Over the Mountain........

We took a wonderful trip over the mountain last weekend to see our friends in concert. I am just getting around to this post as it has been a very busy week of canning..... :) (more on that later)

What a beautiful setting for a good old down to earth "Cowboy" show......................
Like I have said before......the valley is bountiful................
Just out their kitchen door.......

They have a bridge across a creek and on the other side it is beautiful there too!

Wonderful setting, they built a stage right there in front of there house......

Horse and buggy rides......grandkids had a lemonade stand......what more could you ask for on a warm sunny afternoon on the farm....

Each one of their children who is married and has children had their families do a special number, that is especially fun to see the talent in the little ones......

Then the daylight, began to give way to the night and it was nice, cool and beautiful music was just floating through the trees..........

And then it was over...........

If you are ever in Oregon in early August......watch for the "Booher Family Reunion Concert"......you will be pleasantly surprised! These kids were all homeschooled right here on this very farm....they are all grown up now and all but two are married and have families of their own. One older son lives right next door and another is moving up from Texas to live near his family! It has been a joy to watch this family grow up and be what they are today.

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

A Bit of Sillyness..........

I Love my crockpot! True confession, how silly is that?!?

A few years ago I found it at a WalMart in another town....I think it looks vintage!! And that is what I Love about it!! Doesn't it remind you of a vintage dishtowel or tablecloth? FUN!
Just a quick tip today before we head over the mountain for the weekend......
Have you ever done this to your roast? Very good. My dear sweet mother taught me this trick and I know several people who do it, you make a hole in the roast with a sharpe knife and put a sliver of garlic in the hole, in a few places spaced out on the roast......yum!

Oh, and by the way, I did not mean to sound like I was complaining yesterday, although I guess I partly was......sorry, I am grateful for being able to purchase a bounty of produce this year!! I am adjusting to that way of thinking. My last year on the other side of the mountain before we moved here, we had the biggest most bountiful garden of our life!! God blessed it and we were able to share and share and can and can. So, the first year I was here and had to spend money for green beans, I actually cried.......yep, real tears, but, like I said, we are figuring it out and someday that will happen here. In the meantime I am feeling very blessed to be able to buy the food I want to preserve for my winter pantry.

Missing my Bounty................

Oh, how I long to walk out to my garden and pick and pick and bring enough of something in to do some canning.......

Nasturtiums are just getting nice and big.....those will be fun later if I do my "Garden Tea" this summer. And look, that is Chamomile jumping up all over in this box. I planted one plant of that two years ago, the plant died, but every year volunteer Chamomile comes up all over the place..... :) So hey, I do see a "Garden Tea" coming together here.....Nasturtium Sandwiches, Chamomile Tea.......yum! I have mint as well......

I am still figuring things out here when it comes to gardening in the desert.....we can have a frost as early as September, which doesn't leave much time for my little plants to get growing!! I just gave them a little boost of "manure tea".....to fertilize them, that seemed to help some,

should do that again.

I am almost embarrassed to show you, but this is the size of my plants. This is the biggest yellow zuchinni I have!!

Cherry tomatoes are looking

good, they are small enough that we can

enjoy some of these.

But this, .....this is a tomatoe flower........that is as far as my big
tomatoes have come.... :(

Then I was very happy today to finally find some snow peas....these are ready to eat!! That will be

great in a salad!!

Our house is 4 Sale, so I got a late start anyway, because I really didnt think I would be here long enough to have a garden. Next year, if I am here, I will bring in compost for the soil and get things started much earlier either inside or in a greenhouse. That really does help, a friend out here started her tomatoes in a greenhouse (that is where I got my plants) and she has hers by a wall and they are 6 feet tall!! So, I know it can be done!

So, all that to say, I have been working on my produce order today. If I want to can anything,
I will just have to order it. Sad... :(
But I am excited
to get to do some canning.

My order:

40 pounds of pickling cucumbers
60 pounds of green beans
100 pounds of tomatoes

I have some friends doing a little bit, just to learn how....looking forward to next week and our canning spree!! I will be sure and share that with you........

Take Action!!

"Learn to be wise, and develop good judgement and common sense! I cannot overemphasize this point. Cling to wisdom -

she will protect you.........Determination to be wise is the first step toward becoming wise! And with your wisdom, develop common

sense and good judgement."

