Thanksgiving Eve

Stupidity reined!

For the past month I’d desperately needed to clean out the pantry and kept putting it off.  It got really messy with summer and canning then I bought a bunch of items in bulk…..It was a messy job I just kept putting off.  The night before Thanksgiving I couldn’t find anything in there…so I had enough, got real stupid and started emptying shelves……deep shelves.

Mr.Fix-It thought I’d lost my mind and bravely stayed to help & watch the comedy show.

My entire kitchen quickly became trashed. 

Hour and a half later, it was all cleaned up with neat, reorganized and clean shelves. 

Was I ever surprised and upset with myself over some of my finds of expired food.  I thought I had a decent rotation system in place but evidence of full trash bags proved me very wrong.   Such a waste & I and now have a better rotation system in place.

And,,,

Just in case you ever run into a syrup bottle stuck to a shelf & hot water won’t loosen it (Not that it has ever happened to me *Snort*) ..a blow dryer on high will loosen that sucker right up.   

Katie

Technorati Tags: Katidids,thanksgiving prep,food rotation,pantry clean out

The Cranberry Debate

Is a biggie in our house.

Growing up, Mom cooked the most wonderful cranberry sauce. Real cranberry sauce…boiled till the berries popped, sugar added and cooled in the fridge.   Thanksgiving and Christmas would not be the same with out it. For me it was a memory scent of Christmas. We gobbled it up with our meal and later slathered on leftover turkey sandwiches.  A turkey sandwich just is not the same without cranberry sauce.   Then there was the year cranberry jelly appeared on the table..along with cranberry sauce.  Not just cranberry jelly, but cranberry jelly from a can.( <---insert ominous voice)  My Dad loved it…& had to pretend he didn’t.  I don’t think I’d ever seen my Momma so insulted……

The first Thanksgiving after Mr. Fix-It & I were married, I made cranberry sauce.  And he asked what is that…where was the cranberry jelly and……the…cranberry relish he grew up eating!  What?!?!?!

Blaspheme!!

What the heck is cranberry relish?????

Well……(insert a *fluffy huff*)

It’s on the cranberry package ……and oh so good! 

Sweet and sour at the same time….similar to the candy sweet tarts. As the years went by cranberry jelly and cranberry relish were what has graced our table. 

Today for the first time in YEARS I made cranberry sauce. Because, I miss my Mama & I wanted her cranberry sauce.

Actually, I ended up making a double batch and canned it all.  .

It’s excellent with pork chops. Preserved, I now have small jars to use year round

So this year we will have cranberry sauce, cranberry jelly and cranberry relish. 

Yes, we will have very clean kidneys by weeks end.

Cranberry sauce

It’s super simple to make…

1 bag of cranberries rinsed (I like half the bag chopped so I put some in the blender)

place berries in a pan with 1-1.5 cup water (just enough to see a few floating about)

Bring to a boil and listen for the cranberries to pop (yes really they pop) and soften.

 

(Keep stirring so they don’t scorch)

Once they are soft add 3/4 to 1 cup of sugar (hey, Its Thanksgiving!)

Bring to a full boil for 1-2 minutes and turn it off. 

Chill in a pretty bowl for the table… and slather on your turkey slices!

It’s pan lickin good!

What’s on your table?

Technorati Tags: Katidids,Thanksgiving prep,Cranberry relish,sauce & Jelly,canning,preserving

Jelly From Juice

Life has been getting in the way of blogging lately.  It happens to all of us but I seem to be less organized than most. 

MIA but not Slackin off! HONEST! 

Since this summers fruit harvest was pretty small I’d purchased some 100% pure juice to try alternative jelly making.  It sat in the back of my pantry for a few months waiting for the heavy canning to be done.  A few weeks ago I saw the post from MM @ Self Sustained LIving  and it reminded me to pull my juice out.

The first batch was grape, the second a mixed berry.

The berry set up nice, the grape I had to reprocess and add more pectin for some reason.  I did add sugar as both juices were pretty tart.

I ended up with 6 pints of each that will be nice with toast in the morning & the necessary PBJ’s

.

I  had to set them in the window sill for a bit to see the beautiful jewel colors for a few minutes.  I would love to have a shelf in the middle of the kitchen window to place 1 jar from each item canned.  It would not be safe I know but, I think it would look like a sustainable stained glass window.

