Making Kraut

Okay here is my disclaimer, if someone would share with me how to get videos to download onto Blogger. I did get one of the three videos, we made, to down load but the other two ( I tried twice) came up after an hour saying there was an error. They were all done on the same camera and basically the same length of time. They work great on my "Windows Media Player", so it's not the videos.

Below are some pictures we did take, but it won't be the same, sorry I'm so techno- challenged.

         This head of cabbage will make plenty of kraut, because I'm the only one who eats it in our house.

 Cut the head in half and remove the core.  The core is very tasty with a little salt, for those of you who enjoy turnip, radishes and kohlrabi.

 Now quarter it for easier handling in the kraut cutter

 This is a three blade cutter and fits nicely on top of a large bowl. I do have a larger cutter but it is bulky and hard to use, especially if you are only doing one or two heads of cabbage.

 This is a photo of the large cutter, it's only a two blade and actually shreds the cabbage much longer

 Place a quarter of cabbage in the cutter box, and add the lid, which you push down on as you draw the box back and forth across the cutters.  It takes some coordination to hold the board in place, draw the box to an fro, all the while pushing down on the lid, but it doesn't take long before you find a rhythm.

 It slices it evenly, quickly and without a whole lot of effort and if you are careful you won't even make much of a mess.  Once all you want cut in done, you'll need a crock or large glass container( I've used gallon glass jars before I found my 6 gallon crock at a garage sale 3 yrs. ago)  You'll want to make sure the container is clean, possibly even sterilize it with boiling water before packing in your cabbage.  Now add approximately 1/2 inch of shredded cabbage into the bottom of your container/ crock, now sprinkle with 1Tblsp. salt, may I suggest using sea salt or kosher salt, not table or iodized. Now use a large, heavy spoon or ladle or a wooden stomper and work the cabbage down, packing it tightly, now add another 1/2" layer of cabbage, more salt(you may use more than 1 Tblsp., I just don't like really salty kraut). Pack it tightly, you may begin seeing juice from the cabbage, you want this, thus the reason for the salt and packing the cabbage. Keep repeating this process until your container/ crock is with in 1 inch of the top or you've run out of cabbage. You should see quite a bit of liquid in your packed cabbage, if not don't panic, what you'll want to do is add enough boiled water( cooled to room temp) to cover your packed cabbage. Now you'll need to place a plate or wooden piece on top of the cabbage and push down until the liquid comes up around the plate, now add something heavy( I use an old sad iron) to keep it pushed down.  You'll now need to cover the top of your container, I use a flour sack towel, doubled over and held in place by a heavy duty rubber band.  Set in a well ventilated area( it will begin to smell, once fermintation begins)and a place that holds a temp of 65-70F. If it is warmer than that it ferments to quickly and often is spoiled and any cooler than that it will take longer to complete the fermentation. You'll notice bubbles and a sort of scum forming in the liquid( this is okay) but does need to be skimmed off once a week or as needed. If your liquid is diminishing you may add more boiled and cooled salt water, but ONLY if your kraut looks dry. When you skim the scum off the liquid, you can look at the cabbage and see if it is beginning to resemble kraut, it should also have a strong smell. After about two weeks take a taste and see what you think, if the cabbage is still crispy and doesn't have a transparent look you may want to let it keep going. If my memory serves me last year my kraut took between 3-4 weeks to suit my taste. When it's to your liking, you simply remove from crock/ container and heat slowly, stirring often, so you don't burn it, until hot.  Place into sterilized jars, seal and waterbath for 15 minutes.

Here is my crock about 1/3 full, which is plebnty for just me :o)  Now I wait*wink*  I hope this helps those wanting to try your hand at making homemade kraut. If you have any questions or anything that works well for you please leave a comment. You may also make kraut right in your pint or quart canning jars, see your Blue Ball Canning Guide for instructions.

WOW! can't believe October is....

almost over. Where did the month go, or is it just me?  We've gotten much accomplished this month, plus a whole lot of running to and from the city on errands. 

