Picture heavy.....

Frost burn; happened on Sept 8th and again last night.

I think Cortney said she counted approximately 29 pumpkins from six Cinderella Pumpkin plants

Radish gone to seed, for seed collection    :o)

Flat Dutch Cabbage, this is our smallest head, the rest are 1/3 larger than this one! Can anyone say...

Sauerkraut and Freezer slaw*wink* Of course we'll store 3-4 head in the cellar too.

Our Red Cabbage, isn't it beautiful? We like this made into a spiced Red Cabbage, canned.

Eggplant anyone?

They are in hiding and you want to be careful of the thorns, Ouch!

Do you see four? Now keep in mind that we've already harvested two off this plant already. That is Creeping Thyme in the photo too.

Purple peppers, sadly they turn green when cooked.

95% of our Chinese Giant Bell peppers are HUGE! They will make beautiful stuffed peppers( they freeze beautifully and

the smaller peppers we'll chop and freeze.

These tomatoes are White Tomesol, and when ripe will be snow white.

Watermelon Beefsteak, wonderful for sauces, as they are mostly pulp with little juice.

Golden Torches, these are a low acid tomato

Evergreen Tomato, works well for Green Tomato Preserves, as well as Fried Green Tomatoes

Brandywine tomatoes

Bee Balm, funny thing is we've tried to grow this for 3 years outside without any success, but it seems it loves our greenhouse.

It's a JUNGLE! The poor wooden stakes we typically use to stake our tomatoes, well... many have broken due to the weight and height of the tomatoes this year. The potted tomatoe plants did not get as large and neither did their fruit, taking note of this!

You can see one tomato plant standing tall, well just to the right of that plant, a tomato plant was almost 8ft tall, until it broke it's stake is now propped up to keep from breaking the stem. We're going to have to revamp our staking method for next year.

Our Kale, swiss chard( to the far left of the kale) and spinach( in the background) Psssst... don't look at the weeds*wink*, they've gotten away from us while we're harvesting and preserving.

Close up of our spinach, this really isn't a typical spinach. This spinach is called; New Zealand Spinach and it is a periennal. It doesn't bolt early, goes to seed late in Fall, for easy seed collection, freezes well and has a wonderfully mild flavor, whether cooked or eaten raw in a salad.

Our Painted Mountain Corn, we've collected some beautiful ears. Ranging from blood red to pink and purple and all colors inbetween

As we harvest them we'll get pictures of the variety of colors. It's so fun shucking them, you never know what color combination you'll find. We grow these to sell as decorations, to grind for meal and to feed to our poultry in the winter months. This corn has a protien content of 18-22%, so is a good source of protien. We've even semi popped( by cooking the kernels in hot oil or butter until the slightly pop) it's a tastey treat :o)

Okay this weeks list of things to do;

                            Process a case of peaches into jam, butter and canned peach

Pick plums and make jam,butter and jelly

                 Harvest cabbage for Kraut and Spicey Red Cabbage

Continue dehydrating zucchini

   Pick raspberries( most likely twice this week)

                           Finish harvesting the corn, shucking back,and bundling to dry

Dig the corn stalks for feeding to cows

Harvest and freeze peppers

                                         Remove pepper plants, work soil, add compost and plant salad crops in greenhouse

                                               Finish priming and painting greenhouse, soffit on the garage and if I have time, scrape and sand the garage trim, prime and paint.

Okay to be realistic, if we get 7 of the ten done I'll be thrilled, because this is added to; Laundry, Chores, Cooking Meals, Errands,Cleaning the House, etc........

So if you don't see a post this week, you'll know why *wink*

So... sick of GREY!

We're so sick of Grey skies and cool temps!  This whole, "summer without summer" we've had maybe a dozen days into the 90'sF and only one day that hit 100F. I love bright sunshine, the crystal blue Montana skies, and this summer we've had very little of either.*sigh* Today's high is forecasted to be 64F. When the above photo was taken this morning it was 48F<Brrrrrrr...> and it rained off and on all night, so it's a damp cold.

