It’s been a busy day around here.
I woke up around 15 after 1 this morning to heavy rain hitting the roof. Praise God because sure needed the rain on our gardens. We have been watering them of the mornings with the water hose but a good soaking rain like only God can provide does such a better job at perking things up and making them grow.
We harvested okra, pear tomatoes, a few small heirloom tomatoes that I forget what the name is now, and hot banana peppers today.
Stripped my bed, sorted mine and husband’s hamper, then got the laundry started while the children sorted their hampers. Made breakfast, cleaned up from breakfast and started the children to cleaning their rooms.
While they were cleaning their rooms, I started working on the harvest and getting that put by for later.
I had recently bought some markdown fruit that needed to be used up so I mixed up a few batches of pureed fruit to make the children some fruit leather. Peaches, kiwi, strawberries, and a few other fruits. I made five trays worth up and put them in the Excalibur 9-tray dehydrator. I’m loving my new dehydrator!
Also took my apple/peeler/corer/slicer all-in-one and sliced, cored and peeled some apples to make apple chips (be sure to dip your slices in a mixture of lemon juice & water so they don’t brown). I made 3 trays worth so far. I will cut up a few more of the apples when these are done.
After those were on the dehydrator, I set to work on cutting up the squash and zucchini a friend gave us. I julienned it and will use it in stirfry in a day or two.
Cut up the two pineapples and put those in containers so that we can just get out what is needed when we want to make a smoothie or dh wants to grab a container to take to work with him.
Sliced up 3 quarts of strawberries and flash froze those on pans in the freezer then put them into a gallon baggie. Dh has been using them in his smoothies of the morning.
I worked the peppers into pickled peppers for sandwiches, okra into pickled okra aka okra pickles, and making salsa.
I made 3 quarts of salsa and 1 pint plus had a little leftover I’ll use with supper tonight. A quart and a pint of okra pickles and a pint of pickled peppers. I have 2 quarts and a pint of pickling juice left.
Still have about a dozen or so cucumbers to work with. We really don’t need any pickles or relish made at the moment as we still have quite a few on the shelves in the pantry. I’ll probably save a few to make cucumber sandwiches for dinner aka lunch this week at least one day. Considering how much pickling juice I have left, I may make something pickled out of these afterall. lol
I want to make some more orange marmalade as a friend’s sister was in visiting and ended up buying 5 of the 6 jars I made. She loved it.
Oh, I took the lemon peel and orange peels of the dehydrator (like in the orange marmalade recipe mentions). Had a time trying to figure out how to grind them up as it wouldn’t work in the clear coffee grinder I recently (ended up giving that to oldest dd as she needed one) and didn’t work in the food processor very well. Not owning a spice grinder nor wanting to put them through my mill that I grind wheat in (didn’t want to risk tearing my Wonder Mill up). So I put a few in the blender and they came out just great in granules and a few bits and pieces.
Laundry is about done. Couldn’t hang it out as it rained off and on up until around noon time or better. I’ve even got my ironing almost done a day ahead of schedule!
The compost bucket has been emptied twice thus far. Good stuff for the compost bin out back and eventually rich dark compost for our gardens.
Breakfast we had: scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, slices of tomato, milk
Dinner aka lunch: Turkey & Pesto sandwiches (shaved turkey heated on the griddle, wheat bread toasted on each side then slathered with pesto (I used kale pesto but basil pesto is good too… we were just out of it at the moment. I have to make some), then topped with lettuce and slices of tomato. YUM!!!
Supper: I'm going to make tacos using up some packs of tacos that friend gave us, some homemade salsa I made and put in some black beans that I got free after q, and a pound of ground beef. I’m missing my fresh lettuce from the garden. It's getting too hot for it here.
The whole house is about clean too. Oldest ds worked on the boys’ bedroom and hall bathroom for me. The girls’ worked on their bedroom and the living room for me. DS #2 worked on the dining room for me and laundry room. I’ll have the kitchen the clean up when I’m completely done in there as well as my bedroom, and bathroom.
I found the time to take a cute yellow with white polka dots infant dress and turn it into a new clothespin bag for me. I bought the dress for a $1 at the thrift store. Here it is finished with the hanger and clothes pins in it.
That is so much more sunnier and prettier than this old canvas thing I made a few years ago and have been using:
Oh and oldest ds even fixed two drawers for me that had fell apart (one was our kitchen junk drawer – maybe time to dejunk some junk? lol and the other was a drawer from their dresser that youngest ds used for his clothes.
Ground up Soft White Wheat (Pastry Wheat) using my Wonder Mill and made Muffin Mix using a recipe from the Make A Mix Revised cookbook. I highly recommend the Make A Mix Cookbooks. I use them regularly for muffin mix, various meat mixtures using ground beef, seasoning mixes, cookie mixes, and more.
Made up more taco seasoning mix (also from the Make A Mix cookbooks).
No garden work today due to the amount of rain we got… too soggy to work in them.
Overall, it’s been a productive day! And I hope I’m not done honestly. I want to pick some basil leaves and make some pesto up but I’m not 100% sure that’s going to get done now that dh has come home. He decided to build the pull out drawers in the old dishwasher hole that was a cabinet before. Dishwasher was a hassle and didn’t clean well so we got rid of it. Bought it at a local thrift store so it wasn’t a big loss but I lost a cabinet when I bought. Now I’ll have my cabinet back. So now I’ll have to wait until he gets that done so I can wash supper dishes up.
How has your day been?
The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere Copywork Notebook
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