The garden is pretty well cleaned out, we do still have sunchokes to cut back and stack the stalks for burning, and then harvest some chokes. We don't harvest many at a time because, well we just can't seem to get them to keep. So we leave them in ground and use them as needed until the ground freezes. We tried to mulch them heavy enough one season, with the thoughts of harvesting all winter, only to find that the ground froze and we couldn't dig them anyway*sigh*

Today the plan is to finish the two heads of cabbage( both weigh 30+ lbs) on the floor of the mud/ laundry room. One will be cut for kraut( I'm still going to make that tutorial*wink*) and the other will be made into Freezer Slaw.  Then if there is time I need to work up an area( using my High Wheel Cultivator), add composted manure, stir and mix in , then plant our Fall Garlic and get it mulched. 

We also will clean the house today, as company is expected on Sat. :o) I'm thinking of swapping the living room around for a fresh, new look. We only have two ways to rearrange it because it is small, but it always makes it seem like new and fresher when we do this :o)  The couch is a pain to move and we can't slide it across the wood floor, it leaves marks so... we may have to wait until Mike gets home this evening to move it.

Since the hoop house is still experimental for us, we did find out( we suspected) that if it's going to get down to  freezing or below it will in the hoop house as well. Tues. Cortney harvested all of the tomatoes from the plants in the hoop house, and pulled the plants. We now have 5 trays full of green/ semi green tomatoes sitting on our front entry( approx. 1 bushel) :o)  The next day we harvested the last of the bell peppers, that evening our low was 27F and when we checked the hoop house the next morning, pepper plants had all frozen and were black.  Now we know that we will have to heat the hoop house if we intend on keeping tomatoes and peppers going well into Nov. On the other hand the chard, mustard and lettuce mix we started were unharmed and are growing well, without an outside heat source for the evenings :o)

Blessings for your weekend

Smashing all myths that cooking from scratch takes all day

Now to smash all those myths that you can't cook from scratch quickly. Today we had to run an errand in the morning, leaving at 10am and returned home around 12:45pm. Once home, we had to collect clothes off the clothesline, getting the load in the washer, wrung out and hung on the line. Then Cortney and I went to our separate tasks. I began cutting tomatoes and running through the mill, while Cortney headed out to the hoop house to collect all the tomatoes left on the vines because it's forecasted to freeze and freeze hard tonight with our low into the low 30's to high 20's F. Since we've decided not to heat the hoop house this year, I didn't want to chance the loss of any of the beautiful tomatoes left on the vines. Much to my surprise, Cortney also went ahead and pulled up the vines, stakes and did all the clean up for me as well, what a blessing :o)  After the tomatoes were all milled and the Victorio all cleaned up, I proceeded to start a fire in the stove for two purposes; first to simmer the tomato sauce down  so it's thick enough for chili sauce, enchilada sauce and thick tomato sauce, and secondly because the indoor thermometer was reading 59F and it's forecasted to keep dropping in temperature outside. When the fire was going and shutdown, I headed outside to retrieve a package of chuck steak from the freezer. We've been out of burger for months and have an excess of steak in the freezer, some of which is over a year old already, so we've decided to thaw and grind burger on an "As Needed Basis."  Today burger is needed for our supper. 

 Tomato sauce simmering- Check

 Chuck steak thawed( enough) in hot water, cut into chunks and ground into burger-Check

 Burger cooked and seasoning added- Check

Home canned pinto beans, ready for mashing, mashed-Check

Mashed pinto beans added to burger in preparation for Enchiladas :o)

 Burger and beans mixed and simmered, ready to fill the..... okay I admit we did use store bought tortilla shells that we had in the freezer*wink*

 Home canned Enchilada sauce, recipe found here, ready to be opened and cheese grated

     The finished product before being baked in the wood cook stove oven :o)   Now all of this plus another load of laundry was washed and wrung out before 4pm.  Feeling quit good about all we'd accomplished in such a short period of time, Cortney and I treated ourselves to one episode, of the 9th season of The Walton's  *wink*  Then it was off to do evening chores, Mike coming home and enjoying our homemade supper :o)

Update on Morningland Dairy and the FDA battle

Remember my post about the Un-cheese party, as a fundraiser for Morningland Dairy, asking for your support of this terrible battle with the FDA? Well here is a link, Thank you Kat , to the updated story. Please go read what this poor family is having to live through. The Un-cheese part is still going on, so if you haven't thought about donating to the cause you still have time to act. Remember this is NOT just a battle over raw dairy because of the FDA and Morningland Dairy case, but it is a case in point as to whether or NOT we have the RIGHT to choose what we WANT to eat, or whether we want to give up yet another freedom, NEVER to get it back. Think about it folks.

