Harvest Right Pick Up

 FedEx was supposed to come get our

machine yesterday,

but there were no drivers in the area.

(Welcome to the middle of nowhere...)

Anyhow.

A really friendly gentleman showed up

this afternoon, just as I was coming

home from my blood work.

He was able to back right up to the

shop ramp and we just rolled her

right on into the truck.

Now we just wait for 4-6 weeks

until they get her all fixed up

and she can come home again.

(And then I rememberered that I

named the thing BOB.)

Whatever.

Anyhow.

I'm going to go help Rod for a minute

and then pop some cookies in the 

oven and then get ready to teach.

Had a wonderful visit with Mom this

morning! SO excited for all the new

house stuff happening on the 30th!

That's going to be so awesome!

Baked Beans and Lawnmowers

 This morning after making breakfast

I put a pound of navy beans into

a pot on the stove for a quick soak.

(Forgot to soak them last night...)

And then I used Reid Homestead's

recipe and made 5 pints of

baked beans to put in the pressure 

canner for us to eat.

Obviously I forgot to put a glug

of vinegar in the water.

There's a nice hard water ring

on the jars.

But otherwise they look good.

None of them syphoned.

It looks like maybe one didn't seal,

but there's time yet.

And if not, I'll just put them in the

fridge and we will eat them this week.

While that was processing,

I jumped on Rod's big zero-turn

lawnmower and did a couple of laps

up the valley, across the top of the hill

and back down to the house.

It makes a nice walking path.

And then down to the front of the 

property to do 2 passes around the

little 5-acre section down there.

Need some variety in our walking!

Stopped by the mailbox on the way

back to the house and got a fun

package from Mom with some

halloween earrings!

SO CUTE!

Can't wait to wear them!

But now, I need to go get my zoom

started for tonight.

Hope you had a fun Monday!

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

 Today we get to celebrate 

our Mom's 91st birthday!!!!

91!!!

That's an achievement!

She can EASILY pass for

a woman much younger!

(Although at 89+ she started telling

people she was 90 cuz it sounded better....)

Hahahahahaha!

You gotta love our Mom!

I sure do!

(This was 2 years ago...)

Can you believe we were just in Tucson and

I only took ONE picture of her!

Hahaha.

There ya' go Mom.

Your BACK.

That's pathetic.

But everybody who knows me and

knows my blog isn't surprised to find

that I'm a TERRIBLE picture taker!

I carry my camera all the time

and NEVER think to take pictures.

(In my defense, it wasn't ONLY her

I took no pictures of..... I got some nice

pictures of the flowers...)

But that's ok.

We know her.

We love her.

We are so inspired by her!

She goes out of her way to make

every one ELSE'S day brighter.

She makes lap afghans to celebrate

everyone's birthday at their apartment complex.

She makes TONS of unique and 

beautiful jewelry, and most of it 

she chooses to give away!

(Selling a little of it for teeny tiny

prices so folks don't feel like its

charity - they like to be able to

purchase pretty things for loved ones.)

She makes over 100 month specific

thoughtful moments for each of the

residents, many of the workers,

and lots of friends and family

EVERY MONTH.

(And then delivers them, hanging each

little goodie on the door for the

resident to find as a fun surprise.)

She is still busy doing genealogy.

And is back to weekly church attendance

and even going back to the temple!

She makes me feel lazy!

I get to chat with her on the phone

and she is always so cheerful and

upbeat and excited about what is

happening that day / week in her life

and the lives of those around her.

She had a fun outing yesterday with the

Young Women in her ward.

I can't wait to tell our YW about it....

such a unique and wonderful idea!

She is, of course, grieving the passing 

of our Dad and her dear husband.

But she is doing so in a loving and

gentle manner. I'm so proud of her

for making the effort to get out and

make even MORE friends and do things

and invite others who are also grieving

to join her in getting out there.