Technorati Tags: Katidids,Self Sustained Living,jelly from bottled juice,preserving,sustainable living,canning

 

Knitters Give Away!!

One of my favorite knitting blogs is having a give away.  If you’re a knitter be sure and pop into Two Sides of the Same Stitch and enter.  It ends today so you’d better hurry.

I love this blog for all the knitting tips you can learn & they are fun ladies to follow

Katie

Technorati Tags: Katidids,Two Sides Of The Same Stitch,giveaway

Decanted Shortening

Well it worked!  Debbie sent me a U-tube link (I always forget about U-tube) and I decanted the shortening to jars. Why did I do this???  I don’t use a lot of shortening as a general rule and it sits in the pantry forever. The last can I had turned a brownish yellow if that gives you an idea how old it was & the expiration date was 2009.  I wanted to preserve it in smaller usable sizes.  Yes, I could have purchased a smaller can but, for less than a dollar more I got 3 times that amount.

I wanted to make some biscuits a while back and bought can…for what ever reason the biscuits didn’t get made.  Last week, I bought more shortening obviously forgetting I’d already purchased a can.  GAH!!  So now I have 6 lbs. of shortening …But that’s ok, I’m sure I’ll find more uses with winter baking.

Back to the video…the only issue I see is it looks like she has the can directly on the burner  Epic accident waiting to happen!

I put my can in a large pot of hot water (2-3inches) and slowly let it melt that way on the lowest flame setting.

If you do this, be sure and stir and loosen the bottom to let it “vent” constantly.  I was 2 ft. away washing jars and it vented on its own….as in a spout of melted shortening shooting up on my stove and cabinets.   That happened less than 2 minutes after the last stir.

I did not hot water bath these.  I will however store them in the fridge till I have the tube for my jar sealer. How long will they last?  NOOOOO Idea.  There was no expiration date on either of my new cans. I checked the paper wrap, the inside foil seal, the lid and bottom.  NADA!  Kinda scary huh?  So, I have 7 full pints and a partial ready to use.

And Drum roll please…………

***

I finally made perfect bread!!!!!

Thank you (Insert curtsey here) you’re to kind

No mush or dough when slicing & it’s weight does not resemble a doorstop!

Feelin pretty sassy and proud of myself after that one! 

I decided on some comfort food that night and we were having sausage gravy and biscuits for supper..because you know I have 6 lbs. of shortening I need to start using.

Now, I’ve made drop biscuits before….many many times and they turn out pretty darn good. Usually I toss the batch in the pan & you’ll have light and fluffy pan biscuits ready for butter and honey…..

Well, I waited for them to rise, and waited, and waited

Well, did you know baking powder has an expiration date? 

I didn’t. 

Checking the can it expired in 2004. 

Time for a spice cabinet purge!

Mr. Fix-It (bless his heart) ate them anyway.

Think I owe that man a pie.

Have a great weekend

Katie

Technorati Tags: Katidids,canning,preserving

Plans Change

We decided to hold off moving forward with anymore of the remodel here for a while. 

We are looking in to purchasing the property next to us to move family closer.

We’ve spoken to the property owner (the lady with the bushes which I offered to trim)  and she is more than willing to sell. She actually was the one who brought it up this summer…now its up to the financial end & what the property will appraise out to.  Maybe more than we are willing to go but, she jumped at the idea so I feel pretty confident we can work some arrangement out. The house is just a 2 bedroom but sits on a full unfinished basement the length of the house.  With both properties it would give us just about 5 acres & combined as it was originally.  Since we are now unfortunately in the city limits we couldn’t have anything more than chickens but, we could have one heck of a garden and orchard.

The plans and plotting is rolling full force but, I don’t want to get my hopes up to much (yeah right) till it’s a done deal.  I just know we will feel a lot better having them closer.

Hunting season is on!  He’s been twice now without any luck.  Both times they saw huge deer coming out of the woods at dusk.  It was as if they were saying naner naner naner!  Just as well, the weather had warmed up & we would’ve need to pay for processing rather than do it here.

And, look what I found local!  I read about these from ……Sue? Sandy? Debbie?(I’ll credit who when I remember) These jar sealers will be wonderful to use with the items I’ve dehydrated.

