Tallying the Harvest

When I was a little girl, my family didn't celebrate Halloween; but most years, we participated in some sort of harvest party--either through school or church.  In keeping with that tradition, I'm celebrating harvest today!

All during this past summer, I kept a tally of foods that we harvested from our garden or bought locally to preserve.  It is incredible to me how much bounty can come forth from a relatively small piece of ground.  When I stop to think about it, I'm floored by the "miracle" of tiny seeds going into dirt and turning into delicious foods for us to eat!  Isn't it amazing?!  :)

Before I get to the list, however, here are some pictures from this past year's growing season.

 Jeff spent many an evening working in the garden, and he often had some help (or sometimes, just some companionship as he worked)...  :)

 Jeff picking peas...

 Josiah picking potato bugs...

 He was a great help with this...he would pick some bugs, put them in some water in a little bucket, then take them up to the chickens and dump them over the fence for the chickens to eat...the chickens thought it was a great treat...  :)

 We had a bumper crop of cilantro...most of it coming from "volunteer" plants...some even came up intertwined with a tomato plant!  Perfect for salsa...  ;-)

We got a couple of bushels of peaches from a nearby orchard (but not our usual orchard--unfortunately, that one didn't have a good crop of peaches because of a late frost)...

...and Tobin helped to lay them out on the air hockey table so they could ripen.

OK, now the list.  And, just a note, I tried to be quite thorough in my record-keeping, but I am certain I forgot to write some things down along the way.  My numbers are more than likely off a little (on the low side), especially for Jeff's salsa and the hot peppers he canned and some things like that.

Back in the spring, Jeff took advantage of the abundant cilantro and green onions in our garden, and he bagged up quite a few bags of both of those items.  I don't have any idea how many though, but it was a lot.  He'll use those for salsa.

From our garden, we ate fresh:  onions, lettuce, broccoli, peas, cabbage, basil, oregano, peppers (jalapeno, cherry, bell, habañero, and other kinds that I'm not sure of the name), tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, zucchini, potatoes, tomatoes, watermelon (which were actually really good! some years they don't seem to have much flavor at all), corn, cantaloupe.

In addition, we gave away:  lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini, bell peppers (many of those peppers went into the chili that was sold at the Mennonite relief sale; my dad was the main person who chopped those) :), jalapenos and other spicy peppers.

One day, we even sold some hot peppers.  Our neighbor, who runs a produce stand, had a lady stop there in search of some hot peppers.  Having none, my neighbor called me and asked if we had any extras.  I said sure, and she sent the lady over who then proceeded to gather up some and hand me a few dollars for them. Goodness!  As far as I was concerned she could just have them!  (It's far easier for me to give away hot peppers than it is for Jeff to do so.)  ;-)  But I took the money and gave it to Jeff that evening.  :)

Here is what we preserved:

~ 9 pints of strawberry freezer jam (we bought the strawberries from a neighbor across the way) - I also made strawberry shortcake, a strawberry pie, and we ate some fresh - every year, we have to make a shortcake and a pie when we have strawberries!  :)

~ 36 pints of peas in the freezer - this was the first year we had a good crop of peas since we moved here, and I was delighted by this success  :)

~ 17 pints of sour cherries in the freezer (we bought the sour cherries) - I used some two days ago to make this delicious dessert  :)

~ 21 pints of blueberries (bought through a local fruit market and then frozen)

~ 33 quarts of green beans canned

~ 28 cups of chopped onions frozen - we haven't had good success the past few years in keeping our onions into the fall and winter; they always seem to begin to rot! - so we decided to chop and freeze them, which makes them so handy to pull out throughout the year to add to soups, casseroles, salsa, or other dishes

~ 18 quarts of dill beans canned

~ Jeff canned salsa: 52 quarts, 14 pints

~ Jeff canned jalapenos and other hot peppers: 30 quarts, 20 pints

~ Jeff canned cherry peppers: 5 pints, 2 quarts

~ 28 quarts of peaches (one jar broke in the canner - a first for me!)