And when it all gets too hard,

she is willing to admit she is having a

hard day and accept the loving support

and assistance those who love her, offer.

If you can't tell.

I just LOVE my Mom.

Happy Birthday Mom.

I hope the rest of your day was wonderful.

(Send me pictures!!! LOL)

Final Harvest 2026

 Kyle and I just went down

to the garden to do the final harvest.

We picked 10 gallons of peppers.

And another several buckets full of

green tomatoes.

Some of the prettiest tomatoes,

except, of course, for the whole

GREEN thing.

We left HUNDREDS of tiny

green tomatoes on the plants.

(Picked a 2.5 gallon bucket

for the pigs though...)

Why? you ask?

The forecast looks like it's going to

be COLD tonight.

And since the garden is in the valley,

it usually gets a bit colder.

(This is the forecast for in town...)

Likely the plants will either be dead

or severely damaged by tomorrow.

I'm just going to spread them into

some cardboard boxes I kept from

when we got the peaches this summer.

I'll keep an eye on them over the next

few weeks and months and see if

any of them turn.

If not, the pigs love tomatoes.

We also picked a bunch of watermelon.

We will not be planting watermelon next summer.

It took MONTHS for them to ripen.

And they are FULL of seeds.

I'm going to cut these,

run them through the food mill to get

the seeds out and then pour the pulp

into some freezer molds I have and

freeze them and then run them through

the freeze dryer to powder and add

to yogurt or ice cream or white cake mix.

IF they taste good.

If not, more pig food.

(I love having pigs!)

Meanwhile, we also picked the last

of the useable okra.

Next year we plan to plant a LOT of

okra (for the amish auction)

and so we are going to need some of

those nifty harvest aprons.

It has a big pocket in the front and

when you release the straps,

it opens straight down so you

can just dump straight into a bucket.

The best thing, of course, is it leaves

both hands free for picking!

Garden Apron

I found this one at WalMart,

so I'm saving the link here so I'll remember

where it is when I need to buy them

next spring.

I've seen several people who use them,

but put a big silver bowl in the pocket

to pick into. Kind of holds the pocket

open and makes it easier to pick into.

For $12 I'm willing to give it a try!

Anyhow.

Jim is on his way over so he and

Kyle can get the freeze dryer off the

shelf in the prep room and onto a

pallet so we can ship it back and

get it repaired.

(We've been BUSY!)

And now I need to go get ready

for tonight's class.

I need to send emails to all the

students for this weekend's

LA class as well.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

We will be here,

enjoying the fall weather!

(It goes back into the 70 and 80s

next week...)

Raining.... again.

 It's cold.

And wet.

It was only forecasted to get to 50.

But it never made it over 48.

Luckily Rod had some stuff to do in

the attic, so he was warm..... lol.

Before we blow in the insulation,

he needed to change some of the

plumbing - the vent in the laundry room

should have gone into the attic instead

of just into the room.

It smells.

(grin)

He will need some help from one

of the guys - it will take 2 people

and I don't really DO ladders.

But, I was helping him as much as I could.

Like handing up boards for him to stretch

across the joists so he didn't crash through

the ceiling....

I had planned to pressure cook a bunch

of the honey nut squash and get it into

the freezer, but I didn't do that.

I also didn't bake any cookies.

(I was going to do that just to kind

of warm up the house a bit...)

Tonight I'm in my office with a space heater

and the curtain closed on the room.

It's TOASTY in here.

(And quite chilly - 62 - in the rest of

the house, but no need to heat the entire

house if I'm the only one home, in my office.)

However, with about 20 minutes left in my

class tonight, there was a crash of lightning/

thunder and an instant huge rain deluge.

And the power flickered.

Just enough to crash my zoom.

Rod is on his way home from Mutual.

But it's only sprinkling now.

I turned on the porch light.

And I'll fire up the furnace when he gets here.