I have the adapter hose on order….I thought it odd they sold the sealer and not the hose too but I’m part way there! 

So, with plans changing that means my learning curve had been altered dramatically.Our “steps” to sustainability have become leaps & I hope you don’t mind but I’m going to have all kinds of questions & some may seem silly like…

Shortening…it always seems to sour before I use a whole lb.…and its only $1.00 more for the full lb. apposed the the 8 oz. size.  Is it possible to melt it into wide mouth canning jars and water bath seal it in usable/manageable sizes? I don’t want the big honkin can in my fridge.

I bet you just knew that was the first question I’d throw out there right?

Have a great weekend

Katie

Technorati Tags: Katidids,changes,sustainable living

 

It’s Been A Long Week

We’ve had a lot on our plate and I’m just now taking a breather or a sob…

I feel like we’ve been on an emotional roller coaster. 

I’ve really tried not to get political here but I’m just sick.

This election is over and so is our status as a nation..the land of the free and home of the brave where our Constitution has become simply a piece of historical paper in a pretty frame.

A friend of mine put to words perfectly how I feel.

**“ I actually felt as if I was grieving! Like someone had died’. **

I feel like every thing we’ve worked for as a nation & and worked to build as a family has been for nothing.

I felt as if the 19 members of our family…. from our sons generation to our parents including my husband and myself who served Active Duty and swore to “ support and defend the Constitution of the United States “ was for naught.

I know it’s not true because we have to continue to live our lives as an example for the next generation. 

Teach them right from wrong. 

To work for what you want, strive to be a better person, learn all you can and apply that knowledge to the betterment of yourself and others….to be responsible for your words and actions, to be a responsible, productive & contributing member of society

But, it’s hard to do when the destruction of all we as a country stand for comes from inside the gate.

Tomorrow will be a better day

Thanks for letting me vent

Katie

All Secure…but cold

Mr.Fix-It came home and changed the lock on the side door (new addition) with in 10 minutes of getting home.

Hadn’t even taken his boots off.

Last night I slept like a log, didn’t get up till just after 7 am.  Serious bead head and a numb right arm and hip.  I don’t think I moved at all during the night.   Safety & security is wonderful thing!

I don’t know about your neck of the woods but around here Fall is over. It was here for about 2 weeks, I blinked and it was g.o.n.e.

  I left the house about 10am. with a scarf and a mid weight fleece jacket …BIG mistake.  By the time I got 20 ft. to the car I was ready for the heater.

Here in So Indiana/Louisville area we are caught between the overflow winds from the east and the blustery cold front approaching from the west. We had 45 mph winds that cleared the patio area of all the leaves (thankyouverymuch) better than the leaf blower and in less time.

It also brought the cold. 

I have to say I’ll take our wind and the cold weather it brings over the storms on the east coast.  It will take at least a month to get everyone powered up again

Earth quakes on the west coast, tsunami’s, east coast storm…makes me wonder if God’s not leaning over and shouting

“HELLO! 

Can you hear me now?

Katie

Technorati Tags: Katidids,creepy stuff,weather

 

Creepy

We live out a ways and until the past few years never locked our doors.

  Even at night, there were to many kids coming and going.  Some ours and some that needed a safe place to go.  Since the new subdivisions have gone in down the road the doors are locked at night.  We’ve not had a problem but, were not naive either. 

This past summer there have been numerous break-ins in the new neighborhoods about a mile away.  We even started locking the vehicles rather than leaving the keys in the car and, locking the house when we leave in the day. 

Well, recently I’ve come home after running my twice weekly errands and found the door open about 6 inches.  I kinda froze for a moment but though maybe I hadn’t closed the door all the way. Everything in the house was fine so I gave myself a good talking to about safety.   

A few mornings later something woke me. Still not sure what but,  it brought me wide awake & fully alert. I’d been up pretty late the night before so it was about 8 am.  I came down the hall and saw the side door open, thinking Mr. Fix-It was outside & maybe the screen had slammed……then realized it was Monday…he was long gone.  Again everything in the house was fine but it creeped me out.

Later that afternoon as I went out to the garden I noticed my Santa Fe had been keyed down the drivers side & the mail box (way down the drive way) was smashed. 

It has happened 3-4 times in the past month…coming home and the door is open.  Nothing is out of place that I notice or missing… but it just doesn’t “feel” right.

