Tomato (and Cranberry) Day

 Today is TOMATO and Cranberry DAY!

I'm finally going to process

those tomatoes that have been

sitting on the washer/dryer

for a couple of weeks.

There are still a few that aren't

ripe, but I'm done waiting.

I started by trimming and cutting

all of those tomatoes.

Filled my biggest dough bowl.

Ran them through the food processor.

I did a round using the dicer.

But decided the result was just as good

and the mess was WAAY less

if I just pureed them with the S blade.

Then I pushed them through a fine mesh

sieve and got "most" of the juice out

and was left with lots of "guts".

Ended up with a nice pot of juice

on the stove simmering down.

I sauted some onions and put in some

of the peppers I froze before.

Added a BUNCH of seasonings and

about a third cup of brown sugar.

WHY does processing food

make such a huge mess?????

But it's all cleaned up now.

It felt like it took forever,

but actually only barely 2 hours.

There's a bag of yummy treats for the pigs.

I'm going to add them to the box

of pumpkins and head out to the farm.

They are delivering our wood order.

I'll probably miss the delivery,

they are probably there now...

but I want to check on progress.

And then I'll come back and jar up

the spaghetti sauce and get it into

the pressure canner.

I also picked up 4 bags of cranberries

at the store on Tuesday.

So those went through the food processor

first with just a slicer blade.

They are in the freeze dryer.

Should be done sometime tomorrow.

YUM!

I also bought a bag of real oranges

and I'm going to try my hand at

real cranberry sauce.

Although I'm a fan of the jellied

stuff that looks like the can

when it comes out.

Soni suggested I put some orange zest

in my bread when I make it with 

cranberries and pecans.

So... a bag of oranges it is!

(They didn't have any singles...)

Ok.

Got to run!!!!

Happy... Thursday?

Sheesh.

Guess Where We Were Today?

 Yup.

Menards!!!

This time in Garden City.

Which is just over 2 hours south of us.

It's actually a much nicer drive

than the drive to Salina.

But, weirdly, some of their prices

are actually HIGHER.

Even though its the same company.

I know, right?

But it's a prettier drive, 

on 2-lane country highway.

The drive to Salina is all 4 lane and

although the scenery is just as pretty...

it's just not as fun.

Anyhow.

We needed to run down there for 

Rod's checkup for glaucoma.

The Dr. said his eyes look just the

same as they did in February.

So GOOD NEWS!!!

We were in and out in about 15 minutes.

So, we headed over to Menards to

pick up some more stuff for the house.

Ended up having to special order and

wait for it to be shipped.

Oh well.

Sometimes we also go to Sams,

but I needed to get home to rest and

then teach class,

and we were just there yesterday.

So.

Another BUSY DAY!

Tomorrow we get our wood order delivered.

And I need to make something with all

those tomatoes.

(When I walk by, I can SMELL tomato,

which means some of them are RIPE.)

I'm going to break out the food processor and

just dice them. Then I'll run them through

the fine mesh sieve and get rid of the skins

and the seeds, and then I'll probably 

add spices and simmer it for spaghetti sauce.

And then I'll can it later in the evening.

Plus I want to be there when the wood gets there.

And I need to bring the pumpkins to the pigs.

And see my son.

And my dog.

And I need PICTURES of any progress.

The guys have mostly been working on

Kyle's water, he NEEDS water and now

that it's getting colder at night, it's gotten

to a more urgent level.

So that's been a focus.

Anyhow.

I'm done and heading to unwind for a minute

(which means watch an episode of JAG)

and then off to bed.

NIGHT!

Menards

It was another BUSY day.

So... when last I left you,

the store got our building material,

but they couldn't get a 40' trailer to 

deliver it to us until after Thanksgiving.

NOPE!

So... Kyle and I loaded up the big trailer,

and a saw, and headed to Salina.

When we got there, they had everything in

a lovely pile for us.

So Kyle plugged his saw into his 100'

extension chord and cut each of the boards

in half!

That's the rest of our load in the background.

And then he and I loaded them onto his trailer.

These are the "rim" boards that go around

the base of the foundation, and one 36'

that runs down the center.

They will rest the floor joists on those.

We bought 40 metal plates to screw into them

where we cut them to turn them into one

giant board again.

All the rest of our order was stacked

neatly next to our floor boards.

It will be loaded on a truck and

delivered to us on Thursday.

Phew!

Crisis averted.

After we finished at Menards, we drove

over to Sams Club and wandered around.