In the meantime,

I had a nice visit with Mom on the phone

this morning. We are going to switch our

weekly calls to Wednesday since she might

get the opportunity to go to the temple

on Tuesday mornings!

How wonderful for her!!

I have an RS Presidency meeting tomorrow

morning at 8:30.

It's going to stay chilly through the end 

of the week with the low on Friday night

(well, early Saturday morning)

of only 29!!!!

And then it pops right back up into the

70s with 50's overnight.

So just the next few days.

Just practicing for winter I guess.

Anyhow.

I think I hear Rod in the yard.

Better get some dinner heated up.

(Yea for leftover pulled pork!)

No More Tomatoes!

 Whew!

I pulled the bags and bags and bags

of frozen tomatoes out of the freezer

and let them thaw in the sink in

the prep room.

(It took nearly 2 days....)

So this morning when it was all thawed,

I stood at the kitchen sink and

squished all the guts out of the skins,

put those in a bucket,

and then ran the guts through the 

food mill to get the seeds and any

other hard parts out.

(Like the core...)

Romas don't always have a core,

but when they do, it's pretty tough.

Anyhow...

I ended up with 2 big pots of

tomato sauce on the stove.

(And a BIG MESS.....)

I seasoned it up, allowed it to simmer

for a couple hours, 

and then got it into pint jars.

They went into the pressure canners

just about the time I started class tonight.

So at first break I opened up the canners

and let a little cool air in

(to avoid syphoning...)

and then got them out onto the counter.

Every one of them sealed!

(On the internet, everybody is complaining

about the Ball brand lids and saying they

just aren't getting a good seal....

but every one of these were Balls and 

they all sealed just fine. I'll take the bands

off tomorrow and double check, but

tonight they all look good!)

We now have thirteen more pint jars

of seasoned spaghetti sauce.

Tomorrow I'll put cute little labels on

all of them and get them on the shelf.

And we are DONE with tomato products

for 2026!!!!!

YEA!!!!

(We still have lots of other stuff to

process, but I needed those out of the

freezer so I have room for the other stuff.)

Congratulations to GREG on an AWESOME

half-marathon!!!!!

So proud of you!

Hope you aren't toooooo sore!

Wichita Temple Trip and More Walls

 Yesterday we got up and headed south

to Wichita to volunteer at the open house.

We were signed up to be "Talking Point" 

guides - they give you a card to read from

and you stand in one of the rooms and share

with the folks on the tour what the card says

before they move to the next room.

After a lovely drive (3+ hours) we stopped

at the Taco Bell up the street for a quick

burrito and bathroom break and then

headed to the volunteer tent.

Where we were NOT on the list of volunteers.

(Our Relief Society President texted and 

asked if we wanted to pick one of the days

she had left - she signed us up...)

Anyhow.

The talking point jobs were already covered,

so Rod ended up in the parking lot with a

UV umbrella and a yellow vest and stick to

help people know where to park.

Sometimes he sat down...

They made sure he had lots of nice cold

water bottles. 

I ended up on the veranda (where I could keep

an eye on him) putting shoe covers on

people before they went in for their tour.

When we were done, we went into the

distribution center to get him a new white shirt,

and then slipped into a tour group to go through

the temple again.

Tomorrow is the final day of the open house.

They were at over 12,000 visitors by Thursday.

And were expecting big crowds today and

Saturday. (YSA conference, AND three

mission reunions!)

Meanwhile, today Rod worked at the hardware

store from 10-4 and I puttered around the house.

Tuesday he finished the other side of the wall

under the west side of the house and on

Wednesday he got started on the east side.

Ran out of concrete to put in the blocks, so had

to pick up more when he went into Hays for Mutual.

We are getting closer to having it all closed in

for the winter!

Jim and Kyle went and worked on the new fence

for our friends - got all 57 posts in the ground

and concreted. They will let those cure over the

weekend and be back on Monday to put up the wire.

And now.... dinner is ready!

Hope Connecticut is treating you well Rozann & Greg!