Happy Fall

Well it's officially fall, and I must say I'm rather glad it is!  Fall is my favorite time of year, I love the warm windy days, just that smell of fall in the air, leaves burning, leaves falling to the ground, all the weeds dying off, I do realize what comes after fall, but I wouldn't want to live anyplace that didn't have such a nice change of seasons.  We got the garden pulled last weekend, it was a really nice windy afternoon, and it was time for it to go, we weren't going to be getting anything more out of it.  Steve picked all the pumpkins, our largest one weighed in at 107#, our pumpkins did better this year than they have in the past, we also had quite a few watermelons but even though they looked good so far the insides haven't been quite ripe I guess.  Made applesauce last night, oh did it ever turn out yummy!! I ended up with 17 pints plenty for us, and I actually put the pressure canner away today, glad to get that out of the way, it's been out since green beans and it takes up so much room on the stove, but yet it's a hassle to put away and take out everytime you need it to, know what I mean? If you can I'm sure you do. I didn't do any tomatoes this year, I still have salsa, and stewed tomatoes and bbq sauce from last year, and we lost most of our tomatoes to those big ugly greenworms,  maybe next year....
Going to a women's retreat with women from church next weekend, looking forward to that, it's always so nice to spend a weekend with sisters in Christ, such good fellowship, and I'm sure we will be blessed!
Tomorrow we are going to have a spagetti dinner fundraiser for our retreat to help deter some of the cost, we also sold cookbooks and did pretty good with that too, we have 13 women going,  yep I'm looking forward to it!
Finally figured out some packaging for my soaps, and they are selling pretty well, I don't know if you have ever used homemade soaps, but there is just no comparison between homemade and store bought, what a difference, like everything else homemade, you just can't buy it in the store! 
Had my two granddaughters here for the day, what a treat, they haven't been coming out much lately, don't want to leave their mom, which I feel bad that she doesn't get any time away, and I don't get to see them as often as I would like either. 
Well I will leave you with some pictures and hopefully blog at you before too terribly long.
Enjoy your fall!

some of my soaps

Steve with one of the bigger pumpkins

nice little loot

this is the 107# one

and more soap

Val

A successful saturday

Why is it saturdays have to just go so fast? I sure don't pack into a saturday what I used to be able to pack into a saturday, seems as though the older I get the shorter the days, good thing I have tomorrow afternoon, cuz I'm making soap!!  I have another 1/2 bushel of corn on the cob to can, but that is going to wait until monday after work I guess, did get 1/2 done today though, and we also squeezed a gallon worth of our concord grapes, Steve is making wine out of that, I am going to try my hand at making grape juice, trust me we have plenty of grapes, I am just amazed how well our grapes did this year, not sure if it's a bumper crop year for grapes or what, but out of a 5 gallon bucket we got about 1 gallon of juice. Used my new sauce master, stopped yesterday and got the spiral attachment for grapes, and that thing works really slick!  I can hardly wait to do apples this year, mmmm homemade applesauce is just my favorite!
The kids came out today, it was nice to send them home with a dozen eggs and Sarah loaded up on bar soap, what an awesome feeling to know I will never buy store bought bar soap again and I think I'm safe to say she won't either. 
I made my own dishsoap this evening, it made about 10 dawn bottles worth, so about $20 worth, and I think I'm really gonna like it, I used tea tree and eucalyptus essential oils I got the recipe here :http://lizzylanefarm.wordpress.com/2008/11/17/homemade-liquid-dish-soap/  I did use white vinegar instead of lemon juice though thought that might cut grease better, and I had a bar of zest to get rid of and used that for the bar soap worked perfect grated to just 2 cups.
I will say I am pretty tired tonight, got up about 7ish this morning and trust me thats sleeping in for me, when you are used to getting up at 4:30 every morning 7 has a really nice ring to it and NO ALARM CLOCK! 
and have been going pretty much ever since, my legs hurt today and I know why, cuz I was on them ALL day. 
Well I will leave you with some random pictures, check out the garden pictures and the knitting section my finished baby blanket is there.
Well hope you all have a very blessed Sunday, I am so looking forward to going to praise and worship my Heavenly Father tomorrow,  we missed last week as we were up north really miss it when I don't go to church.  
Blog at you soon!

the girls on grandpa's tractor

some awesome clouds this past week.