~ 14 cups of bell peppers frozen

~ 7 quarts of diced tomatoes canned - of all the things we grew this year, the tomatoes were definitely the biggest disappointment: lots of pest problems, lots of rotten places that needed to be cut out before salvaging a small part of the tomato - I would have liked to can a lot more diced tomatoes or spaghetti sauce or other tomato products, but we just didn't have the tomatoes for it this year - oh well, 7 quarts is better than none  :)

~ 8 gallons of grape juice - not a huge harvest; but after the terrible storm we had the end of June, we were concerned that our vine wouldn't survive, so we were happy just to get this much from it!  :)

~ a bunch of zucchini frozen (forgot to write down how much) - we bought some zucchini from our neighbor at the end of the season, because after producing abundantly for a while, our plants suddenly keeled over and died on us :(  - I wanted to experiment with freezing some because, even though I know the texture will be different when it's thawed, I'm hoping that it will do fine in casseroles

~ creamed corn frozen: 5 pints - I would have done a lot more of this, but our major corn harvest was happening in September as we were preparing for our vacation (and then, of course, while we were gone on vacation), so I didn't get much done - hopefully next year I can do more of this, because homemade creamed corn is GOOD!

I believe that is all...unless I missed something...which is entirely possible.  :)

As I look back over this list, I am EXTREMELY grateful:  to Jeff for his hours of hard work in the garden, to my parents who helped with things like shelling peas and snapping beans, to my boys who (sometimes cheerfully...sometimes not) pitched in and helped with various tasks along the way, and most of all to God for making all of this grow!

Tonight I'm thanking God for the harvest...and looking forward to next year in the garden!  :)

Who loves a garden still his Eden keeps,

Perennial pleasure plants,

   and wholesome harvests reaps.

~ Bronson Alcott

Wordless Wednesday {Boys in Leaves: a Fall Tradition}

Reaching

Before Moriah was born, a dear (and generous!) friend gave us a swing for her.  It was quite a bit nicer than the swing we had used for all four boys, so we happily left our old swing in the basement of my parents' house and used the new one for Moriah.  I had intended to pass the old one along to someone who could use it; but, as sometimes happens, I never got around to it--a very fortunate instance of procrastination because, after months of using it, the new swing broke (and was fixed by Jeff, and then broke again), and we were glad to have the old swing to fall back on.  Jeff rigged it up so that the new seat, which was shaped and padded better than the old one, could fit into the old swing; and thanks to his ingenuity, Moriah is able to continue to enjoy time in the swing.

I say all of that to say this: the old swing has four dangling stuffed animals above the seat, and I've had fun watching Moriah reach for those little animals during the past couple of weeks.  It took her a while to get the coordination to grasp one, but now she can do it.

 I see her reaching for those faces above her, and I get a little nostalgic, thinking about the other things she'll reach for as she grows up.

Like, the stars...

*******

Since everyone's talking about it, I'll go ahead and mention that this superstorm Sandy has been kind to us, only giving us some rain and some winds, but nothing too damaging or threatening.  We're prepared as best as we can be for whatever comes our way, including a power outage, but so far, it's been mild enough to not cause any major concern where we are.  Now, if only the temperature would drop a few degrees so we could get some snow out of this!  ;-)

OBX 2012: Day 3

(Previous posts:  Day 1 and Day 2)

Tuesday, September 18.

When I woke up, I discovered that Jeff had already left the cottage, fishing pole in hand, ready for a little morning fishing.  And so began a pattern that continued every (I think) morning during the rest of our vacation:  Jeff would get up early to go fishing, and then usually the next group to leave the house to walk down to the beach would be Josiah and David, accompanied by Grandma Fisher.  Later I would come with the stragglers who, on this particular day, happened to be Tobin and Shav.  

Before all of that, however, I had taken a few pictures of Moriah, my little ball of sunshine. 

She slept in a playpen in our room...

...and it was a joy to be greeted every morning by this smiling face.  :)

On this morning, Moriah got to spend some time with Grandpa.

