2015 Reading Challenge Accepted!!!

I thought I'd share a reading challenge that I discovered! 

If you know me at all, 

you know I LOVE to read!! 

I love everything about a book;
 the smells
the sound of pages turning 

seeing books all lined up in categories at the library
(or on my bookshelves)

book sales
reading to myself 

sharing a book 

reading to kids

 EVERYTHING about books is amazing!

I'm so excited to say that I've discovered a list of

50 categories of books!!! The idea is that
you (the reader) 

gets to choose ANY book within the categories and then 

checks them off one by one (or sometimes, two at a time)
and has fun reading new books over the course of a year!!
(Most likely, it will take me more then one year to complete this)

Some of the categories are:

a classic romance

A book that became a movie

A book with more then 500 pages

a book that came out the year you were born

a book written by an author with your same initials

a book you were suppose to read in high school but didn't

And the list goes on with 50 ideas!! 

Doesn't this sound like fun?!

If you are interested in joining me here's the list: 

  2015 READING CHALLENGE

"I Wasn't Going to Eat it, I Was Just Going to Taste it." ~ W.Pooh

 HONEY!!

This is the year when we actually took some honey out of the hives!! 

 Pete goes into his hives usually once a month to make sure the

bees are still healthy and thriving!  This time, he took out some

of the frames to extract the honey!

ALWAYS careful not to make the bees angry and donning the

appropriate clothing just in case, they are using a smoker to

keep the bees subdued. 

This 'triangle escape board' is put in 1 day before taking the

honey out. It is suppose to confuse the bees and create a maze 

so the majority of bees aren't up in the honey frames that you want

to take out! If you leave it in too long (a few days) the bees

figure the maze out and you'll find a lot more bees in that area!

Checking to see if the frames are capped. 

A couple of days later... now using the uncapping knife to remove

the cappings (the wax over the honey to keep it preserved).

Another uncapping tool to scrape off more of the wax.

The frames are then put into the extractor 6 frames at a time!

The cover is placed back on the top and then it's time to 

turn the handle on top! You really need to turn the handle 

fast for a while to get it spinning fast enough. 

(Thankfully, there were 3 of us at home to help!)

The centrifugal force forces the honey out from the frames

 and it all pools at the bottom of the extractor! 

You can see how clean the frame is now AND how much yummy

honey is on the bottom waiting to be bottled!

Running the honey our and into the double

sieve to remove any of the wax that may have

spun out with the honey.... 

and the final step is bottling!!

Aren't bees amazing?! 

I thought you might enjoy a closer look!!

You can see the lace in their wings!

Such intricate little creatures....

(Thanks Austin, for the last three pictures!)

Just Me and My Girl!

Audrey and I decided to check out the Paint Bar in Manchester this past August!! We had soooo much fun! We'd never gone here (or to any paint bar for that matter) before, but it looked like fun!! You actually go to their website and look at their calendar and choose what painting you'd like to paint! They have different ones each day of the month ....  check it out!! Muse Paint Bar Events, Manchester, NH 

I love the saying that they had on the wall.... "If you hear a voice within you

say "you cannot paint" then by all means paint and let that voice

be silenced."  ~ Vincent van Gogh

(Don't you just LOVE the paint cans & paint brushes as hooks to hand the aprons!)

Audrey and me following the instructor's directions about

how to mix our colors and get the background painted on!

There were quite a few people there that night... they have a light 

snack and drink bar set up if you'd like anything while you work... 

I mean, paint!

We are putting the finishing touches of a branch over hanging

the lake.... the instructor was very good! She was up on a platform

so we could all see and she taught us step by step each thing

we needed to do and still left a lot of the decisions up to our

own artistic flair!  

Our finished products!!

So much fun!

The class was only 2 - 2 1/2 hours long!

An awesome night to remember!!

Mushrooms & Butternut Squash

As you may or may not know, Pete has a 'mushroom yard'! He's completed his second season of growing Shiitake mushrooms and mmmm, they are good! The best way to eat them is fresh of course, but with the quantity that they put out, there's just NO WAY to keep up! We sell and give away quite a bit of them... I dehydrate LOTS too. One day Audrey asked, 'Is there any way to can them?' Hmmm, that got me to thinking.... why not? We buy them canned! So, checked out my first source 'Ball's Blue Book' and a few other books I have about stocking up. I went online and looked at a few mushroom sites and I went to YouTube and checked that out too....  AND THEN OUR ADVENTURE BEGAN! Yes, we did can some mushrooms!!

                                                       "CANNING  MUSHROOMS"

Clean dirt from mushrooms (we use a soft paintbrush to clean them). Trim stem ends. (I sliced them up in strips, ready to use, bite sized pieces). Put mushrooms in a saucepan, adding water to cover and bring to a boil, boiling for 5 minutes. ONLY PROCESS IN PINTS and HALF PINTS! Pack the jars hot, leaving 1 inch head space. Add 1/4 tsp. salt to each half pint and a 1/2 tsp. of salt to pints. Ladle boiling water over mushrooms, still leaving 1 inch head space. Remove air bubbles. Adjust the two piece lid and rings, and process the jars half pints AND pints for 45 minutes at 10 pounds in a pressure canner.    NOTE: Do not can wild mushrooms!  (THANK YOU, BALL BLUE BOOK!)