Val

LOOK WHAT I GOT!

This was my handmade surprise from my Heart Swap partner in South Africa, It's so pretty actually this picture doesn't do it justice,  it sure was fun, I think everyone likes surprises no matter how old we get right?  Thanks Marie!!
Well I'll be back later I have house work to do :(  where is that maid?

FRIDAY EVE......

Well it won't be long now and it will be FRIDAY!!!!  This time tomorrow night we will be on the road to the cottage! It is so hot here today and tomorrow I honestly can't wait til fall,  this 90 stuff can go away for the year, not a big 90's fan anyways. 
Not much is new since monday though, almost have my baby blanket done, I'll post pictures after it's all washed and blocked, I really like the pattern even though it does get kinda boring after a while :) 
Still working on the packaging for my soaps and going to have a friends hubby quote me a price to make me a display stand. I have an idea what I want to do with the soaps and she has all sorts of papers etc that she is selling so next week I will go over and check it all out.  Bought the yarn for the second baby blanket today, same blanket different colors, this one is for a boy so I bought a couple shades of blue, the other is for either. 
Steve picked radishes today holy toledo are they big and HOT! He also took a stroll out back and came back with a great big watermelon, we have never been able to grow them before I couldn't believe it, that and more yellow squash wasn't that excited to see that though... lol
Well I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, enjoy family and friends!!
Blog at ya soon!

now is that a nice watermelon or what?

Val

Well Monday is out of the way!!

Well we have monday down, only 4 days to go until a 3 day weekend, I don't know why I am looking so forward to it, maybe just the fact of going and doing only what I want to do at the lake has something to do with it. 

It was a busy weekend, made my bread and butter pickles, a small batch of soap I didn't have too many supplies left, waiting for my shipment to come in should be here thursday but won't have time to play with it until next week sometime, I really feel the need to get more  soap going as the more people who try it really like it, had to laugh at one of the ladies that works out in our warehouse, I gave her a sample last week, and then asked if she had liked it, she said she didn't use it yet, I kept telling her your gonna like it.....  today she says to me I used your soap and boy is it ever nice , had all I could do to not say  "I told ya so"  lol  so guess who wants to order some?  I just feel with Christmas coming on and people wanting lotion and soaps I am going to get behind as the soaps have to sit for 4-6 weeks before I can sell them. 

Oh I am so ready for fall,  I just love that you can just smell that faint hint of it in the air, it is by far my favorite season, I know I know after that comes "shhhhh  winter"  but that doesn't stop me from having it be my favorite time of year. 

Thought I would share a few pictures and then I need to go do something constructive,  why is it when you are work, all you think about is what you are going to do when you get home, and then you get home and find out your "got up and go got up and went?"  well I did cut my flowers down to the dirt in most of my pots outside,  and I did cut a batch of soap, and I am going to go knit,  I so want to get this baby blanket done!! just to start another one, but the sooner they are done I can go on to some fun things!

Well I hope everyone has a fabulous week!!!  

Blog at ya later

Ok I have to tell you the story behind the stainless steel mixing bowl, this is my new best friend I kid you not, I ordered it on ebay for soap making thought it would be nice to have a "handle" on things when making my soap, well it arrived and I can't part with it, I could seriously get rid of every other bowl in my kitchen, I LOVE IT!!  I actually found another one on ebay and bought that one too, not sure which one will be for soap making this is a 6 quart, and not sure I think the new one is a 5 quart but we will see, so if you don't happen to have one of these...... well your missing out!!

This is my second gallon jug of bread-n-butter pickles, they are pretty tasty  :)  

my new best friend

don't let the name fool ya! 

these are still my bread-n-butter pickles

soaps doing their thing can't wait til their cured. 

my coconut/vanilla small batch cut today.

Val