After I got her tucked in bed for her morning nap, the little boys and I set off for the beach; and when we got there, we discovered several things.  

First, the piece of wood we saw sticking out of the surf way down the beach to the south of us was actually the mast from an old shipwreck; and on that morning, Grandma Fisher, Josiah, and David had walked down to see it more closely.  (At a later point in the week, I walked further down to see it more closely, too; but the closer I got, the more I realized that it still just looked basically like a piece of wood sticking out of the surf.)  ;-)

Second, the weather had changed a little from the day before, producing rough surf and blowing sand.  It wasn't terrible, but neither was it wonderful, so we decided that it would be a good day to drive north for a little expedition.  First stop: Fisherman's Wharf restaurant in Wanchese.

When I was a child, our family vacations to the Outer Banks ALWAYS included eating lunch at Fisherman's Wharf.  I'm not sure what I looked forward to most: the view over the water with fishing boats occasionally coming and going past the restaurant windows or the hush puppies!  Not being a seafood fan when I was young, I always ordered chicken there; but the best part of the meal was the hush puppies.  :)

The last time we went to the Outer Banks for vacation--five years ago, when I was pregnant with Tobin--we had driven over to Wanchese to eat lunch at Fisherman's Wharf, but found, to our great sorrow, that it was closed.  Such a disappointment!  This time, we were quite pleased to see that it was open again--and not just open but full of people.  If that one day was any indication, I'd say the restaurant is quite a success once again.  :)

After our lunch, we drove on up to this rather ordinary-looking hill...

 ...which just happens to be the place where man first flew.  Yes, the Wright Brothers Memorial.  :)

 We listened to a presentation about the brothers and their flights.

 Then we went outside...

...and walked over to the place where the first four flights actually happened.

 It was rather really windy, and the boys had fun leaning into the wind.  :)

We then went into a different building that's been added more recently than the original one I was familiar with; and while there, we watched a short movie about the Wrights and their accomplishments.  What I remember most is that during the movie, Shav put his head down on my lap, I gently massaged/scratched his head, and he fell fast asleep.  :)  I also remember being ASTONISHED at the thought that only 66 years passed from the time Wilbur and Orville took their first few wobbly, faltering flights until the day a spacecraft was sent to the moon and astronauts landed on it.  In my mind, that's an incredibly fast advance of technology!

Some of us were thinking about walking up the hill to the monument at the top, but the weather--being cool and, by this point, drizzling a little--discouraged us.  So we settled for being wimps and drove around the hill instead.  ;-)

I believe this sculpture we drove by has been added since the last time we were there.  This is based on this famous photograph taken during the actual first flight.

 After one last look...

...we left and headed south to return to our cottage.

On the way, we stopped to get gas; and while we were sitting there waiting for the tank to fill up, Jeff's mom spotted a fox crossing a residential road up ahead, and she pointed it out to us.  A fox!  There on the Outer Banks!  Who knew?  :)

Our trip south passed pleasantly as I read aloud to the family from a brain teaser book and we pondered the answers together.  It was actually a book given to me by my Granddad Huffman many (many!) years ago, and I had a lot of fun seeing the next generation of children enjoying it like I once did so long ago.  :)

One small part of our journey made me nervous, however: as we crossed the Oregon Inlet bridge, rain was falling, the wind was blowing, the waves were higher, and the weather just felt rough.  In my older age, I have become a complete wimp when it comes to heights, so crossing that bridge in those conditions made my heart beat faster and my thoughts become a prayer for safety.  Sure enough, we made it just fine.  :)

That evening was rainy, and our indoor entertainment consisted of a VeggieTales movie for the boys and some rousing games of Uno after supper.  The rain fell outside, we were snug and cozy inside, laughter abounded, and all was well.

And having finished The Hunger Games the night before, I didn't have to stay up late to read it this night!  ;-)

How She Celebrated 71

On Wednesday of this week, my dear mother had a birthday!  71 years young, she is.  :)

To celebrate, she...