I really thought I was loosing it, not locking up when I KNEW I had. I’ve not been sleeping well at all, hearing every little creak and moan a house makes at night.  Jumping at normal noises in the day…and then

Last night, Larry checked the windows, lights and doors, made sure everything was locked up tight and we went to bed………

He got up this morning at the usual 5 am &…the side door was o.p.e.n. and the porch light was on. 

I KNOW that door was locked.

HE knows the door was locked.

I’m not going crazy!

O happy day!

(Well, let’s not define crazy ok?)

We have 3 keys out, all to family….they work during the day and after talking to them none have been in the house. (Not that we would care other than to lock the door when you go)   

Some how, someone is able to get in here….nothing is ever bothered or missing which is even weirder…..creepier

Tomorrow, new locks are going on the house!

Better yet it’s nice to know I’m not loosing my mind.

Katie

Technorati Tags: Katidids,creepy stuff

Dehydrating Potato’s

I’ve been wanting to try dehydrating potato’s for a while.  Although we have a basement but not really a “cold room” so dehydrating I felt was the best long term storage for us.  Now that the garden is pretty much done, now is the time to tackle those potato’s time and price wise.  I’d looked up directions on line and U tube & then remembered my blogging buddy over at “Bacon & Eggs” had recently dehydrated some.

So following her directions I pealed my taters. Yes, I know I could leave the skins on but the MR. can’t stand the skins in dishes…baked is ok but not in fried tater’s…(.he asks for so little I pealed them)

Sliced them up to an eyeballed 1/8th of an inch

In a pot of lightly salted boiling water and using a strainer I boiled my slices.  The suggested time was 5-8 minutes (till opaque) I found 5 was right for me, more and they got to soft.

I put them in a bowl of ice water for 5-10 minutes (till cool)

Lay them out on a tea towel or paper towel (if you use them) & blot dry

Layer them on the dehydrator trays mindful that they do not touch

3-4 hours check if they are crispy…(at this point I switched the 2 top & bottom trays as the top was more dry than the bottom) about 2 hours later they were done.  I let them cool for a few hours and then sealed them in a container. 

This evening I plan to break out the food saver, I’ve yet to use it & this is the perfect time to break it in. 

A few things I found worked best for me…

I had my water start boiling while I peeled the first dozen potato’s.  I sliced and boiled 3 potato’s at a time.  While those were boiling I sliced 3 more & set up my trays. 

Right before I figured those boiling were done, I drained those in the Ice water & layered them out to drain…..so I was able to have them boiling, cooling, drying on the towel and load the screens ….then peal more potato’s within that 5-8 minute boil time. 

If I pealed to many at one time they started to discolor & I found 3 potato’s fit perfect on a tray. I tried just dropping them in the pan to boil without the strainer but had a mess trying to fish the slices out.

Less than an hour I had 10 lbs. of potato’s dehydrating….very easy and quick which is good as I have 3 more bags to do!

And then I had a cup of coffee OK, 2 cups before I cleaned up…

note to self clean up right away cause dried potato starch on the counters & pans is just gross to clean up

Thank you again to my bloggy friend  “Bacon & Eggs”

Katie

Technorati Tags: Katidids,bloggy friends,dehydrating,preserving

 

A Day Of Busy-ness

It’s been a busy week. Not a whole lot of one thing but bits of this and that. 

Beans for seed left to dry on the vine were all harvested yesterday or,  nearly all harvested.  I was pulling plants as I went & won the prize….

Which had me yelling EEEEWWWWW and running walking away.  I know it’s just a snake skin but it leads to the question, where’s the snake! These I’m setting aside for a few days till it’s to chilly for outdoor work

The chives got a final (I think) hair cut.

Chopped up & in the freezer with the other bags waiting for soups and stews this winter

From the main garden the last of the squash/pumpkin harvest is in

Looks pretty good right?

How about adding a sharpie marker to the photo for a a bit of size perception

They are all so tiny, combined maybe enough for a meal

Tomato’s are all that’s left and they need to come in this evening as the weather man is calling for low 50’s for the high tomorrow and a cold snap over the weekend.  If that weather change wasn’t enough to curl my toes he said the 4 letter word.  That’s right S>N>O>W> next week.  I’m so not ready!