We saw lots of fun things, but only

bought some chocolate milk powder

and some Kinder seasoning.

(And some raspberries...)

And then to Braums,

because you can't drive to Salina

and NOT eat at Braums.

It was delicious, as always.

Then back on the road, with a 

quick stop in Hays at the Tractor Supply

to get an "in tank heater" for the chicken's

water tank so it doesn't freeze solid again.

And then to WalMart for some groceries,

more fleece lined jeans for Kyle, Rod and Jim.

And some sweat pants for Rod and I.

And a sweat shirt, that I PUT ON in the store,

because I was FREEZING!

It was in the 70's all day.

But by the time we got to Hays,

it was long dark and only in the 50's.

I looked cute, but not warm.

Once we pulled up in front of the house,

Rod popped out and we got all our

stuff out of the truck so Kyle could

finally head home and feed the dogs.

But he called about 2 minutes later and

said to jump in the truck and head to the

edge of town.

The northern lights were shining brightly!

So we did!

He met us out there.

It was BEAUTIFUL!

All green and pink and gorgeous!

He took a picture and promised to

send it to me, but he hasn't yet,

so I'll put it on another blog post.

Tomorrow morning Rod and I are

getting up and heading south to Garden City

to see his eye doctor for his 6-month checkup.

And then we need to get back to town

since I need to teach in the evening.

So.

Let the great house build begin!!!!!

Pumpkin Processing Day

 It was C O L D last night!

17 when we woke up!

(And colder at the farm....)

BTW, Kyle gave the new

fleece lined jeans a 

"two thumbs up" when

he wore them out to feed the pigs.

And tomorrow the high will

be 71!!!!!

Welcome to Kansas. 

Hahahaha.

Anyhow.

I brought all the little sugar baby

pumpkins in off the porch last night

so they wouldn't freeze.

And this morning they are going

in the oven, and then the food processor.

(I'll skin and de-seed them first...)

Aren't they pretty?

Yes, I know.

One of these is not like the other.

He's dinner tonight.

Speaking of dinner, I opened two

jars of my spaghetti and meat

sauce last night.

Added a little more Italian Seasoning,

a little brown sugar, and a couple

tablespoons of my tomato powder

(freeze dried tomatoes from last year).

It was YUMMY!

And SOOOO easy!

I can't wait for next harvest season!

Speaking of spaghetti sauce.

I'm nearly ready to make another batch.

A few more days and all the ones that are

going to get ripe, will be ripe.

And then, into the pot they go!

It's a lot of work.

But so satisfying!

Update... Grrrrrrrr

 So, yeah.

The wood order ARRIVED in Salina

at the Menard's store.

But it's not being delivered to US

until NEXT THURSDAY!!!!!

Grrrrr.

It is what it is and there's nothing

we can do about it.

They only have a truck driver two

days a week and he already has a

big load on Monday.

So Thursday it is.

Which would be fine,

except Jim is coming the following 

Tuesday night! (Late, so Tuesday 

doesn't count...)

But, Kyle will make it work.

We might not get the roof all done,

but we will do what we can.

Meanwhile.

Update: I froze the onions. I'll probably

put some of them in the freeze dryer later,

but we will see. I kind of like them both ways.

And I saw a cute pattern on the interwebs.

So I crocheted myself a touque!

It's a bit looser than I want, so I might

unsew it and make it smaller.

Or I might not.

I'll probably make a salmon colored one now,

since I have lots of that yarn leftover.

And I'll make that one a little smaller.

Anyhow.

It's winter.

The windchill on Sunday morning is going to be 8.

That's COLD in anybody's book.

But somehow my lilacs didn't get the memo.

So I went out and picked some more yesterday.

(It's only that one day though, by Tuesday

it will be back in the 70's.... just a little

pre-season teaser...)

Kyle said the pigs LOVED the cherry 

tomatoes we gave them, so I'm going

to just pull the plants in my raised bed

and toss the whole thing over their fence.

Last night I made Nancy's pumpkin soup

for dinner. It was YUMMY!!!

I used fake maple syrup since it's what I have.

Kyle has real, but I wasn't driving back

to the farm for a half cup of syrup.

And I used dried herbs instead of fresh.

I only have fresh basil, rosemary, and chives.

Oh, and cilantro.

Today I'm going out to the yard and 

trimming ALL the herb plants and

doing an herb run in the freeze dryer.

I love freeze dried herbs.

We also have some regular mint,

some apple mint,

and more lemon balm.

I expected the cilantro to self-seed again

in the raised bed, but nothing.

