Big Boy

Posted on October 17, 2009 by Momzoo

Usually on Friday nights my girls will have a “sleep over”. They will pick a room and they have a little party, there are usually snacks and movies until late. This week the schools had their “fall break” and Wednesday night wasn’t a school night so we let the girls have their sleep-over. When we put the little boy to bed he was not very happy. He kept calling to “get out!” and on a whim I did get him out of bed and told him he could watch a movie with the girls.

The kids were all downstairs, I was going about my business and forgot that baby boy wasn’t in his bed until Dadzoo called me downstairs to look at something.

Baby boy’s sisters made a little bed for him and he fell to sleep with the rest of the kids.

Guess that means he is a big boy now and can party with the big kids.

I only wish he would decide to be a big boy and use the potty….

Apples

Posted on October 15, 2009 by Momzoo

One of my very favorite autumn chores is making Apple Butter. I have been doing it for a few years now and I really enjoy the process.

This year I used wormy apples that I got off my in-laws tree. They didn’t spray this year (yay!) and about half the apples on the tree had worms. The non-wormy ones are tucked away in my “root cellar” (ok, really just a dark cool room in my basement) and will be used for general eating. The other half do have worms in them, but that is no reason to throw them away, they are perfectly good once the bad parts have been cut out.

I cut and pealed about a half a bushel, cutting away all the bad parts.

Then I sliced them really thin into a bowl of lemon water, I didn’t want them to brown too much that is why I used lemon water.

Once they were all sliced I loaded them into my crock pot and added sugar, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. There are no special measurements, just whatever sounds yummy to you.

I cooked them on low for about 12 hours overnight. When we woke up in the morning the house smelled wonderful! I served the hot apple butter on Old English Scones for breakfast. The rest I bottled for later use.

Gleaning, always gleaning

Posted on October 11, 2009 by Momzoo

I think I am glutton for punishment.

I can’t hear of someone who has leftover produce and I not volunteer to take it off their hands.

I now have three bushels of green tomatoes.

FREE FOOD!

I am going to use some of the green tomatoes to make “green tomato relish” and the rest will be packed away in the basement to slowly ripen and we will eat fresh tomatoes for the next few months.

The tomatoes that are almost ripe are sitting on my counter ripening, soon to be made into tomato sauce.

And the ripe ones, I bottled tomato juice for Dadzoo, he could drink a quart of that stuff a day (yuck!)

My friend over at Be it Ever so Humble has a lot of great ideas for using green tomatoes, don’t let them go to waste!

Little Helper

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Momzoo

My newest project

Posted on October 7, 2009 by Momzoo

Ok, maybe I should be more clear. It is my plan and Dadzoo’s project.

He does stuff like that. He takes the things I dream and talk about and makes it happen.

I love that guy!

Guess what I am getting?

And, no, it isn’t a fence.

I love watching a man work.

And that cowboy hat and boots….makes me tingle….

This is a lot of hard work too, see that little retaining wall next to Dadzoo, all those rocks were pulled out of our yard. And that isn’t even a quarter of them, we grow rocks like Idaho grows potatoes.

We are rock farmers.