One Hundred and Seventy-Five Pounds of Strawberries

    Last week, my dear sisters (Susannah and Cassia) and all their dear help, were gone at a orchestra camp!  And do you know that it was that same week that the strawberries needed picked!  Of course!  Usually the four of us older girls do the food preserving together, and even though the younger girls help a lot, it is usually us four who have the bigger portion (understandably : ).   Well, I was about to discover how wonderfully well my younger sisters (and Noah!) could pick and help with strawberries! 

      The first time we went was earlier in June, and because of the frost this spring, there weren't very many--it took us about 1-1/2 hours for several of us to pick a total of 25 lbs!!!!     Last week, when we went, we picked about 50 pounds.  We thought "Great!  Now we just have to pick about 50 more."  (Last year we picked 133 lbs. and had some left over, so we figured another hundred pounds would last us until next year.)  So the last time we went picking, we brought a few extra pots and bowls to fill.  I'm not sure why!

   At about 10:30 a.m.  Leah, Anna, Bekah, Charissa, Noah and I walked into the big strawberry patch with our many containers, and we picked until about 11:50 a.m.   Everybody did great and I was so happy with how well the littles picked with such little whining : )  Any of you with younger siblings konw how hot sun + work sometimes causes whining .  Towards the end, Noah came up to me and said, "Do I have to pick anymore, 'cause I'm tired!"  So I look up, and the poor little dear has sweat running down his red face!  He is so cute!  When we brought them up for the man to weigh the berries, he asked me if I wanted to know how many pounds we had gotten.   I said "yes"  because we always like to keep track of those things : D  I was SO surprised when he said that it was 100 pounds!  I almost wanted to ask, "Are you sure?!"  

  We took them home and got them all washed, and hulled, made pancake syrup, made jam, and put the extra into the freezers on freezer paper, so they wouldn't all be clumped together when we put them in the bags.  Our plan was to put them into bags once they were frozen-- like the next day.    By now, my wonderful sisters came home---but they had to work on projects, and Leah and I were helping Anna and Bekah with their projects, so it was several days that those berries were layed out like that, taking up all our freezer space!  Yesterday, Leah and I finally piled all those strawberries into our biggest laundry basket, and set up a table outside to bag berries on.  The girls had a lot of the tables taken up with 4-H projects, and it was nicer to work outside anyways.  And if you dropped any strawberries on the grass, you didn't have to wash the grass like you would need to wash the floor in the kitchen : D  So, here are pictures!

 My little helpers, helping me clean berries : )

I am amazed, and happy to see that there were not piles of dishes in the background of this picture : D  The whole kitchen was a big mess when we were done, so this must have been the next day, after everything was cleaned up : )

Strawberry Pancake Syrup

Fill blender with cleaned strawberries and 3/4 to1 c. of sugar.  Blend until smooth.  If you want to freeze it, put it into freezer containers and leave a 1/2 inch head space, just as you would for freezer jam.  Makes about 3 or 4 pints.

Leah and I bagging the frozen berries.

Leah found a heart shaped berry!

The aftermath : )

2009 Strawberry Inventory

  (maybe you didn't want all this information, but I love making lists like this and taking inventory of what we have .)

Left over from 2008

Jam: 9 jars

Frozen Berries: 20 bags

Made in 2009:

Jam:  28 jars

Syrup:  11 jars

Frozen Berries:  52 bags

TOTAL of '08 and '09 together:

Jam:  37 jars

Syrup:  11 jars

Frozen Berries:  72 bags

                           And now, to see what we've been up to, here is a picture of my cute little brother, Isaiah, at 4-H judging today : )  I guess that doesn't show much of the judging part, but I didn't get very many pictures of the other parts : D

Have a great day!

~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~

Apple Dumplings

We got awarded by caitlyngaddy!!

 Today (and yesterday) we are making apple dumplings for the whole year. Yesterday we made 79 and we are going to get up to 250!!    We make enough for each of us to have a whole one every Sunday for the whole year with a few extra for when one of our Grandmas come.   We took quite a bit of pictures but I am not going to put them all on here.  I'm doing this and peeling, coring and slicing apples...but its easy!!   Especially when you have a nifty difty tool called a Apple peeler/slicer/corer.  It peels, slices and cores a apple in 16 turns!! (Yes, I counted   And if you want to know, it is 15 turns for a small apple and 17 for a large one.    )  It's a lifesaver!!!! Well, maybe not : )  But it sure is nice!!!  

~A peeled, cored and sliced apple...ready to be wrapped with pie dough!! 