A day in our slow life

Disclaimer; many of these times are estimated because I don't wear a watch and unless looking at a clock inside I never truly know what time it is, LOL!!!

This is yesterday's( 10-23-2010) "Day in our slow life"


5:30 am- Alarm goes off, playing an oldies song. This is the time the dogs get their morning affection and get to jump up into bed, what a treat!  :o)
6am- Mike and I are up dressed and heading outside to feed the cows, a headlamp is needed as it is pitch dark still. Button and Hoss are glad to see us and Hoss even butts me for his hay
6:15am- Back inside, I get the coffee heated awhile Mike gets ready for work. Mike says he'll take his muffin with him, as the snack he ate last night before bed is sitting like a lump in his stomach.
6:30am- we sit down and enjoy our coffee and talk about the day ahead
7am- Mike leaves for work and I hear Cortney coming down the stairs.
Cortney prepares Hoss's bottle and heads out to the barn.
7:15- Cortney is doing her chicken and turkey chores  and I'm washing up the morning dishes, cleaning off the counters, wiping off the wood stove top and getting the table in order and cleaned up a bit because we are expecting company today :o)
7:30am- I check email and visit a few blogs, posting on them as well as our own blog
8:15am- Cortney and I head outside to begin disconnecting the hoses and rolling up for winter storage.
9:30 am- I pulled up some sunflower stalks and piled them for Cortney to haul to the chickens and turkeys.
10am-  Cleaned up and collected seed pods from the radishes, piling the greens into a pile to dry for burning later
10:45am- Cortney is now working on harvesting fennel seed heads, while I am cleaning up the dill and weeds in that area, shaking the dill seed for next seasons crop. What I pulled is piled and hauled to the burn pit.
11am- Inside for some H2O
11:15am- Back out to finish clean up of the dried dill and weeds
11:40am- Cortney and I decide we'd better clean up and change clothes before my Cousin Rachel and the girls arrive :o) I decided to eat a tuna sandwich, Cortney opted to wait until after our company leaves.
Around 12pm- Rachel and the girls pull into the driveway and Casino and Tuffy sound the alarm . The girls are excited to see Cortney.  Cortney takes them to see our injured turkey and then down into the root cellar to pick the pumpkins. Each of the girls picked two ears of the colored corn as well. It was a hard choice for Rachel*wink*, the girls both picked their choices and all 6 ears were beautiful together. There visit was nice, but they had an appointment in a neighboring town to try their hand at pottery making.
1-ish pm-Rachel and the girls say good bye . I grab the scissors and head out to cut the millet and put into milk crates for storage in the cellar. I treated the chickens and turkeys to a few heads and the quickly gave it a, " Two Wings Up" vote, LOL!!!
2pm- Take a mini break, Mike calls to see how our day is progressing. He shares that he has been busy too
 and he's working on his 13th tire repair, hauled feed and made some hydraulic hoses.
2:10pm- Cortney brings in the mail, I'm excited to see a flyer from a yarn shop and they are offering beginning knitting classes, YEAH!
2:30pm- Back out to the garden to dig up the millet grasses and pile for burning
3:40pm- My Mom stops in with a question and conversation on various topics ensues
4:30pm- Cortney checks email. I start the pump and begin filling the cows troughs, while waiting on the filling I re-bed the barn in prep for 5'ish feeding of Button and Hoss.
5:09- Cortney and I head out to get some hay down from the loft and then haul out a sliver for each and get Button and Hoss in their barn and corral. Upon returning to the house Cortney feeds the dogs and cat.
5:30 pm- Mike is home and helps us finish rolling up the hoses, now that the troughs are full
6pm- Inside to pull out the leftovers for supper. We have stew, sweet and sour chicken and fried rice to clean up. :o)
6:10pm- Reheat leftovers and it's pick what you want or dish yourself up supper*wink*
6:20pm- Eat our supper and visit about he days happenings.
7:15 pm- Work with Mike on some paperwork on his laptop
8: 30pm- Mike offers me a neck and back massage and of course I don't turn him down :o)
8:45pm- I return the favor and massage Mike's neck and shoulders
9:15 pm- We watch a bit of a program on PBS, but it was stupid so turned it off.
9:20 pm- Cortney says good night
9: 30pm- We let the dogs out for their nightly break
9:40pm- Lights out, dogs on their beds and soon we'll be there as well*wink*
10:12 pm- Post this on the blog so we can maybe sleep in a bit tomorrow
Good night everyone