The animals are showing signs of getting in their winter coats and the chickens and turkeys( crazy birds) are molting. They do this ever year and I know it's linked to the decreasing daylight but it seems crazy to be walking around half naked when winter is just around the corner, LOL!

Thank the Lord we finally, got it together, to build our greenhouse, it's been such a blessing! The tomato plants are 7ft+ tall and LOADED with beautiful HUGE( green still, but they are ripening*wink*) tomatoes. Of course the peppers and eggplant are huge and producing beautifully too.  I did manage to plant some cantaloupe in the greenhouse but because the tomato plants grew so large, they are fighting for light and space, so not sure we'll get to harvest any this year. It's been a learning experience and I've taken good notes for future reference. We didn't have to use any fans to help ventilate the greenhouse this summer, using the roll up sides and windows worked well. Although if we do get a normal summer I'm sure we will have to use exhaust fans to regulate the inside temperature better.

Well, I'm off to  make and bake some bread and process a few more pints of Basil Dilly Beans. It's still not cool enough to warrant a fire in the wood cook stove, but I'm anxiously awaiting the day we can!  We even have our kindling bundles ready and small firewood handy*wink* For us it is a blessing to have the different seasons, each holding it's own activities and events, which we look forward to. I'm looking forward to winter, as this is my time to catch up on reading, working on crafts and I pray this winter a time to begin my adventure in Quilting! I've been collecting material and pattern books from garage sales and secondhand stores. I don't want to quilt like the new quilts are being made, but rather piece it using the treadle sewing machine and quilt it by hand, the way my Grandma  and so many Grandma's did it! I'm starting with a couple of small projects and then hope to finish my( U-hummm window quilts, started something like 4 yrs ago), then move on to maybe a small baby sized quilt before tackling any large projects.

Blessing for your day! :o)

Harvest bounties!

About every other day we're getting this many berries, YEAH! The berries are not as big as last year, but they are OH! So! sweet. :o)

Beautiful aren't they? We put them of cookie sheets and freeze them. This way we can add them to a freezer bag and when needed can remove as many or as few as we like.  They make great treats, just to pop in your mouth*wink*

                                  Here is a bag off frozen berries, that we'd picked two days earlier.
You can also see some of the zucchini we've been harvesting on a daily basis in the first photo. Peppers are coming on and we're making the best of them, in fact sometime this week we're making stuffed peppers for supper. 
                                  Night before last, we did suffer some frost damage to our pumpkins, zukes and cukes but I think they'll keep producing until a hard freeze comes.  The pumpkins are pretty well finished anyway and we're getting tired of the zukes, just praying we get some more cukes because we've not had the opportunity to harvest many yet. After the hail they were slow inn recovering and now the frost burn. I'm hoping to get enough to make a few quarts of bread and butter pickles and a few pints of sweet relish.
                                    Today is yet another cool, grey day*sigh* Oh! well it makes harvesting more comfortable and eventually we NEED to catch up on weeding, before it's time to till it under for the winter.
                                   Off to clean the house, we've got company coming tomorrow and we're also going to harvest our Painted Mountain corn, we've got some really beautiful color combinations this year! I'll post pictures of the ears soon!
                                 Until then Blessings for your week!

Celebration, party and the evil eye...

This is the Celebration!

This was last weekend (Aug. 28th), our town had it's  annual Township Celebration and of course there is always plenty of food, games, entertainment and all are followed by a street dance, with a live band.

The weather turned rainy, so a quick change of plans and the fire hall was opened up and tables and chairs put in place.

Now to the Party!

It as you might have guessed, it was a potato digging party.

Our weather has been so wet( over an 1" and 3/10 in the last week) and cool, we were afraid the potatoes might begin rotting and with more wet and cold weather forecasted we opted to dig them this weekend. The picture above is of our Russets, they did quite well this season!

Nice baked potato size and we had several dozen this large or larger.