~Being wrapped with cinnamon sugar and butter in the middle!!! Yum!!

~Us four oldest girls working on the apple dumplings.

~Noah looks so serious!!

 ~Cassie

~Suzanna

~Lyssa

~Jessie

~Finished apple dumplings!!

Now for the funny ones, (not very ladylike games )  we would take a peel and two girls would eat from both ends...

~Suzanna and Cassie   in this one we were having a race seeing who could get to the middle first.

~Lyssa and Cassie...they were working while they ate!!

~Annie and Bekah

Remember the apple men we did a couple of posts ago??  Here is a new version...a tomato man!!

~His open mouth is perfect for saying that!! : )

Now for the pictures from last Monday...Daddy rented a bobcat and cleaned out the goat barn!!

~Charissa is in awe with something!

~Rebekah

~I have no idea what she is doing here!! : )   But I thought it was cute

~Isaiah playing in his car on top of a trailer!

~It looks like Noah is tickling Isaiah  It was so hilarious I just had to add along with the other pictures!!

I guess I better go help clean up and eat lunch!!! : )

               ~*~Suzanna Mae~*~

I'm not posting this at lunchtime, but thats when I wrote it! : )

~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~

Chicken Butchering Day!!

WARNING!!!!

If you get grossed out easily, then I suggest that you do not continue...but if you don't, then keep reading!... (or skip to the end and read about (and see the pictures of) making applesauce!!)

On Saturday, we butchered 35 meat chickens in 3 1/2  hours!! It was a lot of fun...but a little cold.    Daddy took care of the heads, wings and legs. Jessie, Lyssa and Annie skinned them and Suzanna and Cassie gutted them. At the end we all cut up the pieces and bagged them. Bekah and Charissa were our photographers!!    Here are a few pictures...

~Jessie bringing them to daddy for the first step!!

~Daddy using the air hose to separate the skin from the meat.

~Lyssa (in blue) and Annie (in pink) skinning them.

~Some thing exciting over there?!

~Okay, some thing REALLY exciting over there!!

~Me (Suzanna) doing my favorite part...gutting!!

~Charissa and Daddy cutting the wings and legs off.

~Cassie, gutting them (with Annie in the background carrying two chickens).

~Lyssa showing Annie how to skin them.

~Jessie, Lyssa and Suzanna rinsing the chickens.

~Annie skinning. (I'm not sure what Cassie is doing ).

~Cassie reaching for the knife...and me holding a part of a chicken.

~Cassie rinsing a chicken.

~How long can the intestines go?!?!  (Suzanna)

You might notice that it looks like we are all disgusted...but we are actually squinting in the sun!!   

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Now here are some pictures of the apples we did this last week.  35 gallon bags of sliced apples for the freezer and LOTS of apple sauce!! So far we canned 67 quarts, but we still have lots more to do!!!  : )

~The leaning wall of Appleton!!

~A mess!!

~Apple men!!

~Some of the finished applesauce!!

Cassie is going to get on here in a little bit...so I better move!!!  

~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~

Grapes! Apples! & other doings!

Okay, I am finally updating the blog=]

We are all 99% better from the chicken pox,I hope we NEVER go through it again.

Well,after we got all better, the grapes we ordered came in! So we have been making grape juice these past few days.We just finished it yesterday! We "tested" some today with breakfast It was good.All together we got 209 qts. of grape juice.  Also, yesterday we picked apples from our apple trees, we got 8 bushels!!! It was quite fun.It's more satisfying to pick it your self,(and from your own trees,)then to get it already picked=]           

So I have posted some pictures of the grapes and apples and a few other things=]

               Grape Juice!                    

    ....and more grape juice

This isn't all, there's LOTS more in the basement.

And here are about half of the apples,

Isaiah got to ride

some of the many apples

All the apples together!!=]

This is me in the tree picking apples

 Several of us picking

Isn't he adorable!?!?!?!?!?!

The girl's homemade swing,with Noah and Isaiah in the background

       ~THE END~

Today we couldn't go to church (again) but....next week I think we can go!!!!!!!! We haven't gone for 4 weeks because of the chicken pox.

And the last thing is Daddy and Mommy went to see Fireproof!!! It starts at 5:30 so it will be starting soon, I am SO, um, I don't know  what the word is, I'm so excited that they can go see it! And so they can tell us a little about it=] As of right now it hasn't started and I can't wait till they get home=]=]=] I can't wait to see it!!! But I will probably not be going to the theater so I will have to wait 6 months to a year for the DVD to come out Well we are going to watch a couple movies so I better go. I think they are waiting on me, they keep on saying "Cassia are you coming??"

