Painting and Toilet Paper Rolls

Our most recent crafts have been more unscripted than those we usually undertake. Last week, I got out the craft box that has felt and toilet paper rolls in it. I said to the older two kids, "Make whatever you want." This is what they came up with.

An alien. 

My contribution--A Raggedy Ann Doll.

My middle daughter did a toilet paper roll, but then she got interested 

in making a collage with some torn up books we had saved for just such 

a purpose (See Emily Elizabeth?)

Then, yesterday we were supposed to be following a book to make "Dinosaur Prints" using their hands, but they got all excited and painted with their fingers and hands without following the instructions. This is what that turned out like.

My youngest got involved in this one, too.

She started out painting the paper, and moved to painting hands.

This is my middle daughter and her painting.

My oldest started out by not wanting to get dirty, so he was

making a nice painting. 

Then, seeing how much fun it was, he started dipping his fingers, too.

This is what my middle daughter's hands both ended up looking like. 

Review of Safely Home by Randy Alcorn

Safely Home by Randy Alcorn is the story of 2 old friends. One was from China, the other from the US. They met at Harvard during college. They shared a dorm.  20 years passed. The American was now in line for the CEO of a large American corporation. His boss thought it would be a good idea for the American to go to China to live with his old friend from Harvard, in order to increase business in China. The boss thought they could sell more in China if they better understood the culture of the consumer.

The Chinese man had become a Christian during his stay in America. The American man was able to locate the Chinese man, and the Chinese family invited him to stay at their home for six weeks. From the moment the American arrives in the home of the Chinese, the book is a fast paced, roller coaster ride. The book is exciting, adventurous, and challenging in ways I never expected. I don't want to say too much about the story line, because I don't want to spoil any of the twists and turns.

I loved this book. I loved the rollicking, action-adventure, don't-want-to-put-it-down quality of the writing. I loved the view of the differences between the persecuted church and the American church. I loved the honor accorded to the Christians in the persecuted church by Mr. Alcorn. 5 stars.

Disclaimer: I received this book free from Tyndale House Publishers, in exchange for an honest review.

Yellow Knock Out Roses

Because I have been really "into" my garden this year, I have been "into" the whole thing, and not just the vegetable patch. So I have been looking at my front bed. It is right beside the front door. Last year I planted 2 Yellow Knock Out Roses. My kids gave them to me for Mother's Day. I keep looking at the bed and thinking, "You know, it looks too bare. I need at least one more and probably 2 more in order to make it look right from the road."

Today I happened to stop by a local hardware store. I had never been there before, but stopped in because they had plants outside the building. They had all their growing plants half off!! I could not believe it.

And they had 3 Yellow Knock Out Roses. I bought 2 for $7 each. SCORE!!! And I bought a little pot of eggplants to replace all the tomatoes that died for $0.90. There were 4 eggplants in there, so I can re-fill the bed for a fraction of what the other plants have cost me per square. I am stoked! This is great for my garden. You will never be able to tell when the plants start growing that they were so cheap.

Woo Woo!!

Here are the 2 plants I bought. I have placed them where I am 

going to plant them. You can see how much room I had just languishing.

This is awesome! A deal and a garden find. I love a good deal, and I love my garden.

Double blessing!

Macro and Micro

Macro

Bed # 1

Bed # 2

Bed # 3

Micro

First marigold bloom of the year. They make me so happy!

A butterfly who decided to visit this morning.

Purple Rain Hybrid Eggplant growing nicely.

Harvest Monday July 11, 2011

Daphne at Daphne's Dandelions is hosting Harvest Mondays. Go on over and see what others are harvesting from their gardens.

These are some of the pears the squirrels are throwing down

to me. The ones I could reach have all been taken care of.

There aren't many that reach the ground in good condition. I would have

at least that many more if they weren't broken by the fall. 

I got a few green beans and have planted many more. 

I lost many of my tomatoes this season, so that's all I have to report today.

What to Plant in July in South Alabama?

OK. So I lost many of my tomatoes, and will probably lose a few more in a week or two. I have a square foot garden, so I am supposed to be planting something in every space. I have planted some pole green beans, because my green beans seem to be doing well. There aren't nearly enough of them, but they are growing well and producing their little hearts out. So I planted more.

It's July 9th already. I live in South Alabama, where we have a really long growing season. But what do I plant now? Do I have time to plant summer squash? I normally don't plant summer squash, because most people around me do and they get so much that I have plenty. But not this year. They all planted early, and then the hard freeze in May killed their squash plants. Or the drought did. So I haven't gotten much squash. Would that be something good to plant?