And then I noticed a big patch of it

across the yard by the mint!

That's WEIRD!

But I'll take it!

Nobody likes it but me...

but I love it.

Anyhow.

I'm in soup / chili / stew mode.

So tonight I'll probably make a batch of

loaded potato soup for Rod to eat when

he gets home from the farm.

(I'll have a bowl before I start teaching.)

I'm trying to eat BEFORE class and NOT AFTER.

That's just too late at night to have a 

big ol' dinner.

Anyhow.

I am teaching the weekend class this weekend,

so I will miss Relief Society.

The Stake is coming to Teach us to Teach.

I'm sad to miss that!

Also we are practicing #1203

What Child Is This

to sing in the Christmas Sacrament Mtg.

And it's Linger Longer.

Pot luck.

I'll make.... something, and 

send it with Rod.

Anyhow.

I'm going to go crochet for a minute.

I'm doing a 16 hour fast, so no breakfast

until 11:00.

But that's when I usually eat anyway,

so no biggie.

I'm going to make some dandelion tea though.

Its chilly in the house and a good

hot mug of tea sounds yummy.

(I'll turn up the heat when I walk out to the

living room, we used the heat all last month

overnight and my power bill went DOWN.)

Natural gas is CHEAP.(ish)

Ok.

Bye.

Onions

 I was too busy to go to the farm today.

But Kyle sent pictures, so 

stay tuned for an update.

Meanwhile....

I was BUSY!

Started the day with a workout,

a shower, dishes,

laundry,

and then...

ONIONS.

(I forgot to take a picture before

I got started...)

But trust me, there were a LOT.

(A whole milk crate FULL...)

This was less than 1/4 of them.

Unfortunately, some of them had

gone bad in the center.

I started by trying to salvage every little

bit that I could, even if it was only

one layer.

But then I decided that was ridiculous.

Onions at the store are pretty cheap.

Is it wonderful to have our own?

You bet!

But... if we run out, I'll just buy some.

(And next year, since I will be there at

the farm, it will be easier to process them

right away. They were hanging in Kyle's shed,

and honestly, I forgot about them!)

Anyhow.

There was a LOT.

I ran them through my little chopper thing.

You cut off both ends,

peel them, and then put them

in the chopper and SMACK it with your hand.

(Yes, my hand is a bit sore tonight...)

Anyhow.

We ended up with TWELVE full 

quart bags of chopped / diced onions.

My hands smell great.

Hahahaha.

Then I tossed some in a pan with

some ground beef, some beans,

some tomatoes, and some spices

and made a big ol' pot of chili.

It's simmering on the stove.

Cuz then I had to come into my office

and teach my Wed night class.

But I'm finished now.

And I'm going to go eat a bowl

of chili and eat a slice of 

cheese bread.

And wait for Rod to get home from Mutual.

(And a "short" Bishopric meeting...)

Hope there's some chili left.

(kidding...)

Oh!

And the update!

The hole in the ground is GINORMOUS!

And the house foundation is

now FULL of compacted dirt 

level with the existing ground.

AMAZING JOB GUYS!!!!!

I'm so impressed!!!!

I believe the delivery is coming from

Menard's tomorrow sometime.

(Floor trusses, walls, roof, siding, etc.)

(We already have all the windows and doors.)

So, I'm going to go to the farm and

work on digging the sweet potatoes

and be there when the delivery arrives.

I'm EXCITED!!!!!

But now....

dinner and BED.

Progress!!

 Yesterday I stopped by the farm to

pick up Bear for his surgery today.

Kyle was busy painting all the

posts with tar to deter bugs.

Rod was taking up all the little

wooden bridges he built between

the concrete slabs.

We don't need them anymore.

I grabbed Bear and headed back

into town to get ready to teach.

And they motored on.

We now have about 2 feet of compacted

dirt around the poles!!!

(And at the time I'm writing this,

I'm willing to bet there is at least another

foot if not more!!!)

No more hole!

And we are getting closer and closer

to having a foundation!!!

I'm so impressed with what they

got done yesterday!

(The compactor is taking a toll on

Rod's back though... poor guy!

He'll be glad when this job is done!)

I dropped Bear at the vets.

And now I'm heading into Hays.

I tried to call you, Mom...

but maybe you were sleeping in!

I'll talk with you later!

LOVE YOU!

More Food Processing!

 Do you remember all the gazillion

peppers I got from Mary last week?

These are Italian Marconi peppers.

A sweet bell pepper.