       *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

I decided to save this as a draft because I thought of something else I wanted to write about but I didn't have time to write it. Well, to start with we watched "Little Women" the old version, I like it a WHOLE lot better then the new version, the new one has way to much kissing in it! But thats not the only reason I like the old one better.=] I think the old one stays closer with the book. Well, Daddy and Mommy I hope are having fun. Their movie should be done by now, their probably getting ice cream at Ritters,they talked about going there. And now for what I originally saved this as a draft for. I read a book recently called "Sergeant York and the great war". The author is York himself but it was edited by Tom Skeyhill.I really liked it, it was especially neat since York wrote it himself.And so I finished that book and started another one,=]one that I have been wanting to read for awhile,"Washington's Spies".So I got it through interlibrary loan, and I started reading it....well it's not at all what I really thought it would be,I have skipped over a few detailed parts that I didn't really want to read=]It is also a little hard to understand so I can't read big portions at a time.But I am going to go ahead and read it through, maybe it will get better as I go, I am only in the middle of chapter 2. They are long chapters. Well I think I will sign off for now. Hey wait.....DADDY AND MOMMY ARE HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!

got to go!!!!!

Cassia

~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~

Tomatoes, Zucchini, Tomatoes, Peppers, Tomatoes, Cucumbers and Tomatoes : )

Well, it sure is nice to be back on here! All of last week we were sick with chicken pox  The 6 oldest of us had it the worse.  I won't have long to write because I need to start supper here soon, but I wanted to share some pictures.    We picked a lot of tomatoes today as well as some other vegetables...                    

~Here are all the cherry tomatoes we picked today.

~Cucumbers, they are finally slowing down!

~Zucchini and LOTS of peppers! The purple ones are good!

~SOME (about 120)of our tomatoes, there are lots more coming on!  

~The tomatoes that are coming on...well, some of them.

~The zucchini...we are getting lots of it!  Anyone want some?? : )

~Watermelon! We have six or seven of these! But unfortunately they are not ready. 

~Muskmelon. I'm not sure how many we have but I know there are a lot! This year we are growing it on the fence. I wonder how that will work

~I can't forget our chickens--that ate all the tomatoes that the bugs beat us to and the cucumbers that we didn't get too.

~Our dear (and very ornery) little brothers, Isaiah and Noah.

~And them again!

~The five oldest with chicken pox! (L to R) Cassie, Jessie, Me (Suzanna), Lyssa, and in front is Annie. You might not be able to see the spots, but they are there!!

~And here we are after chicken pox! (L to R, back to front) Annie, Jessie, Suzanna, Lyssa, Noah, Charissa, Cassie, Isaiah, Rebekah.

~Here is Rebekah with her FIRST homemade bread!!  With a little cute loaf on top.    We are going to have some with supper!

~And here are the yummy ginger snaps that Cassie made...we are going to eat them soon!

I think that is enough pictures for now. I (or someone else...whoever beats me to it ) will post more pictures on Saturday -or sometime after- of our chicken butchering party!   Second batch of the year. I can't wait!

I suppose I should go,  now it is after supper...dishes are done...most of the goats are fed...and I think I might go to bed early for once!

~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~

Painting And Pears

      This week has been filled with painting, switching rooms, and canning pears!

   ~At the beginning of the week, Jessie and I painted the border to our new room~ finally! Ever since April we have been needing to do it, and just a week or two ago we started practicing on paper! We are using a painting method called "One Stroke Painting". It is pretty easy~though not as easy as she makes it look on the video! We did manage to make the roses look like roses, the leaves look like leaves, and so on! So, on Monday, after a "practicing session", Jessie suggested we go ahead and start on the wall~ yikes! But I agreed.On one condition though, that we start on the least noticeable spot~over the door! It ended up turning out lovely, so we kept on going! We finished it Tuesday, and moved in on Wednesday and Thursday. Yipee!!!

  This is me, painting roses in the beginning stages,

  Jessie working on the outline,

                              and...

  ...the finished product!

  We love it!!!

  ~On Thursday, we canned four bushels of pears.

  This is four of us doing the last of them (of the others of us, one was making supper, one was at piano lessons, and one was taking the picture).

  Fifty-nine quarts of canned pears...

  ...and twenty-three pints of pear butter~yum!

  ~In between painting and pears, we've been organizing stuff, moving stuff, cleaning up stuff, getting rid of stuff, and finally, decorating stuff (or, rooms)!

                               It has been a nice, busy-but-laid-back, fun, week! 

                                                        ~Lyssa Jane~

~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~