MORE SALSA MAKING

 Up to meet IR and CA this morning as RL's other g-ma is up here to stay with her today. I got chores done and then we had breakfast together. I needed to go to the Curb Market this morning and make a deposit so we headed out there about CA's nap time.  She was asleep before we got out of driveway so that was good.                                                                                                                                               Hubbie and IR stayed close around the car at market while I went inside and got the deposit ready.  We made a stop at our bank to deposit a check then on to the market bank for the deposit then we asked IR what she wanted for lunch since we were out. She wanted a cheese quesadia from CookOut and she loves their hush puppies so we stopped there on our way home.                                                                  IR, hubbie and I had a good lunch while CA still napped.                                                                             Daughter came in and brought a package that I had ordered and it was this little pull out sleeper seat for CA and she loved it.

Daughter had brought over things for another run of salsa since we have an overrun of Roma tomatoes right now. While the girls and pawpaw played with blocks we made 11 pints of very thick, delicious salsa.

Daughter left and hubbie and I got chores done before walking down and checking out #1 son's work on the gate.

It has been a nasty cloudy drizzly day and there was .2" of rain in the gauge this evening.

I spent the evening baking and icing 6 caramel cakes.

Thankful for the blessings of this day.

God Bless and Good Night

TOMATO CANNING, FENCE BUILDING, MASKED SHOPPING MONDAY

 Seems Monday mornings come around faster and faster these days. RL was our only grand today as, Connie, IR and CA's other g-ma came up to stay with them today. Daughter came over to d-in-love's house to teach and stay with g-son while he did his school work.                                                                     I got chores done on a cloudy cooler morning and then had breakfast with RL, She is really hungry this morning which is a good sign for a good day but she is sad because she doesn't have IR here to play with.   We loaded up and drove to Asheville to the Home Depot over there that has the gate opener in stock that we have decided on.   This store was huge and they pretty much had anything you want and everyone we met had a mask on which was very comforting. RL is really good about wearing her mask and keeping her hands to herself as she understands that touching things could make her sick.                                                 

We found all the things we needed for the gate opener except some remotes which I ordered online. We also shopped around for light bulbs and some other things that we needed.  When we headed home we took the Parkway and RL saw a deer  standing on the side of the road so she was tickled.                         We came home and had lunch of yesterdays left overs and RL once again ate very well.                          I got weekly laundry started and did three loads of laundry in between playing with RL and canning this sink full of tomatoes.

I finished up with 7 more quarts to add to the winter pantry. 

I only have 5 more ids left if the order we put in trough Target doesn't rescue me I guess this will be all the tomatoes that get canned this year. I do have the 2 cases of jelly jars I am saving for jelly but that is all. We have our fingers crossed for the lids we ordered from Target so hopefully they show up this week.                                                                                                                                                              Our tomato vines are looking pretty pitiful with all this rain but something tells me I shouldn't let anything go to waste this year !!  I can freeze tomatoes thankfully to make sauce or something later.        Daughter has 2 packs of lids left and is coming tomorrow to make her a run of salsa from the mostly Roma tomatoes we have gathered.

D-in-love picked up RL and after they left hubbie and I decided to get chores done early to try and beat the rain that is headed our way.

We just finished when a light rain started falling . We took umbrellas and walked down to #1 son's house to help with the fence he is building  beside our gate spot.

This should definitely solve out wayward travelers problem.

We came back home still with a light rain falling and hubbie went down and brought a battery back to charge and took son another post.

I finished getting the last load of laundry out of the dryer and then relaxed for the evening.

The first of the storms made landfall tonight at 6pm as Marco was a weakened tropical storm that came ashore around the mouth of the Mississippi River and is headed west hopefully pulling this rain away from us as he goes.

The major threat is to come later this week as hurricane Laura makes her way into the gulf and heads for the same area but turns east and comes up over our area at the end of the week.

This will not be a good thing is she brings a lot of rain to our already saturated ground around here.

Thankful for the blessings of this day and for a loving gracious Savior.

God Bless and Good Night

RESTFUL SUNDAY

 A leisurely Sunday morning felt so good today and the sun shining through the bedroom windows didn't hurt either.  We got chores done and then had breakfast, hubbie always likes to eat a huge breakfast on Sunday mornings.  After we finished eating we started lunch preparations.                                                     We cooked a ham , fresh boiled potatoes, corn on the cob, fresh green beans, slaw, sliced tomatoes and biscuits.                                                                                                                                                               #1 son's family, #2 son and Tif, Aa's family were our guest today. Daughter's family had lunch with son-in-love's family.                                                                                                                                                  After lunch the girls ran an errand while the guys stayed here and played with the kids and #1 son and I decided on an automatic gate opener.  As hubbie questioned another car that came driving up in the yard he found out there is an air b&b at the address folks keep thinking is ours so we definitely need to get a gate up.        After the girls got back #1 son and hubbie went ahead and put in some post for the gate. We found a gate opener in Asheville that I can pick up tomorrow so we are on our way to eliminating the unwanted traffic in our driveways.                                                                                                                    I put away some laundry and then went down to watch the work until choretime.                                            After chores hubbie and I relaxed for the evening to get ready for another busy week.