" A Day in the Slow Life"

Alla from Mountain Valley Farms invited us to participate in " A Day in the Slow Life"  So today is the day we'll keep track of what's happening and will post it on Sunday. :o)  Okay off to the "Slow Life" *wink*
Please feel free to participate yourself, I think it would be fun to see hour to hour what everyone does, just link to our post.

Tomatoes!

What a wonderful blessing that word is! :o)

 After several years of struggling to get ripe tomatoes before a frost.... well this year with the hoop house we're not only enjoying ripe tomatoes well after several frosts, but the tomatoes are HUGE! The basket above is from just one days harvest. Now the only problem I have is jars, I'm running seriously low and really don't wish to buy new jars. So I put the word out and hope today that we'll find some. :o)

 Seed collection for next year  and our Anaheim chili peppers almost completely dry and ready to be ground.

Here are the bean pods Mike and Cortney collected( and the dried Painted Mountain corn), we'll worry about shelling them on a cold winters day or evening at the table, next to the warm and toasty wood cook stove :o)  Thankfully there are projects such as these that can be postponed for a later time*wink*

We've had a tough year when it comes to animal, losses. Our cow, Addy, was down and couldn't get up in the pasture on Monday evening. She did stand on Tues. morning but it was obvious that she'd pulled out her hip. We're not entirely sure if this was an injury from a few days earlier( as we were treating her for what we felt was a pulled muscle or tendon), gone bad. Anyway we'd already decided months earlier she was going into the freezer as hamburger, we were just holding off because we didn't have the room( hindsight is 20/20 don't you know*sigh*). When we called the butcher( they'll come and custom butcher right on your farm), he said she had to be able to walk, which she could NOT, otherwise she's classified as a "downer cow" and they by law couldn't butcher her. With no place cool enough to hang her to age we were now are faced with the fact that we're loosing all the meat. :o(   We went ahead and put her down( she was in pain) and a friend of ours brought over their loader( Mike was fit to be tied, he couldn't get our tractor with loader to start) and loaded her on our truck for us. She was to be hauled and buried in a pit they have for cows( in fact they had one that had been bitten by a rattlesnake that they had to put down the day before), then the state trapper showed up and asked about using the two cows as bait for coyotes. Since we know firsthand that a friend of ours has been struggling with her sheep being killed by coyotes all year we talked it over and decided that at least Addy's death was not going to be a total loss.
When you own animals things happen, we don't always understand, nor do we enjoy these things happening but you can either let it ruin your life or pick yourself back up and move forward. Loosing an animals is never easy, especially when you work closely with them and they become a friend. We're just so glad we opted to buy the bottle calf Cortney was raising for a friend, otherwise Button would be all alone and cows are, after all a herd animal.
Well, got to get moving we have laundry to finish today and tomatoes to run through the mill and cook down for sauce. :o)  I loose my righthand woman at 12:30pm today too, she's helping with an after school program for children *wink*
Blessings for your day!

Our weekend

Not much to share, Mike and Cortney did clean up in the garden on Saturday, collecting more dried bean pods( a 5 gallon bucket full of one variety and a old milk crate with another), burned the dried bushes from the bush beans, pulled up the cabbage roots. While I worked indoors on cleaning and getting odds and ends chore caught up. In the late afternoon we did clean the stove pipe and stove in preparation for our burning.If your are interested in a tutorial look under woodstove care for pictures.
We did it the old fashioned way but removing a section of pipe and holding a bag over the end of the pipe to collect the soot, if you'll recall our disaster when experimenting on a new way( easier, so so we thought, LOL!) last year.LOL!!!!

I woke up Saturday with a scratchy throat, so immediately took 2000mg Vitamin C, began my day by drinking echinachea / elderberry tea with a liberal amount of raw honey and increased my Vitamin D3 from 3,000mg to 5,000mg. The scratchy throat went away by about midday but I felt it settling into my sinuses. By evening the nose was plugged tight, which I hate not being able to breath through my nose, so fought sleep off and on all night.

