PamsPride's Journal-Free Kindle Downloads!

[PamsPride]

Thanks Gina and JM!

I got 22 quarts of spaghetti sauce made today!! That is 11 meals worth! Wow, it has been a productive weekend!
I am barely out of this canning season and I am already planning next years garden! I want to do green beans, carrots, beets, zucchini (didn't get them planted this year because I ran out of space in my garden), cucumbers and twice as many tomatoes. I did 36 tomatoes this year and I would really like to double that so I can do pizza sauce and more spaghetti sauce. My goal is 25 gallons for next year because we eat spaghetti generally once a week and I would like to have enough to last an entire year. We generally use 4 pints of pizza sauce a month.
I have been asking for and saving 5 gallon buckets for the container gardening and I think I am up to 20 buckets now.

When the canning season is over I am going to have to look back through my journal see how much food I have put up this year! I should have kept a tally of how much milk I was getting and how many eggs I got....ahhh...another goal for next year!

 

[keljonma]

What an adorable dress! She certainly looks very grown up.

When I sewed for the kids (1/2 million years ago, it seems ) I used to put all the pattern pieces into large yellow mailing envelopes. I always taped the front of the original envelope the pattern came in onto the front of the envelope so I knew what was inside at a glance. It was really a big help....especially as the number of patterns kept growing!

 

[PamsPride]

I made another outfit for 5 yo DD yesterday! Today I am making little bows to add to it to make it more boutique!
We priced the material to make one of those storage shelves to go behind a quilt. We are going to put it on my bedroom wall. At this point it is going to be 6'x6'.

WOOT! I got something I have been wanting for a while! A mop wringer bucket thing for squeezing out my clothes before we hang them on the line when we wash them by hand! $10 at a garage sale today!! WOOHOO!! It is in GREAT shape! The wheels are off of it, but they were laying down in it. I don't need to move it around so the wheels do not even matter!

 

[framing fowl]

What a great find and great idea on the mop bucket. Hurray on the storage for your bedroom. You'll be able to hide quite a bit of stuff behind 6x6! Will you make it deep enough for your 1/2 gallon jars?

 

[PamsPride]

What a great find and great idea on the mop bucket. Hurray on the storage for your bedroom. You'll be able to hide quite a bit of stuff behind 6x6! Will you make it deep enough for your 1/2 gallon jars?

No, we are only making it 4" deep. We will have plenty of pantry space once we move the quarts and pints to this wall unit. I am figuring that it will hold 130 quarts and pints. I am figuring two shelves for pints and 7 for quarts.... approximately. I have to figure up the average length of a quilt and go in 4-6" on each side of side, so it may end up being bigger than 6'x6'. My bedroom is 18'X16' and this will be going on the 18' side of the wall that has the door on it at one end. We could probably fit a King size quilt on the wall!
The wall directly behind it is the living room wall, same length. So if this works out and I find that I still need more room I can put one on that wall. My living room is 18'x22'. Right now there is a 5' space between the wall and the couch and I have my sewing table and sewing supplies between the couch and wall. So it would be the perfect place to hang another large quilt as a wall hanging. That would be a LOT of weight on that one wall though (back to back).

Edited: I measured and I think it will be 8' long by 6' high and I will be putting a king size quilt over it.

 

[PamsPride]

20 quarts of spaghetti sauce canned up! Is it wrong to wake your almost 15 yo up at 1AM to put the jars in the hot water????
I figure he eats his share of it that he can help!! LOL! Oh, I am such a mean mom!

 

[PamsPride]

I was talking to a lady at my church on Wednesday because she goes to a ton of garage sales and I asked her if she ever sees canning jars to snatch them up for me, especially 1/2 gallon jars. Well, she came into church this morning and said she had THIRTEEN half gallon jars in her basement that she would let me 'borrow'. Not sure how I am supposed to just 'borrow' them. She said she might want them back someday but that with just her and her DH they don't use them. I am just hoping she never asks for them back! She is a super nice lady and I don't imagine that she will.

One of my neighbors came over a few minutes ago and offered me all the sweet corn I wanted and to come over and pick because it is about to go bad and half of the field has already gone bad. I only need about 15 more quarts and then I will be set for a years worth of corn. But, there is a family with 7 kids down the road from us that I got to meet once and I am going to run down and see if they want all of the rest of it. My DH is going to go over and clarify with the neighbor that we can indeed take all that is left first. It is about an acre of corn and he said half of it was still good.

OK DH went down....He did two planting and they already picked all the first planting and we can have all that is left out of the second planting! So whatever the family down the road does not want and we do not use we will just feed to the chickens!

I started to plan out another outfit for DD. I STILL want to get a boutique book bag made to go with the crayon outfit and a hat to go with the whale outfit! Adult ADHD at work! LOL!

My 8 and 11 yo tried out for the Christmas play at church! Woohoo! (Notice an undertone of sarcasm???) 11 yo was the only one that tried out for the Lucky Star role. 3 other kids tried out for the role of Rock Star with 8 yo. He was upset! He is thinking that he will for sure not get the part because the other boys were older. One kid is an 'in crowd' kid and the other one is kind of hard to understand when he talks but can be very animated, not sure who the third kid was. 8 yo DS is WAY more animated than all of the other boys but I don't know. I MADE 11 yo DS try out for the Lucky Star role because I figure 1) everyone would try out for Rock Star and 2) he has red hair! He just naturally looks a little Irish!

Off to pick corn....

 

[PamsPride]

I ended up putting like 25 quarts of corn in the freezer.

We are camping all this week. So far everything has gone really well and the kids are just loving! We are home right now because we went to Linesville to the fish hatchery, then a Cherry Valley bulk goods store, and then DH's Uncle's farm for a visit, and then home. The kids wanted to go to their Ranger classes tonight because this is their first day in their new classes for all but one of them. (4 out of 6 kids aged up to the next class, the baby is still in the nursery.)

We went to the Cherry Valley Amish bulk goods store and they actually carried 1/2 gallon jars! WOOT! So I picked up a dozen! I want to get one more dozen and then I will be set for canning a years worth of spaghetti sauce! I also talked to the clerk about getting the TATTLER lids in. She had never heard of them and she does not have a computer so I printed the info off of their website and I am hoping to go back over by there tomorrow since it is not to far from where we are camping.

My oldest turns 15 on Friday so we are having a party for him at the campground.
I have been running back and forth every morning and evening to milk and take care all of the animals. Last night there was a storm that went through and knocked down a tree on the road on the way to my house from camp so I had to make a detour and that whole road was without electric. Thankfully the electric did not go out at my house. The storm also went out around us while we were camping!

 

[TanksHill]

Ok first off, woo ho on the canning jars. Both the "borrowed" and bought jars.

Second off, camping?? I am so jealous. We did not really do any camping this summer. We used all dh time off for the trip to Mo. Bummer!!

I would love an Amish store near me. What exactly is a Tattler lid?

Glad to her all is well.

gina

 

[lorihadams]

My hubby won't camp in the summer.....refuses to sleep when he's sweating. We have to do it in the fall every year.