Thankful for all the blessings of this day                        

God Bless and Good Night

YARDWORK SATURDAY

 Got a rude awakening just after midnight today when a truck came driving up the drive. It was pouring rain so he had trouble backing down to get turned around and #1 son who was awake called to see what was going on because he had seen him pass his house.  The truck headed back down the drive and stopped in front of son's house for awhile then turned around in the highway and came back up here. With the warning from son we were ready for him with a big spotlight and when he saw the light he stopped and said he was looking for an address that isn't on our driveway. He left and we went back to bed but then the rain started pouring and thunder and lightening kept us awake for quite awhile. I think I finally went to sleep around 2am when the storm passed and the rain slacked off some.                                                         When we got up this morning we saw the results of the heavy overnight rains were a flooded bottom pasture.                                                                                                                                                               

It looked like the water had been quite a bit higher and had already went down.

Hubbie and I got chores done and everything acted like they were certainly glad to see the warm sunshine this morning.  We had breakfast then went outside to get some yardwork done.

These bushes in this bed are getting way overgrown and there is poison ivy starting under the bushes that needs to be removed. This is what is looked like before I started.

I put on gloves, long sleeves and even a face mask to crawl around underneath the Azaleas and butterfly bushes to pull the poison ivy out and then came inside to wash my face and arms anyway with a poison ivy scrub just to be on the safe side. This is after the trimming. And we moved our house number sign into better view.

I cleaned a little more in some other beds but didn't want to take away any of the flowering vines as there was honey bees all over them. 

We came inside and had BLT's for lunch then went up to the garden to pick green beans and more tomatoes. The clouds grew dark for a while but the  storms missed our area today thankfully. I got more Fall crop seeds planted today. I planted lettuce, spinach, Swiss card, carrots, kale and rutabagas in a couple of my raised bed cattle waterers.

#1 son came up and we decided to put a gate on our driveway with a coded access so we can stop the middle of night wanderers from getting up in here.

The weather is still the main story with not both storms having names as Marco was named today.

After chores hubbie and I ended the busy day watching  the storm clouds build around the horizon again tonight.

There is still a lot of water standing in the bottom pasture as the ground is so saturated it can't sink in right now.

Thankful for the blessings of this day.

God Bless and Good Night

HEART SURGERY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY

 Up to greet all three grand girls this morning. It has rained pretty much all night, heavily at times and it is still raining as I head out in my rain gear to get chores done.                                                                           

Back inside we all settled in for an inside play day after we all ate breakfast together.  All three of the girls wanted to get into the block building today.                                                                                                       

After lunch there was more playtime for these girls who have no idea that only just exactly one year ago today CA was having her life saving heart surgery.                                                                                      

CA has changed so much in a year it is hard to believe looking at her now as a bouncing walking wild little toddler that at this very time last year she was suffering so much and it was taking all her energy just to breath.                                                                                                                                               

  One of our cousins has a T-shirt printing business and she made the family a shirt to celebrate this one year anniversary.

After everyone left hubbie and I once again got into our rain gear and got evening chores done. I dumped 2.4inches of rain from the gauge this evening. 

I came inside and got started making another run of salsa from all these Roma tomatoes that we had gathered before the rain started.

I had 14 pints of a very thick delicious salsa when I finished around 11:00. 

The big news is this chance of a historical event in the gulf this next week as these 2 storms, one already named Laura head into the gulf and toward the coast . Both storms are expected to be at hurricane strength when they come ashore.

It has been since 1933 that two storms hit at the same time and they were not both hurricanes. 

Praying for all the folks in the paths of these storms.

Thankful for all the blessings of this day and so so thankful for God's healing hand on CA. Feeling very very blessed today.