Here are the small and medium sized Caribe and the large Caribe spuds filled two 5 gallon buckets and a few more besides and we still have one more row( approx. 25 hills to dig) but it began raining. We hope to dig them in a day or so.

A close up of the medium and small Caribe spuds( approx. 250-300lbs. total of the Caribe and approx. 250+lbs. of Russets)

These are the two 5 gallon buckets of large Caribe

I can't believe how large they grew! This particular variety of potato stores very well and they are a purple skinned, with a white flesh, that is very firm.

Now for the Evil Eye!.......

                                           I'd been promising Cortney a Neutral Henna for weeks and just never found the time to do it. What is a Henna, you might ask? Well... it is a all natural product made from vegetables and fruits and is used as a deep conditioner treatment. The Hennas come in colors; such as Burgundy, Auburn, Dark Brown, Light brown, and Black. These are used as a natural dye to add a colored highlight and sheen to your natural color. Hennas will not completely cover grey hair and the darker colors on light hair will obviously change your color to something you may not like*wink* We used a Neutral Henna( no color) because all we desired was deep conditioning and the beautiful sheen it gives to your natural color. 
It is mixed( it's a powder) with warm water to the consistency of honey and then applied to the hair from the scalp outward. You'll  need to section off the hair and take it in small applications, brushing it onto the hair from scalp to the ends. Then you cover with a plastic bag( provided in the Henna) and place the client under a heated dryer for 45 minutes to an hour. Since I no longer work in a salon( haven't for 21 yrs) I have a mini version of a salon dryer  I couldn't help myself and quickly snapped this picture, notice the evil eye I'm getting*wink*  Anyway, all in good fun and Cortney's hair is so soft and shiny. Our weather today didn't allow for sunshine, so .... we will share a picture of the results, when we see the sun again. :o(

Tomorrow, we LABOR, Mike will be cutting firewood at a friends place, while Cortney and I harvest zucchini, raspberries, peppers, beans, cukes and if we have time pick some of our Painted Mountain Corn and hang it to dry in the garage. Sometime this week we'll harvest some of our Flat Dutch Cabbage heads and begin our first, 5 gallon crock of sauerkraut :o)  I'm also working on getting seeds collected, experimenting with our TRUE potato seeds, planting our Fall green in the hoop house( after we remove some of the finished pepper plants and work in some well composted manure) and praying our tomatoes begin ripening in larger batches, so we can begin canning stewed tomatoes, juice and sauces. We also have chickens and turkeys to butcher, when we find the time*wink* I feel myself beginning to panic especially when we watch the evening weather report and at the 5,000 ft. level, SNOW is forecasted for tonight! That means a good chance of a heavy frost for us*sigh* When driving home for the city last week, we noticed that there is fresh snow on the mountains just 45 miles to our East.  I'm NOT ready for this, it seems we've just begun to harvest and it may be over before we know it. PTL! for the hoop house at least our tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and cantaloupe are protected.  Usually this time of year, I'm ready to be done because we've been harvesting and preserving  since the end of July and all of Aug. This year we've been so behind( gardening wise) and we are blessed with loads of produce, it just needs a few more weeks of warmer temps to ripen it all up.
Blessings to each of you on your Labor Day weekend.

Our blog received an award!....

Grandpa from Life on the Farm gifted us this special award! 

Now what I'll have to do though is write, about my writing style and habit, and pass the star to other bloggers.

 Blogsphere is a unique place. In which we've found to be a blessing, because there are indeed people with the same interests as us, and they comment, chat and debate on topics and it is such an encouragement as well as a learning experience.