I have about 4 to 6 squares that need to be filled. Not all of them are touching each other, but some are. I need a little help here. What do you think? What should I plant?

Pears, Finale Redux

I woke up this morning with the thought that pear butter sure does make good Christmas gifts. That spurred me to try to deal with the last of the pears. The kids were great this morning. I kept saying to myself, "I can stop here, if I need to." And later, "I can stop here, if I need to." The kids let me finish it.

I know it's foamy at the top. I don't know how to scrape off the foam. It doesn't seem to affect the taste any.  Anyone who knows how, please explain in comments. Thank you.

But now they are REALLY all gone. 53 jars all together.

Pear Finale

I canned all day today again. Final tally: 48 jars of pears.

• 16 jars of pear butter, from 2 different recipes. 
• 24 jars of canned pears, from 2 different recipes. 
• 8 are from a recipe for pear relish I had last year and loved. 

And after all that, I still have this. I didn't have

the energy to deal with any more pears. 

Here's an action shot of me working on the pears today.

This doesn't include the last 5 jars of wonderful pear butter. 

But that is the haul.

Again, the last 5 pear butter jars are not included, but

here's my hard work for today. 

Whew! Back to your regularly scheduled program. 

Monday Harvest 7/4/11

It's time to link up with Daphne from Daphne's Dandelions for our weekly Monday harvest.

This week I have LOADS to report.

First, I'll report the little stuff. I harvested my first eggplant this week, and my first chocolate pepper. It was so good. I harvested a tiny tomato (that should have been the size of a regular one, but was more the size of a cherry). And I harvested 6 green beans.

And for the big news. My husband and I harvested about 100 pounds of pears from our backyard pear tree.

I have canned 24 of them.

But I still have this left on my counter.

And this. 

Tomorrow is another big canning day. I have about as many pears left as I have used, so I expect to get another 20 or so cans of pears. 

Go to Daphne's Dandelions to see what others are harvesting. It's always interesting to see what is working for different people in different parts of the country. 

Update on Pears

In my previous post, I told about our pears, and how my husband improved my contraption to gather them out of our 30 foot pear tree. He was able to gather 2 cloth bags simply full of pears with his pear picker. He guesses it to be about 50 pounds (at least) of pears.

I worked from 9 AM until 3: 30 PM canning pears. I have never done this before, and had a lot to learn.
First, I learned which end of the canning tongs to use. I tried the wrong end first and ended up messing up the handles. Ah well. Live and learn.

Another thing I learned was to have the actual water bath canning equipment. I had read somewhere that you didn't really  have to have a water bath canning container with its own rack. You could use inverted canning jar lids. This did NOT work well for me. The jars kept tipping over. I had to stop and go back to the store.

So there are my mistakes. Now let me tell you about the successes.

Canning Across America had listed a cheat sheet the other day for beginners.  I was so glad they did that. I printed my copy and followed it exactly. I would never have thought to get towels ready had they not suggested it.  The cheat sheet helped me a great deal.

I canned pears with the first recipe and canned 8 of the half pint size. (I should have used pint size, but didn't know that.)

There were actually 8 of these, but for some reason

I took the picture after 4. 

Then I made my friend Deborah's Pear Butter. It was spectacular!!

It made 4 half pints, and 2 1/2 pints. (I opened the half full one and 

stuck it in the refrigerator. Yum. Yum.)

And finally I made a second canned pears recipe. 

It made 8 pint jars.

Everything pinged. I can't tell you how exciting a sound that was when I heard it. 

Now the (somewhat) bad news. I still have 3 bags of pears to deal with. 

So many pears that they wouldn't all fit in one picture. 

So I guess I am looking at another whole day of canning. I guess I should have it figured out by the time I am done with all these pears. 

I am really happy about the pears and the results of my first try at canning. 

Pears! We have an abundance

I hadn't actually gone outside intending to pick pears, so 

I used my shirt to carry them back inside. 

That was all we could reach that way. 

Then, I thought of a craft from Family Fun magazine.

I found it, and made it in about 5 minutes flat. Basically, 

it's a clean, dry liquid fabric softener bottle on the end of 

a long pole, attached with duct tape, and a hole cutting

off the entire handle area. It worked great! It was so much 

fun to use. My kids got in on the act and pulled pears down, too.

We pulled down pears until we were all sore from stretching and pulling 

and holding the pole steady.

Here's another view of it, with my son working

the pole.

Of course, my husband came home, saw the contraption and improved it. He is my Idea Man. He is so talented at discovering easier and better ways to do things. 

It's hard to see, and it is HEAVY, but that is okay, because

my husband is going to wield it. 

Now I have to get canning. Wish me luck. I haven't ever canned before. 

Gathered so far.