How to tell a canner.

 How can you tell a canner. By their kitchen. You will never see a empty counter or stove during harvest time.

 Kitchen tools you haven't used in a while start working over time

 Your house is full of smells no candle can compete with.

 All the colors of the rainbow can be found on your counters

 Even the kitchen island is not spared. Half empty jar boxes become great holders for the over flow of tomatoes.

 Even the floor is taken over.
 The best thing about knowing a canner is the joy of  receiving a jar of fresh veggies or jam as the winter winds blow.  So keep your eye out for one. Good luck.

A must have pasta dryer

I was at Heidi's ( http://mysimplecountryliving.blogspot.com/ )  house the other day and she was making pasta. I fell in love with her drying rack. It was a little disappointing to find out she got it at a yard sale.
I brightened up when I realized it was a easy rack to make.

 It takes 12 wood rods placed in to groove cut into the wood.  They are about two foot  long. You can see where they put a inset screw to hold the top to the legs. It looks like a hole in the wood.

 The two legs are held steady by a piece of wood screwed to them with bolts and wing nuts.

 The feet also have inset screws to hold the feet onto the legs. This not only work great for drying pasta, but breaks apart for easy storage. I had to share just encase  there are those of you that would also like to make your own drying rack.
 Please go over and check out Heidi's blog.  She has a great blog hop going on. I always learning something new from her hops.

I love apple season.

 I love apple season. That's when it time to make my apple pie filling, Captain Morgan apple sauce , candy apple jam, and my cinnamon glaze. I use the glaze for so many different desserts.
 I also love being able to buy  a big box of apples for  just 10 dollars from the orchards.

If you don't have this machine, put it on your Christmas list. You will be so happy you did.

It makes apple sauce so easy to make. All I have to do is quarter the apple. Boil till soft, then just put in the top of the machine. Turn the handle and the pulp  of the apple gos into the pan and the core and skin goes into the bowl. You can season and can. Or put into the crock pot with cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar' and Caption Morgan. Let it slow cook till the alcohol is cook out. The Captain Morgan gives it a very good taste.

 I made a lot more pie filling this year. I ran out of it last year.  I end up using a lot of it for cinnamon rolls and cakes. I  can't find the pictures of my apple sauce. I promise to post a picture later on with my apple granola bar recipe.

New chicken coop

This is the last time you will be see this coop. I am so excited to be getting a bigger  coop. We plan on using half of it for chickens and the other half for storage. And the best part is the feed will be inside. No more birds eating all my pellets. YES!

  Jerry not only came over to help ,but also brought his tractor. He's not only a great friend but on this day he was our shinning hero on a tracker.

 The tracker made it a lot easier to move the chicken coop. When I say it's heavy,I mean HEAVY. I took 4 big men to move it the first time.

It took a couple try to balance it in the shovel.

 I thought for sure it was going to tip over. But it didn't.

 We are going to clean it up  and paint it. I plan to sell it on Graig's list. Who ever buys it had better have strong friends.

 Next they leveled the land. The tractor was a great help here. It would of taken 4 times longer by hand.

Rick only had to do a little shovel work.

 Once again Jerry came thru . He had some pallets at home that he let us use.Which made the floor come together really quick.

 The walls went up next. We bought a rubber made shed so that when we moved we could take it with us.

They had to cut a few branches,so they could put up the roof.

The guys worked really hard. But so did Heidi and I. We made sure they had cold glasses of water and took these pictures. We even went and bought them lunch. Plus there was needle work that had to be done ,while we watched ma and pa kettle in The Egg and I.  We worked hard !You would be surprised how exhausting hand and eye coordination can be.

 I love having two doors. We are putting a dividing wall up to separate the shed. One door will go to the chickens and one will go to storage.

 Rick ran out of time so we had to redneck it. The card board boxes worked as a divider till he could get the walls up. A card board box was used as a nesting bed. They had to spend two night in a large dog carrier while we did this. So I wanted them in a bigger place as soon as possible.

 Finally done. No more card board. Oh,wait I see the card board box under the nesting boxes. Guess we are still a little redneck.

When did helping people become a crime?