...rocked her youngest granddaughter...

 ...carried wood from the woodshed to the porch...

 ...assisted by some of her grandsons...

 ...and watched by Moriah (who was, I'm sure, busy making mental notes of how to do it so that when she's old enough, she can help her grandma with the wood).  :)

My mother's birthday cake was an angel food cake that I made with the "help" of Shav.  We gave her cards and sang to her.  And for her gift, Josiah, David, and I took her and Dad to a production of The Sound of Music at my old high school this evening--a clutter-free, absolutely delightful gift.    :)

We thank God for all the days of my mother's life:  from the day of her birth 71 years ago until now.  She is a treasure!!

This Is Why

Sometimes I look at Jed and I think, "What in the world are we doing?  There's an ANIMAL in our house!" Since we've never had indoor pets (and, at times, I said I NEVER would), it's a pretty big change for us.  

But even though having Jed hasn't made my house any cleaner, it hasn't decluttered the living room since now we have a basket of his toys and a mat for his bed in that room, it hasn't lowered our expenses, and it hasn't freed up any time in my schedule, it's still worth it.  Why?  Because of moments like these...

 Boy and dog, just being together in friendly companionship.

This is why we got a dog.  :)

How Jed Came to Be a Part of Our Family

It all started years ago, when I was just a young girl.  

My parents bought a collie (pictured here with my sister Donna...I know somewhere there are some pictures of me with him, but I couldn't find them today).

He was a beloved part of our family for several years, until his tragic death in the road in front of our house.  When it happened, ALL of us in the family cried.  We never had another dog, but I wanted one.  And he would be a collie, of course.  :)

After Jeff and I were married, we lived in San Diego, and then in Israel--neither of which gave us the opportunity for having a dog.  When we moved back here to Virginia, we thought we'd get a dog; and in fact, we did.  Three of them, to be exact.  Our first dog Mollie (whom we still have, although she is strictly an outdoor dog and roams freely in our pasture) came to us when she was a puppy, carried into the barbershop by a customer whose dog had had puppies and who needed to find homes for them.  She was little, so cute, very sweet...and free.  :)  Our next dog was free, too; in that case, a neighbor's dog had puppies, and he gave us one--our Jasper, who--like the collie of my childhood--met an unfortunate end in the road.  Our third dog, Buddy, was given to us by another set of neighbors because they were moving and couldn't take the dog with them.  Touched by their desperation, we took him; and of course, he was free, too.  After quite a while, we realized that the combination of those three dogs wasn't working well, since Jasper and Buddy were competitive with each other, so we gave Buddy to someone else who was grateful to have him.

I've been glad to have other dogs (and I still have a very special fondness for Mollie, our first dog), but none of them were collies.  None of them were the dog I had been waiting years to have.  

As time went by and I saw how the years were passing and how my boys were growing up without having a dog as a close buddy (of course, they all like Mollie, but that's different than having an indoor dog to pal around with), I began to think more and more about getting a collie.  I discovered that there was a breeder who lived pretty close to us, as a matter of fact; and every time they had a litter of puppies due, I stalked their website.  I stalked it even more after the puppies were born and they were posting pictures of the cute little furballs!  :)  However, the price tag was a huge obstacle:  $600 for a female collie puppy, and $550 for a male one.  For Jeff, who had never paid so much as a dime for any of the dogs he had had throughout his lifetime, that was almost inconceivable to pay that much for a dog.  I saw his point and agreed...but in my heart, I still longed for a collie.  :)

We also looked into a collie rescue organization based in northern Virginia, and Jeff had actually contacted them back in the spring, shortly before Moriah was born; but it didn't work out for us to get a dog that way (which, in hindsight, I was grateful for because who in their right mind gets a new pet when they're nine months pregnant anyway??)  ;-)

A half a year passed, and Moriah was such an easy baby that my thoughts again started to turn to the idea of getting a dog.  It just so happened that the local breeder had another litter of puppies, and my heart leaped.  Maybe we could get one this time?  But the price!