Proverbs 4:5-7

I love how these verses are jam packed with action verbs!! We do not just sit and wait for God to give us wisdom or common sense, it requires some action on our part.........

Learn - gain knowledge or skill, find out, come to know.

Cling - stick or holdfast. (A vine clings to its support).

Determination - make up one's mind very firmly, fix or settle beforehand, fixed purpose.

Develop - bring into being, make or become better, bigger, more useful.

Now let's go ahead and apply this to being a Titus 2 woman.....to our husbands, our children, our homes...........

Have a Blessed Day ladies!!

Refreshment on the Desert...........

Nothing more refreshing in the middle of hot summer days than a cooling, wet thunderstorm....
bringing with it the cooling rain,

fresh cool breezes,

refreshing all that it touches......
More soap in the shop later today!!

At the end of the day..............

My Free Trader Joe's "Customer Appreciation" roses are still looking Beautiful!!
Mmmmm.......Canned Pear Cobbler for potluck tonight.... :)

Wedding Gift...........

Remember the blessing of the wonderful fabric I found in my stash the other day? Here is what I came up with. I love how the Lord can work in our minds to help us be creative and use what He has provided and to make very good use of "what I have in my hand".......

I did purchase a small red bowl that works well with all the other red in her kitchen.

With the brown fabric and the small red plaid I made potholders. I sewed two pieces of fabric with a piece of old towel in between, running across the rectangle a few times to create quilting.

Then I used the same back fabric for

the binding around the edge.

With the large red plaid and coordinating floral piece I made an apron. I used the floral for pockets, strings and the lining.

You could actually wear this on either side, this side just does not have pockets.
I had planned on making a bit more, but ran out of time. So, there you have it....a wedding gift made from my stash!!
How fun is that!!

Flower Gardens, Altars and Job Requirements.......

So, blogger does not seem to want to do pictures today... :( So, thought I would share some thoughts.....

A quote from an article years ago, "The Road to a Debt-Free, (Keeper at Home), Simple Life is Rarely Straight" (Parenthesis my added thought).... :)

"God uses all those (any) inconveniences to plant tender seeds of endurance when we are not even looking. And before you know it, tiny sprouts of perseverance and contentment begin to crop up where resistance and impatience used to thrive. You hardly notice it in the beginning, but one day there it is -- the sweet flower of long-suffering blooming right there in your very irritation. God has us here in the flower garden of patience, long-suffering and perseverance."

Just a couple more great quotes:

"Have you surrendered your life to the Lord or have you abandoned your heart on the altar? The Titus 2 woman must abandon her heart. Others may surrender, you may not stop with surrender, you only begin there." B. Boyce

"God did not author words such as 'I can't!' or 'I quit!'...to be used in context with a job requirement. You can and you will!" B. Boyce
(The "job requirement" here being anything

we must do at home).

Wow, deeply ponder some of these thoughts today....wow!!

Fun Finds.......

Every once in awhile I like to check the Free ads on Craigslist......look what I found there!! Can you believe it?!?!? I couldn't! It needs some work, but things do move, so it would actually be usable with a new belt, then it needs help in other ways... ;) But, I like rustic, actually matches my old beat up Hoosier very well. :) And it was FREE!! Just had to go get it.

Labor of Love..........

Today as I was in town, I picked up my son to bring him out to the farm as he had offered to help me with a couple spots that needed landscaping. We made a quick stop at Trader Joe's for some goodies for a BBQ lunch ...........after I paid, the cashier handed me this little potted rose!! It was the last

one and they had been

giving them away for "Customer Appreciation"!!

Made me one happy shopper!!
Isn't it gorgeous! It is in a nice metal pot too! Made me happy!! :)

This is one project my son helped with.....this is what we had before,

just dirt and weeds.

This is my son laboring in love..........
These are the stepping stones in the middle part, that is a rock in the middle with cement molded around it. The man who owned this property before us made them.

This is the end result!! My son's very own creation with what I had laying around. I saw these and realized it was something I "had right here in my hand".....what could I do with them? This is a spot from our deck stairs by the hot tub over to the grass, the rest of it will be something someday to create a small patio area. I think he did an awesome job!!!