My writing habit and style: My style is my own and I write about things that are passions of mine/ours.
What I write about is what our family sees, feels and are in tune with at that given time. I don't prepare what I'm going to write, I just simply write it, then I proof read it, checking punctuation and spelling( I have been known to have fat finger syndrome and missed typo's because I did NOT proof read*sigh*, typically when I'm in a hurry*wink*
What I write about: Our life on our homestead; my family, friends, funny happenings, our animals and mixed in are music videos, poems, prayers, funny cartoons, recipes, and some politics/ news, etc...... Originally this blog was started as a way for family, on my side, as well as on Mike's, and  friends to follow along with our journey on our homestead. It's far easier for me to type one blog and everyone come here to read it, then to type many, many emails to family and friends. Especially in our busy times of year, Spring, Summer and Fall. I always felt bad about not keeping up on emails to family and friends but there is only so much time in a day and as I age< Uhmmmmm> I notice I poop out a little quicker*wink* and thus need to head to bed a little earlier, LOL!!!  Now all of our added followers( beyond our family and well known friends), like minded friends have made this blogshere a community we treasure. Which we truly enjoy because in our rural area, we don't have people as close neighbors and actually for Montana, the area we live in doesn't have very many people who are living a frugal, simple life.*sigh*

I'm supposed to list our favorite blogs, but we simply can NOT single out any of our favorite blogs, plus we've added several new blogs lately, to our list of favorites, which we thoroughly enjoy as well. So those of you that read this blog; please consider yourself an award winner and post the picture of the award and write about yourself and the whys and hows of starting your blog. I do this also for selfish reasons, because we are swamped with canning, dehydrating, baking, weeding, harvesting and starting the whole process all over! Yes, we're gluttons for punishment and doing our very best to take FULL advantage of all the garden bounties and blessings, even if we're sick of it all*wink*  It's always so reviving to take canned stuff to the pantry and then just stand back and view all the efforts of our labor, PTL!

Thank you again "Grandpa"! Your blog, is one of the new blogs we've added to our list of favorites. You made our day! :o)

Can you feel the rising fear in America today?

Can you feel the rising fear in America today?
It has gotten to the point where it is almost palpable. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs and fear what is going to happen when their unemployment benefits run out. Millions of others fear what would happen if they lose the job that they still have. A rapidly growing number of Americans are getting behind on their mortgage payments and fear that they might lose their homes to foreclosure. Still others are looking retirement directly in the eye and are realizing that they aren't going to have enough money to make it. So why all the fear? Well, over the past several decades an increasing number of Americans have come to define their lives by the amount of stuff that they have accumulated and the amount of money in their bank accounts. For these Americans, living the American Dream is dependent on these material possessions. So what happens when these material possessions are threatened? What you get is millions upon millions of Americans living in fear.

What is your greatest fear?

Death?

Losing a loved one?

Speaking in public?

Well, if one new survey is to be believed, running out of money is the greatest fear of all. According to a recent poll of Americans between the ages of 44 and 75, 61% said that running out money was their greatest fear. The other 39% said that death was scarier.

That is where we are at as a society.

Literally billions of people around the world have next to nothing, so if they were to lose the little that they have it would not be that big of a deal.

But for Americans, we are so used to such an insane level of prosperity that the thought of losing it all creates a great deal of fear.

These days Americans spend a great deal of time worried about the economy. Terms like "double-dip recession" and "economic downturn" are brought up even on mainstream news programs constantly now.

Economists such as Nouriel "Dr. Doom" Roubini make worldwide headlines with their pronouncements that more hard times could be on the way. In fact, Roubini recently said that he thinks that the odds of a double-dip recession have risen to more than 40 percent.

So are there legitimate reasons to be concerned about the economy?

Absolutely.

I have written about them over and over.

But the appropriate response is not fear.

Nor is it an appropriate response to bury one's head in the sand and pretend that nothing bad is going to happen.

Rather, the appropriate response is to see things the way they really are and make the best preparations that we can.

Even in the incredibly difficult economic times that are ahead, some people are going to have the greatest adventures of their entire lives.

For some people, times don't have to be "good" in order to experience great love and joy and peace.

But for millions of other Americans, a full blown economic collapse will mean that they will totally lose it.

Sadly, when things really and truly do melt down, there will be rioting in the streets and hordes of Americans begging the federal government for assistance.

