Canning and a Small Update

Yeah, I'm still here, just don't have a lot of time for blogging. Today I was canning so thought I would stop in an show you the results. Cranberries were finally marked down at the store this week which is great because over Christmas and Thanksgiving we used up the jars I had made last year. I purchased 5- 12 oz bags for a dollar each. When I make cranberry sauce I make juice as well. So  today we ended up with 7 quarts of juice and 5 pints of sauce. If you want to know how I made them you can find out on this post that I did last year and the link is also in the listing on the left under Popular Posts.

Carrots were also marked down this week. The ones in the bag that they sell as baby carrots, although they never really are baby carrots. I got two larger bags and two smaller bags. I sliced up all but one of the smaller bags and pressure canned them. There is a post on canning carrots on my blog here. I canned them the same way today except I did slice them instead of leaving them whole.

Those of you who are on my facebook page know that I got a newer car. After having driven such an old car for so long it is pretty amazing to have  power windows, locks and seats; lovely to have heat and air that works; nice sounding radio and CD player etc. etc. It also came with my first car payment which I worry about constantly.

You also might have seen on facebook that I found a violin teacher in the next town over. I was so excited and she is only charging me $20 for a half hour lesson once a week. I just went to her the first time this last Friday and she is such a nice person. She said she hadn't had a student who was so well outfitted with violin, bows, tuner, extra strings, extra bridge, and lots of music books. She also said that she could tell that I was really committed and practiced a lot because I was much better than she thought I would be since I had been just teaching myself.  It was great to have her there  to tell me, "no that note is too high", "that one is too low" "this is how you do slides" etc.  I am so looking forward to the next lesson!

As for gardening, I really haven't been down to the garden lately as I have been sick for almost 6 weeks and am just now getting over it. I still cough but only once in a while. Anyway, got down the garden today. We have had several very cold nights and some of the greens are a bit frosted but I am sure they will be fine.

Here are the spinach/mustard tendergreens. I really need to pick them but it won't be today after all that canning.

Yup, in amongst all that chickweed are some kale plants. I do love this Red Russian kale and none of it will go to waste.

Unfortunately, before we got real cold this week we had several weeks that were way too warm and the broccoli has formed small little heads. I will just have to pick them and wait for the side shoots.

If there is one thing you can grow in the winter here in Georgia it is turnip greens. There aren't making any bottoms but the tops are obviously doing great.

Here are the beets. They got frosted pretty good but should be fine. I am hoping to have more than greens from these but it will be spring before they make any actual beets. I do like the greens as well though.

Here are the radicchio. Some of them have small loose heads so we may have some to add to salads later on.

That's it for the garden right now. The last picture I took was of the pond. During the warm weeks we had the paperwhite's bloomed but are now falling over since the cold has come. Other bulbs I planted around it are poking out of the soil as well but only a little. The bowl of pink stuff beside it is just the leftover from making the cranberry sauce. I have put it out for the birds. I hope to get a chance to work on the pond a bit more and add more rocks to cover up the liner that is  sticking out and I need to make a smaller filter (under the rock). The fish are doing just fine though, you can see them around the floating plants in the center. Excuse all the leaves. I just raked a few weeks ago and I am tired of raking the back yard. The leaves seem never ending this year.

Well, that's it for now. Hope you all are staying warm!

Just a Bird Feeder

No I didn't make it. An old man at the flea market made this and no it isn't perfect. It isn't my photo taking that is the problem, the thing is a bit crooked and was obviously made from scrap wood and since the chains go up beside the top instead of through it, I take it he didn't have a drill. He had several other equally imperfect wooden items on his table. I almost walked by since tables with hand made stuff on them usually are a bit too expensive but I peeked at the price on these (there were two of these bird feeders) and it only said $4. That was when I looked up and saw the old man. Just your normal every day old man in jeans and a button up shirt. I'm sure he was just trying to make a little extra money and I said, "What a great price for such a big bird feeder, I'll get this one."  And he smiled and looked proud of himself and came  the table to get my money.
I love the thing! Have no idea where I am going to hang it. It is going to need a sturdy hanger because it is quite heavy. I'd like to put it in the front yard but since I can't seem to get out there to fill the one feeder I already have in the front yard, I might just find a place for it among the many feeders in the back yard.

This wasn't the only deal at the flea market. I got another sheet set for the bed for $7. I got several kids videos for my grandson. I hope he still likes  "Bob the Builder" as they were only 50 cents. And I got this rug:

It was only $4 too and I love it. Have it in the kitchen. The dogs are pretty fond of it too-not sure that is a good thing.

It finally rained yesterday. We had really  been needing a good rain and we got one. It poured. No severe weather  though. It did, however, wash a lot of red clay into the pond. When I went out this morning I couldn't even see the fish. I did see that a turtle had found the pond though and I removed him and later found him back in it so had to put him outside the fence as I was afraid he would eat the fish. So I have had to work out a filter for the pond but I will save that for another post (if it works). I did, however, take a couple of other pictures while out there:

This one is a picture of a bud on my miniature orange rose bush. The ducks had eaten all the leaves off it at one time and it has really struggled to survive. I have it in the back yard and it may be too shaded back there as it is has grow tall spikes instead of bushing out but on three of those spikes are the nicest blooms:

I also took a picture of the lemons this year. Unfortunately there are only 3 this year. I did not prune it last year since it had so few leaves but I guess I should have. We did get a frost the other day but it didn't quite get to us down here by the lake so it didn't get to the lemon tree so the lemons are actually getting ripe while the tree is still outside which didn't happen last year. Last year I had to put it in the greenhouse long before now.

They are larger lemons than I got last year too.

So I'll be posting again if my pond filter actually works and I can get a picture of a clear pond.

De-clutter Day and the Pond

Do you ever have those days where you get looking around your house and realize that half of the stuff you have you just don't use or need? I do and I did yesterday and I got disgusted at all the ridiculous things we had. My house is entirely too cluttered! So today was de-clutter day.

I just started by walking around the house picking up things and putting them in the "Salvation Army bag". "We don't need this. We don't need that. What is that? Never mind we apparently don't need it." All those went in the bag. Then I went into the spare room to get one thing, and things fell, and I got frustrated, and Phil followed me and we started on the spare room. I went through my stuff, Michelle finally decided to give away some boxes of stuff she didn't want (It might have been me making her hold onto all those porcelain dolls...maybe), then Phil started on his stuff and I left to go do the outside work and visit the garden (and I did take pictures so maybe that will be tomorrows post though they aren't real impressive).
So the Salvation Army bag ended up being bags and then I decided to just refill the boxes that way we wouldn't have to burn the boxes too. Needless to say there were more boxes than Phil could fit in the car so I will be making more than one trip (I'll take some each day when I go to work).
The sad part is that we just scratched the surface of our clutter. We aren't exactly "hoarders" as in the TV show. We keep our clutter in the spare room and closets mostly but it is still unnecessary clutter. (I still could not give up Christian's ride on toys or John's table and stools that we made him out of car wheels and empty wooden wire spools.)

While I was outside I tried to take pictures of the pond for you all but it seems harder to take pictures when the sun is out as there are too many shadows. Plus I recently got a new computer and I am really missing my Microsoft Picture "thing" and I can't brighten any of these pictures. I have done the best I can with them though so here they are. The water is a bit murky as I really need make it a decent filter instead of just putting a filter bag over the pump and a filter cartridge under the frog spitter but that will be another project to come when I get all the supplies. The fish seem to all be doing great now even with our cold nights lately.

I know, I'll try to get some better pictures on the next cloudy day or closer to evening as you really can't see anything in these.