nurses quite frequently. Once in proper potty-ing position, you get to sit and wait. And wait. And wait. And sixty-six percent of the time, you get a big fat nothing. After sitting there for five or ten minutes, coaxing a small child to pee, they proudly declare 'All done!' despite the fact that nothing has been done. Nothing, that is, but wasting precious minutes of my life sitting on the edge of a bathtub waiting the poop that was not to be. There are also the times when we reach the bathroom only to discover that the deed has already been done and there is nothing to do but clean up the aftermath. There are times when we get there in time, and there is actually success, and those times are exciting! Katie gets such a proud look on her face and waves 'bye-bye' to her poop. Good times! If it weren't for those successes, I'm pretty sure I'd lose my mind. (Oh, and in case you are wondering if I am insane for potty training Katie with a three week old baby? Yes, I am insane, but no, it was not my idea. She asks to go, wants to go, so I figured I'd better take the hint and encourage it now)

I did mention BBQ Sauce, which I am sure is the most rip-roarin' thing on your list of must-reads today, so here goes. Despite the blight that has struck my tomatoes, I have been able to ripen some of them in my window. I had enough today to start a batch of BBQ sauce to can. Never done that before, so I had to try. It shall be Spicy Jalepeno BBQ sauce, in honor of my Mexican ancestors, and hopefully it turns out good. What? BBQ sauce isn't Mexican? And I don't have any Mexican ancestors? Well, I wish I did. Their taste in food is muy bien.

Blight, Gluteus Instruments and Randomness

My tomatoes are dropping like flies from blight. Apparently the East coast has been hit hard this year, thanks to all the rain we've been getting. I have no idea if I'll get much of anything in the way of tomatoes this year, which make up two-thirds of my garden. So frustrating! Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I have found various canning recipes for green tomatoes (salsa, chutney, relish). I might actually try chutney, even though it sounds sketchy to me. I just finished canning several pints of salsa, so we'll see how that turns out.

In other news, we never heard back from the original offer on our house, but there is a new guy interested who said (exaggerated air quotes hear) that he is going to put in an offer today. We'll see how it pans out.

And a funny story: James thinks 'shooting buzzards' is so funny. He likes to announce it every time by saying 'I just shot some buzzards, Mommy!' followed by mass giggling. Yesterday I said 'What do you say, James?' (He knows what to say...) and he said, 'Instrument,' and laughed. 'My buns are an instrument.' Somehow, I don't think he'll get credit in band class for that one.

Mud = Loads of Fun and Mountains of Laundry

The weekend started off innocently enough. The sun finally came out and we went strawberry picking. However, weeks of what seems like non-stop drizzle, plus a strawberry field, plus two little kids equals either a muddy mess, or a lot of fun, depending on who you ask. Honestly, I was happy when the kids found the mud puddle to play in because it kept them from trying to pick and/or eat all the rotten strawberries they could find. Why was it that they managed to avoid all the nice looking strawberries?

Katie was the first to discover the mud puddle, and soon they were squishing and splashing and getting their crocs stuck in the mud. After a while, James spotted a road cone off in the distance, and sweetly led his sister by the hand so they could go see it.

Behold, the road cone. Nothing could be more fascinating. In the meantime I was rapidly trying to pick strawberries while they were entertaining themselves.



In the end, they were a very muddy mess and required, unfortunately, the towel I only thought I had in the truck. Oops. Wipes would just have to work. The pictures do not do justice to just how muddy they were, and believe it or not, we did make an appearance at the fabric store like that on the way home. Don't tell anyone.



The end result of the strawberry picking adventure (and a while spent over a hot stove) was this: seven jars of strawberry rhubarb jam! The first jam of the season, and just in time, because we are actually getting very low.

Saturday afternoon was spent with friends, including a surprise visit from one of our Colorado compadres! It rained enough to soak our kids, and James spent his time running around after his friends and jumping on the trampoline, all while trying to hold up his water-logged and too-loose Wranglers. And while they had lots of fun, they weren't done with soggy messes just yet! Here are a few pictures of our Sunday afternoon. (Jeff spent his Father's Day putting in a new bathroom floor at the house of stress. Nice way to spend Father's Day, huh?)

In what was innocently supposed to be a romp in the yard, James discovered none other than a mini mud-pit in the yard. Faster than a speeding bullet, he had successfully covered his arms in mud. Katie met him at the mud hole and they proceeded to paint each other with mud and have a grand ol' time. When they were done, I went to spray them off with the hose, and James said 'What hose, Mommy?' Well, yes, that is a good question, James. In fact, as even my 3.5 year old knew, the hose was at the 'other house,' being used for the power washer. To quote Jeff, 'Nice, Megan, nice.' So, I used a card from my mom's playbook and made them strip down at the door. I then carried them through the house and dumped them straight in the tub. And at the end of this mud-filled weekend, this is what I have been left with:

A very dirty tub. And some very happy, albeit tired, kids.