I am still having problems understanding what happen tonight. I know people are becoming rude and morals are going down hill. But if your back yard is on fire don't you want somebody to call the fire department?
I was up late last night waiting for my husband to get home. I smelled smoke, so I went outside. There was fire and smoke coming from behind my neighbors house across the street. Since their lights were on, I assumed that the house behind them was on fire. They go to bed early and have little ones. I called 911 and told them we had a fire. They asked the house number, which I didn't know . They asked me to walk up the street and get the house number. As I rounded the corner of the street I noticed that it wasn't at the house behind my neighbors. But in my neighbors back yard. I run up to the front door and when the person inside answered, I told her that her back yard was on fire. They have a 6 foot fence around their yard, so all I could see was flames thru the slits in the wood.
I walked back around the corner and heard water running. I asked thru the fence if everyone was ok. And if the fire was under control. The person on the other side yelled back. For me to mind my own f###ing  business . I told her I just wanted to know so I could call the fire department back to cancel the call. From there she just started laying into me. I won't burn your ears with everything she said. She just stared attacking me vocally.
 I wave or say hi when I see them, but have never talked to them. I don't even know their names. Found out later from Heidi that she use to be a fire fight. How was I to know that. But that still didn't give her a reason to go off on me the way she did.
It seems to be the now trend to be rude and mean. My husband said I should just let it burn to the ground next time. But that isn't right either.

New Baby.

Don't worry. It's not mine. I think we're done with 4 cats ,two dogs, and six chickens. My friend Denice dog died about 6 months ago. She was finally really to get a new dog. This is Daulcinea her new baby.  Doesn't she look like a ewak. She would work perfect in a Star Wars movie. Only problem is she would steal the movie. She is soft,cuddly , and just damn cute. Denice asked if I was going to put the pictures of Daulcinea on my blog,so here they are . Enjoy

Told you see was cute. Lol

My new love.

 About 2 years ago I lost part of my heart when my cat Patches died. I could never bring myself to get another cat for two reasons. First I never wanted to get that close to a animal again. I still miss her so much. Second I felt it would be disloyal to her, to try to replace her.
That all changed when we walked into my favorite book store. They are also  animal lovers. So They have animals for adoption in one corner of the store. I have volunteered several times to come and play with the cats. But I never felt the need to take one home. This time we were there just to buy a book.
I made the mistake of going to look at the animals. As soon as I saw her my heart jumped out of my chest. She was wearing that same expression Patches wore all the time. She also has that little white  widow's peek that patches had.
 My second mistake was holding her. I  couldn't, nor  did I want to put her down. When others came to look at her  I wanted them to go a way and leave us a lone.( Yes I know that was awful of me.) I just wanted her all to myself. My husband went up to the counter and adopted her right then. He said my smile ran for miles. I left the store with tears in my eyes and one very BIG smile.  I named her Cleopatches in memory of my cat Patches.

Pumpkin Fudge

Pumpkin Fudge!!

PUMPKIN FUDGE~ Southern Living

Ingredients
3 cups sugar
3/4 cup melted butter
2/3 cup evaporated milk

1/2 cup canned pumpkin
2 tablespoons corn syrup
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 (12-ounce) package white chocolate morsels
1 (7-ounce) jar marshmallow cream
1cup chopped pecans, toasted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preparation
Stir together first 6 ingredients in a 3 1/2-quart saucepan over medium-high heat, and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Cook, stirring constantly, until a candy thermometer registers 234° (soft-ball stage) or for about 12 minutes.
Remove pan from heat; stir in remaining ingredients until well blended. Pour into a greased aluminum foil-lined 9-inch square pan. Let stand 2 hours or until completely cool; cut fudge into squares.

Notes: Line pan with aluminum foil before you begin to cook the fudge. Once the candy thermometer reaches 234° and the remaining ingredients are added, quickly spoon the fudge into the pan.
  

A Southern Style House Wife  had this recipe on her site and face book page. If your get the chance please check her out. She has a lot of cool stuff on her site.

Weekend of great deals

 I had a great weekend. Went yard saleing, something I very rarely have time to do. It was so much fun and I found wonderful deals. I got this cast iron waffle maker for my husband for 6 dollars.He can't wait to use it when we go camping.

This was my best deal ever. We actually were looking at the same design in Solvang. For only 2 of the curtains and the mantel cover it would have cost us about 50 dollars.  The yard sale ones were new and still in the package.

 I was able to not only get the same pattern ,but one more curtain for only 8 dollars total. Yes, I did the happy dance.

 My friend Ruth Ann has a set of these in her kitchen. I am always threatening to steal them. They are now safe. I found the same set for 10 dollars.

 This was just a cute jar for 25 cents.

 These patterns are from the 40 and 50's. The top one is a transfer. I am going to try to talk Heidi into us both making a table cloth with the fruit horn on it. Wish me luck.  Its a huge transfer with the horn and other fall items on it. It was marked for only a dollar.

These two patterns are not for me. I bought these for Willow Farms. ( a blog I follow.)  She loves things from that time era. They even have the original envelope they came in. They were also 1 dollar a piece.

  I was so happy with every thing I found. I need to make more time for yard saleing. Who knows what I'll find next time.