My new canning adventures didn't end there....   after a crazy, hectic summer I new find myself in November and staring out at the garden which is still NOT picked up for the winter! I have carrots, beets, kale and bok choy still growing well.... and a hug pile of butternut squash to figure out!

I'd been looking at the You Tube videos about canning squash and pumpkin... there has to be a way to do this!! I've always read NOT to can it because it is too dense... but this guy is peeling and cutting them into 1 inch cubes, parboiling for 2 minutes then hot packing them LOOSELY in quart jars. sealing them up and pressure canning them for 90 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure! SEEMS DO-ABLE TO ME!!

Pete and I spent the day in the kitchen/living room cutting and peeling and packing jars! IT TAKES A LONG, LONG TIME to peel & cut squash... and butternut is one of the easiest to work with! We only brought in one milk crate of squash ... and there are MANY, MANY more out there!! We'll leave most of them whole and keep them in cold storage for the winter....

God bless my husband!! He took on the beets, digging them up and washing them... parboiling and then peeling them!! We canned up 18 pints of beets and I have 4 pints left over that wouldn't fit into the pressure canner, so they will become pickled beets and take a water bath!! After he was finished with the beets he helped me finish cutting the squash and we put up 14 quarts of squash!

By the end of the day.... it felt good to see the finished veggies!! Time to clean up and get ready to do it all again tomorrow!!! Except, it will be carrots instead of beets and more squash and maybe even the pumpkins....

50 Chicks Have Arrived!

 

50 day old chicks..... 

 

 

This is how they come through the mail!

Heat lights are on and these little chicken nuggets

are basking in the warmth.

 



 

All healthy & happy and

eating and drinking!

 

In about nine weeks

 they will grow to 

 between 4-6 pounds and

mighty tastey roasters!

Gingerbread Recipe

It's Saint Patrick's Day today.... along with the corned beef, carrots & potatoes and oven roasted cabbage wedges, I'm making gingerbread! I decided to see what my "Favorite New England Recipes" cookbook (copyright 1972) had for choices....  there were two gingerbread recipes to choose from, I love the history story that goes with it, but the last line is the reason I picked this one to try!!

 

 

Gingerbread

 

This recipe was passed down through six generations to Dorothy Hale Wires of Rockport, MA. She writes that during the War of 1812 "the little settlement of Sandy Bay, now Rockport, was in constant fear of attack from maurauding British privateers then prowling Cape Ann waters. In the early days of the War many families planned escape through the woods to the larger settlement in Gloucester, some five miles away, which provided better protection. My great aunt Lucy Hale Knutsford, known to all as 'Aunt Lute', used to tell me many stories which in turn had been told her by her mother, Betsy Tarr Hale, who having been born in 1800, thus was 12 years old at the time of the War. During the anxious days when fears of raids were uppermost in the minds of Sandy Bay residents, Betsy's mother used to keep ever in readiness clothing and food so that her family could quickly leave their home to follow woodland paths to the Gloucester settlement. Every morning she baked a fresh gingerbread for food along the way, should it be necessary to go. Aunt Lute always cherished this recipe and our family has enjoyed it for six generations. This is it just as given to me by Aunt Lute." ~Doroty Hale Wires~

 

Take 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup molasses, 1/2 cup melted shortening, 1 egg, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ginger. To this add alternately 1 cup flour to which has been added 1 teaspoon soda and 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1 cup boiling water. More flour should be added, if necessarty, to make a fairly stiff batter. Then lastly add 1/2 teaspoon vinegar. Bake in moderate oven until a straw comes out clean, or until it doesn't sizzle on holding the pan to the ear.  (325* for about 35 minutes)

 

 

Isn't that an awesome find!?! The best part is that I can hear my mother in law or Pete's aunt's voice giving me these baking instructions too!

GUESS WHAT???!!! The cake REALLY did sizzle when I took it out at 35 minutes!!



40 Bags in 40 Days

I stumbled on this blog White House Black Shutters and they have this awesome idea of ridding oneself of all the 'stuff' that accumulates in life!

My first thought was REALLY??? I don't know if I could really do this. I mean, we already downsized tremendously when we moved here 12 years ago! Can I really come up with that much stuff to get rid of? The answer is a resounding YES!!! After RE-reading it, this family does it ANNUALLY! What a freeing feeling that must be to be lighter in load ... and to think, 40 bags year after year! :)

I had thought I 'should' use all the big black trash bags, but that isn't necessary. A big bag, box or small bag as long as it is going OUT is a good size! A plastic bag from the grocery store filled with a dozen books to donate is awesome! A small bag of holey socks to dump gives me more room in my sock drawer! :) AND... think of all the odd ball things in the junk drawer...  (awe come on, you know you have at least one of them!!) they've been there this long without a purpose... it's time to let go of some of it!!

The author of the above blog has a systematic way of going through room by room, corner by corner and filling a bag to donate, repurpose or toss out!! Here's a chart to help in the process. Check it out!! Take the challenge! I know I am.... but, I'm going to change my goal up a little bit! At least 40 bags by the end of summer!!

UPDATES TO FOLLOW!!! 

Family Picture September 2013

Our Family

 

 

(Left to Right)

 

Abby, Austin, Pete, Melanie, Audrey Damaris, Travis