Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Beginnings

The starting point, a house with only rocks and weeds in the flower beds.


Wisteria that has run amok, and amok, and amok.......

Wait!  I see a rose bush!

What's that? A snowball bush too!

The poor barn is about half buried under blackberry brambles, what's left of the barn anyway.

Thornless blackberries are taking over the well house.

Get past the drain field and more blackberries, as far as the eye can see it would seem.

A wonderful witch hazel tree, and weeds.........

I have some grassland at least.

Unplanned Events

Ever have one of those days in which everything seems to be going along fine, then all of a sudden it all comes to a grinding halt.  That was Saturday.  I put up 5 pints of tomatoe sauce, 3 pints of pickled peppers, and 5 pints of pumpkin.  The tomatoes and peppers I could process in a water bath, but the pumpkin I had to process using a pressure canner.

I got out my grandmother's pressure canner and read all the directions, the proceeded with a bit of trepidation.  It went along just fine all the way to the end.  I turned off the heat and allowed the pressure to normalize before removing the lid and pulling out the jars.  The problem came when I was still hearing the same sound of steam letting off only there was no steam.  The sounds was coming from under the kitchen floor.  Michael, my partner, raced outside and looked into the vent under the house and sure enough, water was spraying everywhere!!!

Sunday was spent trying to repair a water leak under the house in a minuscule crawl space without setting the house on fire.  It took three tries before he got the solder to completely seal the fittings.  After we turned the water back on, another leak started right up.  This time it was a different size pipe.  Back to the hardware store....

Monday evening the second leak was repaired.  Both leaks were in the hot water lines, so turning off the hot water meant we could take a bit of time to make sure we had all the pieces before cutting open the pipe, but it also meant no showers or dishes until the leaks were fixed.  During this time we learned that the water lines need to be grounded in order to prevent electrolysis from making holes in your pipes.  Who knew!

The good news is that we have hot water again and could take those most needed showers.  I have only just finally caught up on all those dishes made from a frenzied Saturday of canning.  We had homemade tomatoe soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner, we had earned them.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Preserving the Bounty

This weekend has been spent gathering and preserving the harvest, or at least some of it.  As a child, I spent many weekends this time of year gather the fruits and vegetables of the garden, then getting them ready for my mom to work her magic on.  She canned, boiled, froze, and otherwise processed a years worth of gardening to create what would be our family's idea of "fast food."  Pull it out of the pantry, put it in the pan, heat it up and presto, dinner.  I am now learning the rest of the process.  No wonder she was so tired by the end of the weekend! 

I still have peppercinis to put up though, and would love to have a good recipe for canning them.  If anyone has a great tried and true recipe, please send it my direction.  It needs to be something that can be done in a weekend though. 

Many Blessings!

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Beginnings

As I travel down the path of life, not knowing where it leads, I find myself wanting to follow the many new paths that I see.  So begins a journey for me and my family and our new farm.  New to us that is.  We are taking a walk on the wild side; Wild Side Acres.  My hope is to post pictures and writings of the journey, gather information and advice from those I meet, and even stopping for a friendly visit across the fence or at the bench in the herb garden.  Many blessings to all,  Sherri & family.