God Bless and Good Night

TOMATO CANNING DAY

 IR was my wake up call early this morning after she and CA arrived. RL is with her other g-ma today.     I got another earlier wake up call telling me my Sam's Club order was ready for pick-up also. So I got dressed and headed out to Sam's first. It only took 8 minutes today for them to get my order from when I checked in so that is so much better than when they first started doing this.  I got all my items except one and it is being shipped .  Back home hubbie and IR helped carry things inside and then I went up to get chores done.                                                                                                                                           It is a very cloudy, cool morning for md August and things are starting to look a little like Fall is closer than it should be !!                                                                                                                                        When I came back inside IR had a surprise to show me. She has been busy already this morning building a bigger tower.                                                                                                                                                    

 

After I fixed myself an egg and salsa omelet for breakfast I got started on this mountain of tomatoes that have been ripening out in the sunroom for a several days.                                                                     

In the middle of blanching the tomatoes #2 son called hubbie to come take him to the auto parts store, he had changed his oil but stripped the old oil pan plug so he called around and found one for his old 1996 Ford pick-up but needed a ride to go pick it up since Tif was working today. CA needed a nap so hubbie took the girls and went over to pick him up.                                                                                     I had one water bath canner going and was just putting the last jars in the other one by the time they got home. While the tomatoes water bathed for 45 minutes we had lunch.  I had made some roasted okra fries for lunch to go with tomatoes and biscuits.                                                                                              

When the canner were emptied I had 14 quarts of tomatoes for the winter pantry.  I dug up all my wide mouthed jars this morning since I found some old wide mouth lids I had bought several years ago to use since we have not been fortunate enough to find any more canning lids. I guess with all the extra folks growing gardens this year there is a much higher demand for these and all the store shelves are empty.

I played with CA and IR until daughter came in to pick them up.  After they all left hubbie and I went to Sav Mor grocery store as I was in there yesterday looking for lids and saw that they did have some small canning jars with lids for sale. The price on these jars and lids was less than most places want for just lid flats right now so I hoped they were still there. Thankfully it was even better when I got there and they had some half pint sized jars which were bigger than the 4 ounce ones I saw yesterday. They only had 2 dozen so I got them as I need to make more apple jelly so I can use this sized jar for that.       Unfortunately this is the same as with any shortage of products some people are buying these up and reselling them at 4 times the store price for profit so that is adding to the problem.

Anyway I am just thankful to have found these so I can continue to put up my garden produce to help feed my family this winter.                                                                                                                            I layed out all the tomatoes I picked from the garden yesterday and the table is filled back up waiting for the next salsa making day.  My back is screaming after this mornings canning so I will have to give it a rest before tackling anymore canning.                                                                                                     

All these Roma tomatoes will make great thick salsa !!                                                                                We picked out Walmart curbside order up this evening so we are stocked up for a while now. With all the kids here everyday it is amazing how much more food we go through but I love to see them eat.

We got evening chores done and then sat outside for a while. The clouds have hung around all day with a few peeks of sunshine and the predictions are for the rain early in the morning now so glad we got all our running around in today.                                                                                                                          Thankful for the blessings of this day.

God Bless and Good Night

WEDNESDAY ERRAND DAY

 Up to greet all the girls this morning. RL wasn't having a good morning and it was catching especially for CA who didn't want to eat any breakfast.                                                                                                          I got chores done and then had a protein bar and cup of coffee before we headed out to get the weekly errands done and make the dump / recycle center run.  D-in-love had packed them a special snack bag each and they soon were all smiles enjoying the things she had put in their bags.                                           

We made several stops to look for canning lids to no avail so we came home after making a stop at the P.O. to drop off the bills.                                                                                                                                While we waited for lunch RL and IR built towers with the building blocks we have.                               

After the girls ate an early lunch they rode with me to make a cake delivery then we stopped at Cookout to get fries and m&m milkshakes for an outside picnic they were planning when we get home.                 Meow Meow wanted in on the milkshake picnic and the girls were glad to share with him !!!                                                                                    

After they finished their shakes they got to swing on the big swing together for a while before thunder started sounding too close for comfort so we all came inside.                                                                      I had another multiple cake delivery to make at 4:00 and thankfully the storm went to the east of our area with only a light sprinkle for us.                                                                                                            When I got back from the cake deliveries d-in-love and daughter were here to pick up the girls. I gave daughter the money for her cakes that I delivered and then they all left.                                                      Hubbie went down to finish bush hogging the bottom pasture and I watched the news then went out to the garden to pick tomatoes. They weather sounds very stormy for tomorrow with maybe some hail so I wanted to get all the ripe ones gathered in.  I also brought the onions in to dry on the screen in the sunroom where the dried beans had been drying. We didn't have many survive all the rain and they didn't get as big as we wanted but any is better than none !!

 

                                                                                              

 I got chores done then I planted the 4 mums that d-in-love brought me last weekend and then hubbie and I finished out the evening watching a beautiful sunset.                                                                          

Thankful for the blessings of this day.                                                                                                           God Bless and Good Night