Amazing!

Would you believe it took me the better part of two days to wash all the bottles I emptied? Of course, when my back got to hurting too much I sat to knit a row, but what I am knitting is a baby sweater and I am on the sleeve, so short sit. Now we will fill them all with grains, beans and a few bottled fruits and veggies.

Bringing joy into life

I Thought it was time to put something of my garden here to bring joy into others lives, as they bring joy into mine.

Here is my very tiny Hydrangea. If you know my daughter and have seen the giant blue hydrangeas on her blog you will know how alkaline my soil is in comparison to Wales.


This is the largest of my dahlias.
This little flower is one you see all the time, unfortunately I cannot at the moment remember the name though it is one of my favorite. It comes in a orange and yellow version, and a pink and yellow version. The sun was too bright, this is the pink and yellow.

The Matter of Thought

This is the poem by Henry Van Dyke that I mentioned earlier:

I hold it true that thoughts are things;
They're endowed with bodies, breath and wings;
And that we send them forth to fill
The world with good results, or ill.

That which we call our secret thought
Speeds forth to earth's remotest spot,
Leaving its blessing or its woes
Like tracks behind it as it goes.

We build our future, thought by thought,
For good or ill, yet know it not.
Yet so the universe was wrought.

Someone I have seen much of lately, Merilee Webb, talks a lot about the fruit that we produce. How often, when we think bad thoughts, or negative thoughts, or even just less than nice thoughts, we send those thoughts forth to sicken others with our 'bad fruit'. I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to any and everyone I have sickened with my 'bad fruit' and to promise that I am trying very hard not to do that anymore.

Preparation

Sweet C has, for some time, been concerned with our food storage. He has wanted to inventory, throw out old things and replace with things we are eating now. More whole grains for one thing.
This past weekend was our regional conference. The Saturday night meeting was all about preparation. Not emergency preparation but simply being prepared for what ever may come in our lives. They spoke about the economy, and getting out of debt. They spoke about not turning our wants into needs. They spoke a lot about food storage, and challenged us to get a three month supply as soon as possible, even if it is by buying 3 extra cans of food per week. They also spoke about getting together a store of money. Start with making sure we have a one month supply of savings, then build it up to three, then six, until we all have a years financial needs set aside (Huge goal!!!)
Sunday meeting were more on the theme of spiritual preparation. We had two general authorities so it was really, really good, but many people were more impressed by the Saturday night meeting.
I had been cleaning out our storage room three or four bottles at a time. This week C began to help me. Yeah! He can carry much more than I can. He carried out a couple of hundred bottles. So I have been emptying the bottles into trenches in the largest garden bed. (Hard on the back.) I know it looks really silly, but it does feed the soil and gets all the old fruit out of the storage room so I can put in new and fresh. I'm a little torn. All those bottles represent a lot of work. In the old days when the kids were little we would put up 4 or 5 batches of everything, every year. My kids, little or big, were very good hard workers, and helped a ton. We never ate it all, so I had bottles that were very old and discolored. I won't be bottling so much in the way of fruit and vegetables now - with only two of us we will never eat as much as we used to bottle. I emptied a huge variety of stuff, but I think I feel the worst about the salsa and the black raspberry syrup. Those two were the most work, and taste the best. I doubt I will get much more bottled this year though. Still to much cleaning and sorting to do. Wish me luck.

State Fair

The state fair is going on in Utah and we went the very first day. (It's cheaper that way.) I wanted to share a few pictures with you. I took waaaaayyyyy too many, but you can get an idea, and if you are in Utah you should go, it's a good fair. You see here some displays from the home arts building, the agricultural building, a tiger show, the art building, the floral display, photography, creative arts and the 4-H building. I forgot to take pictures in the fruit and vegetable display area.

HighWind Utah

There was a big wind storm at the beginning of the week and it took down my corn. I didn't think to take a picture until I had removed most of the stalks but here is a shot of the last few rows. I still got nearly an ear of corn per kernal planted as I got both ears from some stalks so I can't complain too much, but there were quite a few that would have matured later, if the wind hadn't taken them down. I also lost a lot of green plums. Don't know why, since they are so green you wouldn't think they would blow down. Sigh. The saddest part is that I think I may have lost some hummingbirds. I had quite a little flock coming before the storm. I didn't see any during or after the storm, for days after the storm. Two days ago one showed up, and that is all I have seen since.

The non-chef

Monday was Labor day, so I was at my husbands place of work, feeding the troops. I do this often, since on a big sale day the employees can't leave to go buy lunch. Usually I set out a make-your-own sandwich bar, I have been known to do chili, or bring in food from Appleby's or Boston Market. I have done salads and desserts. This week I made two types of soup and put them in crock pots to keep them warm. Two problems: One of the crock pots was missing the knob and couldn't be turned down to warm, and I made chicken noodle as one of the soups but there are fewer employees at this store and they were very busy so didn't all come up to eat near noon. When you leave noodles cooking for a long time they become rather mushy. (still tasted good but the texture was soft)
This is the part I find hilarious. I often feed 60 to 250 people at a time, and I don't cook!!!