Update around here

I am declaring a break from all things food today.  The first question Ian asked this morning was, "What are we canning today Mom?" to which I answered absolutely nothing.  We all need a break!  Times like these make me wonder how our ancestors did it?  How did they can and put up enough for their families for an entire year?  Most old time families were rather large and they literally had to can thousands of jars of food to feed everyone from their pantry.  We are no where close to feeding ourselves from our pantry but I am thankful for what we do have especially with the rising cost of food.  This time of year is nice because there is so much  in the way of fresh fruit and veggies to eat.

I really need to sit down and start planning school for this next year.  The kids will be starting their college classes in August and I need to get books for the couple of classes I will be teaching them.  This is their last year and I am having a struggle.  They are growing up, I want them to, but I want them to stay little and be with me forever.  I hope this makes sense, I am sure it makes sense to others who have experienced their kids growing up and leaving home to start their lives as adults.  They are truly amazing people right now and I am excited to see how God uses them as they spread their wings and fly.

I walked out to the garden this morning and saw that the black beans and the navy beans are turning yellow and will need to be pulled to finish drying before we shuck them out.  The tomatoes need to be picked as well as the blossoms picked off the basil plants so that they will keep growing big and bushy.  I haven't had time yet to make pesto but it is on my list.  There is a recipe in 101 cookbooks.com for pesto the way an old Italian grandmother makes it.  It is done by hand rather than with a food processor.  I would like to try it out.  There is another recipe on the Nourished Kitchen blog for fermented chili sauce that I am going to try as soon a more of my peppers get ripe.


We had a bit of rain yesterday for which we are ever thankful.  It is also much cooler so we will be able enjoy the outdoors a bit today.  The back pasture looks greener this morning from that little bit of rain.  The goats have been out already slurping up some of the grass in the fields.  We have sold all of our bucks except for one and I am hoping to get a nice Lamancha buck to breed with our girls come fall.  I am considering going to once a day milking or drying off one of the goats so that I don't have as much milk to deal with.  I am going to give it a couple of weeks while I consider what would be best for us.


The boys left for the spring this morning to get some more water.  They are going to run water out to the barn/garden area from the water line.  This will be a lot easier as far as closeness to the garden and dealing with a large amount of hose across the yard to trip over.  They also are working on our greenhouse that I hope to have up by fall.  Time sure does fly.  I'm going to enjoy some quiet time to myself so I will sign off for now.