I popped in the local hardware store the other day and caught a good clearance of plants.  I scored 3 more blueberry bushes for about $2.50 each.  I planted them today and think there will be enough decent weather for them to “set” and make it through the winter.  For $2.50 it’s a chance I’m willing to take.

I’ve a bag of potato’s with my name on it waiting to be dehydrated..

Have a great day
Katie

Technorati Tags: Katidids,gardening,harvesting

Sometimes the beauty

Is in the simplicity. 

Such is the design of this kerchief

 Age of Steam & Brass

combined with a color way from Lunabud Knits

Designed to be worn as a kerchief or a backwards shawl with the length draped in the front.  The ends are long enough to wrap around the neck comfortably. 

A kerchief to wear in the *v* of your jacket to keep your chest warm & leave on as an fun accessory…..

I think I need to make one for me!

Katie

Technorati Tags: Katidids,Katidids Knits,The Ages Of Steam & Brass,knitting,hand knit,handmade

Midnight Knitting

So many projects I start for gifts family knits and they end up set aside for customs. Don’t get me wrong…. I’m not complaining about the custom work,it pays my bills. 

But, this time I’m bound and determined to finish this The Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief  in the next few days.

I cast on late last night and got this far about  inches in.

I’m thrilled with the color flow, no heavy stacking or pooling at all…AWESOME dye work!

Today we needed to travel to Indy (2 hours each way) and I was able to compete all but the last section.  So tonight, my rear is plopped in a kitchen chair knitting away with a fresh cup of coffee at my elbow. 

We’ll see how far I get!

Have a great evening

Katie

Technorati Tags: Katidids Knits,Hand Knits,Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief,Lunabud Knits

Jerky Time!

With hunting season upon us, I‘v been attempting to empty out the downstairs large chest freezer.  It’s my “bits of everything” freezer containing soups, broths,fruit for pies,  frozen veggies & also all the extra fruit and vegies I intend to can this winter.   It’s also the over flow for venison when the meat freezer is full. My plan is any meat left in there will be canned in the next 2 weeks to make room for more. 

We also realized we’d yet to make any jerky!   We always save the tenderloin for jerky, and there were 2 plus, a few other packages he’d marked for jerky.  It’s not a quick process yet not a long labored one either, once the meat is sliced.

The seasoning we currently use is High Mountain Jerky Cure.

We love the flavor & variety of seasonings but, I want to make our own mix as I know it would be cheaper…so, share your recipe’s with me with jerky cures if you have them please.  There are quite a few on line but, I’d rather use one from one of my trusted bloggy friends

Loading trays for the dehydrator

So much easier than using the oven. 

The Excalibur takes at least triple the amount of meat compared to trays in the oven & is much more economical to use saving time and expensive propane.

The smells from the dehydrator are heavenly..The first batch disappears pretty fast.

Do you  make jerky?  What are your favorite cures or rubs? 

Willing to share?

Stay warm out there!

Katie

Technorati Tags: Katidids,dehydrating,jerky,excalibur

Sending Some Shades of Home

To Aaron.

Talking with my son who lives in San Diego the other day he made comment he missed seeing the season change.

 

I thought I’d send him some fall flavor.

San Diego may have beaches and sun shine but, I know it doesn’t have color like home.

I had a couple of willing helpers collect a basket of fall for him.  It took them about an hour because they wanted special pretty leaves

and were very proud of the assortment selected

So, Unco Awin,

here is your basket full of shades of fall with lots of hugs and kisses mixed in

We miss you

and are waiting for you to come play “destroy the domino’s” again

The Little People

The Big People too…

but if you make a mess with the domino’s  you have to clean it up!

Mom

Technorati Tags: Katidids,Fall,Family

Composting 102

Sumer is OVER! 

Fall leaves are falling, we are harvesting the last few tomato’s, peppers and beets.  High season gardening may be over but, some chores carry on all year long like... composting.  It’s a easy ongoing way to provide mulch and build/replace much needed nutrients to your soil.

For Free…that’s right free.

My favorite word!

    We’ve all had composting 101.

Using grass clippings, leaves, small branches, garden debris etc. are second nature.  Most of us look at green material from the yard or garden and see compost or worm food not yard/barn debris.

102 is one step further, the items some don’t think of composting….