Sunday we'd scheduled to butcher turkeys, six total( 5 tom and a hen), would have been 6 toms but one was injured fighting and lost some weight while he was down. We had all but one turkey sold, or so we thought.*sigh*  When I called people on Friday to let them know their birds would be ready for pick up early next week( this week) two people cancelled their orders, sighting $$$ problems and one lady I couldn't get a hold of, but am fairly sure she's just out of town. So this leaves us with two toms and a hen that were not claimed. Our freezer space is limited so we made the decision to butcher only what we actually had sold and one for us; in other words three toms.
Butchering turkeys seems easier to me than butchering chickens, we timed ourselves and it took 12-15 minutes per bird. All three toms( one was butchered when the buyer arrived, because she wanted to help and learn about butchering) dressed out at 20-25lbs and all were plenty fat *wink* We always pay special attention to the organs( heart, liver, lungs) and all three toms organs were very healthy.
Of course since our toms were bronze and they did have some pin feathers there is a little cleanup involved in getting the coloring scrapped from under the skin. Once they'd been thoroughly washed and the final inspection for pin feathers complete, they were bagged( well, the one buyer took her tom home for final cleanup) and are chilling in the refrigerator downstairs. 
Today I'm putting together an ad for a local paper and will advertise the remaining two toms and pray that the other woman who wanted the hen contacts us soon, otherwise we'll butcher the hen for our freezer :o)

I still am congested but feel fine. I was able to clear on side of my nose to breath through last night and after taking hot tea and elderberry tincture before bed, I slept like a log*wink*
Today's "plan"( as Cortney refers to it) is to harvest ripe tomatoes from the greenhouse,wash, cut and add them to the ones already inside waiting to be milled. Cortney most likely will mill them while I'm getting supper started, stew, in the dutch oven. We also have laundry to start, typically it takes us two days due to clothes line constraints, especially now that our day time temperatures are cooler and the clothes take longer to dry.

                          

                                What a blessing!, all the shelves are FULL :o)

                                Herbs collected, dried and now in their storage containers

We'll need to clean up the dunk pan( used for butchering) and the cooling tank buy dumping them out and washing them down to dry in the sunshine. If we have time after this we have two large heads of cabbage still waiting to be shredded and packed into the crock for kraut. The plan is to do a video of the shredding with a slaw cutter, and the steps in packing it into the crocks, then do follow up videos as if ferments. To bad we can't share the smell*wink* For something that smells so bad, when it is finished it sure tastes good, Ummmm. Ummmm. :o)

Lookee, Lookee, more revealed in Obamacare....

http://www.humanevents.com/article.p...t=yes&id=39412

Human Events
Obamacare Sticker Shock: Taxing Over 15,000 Medicine
10/14/2010

Nancy Pelosi warned us we'd have to pass Obamacare to find out what's in it.

Higher insurance premiums are hitting families hard. Medicare Advantage has

been decimated. Millions will be forced into government-run Medicaid where

long lines and rationing await.

If we like our insurance -- too bad.

Beginning January 1, 2011, more than 15,000 over-the-counter (OTC) health


care items will require a prescription (and that means a doctor's visit) for


tax-free reimbursement.

Under Obamacare, OTC drugs cannot be reimbursed tax-free from Health Savings

Accounts (HSAs) or Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) without a government

bureaucrat-required permission slip.

In response to new Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidance (the IRS is the

Obamacare enforcement agency), the Special Interest Group for IIAS Standards

(SIGIS) http://www.sig-is.org/en/documents/2...essRelease.pdf

released a new list of OTC medications that will require a prescription for

a tax-free withdrawal from an HSA or an FSA under Obamacare.

SIGIS is an industry group for health care debit card transactions and merchants.

According to SIGIS, 15,000 OTC health care items are barred from purchase by

these accounts without prescription.
Below is a partial list of the OTC item categories:
Acid Controllers
Allergy and Sinus medicine
Antibiotics
Anti-Diarrheals
Anti-Gas Products
Anti-Itch and Insect Bite
Anti-Parasitic Treatments
Baby Rash Ointments/Creams
Cold Sore Remedies
MUCH MORE AT LINK

A rap song I can say I honestly like......

