Lunch

Daniel Playing at 6 Month

Canning Part 2

After tasting the delicious Apple Butter and going through almost a whole pint, we decided to make more! Yes, more. It is that good. Now that I realize canning is not just a hobby for Scott, but that it is turning into more of an obscession that isn't going away anytime soon, I reliquinshed and let him purchase more appropriate tools for canning such as a funnel, jar lifter, magnet lid grabber kit. He was given a large pressure cooker from his aunt in her massive moving cleaning spree that has already been put to use. The only thing left to purchase was a food mill. I figured with Daniel eating us out of house and home with the expensive baby food, I would be able to use it to make baby food, too. That and Ashlynn will be getting braces in a few years, so she may need mashed foods, too. Anyway, after much research, we purchased a lovely food mill from Bed Bath and Beyond that is 100% stainless steel and dishwasher safe. My two favorite things when it comes to cooking. Now Scott is really set to can.

Today Scott went out and picked another 18 pounds of apples off of the small apple tree and we were good to can.  We tripled the original recipe so we could have lots for us (yummy!) and a few to give to lucky friends and family members. It took a but longer this time, but it was well worth it.  Scott got to use his food mill, his pressure cooker, and his new tools! I did, too. I was around to help with the canning process this time. Things I learned - the jars are hot when they come out of the boiling water, the water is hot, too, but the apple butter cools quickly when it "spills" on the counter and you have to "clean" it up. ;) It was good and now we have 20 jars sitting on the counter. And maybe a few more pounds around our wastes...

Policeman's Ball

Scott and I attended the 2010 Policeman's Ball this year.  We purchased a new suit for him and even got his new white shirt dry cleaned. :)  I managed to fit into a dress from a highschool event so my expense was purchasing the flower for my hair!


Grandma came up and watched the kids while Scott and I had our first real night out since Daniel was born. We had a really good time. We purchased raffle tickets hoping to win a gun, a quilt, spa treatment, a Buzz Lightyear toy (that would have been for Daniel) or any of the other amazing prizes. Unfortunately, we didn't win anything. We did have fun socializing with adults, wearing clothing free of spit up and play dough, and just being a newly wed couple. All the proceeds went to benefit the Domestic Violence place and also to a fund to help officers and their families who are hurt or killed in the line of duty. So even though we didn't win anything, it still went to a good cause.

Apple Picking Time

Ah, it has finally become fall and it was time to harvest our apple tree. Daniel and I accompanied Scott outside to begin the process of weeding out the good apples from the apples the birds and worms had gotten. I got Daniel all settled in on his blanket in the shade with is toys,

Scott got me one of our new chaise lounge chairs (we got two because they were 75% off at Lowes) and I decided to let our baby chicks meander around and enjoy some fresh air and bugs.

Scott began the process while I played, but then I realized how big the tree was and how long it was taking him to accomplish this, so I decided to help. Ashlynn soon got up from her nap and came out as well. We finally had picked all of the ones we could reach, but instead of getting a ladder, I volunteered to climb the tree to pick more. That proved challenging since the tree hadn’t been pruned and all of the branches were super close together.

I was determined though and made it to a standing position and which point I realized I couldn’t reach many more apples in the tree than I could from the ground. I could however, reach more branches so I began shaking causing the apples to fall. It was raining apples!
 
Scott took Daniel and moved him out of the warzone but Ashlynn decided to stay beneath the tree. I got hit in the head about the same time she did. The good news is that 95% of the apples have been harvested and they are now awaiting their final destination: apple sauce, apple pie filling, apple butter, etc.

Canning Part 1

After picking all the apples, it was time to do something with them!  I remembered having apple butter at my grandparent's house and really enjoying it. Scott was a little reluctant, but hey, we had over 30 pounds of apples so if it didn't taste good we had plenty left over to make other stuff with.  So he chopped and measured and then put the apples on the stove to boil.  (It was during that time of boiling he installed the kid seat to my bike.) It came to mash them up and then add all the yummy deliciousness that makes the apple butter so savory. Of course, we sampled - so good! Then it had to boil on the stove for 2 hours! Craziness!

 So while that was boiling, we peeled and cored 8 more pounds of butter to make apple sauce.  Last year Scott got a cool apple peeler/corer from Bed Bath and Beyond.

Our apples are note exactly round so they corer isn't too effective, but it does an excellent job at peeling.  We had quite the system going. 

Ashlynn would hand Scott the apple, he would put it on the machine and peel it, I would take it off and core it, then I would put the finished product in a big bowl of water and lemon juice so it wouldn't brown. We did that for about 45 minutes until all of the apples were ready.

Then the apples were drained and put into pots to boil.  We had to stir them at first until the juices started to come out, then they simmered in their own juice.
 
That's about the time I had to go to work, so Scott had the joy of canning everything by himself. He didn't have all the right tools so it made it a little challenging, but h managed. When I got home in the morning there were about 10 cans on the counter of apple stuff.  I am a HUGE fan of the apple butter. It is soooo good! I've been giving it to Ashlynn on toast at night for dessert. Yummy!

Daniel's New Ride

I vaguely remember riding on the back of my Mom's bike growing up and thought it would be great fun and exercise for me to get one for Daniel. After searching Amazon and other sights, when we came upon one at Walmart I pounced! It was a good price and I wouldn't have to wait for it to be shipped. Of course, it is not safe for him to ride without a helmet, so that was the next purchase. For whatever reason, I couldn't find a helmet for 6 month olds. The youngest they had anywhere I looked was 3 years. Oh well, Daniel has a large head! We tried it on him at the store and figured we could make it work. He tolerates it very well, actually. When we got home I put it on him again and he as pretty happy!
 The next chore was attaching the carrier to my bike. I thought it would be an easy task, but alas, it wasn't. First of all, all of the instructions were in metric so we really had to think instead of just go at it. The rest of the instructions were not very clear, but after a few tries, we got it! Daniel got to briefly test it out. Of course, the one day we did it, it had to rain. It hadn't rained in weeks!

A few days later, while Scott was at work, Ashlynn was at school, and I was supposed to be sleeping after working the night before, Daniel and I tried out the whole thing.  After I got him bundled up, helmet on, strapped in and off on the road, I was exhausted. I realized that I had overly bundled him because it had drastically warmed up since I had gotten home that morning.  I also remembered that all of the bolts and such were only hand snugged.  Plus the carrier was way too close to my seat so I was sitting on the handle bar. We called it quits pretty quick. Oh well, I found out it worked and it was ready to go camping!

We Have Eggs!!!!!

Since June we have been dealing with baby chicks, our dog eating our chickens, the neighbor dogs eating our chickens, and Ashlynn falling in love with chickens only to have them killed. Our chickens have done nothing but eat, annoy the dog, annoy me, and poop on stuff. I was beginning to think we would never reap rewards from the obnoxious fowl residing on our property until last night. Scott went out to feed the chickens and all the sudden started hollering for me to “Come quick!” I had a feeling it was an egg, so I turned off the water for Daniel’s bath, grabbed him, and the camera, but by the time I made it outside, a chicken had jumped down and broken the egg.
  There was still an egg in one of the laying boxes  and Scott was so happy.
 I must admit, I was rather relieved. They were finally starting to earn their keep.