Saturday Round Up

Kris came home last night fairly late and because of the heat I was not feeling very well. We didn't get a very long visit before I toddled off to bed.

Harvey and Kris had their bonding time early today. They headed out fishing fairly early and came back early as well. The skies were getting very dark and the wind came up, so they felt the trip should come to an early end. I think they have plans to fish for a couple of hours tomorrow morning and Kris will head home in the early afternoon.

Right after lunch my boys got started leveling the new gravel in the driveway. I now have a wonderful new place to park. I really was getting tired of parking on the road and hiking (sarcasm here) the groceries into the house.

Here is our newly renovated driveway.

No longer do I have a rather huge, insurmountable pile of crushed rock sitting in the middle of the drive. Still it is a bit deep and needs to be packed down. Harvey has his truck in here right now. A few more passes and it will be packed down fairly nicely.

While Kris was doing the heavy work moving gravel around, Harvey decided it was time to start painting the cement on the house. He managed to get about 1/4 of it completed before he called it a day.

I do like the darker grey against the light blue grey of the siding. Harvey figures it might be a bit too dark though.

Slowly but surely the summer yard work is being completed.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Thursday Tid Bits

I mentioned Harvey taking a bit of a fishing trip a day or so ago. I thought I would share some pictures of the wild life he saw.

Three lovely snappers sitting on a rock sunning themselves not far from his fishing hole.

Three of the four footed variety of wild life (not sure but I believe these to be White Tail Deer) on the way to his favorite place.

His catch for the day. This was a 6 lb Jack, so he decided to bring it home and fillet it. Guess it put up quite the fight as well.

One of the many ducks that came to visit him. Harvey did tell me the name of this specimen but it seems to have slipped my mind at this time.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Harvesting In The Rain

Today looked much like this.....

That's right we had a nice gentle rain for most of the day. The grass and gardens sure needed it!

However I did manage to get out before the rain started up once again to pick herbs. The dehydrator was going great guns for most of the morning. I picked sage, oregano and basil. Here is my collection of dried herbs for the winter so far.

I am hoping to snip some thyme very soon. My plant is just not growing the way it usually does. I definitely need more sage as well.

I finished making the Bread and Butter Pickles.... Seven lovely pint jars, which will, along with the Pickles in a Bucket do us for the winter.

Every pint sealed which is a first. Usually I have to do the hot water bath twice for a couple of pints and even then one won't seal.

Supper tonight was a mish mash of leftovers.

I used up a bag of leftover roast beef from the freezer, a small leftover container of corn, a green onion from the garden, some mushrooms, the leftover roasted potatoes and the drippings from our Sunday roast. Added a can of condensed Cream of mushroom soup after saute everything else and heated the mixture through. I seasoned it with salt, pepper, and some garlic powder. Turned out pretty good served with fresh bread.

There was enough leftover to make a meal for Kris which is now residing in the freezer in a tinfoil container.

Even with the busyness of making pickles and drying herbs I found time to work on my cross stitch and read.

All in all a lovely way to spend a rainy day.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Menu Monday

Another week, another week of menus.

There have already been a couple of changes to this weeks menu plan. Lots of leftovers need to be out of my fridge!!!

Monday

Leftover Tuna Pasta Salad along with some Cheese Onion Bread. I may cook a few peas to add to the salad along with some diced cheddar cheese (trying to use up a hunk of cheese in the fridge).

Tuesday

Hot dogs and a salad.

Wednesday

Leftover roast beef, gravy from saved drippings and the roast potatoes will be diced and fried. Served with Kohlrabi from the garden.

Thursday

A package of leftover chicken from the fridge freezer made into a casserole and a salad.

Friday

Fish Fillets, home made oven fries, and some cucumber salad.

Saturday

Cabbage Bread to get the last of it out of the freezer.

Sunday

Pork roast, roast potatoes, peas and carrots.

Everybody have a wonderful day.

God bless.

Sunday Ramblings

Today I thought I would share my cross stitch project with you all.

Many will probably remember it from last year..... See how long it is taking me to get finished. I think I have been working on it for at least three years. Hopefully this year will see an end to it and I can move on to another unfinished project I started even longer ago.