They are YUMMY!

And these are a combo of pizza and no heat jalapenos.

They are also YUMMY!

Yesterday I got them all diced up and into bags.

Well, the marconi's I left in slices for

fajitas and that sort of thing.

I think I got 10 quart bags of each kind of pepper.

I already have LOTS of diced peppers

from the ones we grew, in the freezer.

So I think we are set for peppers.

I'll see if maybe later in the season I

feel like freeze drying the diced ones.

They are so pretty!

And reconstitute the same as a

frozen pepper, same texture...

We'll see.

Meanwhile, 

while I was doing that, I also

whipped up two loaves of bread.

They look better in real life.

Not so blond.

The one on the left is raisin/walnut with

some pumpkin spice, because... halloween.

The one on the right is my usual

onion/garlic, but I added a couple

handfuls of cheddar cheese for fun.

It's DELICIOUS!

We ate a couple slices for dinner

with our mac and cheese.

(And some of my pickled beets...)

Also got lots of compliments on my

pretty necklace at church.

This morning Rod headed into town to

get a compactor so he and Kyle and start

filling the hole and getting the dirt all

compacted and ready for building.

And I had some TOAST and dandelion tea

for breakfast.

Meanwhile, some friends from the ward

came to the farm and picked up one of our

extra freezers. They had a very 

successful hunt this fall and needed

the extra freezer space!

Lucky for both of us!

So one down.... one to go.

(And he has a friend who might be

interested in the other one!)

 I processed some of our tomatoes.

These (plus two gallon bags from the fridge)

are from our gardens.

We still have a BUNCH that are green

or just starting to blush,

so I'll be doing this again....

But I ground them up in my food processor

and then ran them through my 

fine mesh sieve and got all the

skins and seeds out of them.

Added them to pint jars (with some

citric acid and salt) and jarred up

9 pints of tomato sauce!

(I simmered it for about an hour

on the stove, but it was already

pretty thick...)

They are in the pressure canners now.

As soon as it comes to pressure,

they will process for 15 minutes and then

I'll let them come down naturally.

Meanwhile, I need to run to the farm.

Rod keeps texting me with a list

of things to bring out to him.

And I need to pick up Bear.

He has a vet appointment to

remove his manhood tomorrow morning

so he gets to sleep over tonight.

And then,

I need to teach.

Oh, I also did all the paperwork from

last week's class.

And I also need to laminate the

floor plans we finalized Saturday.

Also redraw the wall layouts and

laminate those as well so Kyle can

use them while he's building the walls

later this week.

(Fingers crossed...)

Jim arrives on the 18 (well, really the

19th cuz he gets here at midnight...)

And we need to get the roof on while

he is here.

So...

no pressure.

Hahahahaha.

Hope you are having a wonderful Monday!

Happy Halloween!

 

Hi.

I'm back!

Wow, what a wonderful visit!

And then I needed a bit to recuperate!

The flight home was uneventful.

And the drive was nice.

(windy, but nice...)

We got home just after dark.

And went to BED.

Wednesday I spent the day with Kyle.

We needed groceries.

Then on Thursday I went to the farm

and we brought the big dogs back to town.

(They are bugging the pigs and Kyle is

WAAAAAY too busy to have all those

animals right now. Eventually, when the

house build is a little less intense,

we will move them back.)

Rod has been working on getting 

Kyle's new pump for his well all ready

to drop in the hole.

Plus he caught a cold.

And I cooked up 2 pork roasts

(in the pressure cooker)

and pulled it for dinner for 

the missionaries.

We had pulled pork sandwiches,

coleslaw, (which people around here

put ON their pulled pork sandwich...

WEIRD)

and potato salad.

And cookies (Walmart bakery)

for desert.

We had a nice visit with them.

They helped me take down a dog crate

and move it to the garage and put it

back up for Luna.

And also put up the table in the living room.

Today....

Kyle is coming over and we are heading

into town to Home Depot to buy all

the windows for the house.

They are 10% off today and tomorrow

and I HATE going into town on Saturday.

He had to pause pouring the concrete

around the posts since it has been below

freezing overnight the last few nights.

But it is warming up again next week

so he will get back to it.

He only has 6 more to go.

But it's a process.

You lift four 60 pound bags of concrete

into the mixer. Add water and let it mix.

Then you dump some into an orange

pail and lift it into the 5 foot tall form.

Do that until it's full to about 4 feet.

(Even with the ground outside the hole...)

And then do it all again.

Each post takes 12 bags of concrete,

so you do it 3 times for each post.