This summer I’ve been pretty dedicated to building the compost up. I’ve been rereading books, blogs and online articles, and realized I was missing out on a lot of “food” for the bins.  We all know to add garden debris, leaves etc but what about the composting material from inside..but not limited to the kitchen? 

It’s amazing how little household trash we have when I’m watchful.

• Newspaper, what is not used for the bird cage is shredded and composted..along with the paper when I clean the bird cage
• any household paper, toilet paper rolls & paper towel rolls (if you use them)
• packaging boxes,remove shipping tape and tear them up first
• Mail, everything is put through the shredder and tossed in
• fabric scraps and thread trimmings from the sewing room
• wool and cotton yarn scraps from weaving in ends.
• dryer lint
• dirt and debris swept from the floor
• vacuum cleaner debris----watch out for the Barbie shoes & Legos
• cotton fabric scraps…cut up rags that no longer do their job…
• those strings we trim off frayed towel edges (before we hem them)
• old work shirts & cotton garments, those that have no work left in them..just be sure and cut the buttons off first.
• The tired dirt from house plants..I used to toss it in the flower beds but now add it to the compost.  Even worn out soil helps and, comes back to a purposeful life in the compost.
• old baskets past their prime
• dryer lint

In other words just about anything not plastic, metal or heavy wood.

Right now I have the standard 13 gal. kitchen trash can. I’d made comment I was ready to switch it out to 2 smaller, one for compost the other for kitchen.  Mr.Fix-It as asked me not to for a while..instead of daily, he’s enjoying the bi-weekly trash hauling.

Are there things you compost I’ve missed?

Add to the comments please

Off playing for the day

Katie

Technorati Tags: Katidids,composting

Showing Guests a Good Time

What great weekend!  We had friends down from northern Indiana for the weekend & took them to the Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot in WestPoint KY.

It was a day for “Big Boy Toys. 

This video is a few years old.  This weekends is not posted yet

The guys hoofed it up to the range at a much faster pace than Lori & I…I think they were a tad excited.   When Lori & I were about 100 yards away from the main range some type of weapon was fired that was strong enough I literally felt the skin on my arm move & Lori’s pant legs moved from the percussion.  As the gentleman behind us commented it was a good “sphincter check”.  

It was a beautiful afternoon weather wise and spent with great people. Walking in (and out) I noticed license plates from Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Florida, both Carolina’s, Colorado, Illinois…..people from all over made the trek to this sleepy little town to witness the fierce fire power that helps keep our country free.   Anything from WW1 to current weaponry was available….and I mean anything!  MRE’s, weapons of any size and gear was for sale.  Lori & both picked up a few t-shirt’s and at one point made comment we didn’t seem notice any Obama gear LOL! 

Gee, I wonder why!

Hope your weekend was just as fun

Katie

Technorati Tags: Katidids,weekend fun,friends,knob creek

Truck Load of Pretty

Boxes.

Plain brown boxes filling the bed of a F150

Larry called from work the other day and asked (with just a tad of sarcasm) could I use more canning jars?  Well, DUH!!  Thanks for asking but you know the answer to that one!

Seems one of the guys that works for him (& his wife) are clearing out all the canning jars they have.  Calling it quits on canning.  Could I use them? He would bring them in tomorrow.

OK,  I’m thinking if they were willing to pass on jars it meant maybe a dozen….

The next day Mr. Fix-It  comes down the drive way (in the middle of the day) in a truck that wasn’t his just a grinning & waved me over to the back end.  It was LOADED.  I nearly wet my pants.  Seriously, I had to run inside to potty.

On the way back out I grabbed the camera. 

This is what was left in the truck

.  He’d already unloaded these

and these!

Quart, pint, half pint and the tiny quarter pints for gifting. I’ve yet to have a chance to go through them all

Looks like I’ll have plenty of jars for apple sauce next week!

And, passing a few filled jars back as a thank you.

No question we need to build more shelves in the basement

Soon.

Have a wonderful weekend

Katie

Technorati Tags: Katidids,canning,preserving,gifts

Are you “Fall Cleaning”?

 

One of my last post I made comment I was cleaning out “stuff” and commenced a fall clean out….

