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.

Pillow

I (Rachel) got a creative streak going on and bought some fabric and ribbon. After driving home from Pocatello on day and Ashlynn fell asleep and looked so uncomfortable hunched over, I decided to make her a pillow to keep in the car. She got to help me pick out the fabric and then proceeded to ask Scott and me every day when I was going to make it. I got smart and finally hid the fabric where she couldn’t see it. When I finally got time, I cut it out and even added some ribbon along the edges to make it super girly and cute. Then the moment arrived to give it to her. She LOVED it. When Scott jokingly took it away from her, she almost cried. Needless to say she wants to use it every time she is in the car.

Daniel Sitting Up - 5 Months

Leaps and Bounds

Daniel is developing incredibly fast now it seems.  I know I've been at work for the past seven days and haven't been able to see him all that much, but still. He is changing rapidly! I use to have to force him on his tummy for tummy time and as soon as he could, he would roll back over onto his back. Now I put him down on his back and in a flash he's on his tummy! I'm not sure what happens next, but he's soon fussing.  I believe he is frustrated that he isn't crawling or able to anything else. Today, I put him in his swing while I ate lunch and watch as he turned over on his belly! Crazy! I'm glad I was there. He is no longer allowed in his swing unless he is thoroughly restrained!  He is also getting talented at moving around. I'm not sure how he does it, but he's a mover.

Last night he ate a whole container of baby food carrots, most of a normal serving of rice cereal and then nursed for 10 minutes after that! Man, was he a mess.  He's outgrown his little tub that fits in the sink, so he got his first bath in the big bath tub.  He loved it! He was kicking and smiling. He was so happy.  Then he gulped his normal 5 oz bottle with rice cereal then got pretty vocal once it was all gone. I got him a little more and he happily guzzled that down until he fell asleep.  I thought for sure he'd sleep through the night. Nope. He was up twice totally starving!

Today he was constantly on the go. He at more carrots and cereal for dinner. I had to wake him up so he could get a full belly before I turned in. He gulped it down and is now sleeping peacefully once more.  He's such a good baby.

Blog Update In Progress

I am about 6 weeks behind in blogging so I'm getting busy to catch up! I am backdating, so you'll need to check out side bar for July and August.