I'm no rap fan, but.... this gives a good message and pray it will educate some of our younger generations to the dangers in the foods the consume. Of course there are young and old that need to be educated to the danger of GMO and maybe this song will make them begin asking questions and researching GMO's for themselves.  Natural News puts out a wonderful newsletter, please visit their site( addy at the end of the video) and sign up for their news letter.

What a beautiful way to start any morning

Cortney capured these photos, yesterday morning(10-11-10)

                                         Mums given to us from a friend, Thank you Annabel  :o)

                                         Look who's sleeping in, surprise, surprise, what a bum! LOL!!!

Ever feel like you are being chased and you're loosing ground? Well that is what it feels like here lately trying to take full advantage of harvesting, canning and everyday life moments. Last night we had a really hard frost, we're just praying it didn't harm any of the herbs we've not gotten to yet. I don't worry about the root crops, which are still in he ground and the tomatoes, peppers and newly planted salad greens are in the greenhouse and faired well.  Thus far we've has a blessed Autumn, with unseasonably warm days, cool night and the last couple of days we've even had a good amount of moisture, almost an inch in two days. 
Now it's drawing close to the time we need to step up getting winter preps crossed off. First thing this weekend we're cleaning the chimney and stove, then butchering turkeys, fryers and some older hens for soup. Then we have pumps that need to be winterized as well as lawn mowers( a rider and a push) and eventually the tiller, once we get the garden turned under for winter and a good dressing of composted manure spread over the top :o)  Next we have some windows in the two chicken coops to replace and also we need to deep down clean them both and get a good thick litter on the floor of the main coop, to help keep the chickens busy all winter as well as generate heat, as it composts.  I'm sure there are additional things that will be added to the list, now you understand the feeling of loosing ground in the foot race with our MT weather :o)
Blessing and productivity to all who are in the same foot race,
Kelle

A Walton's Reunion to air on........

Oct 18th! We don't have paid TV , so we'll have to see if someone will tape this for us, hint, hint*wink*
Here's the information from Earl Hamner Jr.'s blog;

Saturday, October 9, 2010

The Waltons Reunion Special to Air October 18th on INSP

Richard Thomas, Ralph Waite, Michael Learned, Mary McDonough, Judy Norton, Eric Scott, Jon Walmsley, David Harper, Kami Cotler, and series creator Earl Hamner will appear on the special, which airs October 18th at 7:00pm EST on INSP - The Inspiration Network.

Indian Land, SC - America's favorite family "The Waltons" will return to television on Monday, October 18th at 7:00pm EST for an exclusive reunion special, "A Waltons Family Reunion," on INSP - The Inspiration Network. The surviving cast members of the American television classic will journey back to "Walton's Mountain" almost 30 years after the series ended its iconic run.

Hosted by Mary McDonough (Erin Walton), the reunion special will feature Richard Thomas (John Boy), Ralph Waite (John Walton), Michael Learned (Olivia Walton), Judy Norton (Mary Ellen Walton), Eric Scott (Ben Walton), Jon Walmsley (Jason Walton), David Harper (Jim-Bob Walton), Kami Cotler (Elizabeth Walton), and series creator Earl Hamner. The veteran cast will reminisce about the series, its impact on American culture and family life, and what they've been up to since the series ended its original run in 1981.

"We're excited to assemble the cast of 'The Waltons' for a reunion special on INSP," said Doug Butts, Programming SVP for INSP. "Having all of the surviving cast members together on television is a real treat. 'The Waltons' transcended television and spoke to an ideal of family unity and surviving difficult times that many Americans still strive for today. We're excited that people will have another chance to see and hear from this cast."

"The Waltons" follows one family's life as they run a lumber mill during the Great Depression in rural Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. Created and narrated by author Earl Hamner, Jr., the program is a reflection of Hamner's own upbringing during the same era, with his experiences re-told to the viewer through the eyes of aspiring writer John Boy Walton (portrayed by Richard Thomas). The close-knit family includes father John Walton (Ralph Waite) and his wife Olivia (Michael Learned), and their children John Boy, Mary Ellen, Jim-Bob, Elizabeth, Jason, Erin, and Ben. Grandparents Zeb (Will Geer) and Esther (Ellen Corby) serve as the elders of this large and loving family, who together face the challenges of 1930s United States while living on "Walton's Mountain." The series ran from September 1972-August 1981 and earned a total of 13 Emmy® Awards during its original run.

