Halloween

We had Eric's mission buddy Ryan and girls over for our 4th Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest. We missed Heather and Savannah who were home sick. Okay so it's not really a contest... but carving with the Konolds is serious business! They've introduced us to all the right tools, templates and techniques. BOO!










"I know there's something good inside this wrapper... if I can just get to it!"



I LOVED that they all wanted simple costumes this year... makes life much easier! :)


Sorting out their loot...... All that candy makes me sick! I tried to buy it from them... but they weren't interested in that!

Printing Blog???

I'm wanting to print my blog... since this is my "photo journal". I have actually done FOUR photobooks this year (miracle of miracles!) of my kids & trips, but I'd still like to print this.

I've checked out a couple of sites blog2print.com and blurb.com Does anyone have any experience with these or other sites? Let me know, pleeeease! :)

Our Summer Garden

I was just going to post a few pix of the garden, but then this cute little primary song came to mind... and so another video was born. (Cherryl, you're rubbing off on me!) :)

I love, love, LOVE growing a garden! It brings such satisfaction to start with dirt and end up with so much fruit and veggies. I really don't even mind weeding. I just love to see things grow!

Eric put in a drip system this spring and that made a huge difference! It watered evenly and everything grew much better! We planted 15 blackberry plants, 27 raspberry plants, and 120 strawberry plants in raised beds. It was WONDERFUL eating fresh berries all summer. Anne LOVED IT. Any time we were in the backyard she would wander over the berries and start eating! Ahhhh, I wish summer could last all year! (I guess it could if we moved back to Mesa, right!?) :)




Those boxes of green things (end of movie) look like apples but are actually TOMATOES! A hard frost was coming really early, like end of September, so I picked them all and let them ripen on trays in my garage. It's amazing they can go from little hard, green balls to soft, red, juicy tomatoes. Listen to me... what am I saying? I don't even like to eat them raw. (see previous post) But I really love watching them grow ... and making sauce with them!

It's CANNING TIME!

I was checking my sister's blog the other day and noticed that under my link it says it's been 4 WEEKS since I've last posted. what? Where does the time go and what have I been doing!? Well, I have been crazily canning/drying/freezing all kinds of yummy things from our garden and local fruit. Here is a sample of the fruits of my *intense* labor! :)

Little man was happy to pose with all the goods.

These are like little jars of sunshine all bottled up!

5 Pints of apple butter
10 Quarts of spaghetti sauce Yes, more that 50 lbs of tomatoes from our garden an NOT ONE did we eat fresh. I know we're crazy, but none of us like tomatoes... but we love pasta!
20 Quarts of apple pie filling Just dump it into a pie crust & bake. Voila! Apple pie in no time! I also use it to make apple crisp with a crumb topping and vanilla ice cream, of course!
30 Quarts of applesauce No sugar here... just the real stuff and it is YUMMY!
30 Quarts of Pears My kids' favorite! Next year I need to do at least 100! Luke will eat an entire jar by himself!
30 Quarts of Peaches From the orchard up the road. Yummy!
6 Pints of jam, plus TONS of little freezer jams in containers for Christmas gifts. I'm thinking ahead this year! No rushing around for neighbor gifts again like last year.



But wait, we're not done yet...............


We bagged up and froze about 40 quart bags of corn from our garden. It is sooo yummy, just like eating corn on the cob!


Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers......

Our peppers did great this year. I froze 2 gallon-size bags for chili, sweet & sour chicken, and fajitas. I friend suggested last year that I freeze my peppers and I loved having them all year. This year I have twice as much!


Just to try it out, I also dehydrated a bunch of peppers. Man, they shriveled up to nothing! That (above) is all the peppers from 5 trays on the dehydrator... and it doesn't even fill up a sandwich bag! They are actually really tasty to eat just as they are, but I plan to throw them in soup or whatever?



And finally... APPLES!

This was a GREAT year for apples here! Everyone had tons on their trees. Eric's parents brought buckets and buckets from their friend's house every time they came to visit. Besides the applesauce and pie filling, I've been drying them. They are so tasty! My kids are hooked. We've been eating bags and bags of dried apples. Anne even learned to say, "Appoo" and reaches from some.

This handy-dandy peeler/slicer/corer is a MUST!! I got it for Christmas a few years ago (thanks Mom & Dad!) and I use it all the time! It also works great for peeling potatoes quickly for mashed potatoes.
The pigs have been loving all the scraps they get from my canning. (yellow bowl)


It does all the work and leaves you with a perfect spiral apple.


Just dip them in water with lemon juice for a minute or two and lay them out on the trays. I borrowed a friend's dehydrator so I can do double time... 15 trays at once.

The finished product... so good and good for you, too! I've been sending them in the boys' lunches. I guess Luke has been sharing them because one of his friend's Mom called me for my dried apple recipe. She said he was begging her to make some. Cute, eh?

Well, there you have it. I might be slacking in my blogging... but at least I have something to show for it! :)