Thus ends the longest and most rambling photo post ever.

Ketchup Packets are Wondrous Things

If my memory serves me well, James has been to a fast food restaurant only three times. Once in Maine, when he was about 20 months old, once in Colorado, where he refused to eat the food, and then once last Saturday. We went to the only place I have ever heard of that serves chicken for breakfast: Chick-fil-@. He got a kid's meal, which I can assure you is the first kid's meal my poor deprived kid has ever had. When he got his bag, he asked 'Is this mine?' When I said yes, he sat down and pulled out a box of chicken nuggets, an envelope of fries, a bug catcher toy, a juice box, and.....ketchup packets. Now it is worth mentioning that he was so distracted by both the juice box and the mysterious little packets that he didn't even notice it was a toy he removed from his bag. He quickly dove into the juice box, and asked me what those little things were. When I explained to him that they had ketchup inside, he was quite enthralled. He even brought a couple packets home with him. Since Saturday, he has been asking me to make eggs so he can have 'that ketchup' on them. Who knew that a few ketchup packets could give my kid something to anticipate for days?! He did, eventually, realize he got a toy with his lunch. He picked at the chicken nuggets, and ate a few fries. But who cares about toys and chicken nuggets when there are ketchup packets to be had?

And in other random news, I canned strawberry jam today!!! Its not quite strawberry season here yet, but the grocery store had a decent sale on strawberries and I couldn't resist. It was fun!

Next Up: Conquer the World!

I was talking to my friend Erin yesterday about canning. She unknowingly inspired me to get back on the canning wagon and make some jam. And applesauce. And peppers. We stayed with her for part of our time in Grand Junction this summer. It was on her floor that Katie pooped. On her kitchen chair that James peed. Yep. And she still talks to me! :) So I was telling Erin her house was like staying at a spa. Seriously, it is. Its nice and quiet. She has lots of cookbooks. Good food. She and her hubby are down to earth, 'good peoples' as Phil would say. Did I mention it was quiet? And relaxing? While we were there, we spent a lot of our time discussing canning, cooking, gardening and the book AnimalVegetableMiracle. Anyway, she sent me home with the book and a newfound desire to can my buns off. That hasn't actually happened. But, I have successfully canned 86 jars of stuff, with plans for about 2 dozen more. I would keep going, but alas, I ran out of jars and everyone is sold out. I estimate that the Groves pigs, I mean family, have consumed upwards of 25 to 30 jars of canned goods already, and I just keep filling the jars back up. Some of that was jars that weren't quite full enough to can. But we're going to have to reign ourselves in or we'll have eaten everything by January. That applesauce is just so good! Next year, I will conquer my pickle fears and maybe even get a real canner and a food mill. After that, I'll conquer the world!



Here is a list of what I have canned this year. I can think of a whole two people who read my blog who will be interested in this, but hey, its for posterity. Here's the list: applesauce, peach applesauce, cinnamon pears, peaches, jalapenos with garlic, jalapenos with cayenne peppers, hot peppers, blueberry-lime jam, pear honey, strawberry-rhubarb syrup, blueberry-orange syrup, strawberry jam, pear jam, peach jam, blackberry jam, raspberry-chocolate spread

I just realized I canned no salsa! The tomatoes didn't do so well this year. Next year I'll have to make sure I plant more tomatoes!

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know how they say that you should always wear rubber gloves when you are handling peppers? Well, they may be on to something. I have chopped jalepenos plenty of times before and never had a problem. I just wash my hands and go on with life. Well. Let me tell you. I had a batch of peppers from someone at church, which I believe thanks to Google research, are mild Italian peppers. I decided to make pickled peppers. I added one jalepeno to each jar. All I did was cut slits in FOUR jalepenos. I didn't cut them open, touch the seeds or anything. So, either the mild Italian peppers are really some evil fire-breathing monster in disguise or the jalepenos from my garden are especially HOT! My hands are on fire, and have been for the last three hours. Thanks again to Google, I tried a few strange remedies but they have only temporarily worked. Although the pain is easing a tiny bit now, it feels like my hands are in boiling water and I can't take them out. The moral of the story, boys and girls, is to wear gloves! Either all jalepenos are not created equal or the
"Italian" peppers are the culprit. Now, I will go back to wrapping my hands around this frozen jug of water I have in my lap. Those peppers better be good!