Christmas links

If only I had more time or if I'd have started earlier!
this would have been fun, as would these of these. Awe well...there's always next year I guess

Five Gallons of Salsa!

Yesterday, I finally decided to "do something" with the almost bushel of tomatoes the kids picked. My husband decided to "do something with" the half bushel of peppers he'd picked. The result: 20 quarts of salsa. It's sort of unbelievable. We had run out of pints so we just bottled it in quarts. I realized this morning that 20 quarts is five GALLONS of salsa! That's a LOTTA SALSA!

But that's the stuff that gets finished around here...at least in previous years. Hopefully the kids won't be burnt out on salsa this year.

All the peaches are gone!

We had the absolute *best* peaches this year. My husband canned some of them, but most of them we just ate. Ate as in right off the tree half the time. They were nothing like the peaches you get from the store..they were juicy & sweet and yum. We ate the last two yesterday. We only have one little peach tree, and we only planted it like 3 yrs ago, but this first year of harvest was so bountiful I'd wished we'd have planted way more of them! They sure *were* :::Sob::: good!

We have tomatoes!

Those are two half bushels! Yikes...we're squeezing them into juice as I type. We're like the ants getting ready for winter!

My oldest is 18 today

I can't believe it. It was just yesterday that we brought her home from the hospital. Time stops for no one. Incredible. I am so very proud of her :)

Crazy Busy

That's what it's been around here. My Mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and her husband came to visit this past weekend. I've started merchandising & doing electronics demos. Yikes...that's intimidating! But it's a little money.

We've also had overflowing strawberries! I wish you were here so I could give you some berries!

Other than that, I don't know where the time goes in the summer. Here I had to make a few phone calls & it's too late. (on the list tomorrow).

Other than that...have a great day!

New Life...

Sunday; it was cold & rainy around here. My husband had gone to see his Mother for the weekend & I had to feed the animals. I was cranky...in a mood...when I went out to the barn to find that the momma mallard had hatched her eggs! She ended up with 15ducklings! ...but they're all pretty nervous around people & snuggle under momma to stay warm. I got this pic of her and one baby, the others were too shy for the camera & I didn't want to upset her further. The whole discovering that she'd hatched her babes made for a more uplifting day to be sure! We've had chickens "set" on their eggs around here before, but the chickens have never been very successful.
The mallards--on the other hand--more so. Fun stuff...