Mama Pea,  who writes one of my favorite blogs “A Home Grown Journal” (If you haven’t done so,  yet check out her blog… you wont be disappointed) left me this comment…         “  I always thought spring was the time for old-fashioned "spring cleaning" but it seems so many of us are hitting it hard this fall for some reason. Not sure we're very wise as we also seem to still have canning and preserving going on at the same time! I really, really don't want to fill every single minute of every day with "work" type tasks . . . it just seems to happen! Fall is supposed to be a time for thinking about knitting, quilting, reading . . . or will we have to wait for the dead of winter for that? “

Well she got me to thinking. I realized in the past few years  fall is when I’ve done these clean outs.  What happened to spring cleaning?  Opening the doors and windows to let the house breathe in fresh air after being tightly shuttered for months.

I think for me the change over came with staying home and gardening.  Spring we’re all out wallowing in the soil, praying over the seedlings, hoeing and raking. Watching trees & fruit vines bud. Busy planting and working gardens, herb and flower beds…..anything to be outside and out of the house in the sunshine. 

Summer we are to busy weeding and preserving which carries over in to fall….and then the winter prep work ..

Fall, we start thinking about staying inside…a l l   w I n t e r…..& begin looking around and realize although we’ve maintained our homes though the busy times..“stuff” has crept in.  You know what I mean, like that pile of books that is stacked next to the couch, the stack towels in the linen closet that have fallen over. How about the ironing pile that is now large enough that could be declared a state.  OK so I may have exaggerated a bit, not a state but at least a county!  The dust and drips that have gathered in cabinets and drawers in the kitchen from canning.  All those little minor tasks we started (do we have to talk about the mending pile?) and gotten side tracked.  Leftover home improvement project pieces and parts…..the desk that is beginning to look like a trash heap paper mill exploded.  Cleaning out spare rooms of all the stuff or tasks we set aside to do later when we aren’t so busy…….and then  realized I don’t want to be stuck inside with all this stuff all winter! 

I admit I’m not an organized person ( my family would be standing shouting “Can I hear an Amen!”)…I want to be, I try to be…but it doesn’t work.  So yeah, there are things that need done, blinds & walls that need washed, closets & cabinets that need cleaned out.  I’ve never been able stay in one room to start/finish it so I do little bits in each room, keep a donate box on hand & at least 5 things have to go in it a day.  When the box or bag is full it goes in the SUV.  I’m still cleaning out the empty kids rooms so 5 things is cake I tell you (think wedding cake).  It should be done already but…as you can tell I get side tracked easily.

Anyway, cleaning it out, clearing the clutter and organizing now in the fall makes the house feel open and spacious during the “inside times” of winter.  And….lets me do all the fun stuff like quilting and sewing guilt free.

How about you?  Spring cleaner or fall?

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Canning and Cleaning

Ahh! Last night I slept like a rock.  Mr. Fix-It had been out of town all week and I never sleep well while he’s gone. Every house has night time noises as it ”settles” at night. The sounds which generally are a comfort & let me nod right off …well, when he’s gone they sound ominous.  So, there was a few nights I was still awake at 3 am. 

Sleep depravation = low productivity. Took me 2 days to can 47 pints of pumpkin..and I’m still not done.  There are 2 more waiting for processing.  I didn’t realize just how much pumpkin you get. I see a lot of bread, muffins & pumpkin pies for dessert this winter!

The peppers all got sliced, diced & loaded in the Excalibur

Mmm, such a fresh aroma that lasts for hours!

The past 2 days I’ve been on another de-cluttering/de-crap-afying mission.  Where does all this stuff come from? I told Mr. Fix-It we need to check for trail cameras on sale and mount them in the closets.  I tell you I think after the last clean out, anything that was left in the closets expanded and multiplied on their own.

Isaiah’s room became the upstairs storage room while we worked on the remodel.  I’d kinda burnt out by the time we were done & wasn’t sure what to do with all the stuff we’d crammed in there. Honestly, when I opened the door I was flat overwhelmed with everything that had accumulated.   I got in there yesterday and found the floor, pulled the curtains to launder and reorganized quite a bit of it.  There’s still a bunch of little boy clutter to clean and sort but, it felt so good to see the progress. Thankfully the toss and giveaway piles were much larger than the keep this time around.   I gotta tell you, it feels really good looking in there and actually seeing carpet!

Tomorrow, the Pantry…..maybe.

Have a great weekend

Katie

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