Applesauce!

We spent a few days making applesauce. 

Gala apples ready to cook

Using my grandma's Foley Food Mill - this mill has seen many, many, many bushels of apples in it's years!!

Stirring in the spices



My tiny taste-tester



Bottling up the yumminess!!

After putting up 125 lbs of apples I have no more jars for anything else this year!!  I will be looking for more jars in thrift stores so that I can do even more next Fall (home canned food goes fast around here!!).  So the next preserving project is pies - for my hubby.  The girls and I, on some rainy Saturday (not difficult to find around here :0)!!!) will spend the day making and freezing as many pies as possible.  So nice on a chilly winter evening to pull a pie out of the freezer and pop into the oven!! I love this time of year - putting up the harvest in preparation for winter!!!

Blessings,
Christine

Back to More Cheerful Subjects!!

I am sitting here watching a darling chickadee in my sweet maple tree outside my window and thanking God.  He is good!!

  One thing I'm thanking Him for is all of my bloggy friends.  I used to be very scared of the internet because it seemed to be so useful to spread evil.  But once my friend persuaded me to check out blogging I found out differently.  In our crazy mixed up world where things seem so backwards especially when it comes to things like family I discovered a whole community of women who are dedicated to their husbands and children and who are joyfully living out God's plan!!

I want to thank you all for your lovely encouragement and prayers!!  There is something so nice about knowing there are people praying!!  I know God is in charge and while my wobbly old heart and feelings sometimes want to act like we're alone in the world - I know differently.  I'm so glad this journey is no surprise to God!!!

Life is getting sorta back to normal - I always have laundry to fold but at the moment I am avoiding  impossibly high mountains of folding :0).  Oh well - it'll get done. 

I still have some canning to do, but have gotten a good amount of food put up.

We came home from our trip to Eastern Washington with 100 lbs of peaches, 80 lbs of pears and 150 lbs of apples!!

From empty to full in just a few days

My smart Hubby set up my canner pot outside for me on a propane burner next to the picnic table.  I did most of the preparation inside since Fall has arrived early here and it's been raining lots - but doing the actual canning outside has been such a help and is really better since I have ruined several burners with my heavy canner in bygone years.

So far I have put up 56 quarts of peaches and 33 quarts of pear sauce (mighty good on a pork roast in the winter, mmmm).  I also made several huge peach crisps (Oh so yummy!!!) and we ate quite a few of those delicious tree ripened pears.  (I forgot to take a picture of the pear sauce on the counter - I had to put them away quick because the teenage boys in the house were threatening to open and eat up jars full almost as fast as they came out of the canner!!)

I still have applesauce which I plan to start tomorrow and corn which I hope to go pick and freeze later this week.

There is something so satisfying about opening the pantry door and seeing those gleaming jars all lined up - knowing I have wholesome, homemade food for my family!! 

Again, I want to tell all of you who encouraged me thank you!!  Your virtual hugs have meant so much to me!!  I am sending {{hugs}} back to all of you!! 

Blessings,

Christine

A Family Jaunt

A couple of weekends ago we went for a drive over the mountains to the east side of our state.  A very different environment exsists over there and it's great fun to drive for just a little while and find ourselves in a completely different habitat.

 It's very dry and desert-like.  The main occupation is farming (my kind of place!!).  We has such a fun time.

Enjoying our picnic lunch

We did have a destination in mind - this was fun day with an agenda :0).  So after our picnic we set about business - getting our fruit for the winter.

Blueberries for Abbie

Kerplink, Kerplank, Kerplunk!!!



We gathered more yummy fruit:

Then we headed home over the beautiful Mt. Rainer.  Such a beautiful drive!!!

Beautiful - even for the chicken-hearted Mama who hated driving next to very steep cliffs!!  I'm quite sure I left imprints of my hand on the door handle - much to Hubby's amusement :0)



An alpine meadow we stopped to hike through

We are so blessed to be able to do this - fill up our van with fruit to prepare for the winter!!  It's one of my favorite things to do - fill up my pantry with delicious homemade foods to see us through the months when fruit is difficult to afford.   And build family memories at the same time!!  What could be better?!!!

Blessings,
Christine