The truth is that we can already see signs of this. Thousands of desperate people from all over America lined up one recent Friday morning outside the Palm Beach County Convention Center hoping that a non-profit organization called the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America could help them save their homes. NACA had received $41.5 million in federal money from the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program, and it was expected that 50,000 people would ultimately show up from all across the nation to try to take advantage of the program.

You see, in 2010 Americans have been taught that when they feel fear they should turn to the government for a handout. Recently, in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia 30,000 people turned out to pick up only 13,000 applications for government-subsidized housing. A near-riot ensued and the sad thing is that there weren't even any openings in the program. The whole thing was just to get on a waiting list.

But America has now become so socialized that tens of millions of Americans are clamoring for government assistance. Government anti-poverty programs have absolutely exploded in size in response to the recent economic downturn. Now, a record one in six Americans are enrolled in at least one government anti-poverty program.

Take a moment to think about that.

That is absolutely staggering.

People are even putting off having kids because of the bad economy. The U.S. birth rate has dropped for the second year in a row. It is now about the lowest it has been in a hundred years. There are many reasons for this phenomenon, but many experts believe that one of the big factors is that people simply do not believe that they can afford children right now.

But not only are people putting off bringing new life into the world, an increasing number of Americans are actually ending their lives because of soul crushing economic problems.

The following is an excerpt from an actual letter to U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner....

"My dad, S, killed himself March 16, 2009 because he ran out of money and could not find work. My whole family had been devastated by the economy. He was 61 years old and could not take it anymore. He could not figure out how to keep the electric on, buy food, or keep a roof over his head. A day before his electric was to be shut off, and 2 weeks away from eviction, my dad took the hardest walk of his life. He left a note on the dining room table for my sister and I. His suicide letter said ‘I love you. I had to do this. I ran out of money. I wish you both luck in your lives’. He left the door unlocked with the door key left in the lock. He carefully laid out two suits for us to pick from to bury him in."

This is really happening in America in 2010.

People are giving in to fear.

But they do not need to.

As we read in I John chapter 4, "perfect love casts out fear". If the American people had something more to live for than materialism and entertainment then they could overcome the fear of hard economic times.

But for most Americans, "building a life" means buying a home, building up a bank account and accumulating as big a pile of possessions as possible.

When the good times are gone, a very large percentage of Americans is going to totally lose it and will think that life is not worth living anymore.

What about you?

Are you going to give in to fear or are you going to have something to live for when that day arrives?

http://endoftheamericandream.com/arc...living-in-fear

I DID IT! well with a LOT of help

Thanks everyone for your help and comments as to how to make a button for our blog. Ummm Hummm, if you'll look to the right you'll see the button and the code posted below it. Please feel free to copy that code and post it on your blog or share it with friends :o)  Who says you can't teach an ole homesteader new tricks, LOL!!! Thanks again Mrs. G for sharing the tutorial and if you are interested she commented and left the link for the tutorial on my last blog.

A bit off our irregular posts..... I have a question for you blogger whizzes?

My question is this how do you make those cute multi -facet pictures and use it as a HTML button to advertise/ invite people to your blog?  I spent two hours online last night trying to figure it out and still don't know. I am a self taught computer person, so my technical language is slim.  Thanks for any and all help, I'd just like a cute button/ picture to send to people who ask for the link to our blog.  Isn't it wonderful that I can say I'm still learning*wink* and not be ashamed to admit it, LOL!!!!

Emailing: Consequences

Okay, before I get flamed, I'm NOT saying voting Republican is any better, but rather what goes around, comes around, I just thought this would make people think, especially with elections so close at hand.

Old Lightning: Open Season

Everyone who enjoys hunting and owning a gun; well the powers( government, environmentalists, animal rights activists, etc....) that be, just aren't going to give up without a fight. They're going to attack this issue from as many angles as needed to take this right away. Please go over to YeOldFurt's blog; Old Lightning: Open Season and read for yourself.