Quiet Places.........

Do you have a quiet place of rest, a place where you or your family enjoys putting their feet up and savoring a quiet moment. I have always tried to make inviting spots around my home for my whole family. This is a porch swing that is shaded in the afternoon.....this is the kind of place that would encourage my children to grab a book and do some reading alone or perhaps all of us aloud....on a hot summer afternoon. Or it draws my husband and I to it's coolness on a hot evening for a little conversation. Or even just a place for me to grab a cup of tea and slow down for a bit......savor these moments, have places around your home that draw you and your family in for quiet times together.........they will make memories not soon forgotten.

I plan on spending some time there later today, to wind down, gather thoughts in a day that is rapidly becoming overwhelmed by sign ups for Prairie Camp....someone coming to see our house this Sunday, that is for sale, so has to be beyond clean.....wedding gift to make.......and needing to take one step, one moment at a time and allow for a moments rest.

Dinner Tonight.........

I really thought I was done blogging for today.....and then......I started putting together our dinner for tonight. Ok, you might find this disgusting, but I hope not....let your imagination sore as you consider an idea......Maybe some of you already do this sort of thing,

and that is great!

Whenever I have leftovers, first we may just eat them again, but then if there are still left overs, I cannot stand to throw food away, so I freeze it in ziplocs, doesn't matter what it is.

Just like today, in my freezer I found......

1. A bag of frozen chicken soup, might have had noodles in it, not sure, noodles pretty much disappear when frozen......Voila!.....chicken goop!

2. A small bag of BBQ Beans........just ad some Mexi flavors and Voila! Chicken and Beans!!

3. Corn tortillas, which I keep stocked up on in my freezer.

4. A bag of enchilada sauce (I had bought a gallon size can and split it into ziplocs, way cheaper this way, unless of course you make it from scratch, but nice to have some on hand for when you do not have time to do that).

Getting the idea??? :D

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas!!!

When I make enchiladas, I put some of the sauce in the bottom of the pan, then layer about 6 small tortillas, then spread the meat, beans and sometimes rice, a little more sauce......

Then layer more tortillas, sauce and cheese on top (You can also freeze grated cheese in smaller portions, which is also cheaper to buy big blocks and grate it yourself). Then bake it. Some have called this Enchilada Casserole.

My husband affectionately refers to this type of meal as "sink trap" casserole.....or soup.....or whatever.....believe me it does not sound very nice AT ALL....but he always loves it!!! :) I just believe in practicing "waste not want not" within reason of course and I love the concept "what do I have in my hand?"

Today I did both! :)

Preparedness, Farmgirls and such......

OK, this is a Farmgirl verse if I ever saw one............

".....so, watch the state of your flocks and your herds; then there will be lamb's wool enough for clothing, and goat's milk enough for food for all your household after the hay is harvested, and the new crop appears, and the mountain grasses are gathered in." Proverbs 27:24b-27

Sorry, just had to point that out........ :)

I love the idea of planning ahead and being prepared when it comes to being a woman at home. That is why I love canning and buying some foods in bulk and just having extra.

That way, in the winter you have food for your family, but also you have food to share if need be. If you run across someone who is out of work and needs help, you can send over some home canned goods and some of that flour you bought 50 pounds of and you have blessed someone. Or, not always likely to happen, but if you ever were caught in the middle of a disaster, flood, earthquake or anything.....again, you can help those who did not plan ahead.

Also, it is fun to think of Thanksgiving and Christmas during this season of putting up food. Special jams or jellies, those spicy pickles or sweet relish...........there are just so many things you can think about and get ahead on this time of year.

We will probably be touching on some of them over the next little bit here. I have some friends who want to know how to can, so I will share that with you. Trouble is here in Central Oregon, we have to search out our food. We cannot just run to the nearest stand to get it. Often for me, this has meant a trip over the mountain for the best prices........we will see, this year gas is high, so not sure where those best prices will be.

I am looking forward to getting together with others and preparing our pantries for the coming winter months. That makes me happy. :)

"A sensible man (woman) watches for problems ahead and prepares to meet them. The simpleton never looks and suffers the consequences."

Proverbs 27:12