Mini Make Over

We have needed to replace our old worn out pull shades for quite some time. They work well for keeping out the afternoon sun/heat but I was tired of dealing with the brittle faded fabric/plastic and wanted a better solution.My mom suggested I go visit Big Lots to see what they offer and I found bamboo shades for 7-dollars each! I love how they let in light and so far they seem to be blocking the heat from the sun; but I'm not positive yet since yesterday was a little cloudy.

Next I grouped all of my plants on a woven table runner that I picked up used last year. Then I trimmed back one of my over sized plants, wrapped another plant around a piece of bamboo that Elizabeth brought into the house and lastly hung the very long vines of two ivy plants along the ceiling.Now the porch has an "outdoors" feel to it and I am pretty excited about the transformations.

Summer Cooking

I always dread cooking in the kitchen during hot summer days. The thought of heating up the house while slaving over a hot stove is so unappealing. However, I never mind standing over a hot fire while getting covered in smoke.It must be because the food is so much better!

Our Peachy Bounty

My week long peach harvest is coming to an end. Along with many, many jars of peaches, preserves and jelly I also have many, many quart bags of peaches in the freezer.We have one tree left to be harvested but the peaches are not ready yet and I have several container of peach juice in the freezer to be used for jelly or syrup when I have extra time to work with it.

Peach Jelly

I have been working on jelly which is one of my favorite parts about canning.The darker jelly is from the boiled skins and the lighter jelly is more of a fruit preserve. They are both fantastic!

Peach Milk Shake

To vanilla ice ream add fresh chopped peaches;A little peach syrup;

And blend.

This is absolutely the best milk shake ever!

Peach Progress

This year, along with canning, I have decided to freeze some of the peaches. Freezing is very fast and I am curious which will make a better cobbler; canned or frozen?Instead of feeding the peach peels right away to the chickens I decided to make juice with them first. Simply place peelings into a large pot, be sure to discard the pits, add water and simmer.

I like to simmer until the skins are very limp and have lost most of their color.

Drain; I use a colander for this.

This juice will be used to make jelly.

It's Time...It's Time

The peaches are ready!
They are so sweet and juicy!

From the looks of the trees I will up to my elbows in wonderful peaches for at least a week! Yummy!!

Pumpkin Days

For the past year I have been wanting to organize the photos stored on my computer and get many of them printed and put safely into albums. As I have been working on this mammoth project I came across some pictures of a trip we made to "Pumpkin Days" in Floydada.

The pictures are dated October 2006 so Elizabeth is almost 5 and Jonathan is 16.

I love fall, these pictures make me want to cook some soup and bake some bread....but it's too warm!

I So Need Patience

Bright and early this morning I dresses and covered myself with Off so I could brave the mosquitoes to collect some peaches.
They're so close to being ready I just couldn't wait any longer.

I gently tested several peaches and chose a few that I thought would work for the cobbler.

The house smelled so good as the peaches were boiling and then baking in the oven.

The cobbler turned out really good but a little tart. It's so hard to have patience!

A Stocked Cupboard

My cupboard is well stocked with sweet treats thanks to a Target deal I stumbled upon today.Nabisco Animal Crackers and Teddy Grahams are currently on sale for $1.25 per bag and I just happened to have coupons so I my final price was 75-cents per bag!

French Toast

I had a creative idea over the weekend on a new way to make french toast.I decided to try using slices of Texas toast bread instead of regular bread;

And I used more eggs in the milk solution.

The end result was a great piece of french toast.

And, it was just as good warmed up the next day!

Orchard Update

The orchard is full of fruit and I am so excited. The late freeze and high winds left us with only a few plums and they have begun to ripen; we have been able to eat a few and they are very sweet.

One of the apple trees is so loaded the branches are hanging to the ground.The pear trees didn't do well this year but we will still have some to eat.

But the peaches...oh, my...the peaches are picture perfect!

I love how they are growing in clusters. I can already smell the cobbler!

I need to start getting the jars ready for canning, it's so exciting!

Eat Mor Chikin

Today Elizabeth and I took part in our local Chick-fil-a Dress up Day.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to make a special trip into town but I'm glad we did.

The store let us choose any meal we wanted and even offered to up size too!

I expected the line to be out the door with people wanting a free meal but our wait was very short.

The free meal and fun time we had was so worth our trip into town.

Carrot Cake

While talking to my mom this morning about cakes the idea for making a carrot cake popped in my mind. The garden is producing a lot of carrots right now and we have been feasting on them daily.

It took quite a few carrots to fill 3 cups. I have always thought grated carrots look a lot like grated cheese.

The first time I made carrot cake it turned out wonderful, very rich and moist, but for some reason I cannot remember where I found the first recipe.

Today's cake turned out fine, not as good as I wanted but still good enough to eat. I might just have to keep trying, especially since we have so many carrots right now!

After The Rain

Our wonderful rain has now let up so Elizabeth and I hopped in the car and took a drive to see how everything looked. We saw large bodies of water everywhere.We saw a lot of water damage to the ground.

Near our home is a canyon that is now pretty flooded from all the rain.

As we drove down into the canyon we came upon a section of road that was washed out.

The big chunks of road now sit in the ditch.

We turned around and came another directions in order to see just how flooded the canyon was.

The small creek that normally flows through the canyon is now a massive creek.

The road at the bottom of the canyon is covered in water but it's not too deep, we saw several pick ups drive through without any trouble.

We parked in a safe area and walked through the water just for fun. Elizabeth spotted several crayfish holding on to the edge of the road.

I loved how the water gushed past our legs as we walked along the road; Elizabeth was able to understand just how powerful water is; she was a little scared but didn't want to miss out on all the fun.

Walking around in the canyon brought back memories of how fun it was to go wading in the creek or river while growing up.

When we were heading back to the car we spotted a spider holding onto her egg.

We had such a nice time walking and talking and enjoying the water and all the sights!