He moved over 4,000 pounds of

concrete on Monday.

But each bag needed to be handled 

multiple times, so he actually moved

over 17,000 pounds of concrete.

On Monday.

He's a little tired.

And totally amazing.

But I'd best get me some breakfast

and be ready when he gets here.

Tuesday Busy-ness

 Started the day with a fun phone chat

with Mom and Dad!

They are doing well....

I love visiting with them!

And then I made myself some

french toast for breakfast and

then started on the peppers

from the gardens.

But got side-tracked putting up

the light socket thingie on the

front porch so we can put up our

orange halloween lights.

And then Kyle arrived, so we headed

into Hays to do our Tuesday stuff.

First to the church to hang up a poster

in all the auxiliary rooms for next 

month's RS activity.

It should be fun.

But I'll be teaching.

Then into Tractor Supply to get some 

shavings for in the egg mobile.

While we were there we found some

good insulated boots for Kyle for this

winter - I'll take Rod later and see if

he likes them and maybe get him a pair.

Then Jim called, so while we were 

wandering around the store on the phone,

Kyle found more things he needed.

(a bag of tennis balls for the dogs,

an inner tube for the flat tire on his

wagon he uses EVERY DAY, and...

something else? I don't remember.)

Anyhow.

Then across the street to WalMart.

I got Rod a new suitcase that will fit

under the seat on the airplane.

Exactly like mine only black.

And then we were looking for some

jeans for Kyle and found some

cargo pants that are FLEECE LINED!

They are men's, but I tried on a pair

and they were SOOOO comfy and toasty!

So I bought a pair for me.

Next week I'll take Rod to try on some.

Kyle bought a pair too.

They are cargo pants and not cute,

but I don't care! 

They are going to be WARM!

YEA!!!

(Maybe no long johns???)

Neither of us needed much in the way

of groceries, sour cream, eggs, and

some grits for Rod's breakfast.

It is so nice to be eating from our

pantry, lots of it is food we GREW!

Tonight we are having goolash made

with some of my spaghetti sauce with meat.

I had too much to fit in the canner,

so put the last in a deli container and 

stuck it in the fridge.

So I'm boiling up some elbow mac and

we will have that for dinner tonight.

Then we went to Arby's for lunch.

Had a yummy Rueben and Kyle tried

the new steak nugget bowl.

Basically little steak nuggets over

white cheddar mac & cheese.

He said it was DELICIOUS!

(Like all males, he LOVES mac and cheese

but hadn't been able to eat it for

several years, but his gut is healed

enough finally he CAN!

He was SO EXCITED!)

Then back to WaKeeney to unload the car

and catch the chickens and put them

in one of the dog crates and into the

back of Kyle's truck.

That was an adventure!

I didn't take a picture, once we finally

got them in there, we needed to get

on the road.

When we got to our farm road, a neighbor

pulled me over to introduce himself

and say Hi, so by the time I got to the 

farm, the men were already getting the

chickens into the egg house.

So I didn't get a chance to take a picture

then either.

Oh well.

Imagine 7 stressed chickens piled on top

of each other in a dog crate.

You get the idea.

Then we all walked over to the pig house

and fed them and got them settled for

the night. Then Rod headed down to the

shop to get his trash and bring it

into town. (No trash collection out there...)

I got Kyle's and put it in the trunk.

And then we went into his shed so he

could show off how nice and OPEN it is

now that he moved Rod's giant mower

down to Rod's shop.

We noticed a crate of squash I need to

deal with, and there was a tiny 

watermelon on the top of the pile.

Hey, there are Kyle's new boots in the background!

It looked WAAAY more vibrant in real life.

And it was DELICIOUS!

We sat on his patio as  the sun was setting

and ate it.

Then I headed down to the shop to put

several gallon bags of frozen okra into

the giant freezer.

And then on the way home, I saw some

of our neighbors out harvesting their

corn in the near dark.

I love living out here!

(There were two big tractors,

but they were WAAAY at the back of the

field, so you couldn't see them well....)

The lights on the horizon to the right, are 

headlights on the highway, several miles

away - you can see FOREVER out there!

And the lights behind the tractors

is WaKeeney! (20+ miles away!)

OH!

Last night before I started teaching

I made a bowl of jalapeno loaded 

mac & cheese and opened my very

own jar of pickled beets!

They were SOOO good!

I'm looking forward to growing more

so I can have jars and jars of them!

Ok,

dinner should be ready.

Counting down!!!