I think I could be about 2/3 done or very close to that. I even managed to get about 200 more stitches completed today. I can hardly wait to see what it looks like finished.

There has been something bothering me since about Thursday.

I always watch this talk show.

(image from google images)

I usually love it as she is down to earth most of the time. Even having some good frugal ideas. However on the show that is bothering me recycling fashion came up.

It seems my idea of recycling fashion differs greatly from Queen and her guests. To them going in their closets and pulling out an outfit to wear a second time is recycling fashion..... Hey what!!! That is something I do all the time. I can't think of one normal person who only wears something once (okay, maybe if they never tried it on and the article in question fits terribly).

To me, recycling fashion means buying my clothing at yard sales or second hand/thrift stores. It means refashioning garments to bring them a bit more up to date.

It also means taking old clothing and turning it into something else. This could mean turning the article into rags for cleaning, fabric for quilt making or even fabric for making other clothing.

The frugalista in me would never wear anything just once and would always get the last bit that I could out of a piece of clothing. Meaning if I could not use it I would find someone that could.

Just wondering what all of you think the term "recycle clothing" means.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Saturday Happenings

Whatever happened to the storm we were supposed to have? Seems to have missed us once again. While I wouldn't want a bad storm, the rain would be nice to have. It might, just might cut the heat a little bit and enable us to have the air conditioning off for a bit. It didn't even cool off that much during the night.

Today was spent working around the old homestead, getting things done on the to do list that I have put off.

I grated those three rather large zucchini.

I managed to get six 2 cup packages to nestle in the freezer.

I used up the remaining rhubarb making this.

A lovely Rhubarb Pizza which will give us a sweet after meal treat for a few evenings. I will post the simple recipe at the end of my post. This takes care of all the rhubarb I had in the fridge that I wanted used up.

I, then moved on to cutting some fabric scraps from my sewing into useable quilt squares. This is the fabric before I started cutting.

This is what in now looks like.

All put away in my sewing room to use for a quilt sometime in the future. Seems like I am always putting these away to be used "later".

I even had time to work on my cross stitch project. Which I will post a picture of as I get a bit more done. I have been working on it for a very long time.

Here is the Rhubarb Pizza Recipe.
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp softened butter
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
3 cups chopped rhubarb
1 small package strawberry jello
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup melted butter

Mix first 5 ingredients, the mixture will be crumbly. I always double this portion as I make mine a bit larger than a 12" pizza. Beat the egg with the milk and add to the crumbs. Pat this mixture on the bottom of a round 12" pizza pan. Place chopped rhubarb on top and sprinkle the dry Jello over the top.

Mix the second amount of sugar, flour and melted butter until it forms crumbs. Sprinkle over the rhubarb and jello.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Enjoy!!!

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

End Of the Week And New Goals For The Month

First off I thought I would share my new goals for the month.

1. Declutter the bookcase portion of the computer desk. Put all invoices and such in binders that have been decluttered full of recipes.

2. One more month of decluttering recipes and then I am resting for awhile.

3. Sew the two cut out patterns from last month.

4. Cut out usable quilt blocks from scrap fabric.

5. Make relish.

6. Make Bread and Butter Pickles.

7. Go for zero waste if possible.

8. Package and freeze grated zucchini, I want at least twelve packages and I already have  4 done.

Most of these will be easy to take care of within the next few weeks. I am so looking forward to having a better goal meeting challenge this month.

Now on to what I have been busy with today.

I watered the plants.

Then I headed into the garden and picked three rather large zucchini.

These will be washed and grated tomorrow morning. Just too worn out to do them up tonight....Unless I get a second wind.

Harvey picked the beans and peas for me, so I spent time shelling peas (got enough for a meal or two) and snapping beans.

Another 6 packages now reside in the freezer and I kept enough for another couple of meals. I really don't think there will be many more large picks so this could be the last of the beans. Just have to wait and see.

I had picked and sliced rhubarb about a week ago and last night I made rhubarb sponge pie. Today I made these two lovely Rhubarb loaves.

These also reside in the freezer, a nice sweet treat for later on. I do love rhubarb!!!

I still have enough rhubarb cut and ready to be used for a cake and perhaps rhubarb pizza...Will share that recipe with you sometime this coming week.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.