Beginning Monday, October 18th on INSP, viewers also can journey back with "The Waltons" at 1pm EST and 8pm EST when the series begins its exclusive Monday-Friday run on the network.

INSP is available in more than 60 million homes across the US on more than 2,800 cable systems and on DIRECTV channel 364 and DISH Network channel 259. Viewers can check their local program guides for channel line-up information or visit /the-waltons.

Real life moments,our dirty little secrets...

Yes, in REAL life the house gets left behind when we're busy harvesting, preserving and clean up the garden.

Okay in our defense,this is just after a week of no dusting( which BTW I hate doing) One of the downsides of country living, opening windows, having indoor pets, a wood stove and well... a 100yr old house*sigh*

 Okay this is the top of the wood cook stove and I just wiped it off yesterday, it drives me nuts some days.

 Evidence of indoor pets, now mind you we just swept and vacuumed 3 days ago! Yet just a day or so after we clean house we could literally assemble a whole new pet from the hair against the baseboards and in the corners.  We brush the dogs and miss kitty regularly but we still have hair, the sacrifice we make to have our beloved pets*wink*

 Okay now, this is Mike's Buffalo mount, we call her Bertha. Before moving here to our homestead, she hung in our bedroom, but here she fits well in the living room. She is a tell tale sign of when it's time to dust, again this is just after a week.*sigh*  Sooooo..... now you all know our dirty little secrets, our place is NOT always spic and span clean, although most days it is picked up and looks organized :o)

 Below are pictures from in and around our place this morning. Yesterday we collected our Kentucky Wonder bean pods that were well on their way to being dry. There are still far more on the vines still drying. We collect these for seed as well as......

 to use in soups and casseroles....... They are a dried bean after all *wink*

 Cortney had some odds and ends Painted Mountain corn to finish drying, so laid them on top our rain barrels( which are empty in prep. for winter)

 Another tell tale sign of a morning activity....

 Whole wheat bread making for the week.

 These are tomatoes harvested day before yesterday, washed and ready to be run through the Victorio Mill today. The tomato I'm holding is a Brandywine tomato and thanks to our hoop house they are all lovely this year and so large too!  The lighter tomatoes in the bowl are our White Tomesol and they aren't quite ripe yet, they are white and have a very low acid flavor. We just plant them for shock factor*wink*

 Here is today's harvest, not all are completely ripe, so.... will be washed dried and left out to finish ripening on the counter or in the windowsill.

 Here is a shot of the ones ripe enough to add with those harvested day before. All combined it should net us a nice stock pot full of sauce to be simmered down and canned. Of course we eat them fresh as well. :o)

 Our counter space is limited and during this time of year they become even more limited.  This is when our island table and wood cook stove top come in handy :o)

Okay now you know our dirty secrets, how about yours? *wink*

Blessings for your day :o)

Monday's meandering thoughts and photos

                       A Touch of Autumn

                  Anaheim Chili Peppers & White Tomesol tomatoes( yes they are white)

                       Reducing down the tomato sauce, to be made into pizza sauce and canned.

                      Calendula flowers, plantain leaves and a few odds and ends beans

            Some Fall decor, usually the vase has flowers in it also, but they are becoming scarce now.

             More Fall decor in the living room. A neighbor lady made these scarecrow for us.

 This is a watercolor painting that I did well..... let's see when I was in high school, 27 yrs ago!

             Creeping rosemary and bush rosemary dug and re-potted for over wintering

      Our Fall colors, we don't have all the reds and oranges of those in the Southern states

               " Hoss" is growing like a weed and doing well with his lead breaking.

                            Fennel

                     Green Zebra tomato seed

                     Zucchini seed.

       We're still busy collecting our harvest, dehydrating, canning , lacto fermenting, pickling,jelly and jam making, etc....  Autumn is moving along quickly and we've had warmer temps in our Autumn then we had all Summer.  We're still collecting herbs for drying( sage, parcel, anise hyssop, lemon basil, lemon balm, bee balm, spicy globe basil, comfrey, greek oregano, spearmint, peppermint, etc....

Blessings for your new week, may it be filled with productivity, that certainly is our prayer.