So...Jeff started searching.  Through the good ol' how-did-we-ever-live-without-it internet, he discovered a couple over the mountain from us who had a collie for sale:  a purebred, but one who wasn't registered because, as they told us, his tail has a defect in it.  (We didn't care at all about it not being registered.)  The price?  Only $150.  ;-)  That's still $150 more than Jeff had ever paid for a dog before; but because of his great love for me, he was willing to do it.  :)

Sunday was the day we could pick up the dog, so we enjoyed a GORGEOUS drive over the mountain and marveled at God's good creation as we rolled along.  I'm not sure when the official peak of our fall foliage is supposed to happen; but if that wasn't the peak weekend, it was still close enough to the peak for us.  :)  It was good for the soul to get out and drive on a day like that.

And then, at the end, we got our Jed.  :)  That was the name his owners gave him, but we liked it and decided to keep it.  I have to admit though:  most of the time when I say his name, I still have to think for a second or two to get it right.  My mind starts to say Buddy, or Jasper, or Rex (why Rex? probably because on the day we got him, Shav was pretending to be somebody named Rex, so I was saying Rex a lot on that day...also because Rex means "king" in Latin, and to me, our dog looks so regal).  :)  Today Jeff was calling Jed "Zed."  Oh boy.  :)  Tobin calls Jed "Jeddy" while Josiah insists that his full name is "Jedidiah."  I'm just waiting for one of the boys to tell me it's really "Jedi" (and then his middle name could be "Knight")!  ;-)

When we first saw Jed, he was a little shy; but during the long, beautiful drive back to our home, he was between Tobin and I in the big white van, and we had a chance to bond.  At first Jed stood up and seemed nervous, but he ended up lying down on the seat with his head on my lap.  It was bliss for me.  I just couldn't believe that after so many years, we really had a collie, and he was sitting there beside me, and I was petting him, and he was going home with us!!!

Jed's former owners told us that he was born on March 25 of this year, making him about 7 months old (and also making him just a little older than Moriah).  :)  They said they got him from a breeder back in West Virginia near Seneca Rocks.  Since he's  already 7 months of age, I don't expect Jed to get much taller, but he'll fill out more.  I always did like big dogs better than small ones.  ;-)  (No offense to the small-dog owners who read this...)  :)

We've only had Jed for a few days, but already I've been surprised at how easy the transition has been.  We've avoided some of the puppy problems I expected to have--one of the advantages of getting a dog who's a little older.  For example, Jed is housetrained and hasn't had a single accident.  He hasn't chewed on anybody's shoes or any chair legs.  He doesn't jump up on my parents when they come to our house.  He rarely barks. He doesn't tug wildly at the leash.  He's great!  :)

Well, except for how he sneaks up on the little couch when we're not looking...  ;-)

I'd say the only real issue we have at this point is his herding instinct.  He sometimes "herds" Tobin and Shav, and even has tried to nip at them--not aggressively  but playfully.  I keep a pretty close eye on him when they are around, and I realize that they need to learn how to interact with him so as to not draw out that part of his character.

Oddly, he doesn't go up or down the steps in our house.  Yet.  I expect he'll master that eventually.  For now, however, I'm content with that because it makes it easier to keep track of him.  :)

When we got Jed, the first person in our family that he went to was Josiah.  Josiah is still the one who interacts with him the most: taking him for walks, etc.  I'm really grateful for Josiah's willing help in this area.  This morning, Josiah even said, "Should I get out the vacuum cleaner and vacuum the living room floor now to clean up this dog hair?"  (Isn't he great?)  :)

Here are a few pictures from the past few days...

Jed listening to Josiah practice piano...

Jeff and Tobin playing tug-of-war with Jed...

Two nappers...  :)

On this day, as soon as Jeff got up from the couch to return to work from his lunch break, Jed hopped right up on the couch to lay in that spot...until I shooed him off...  :)

It's amazing how this long, skinny, furry face can put such a smile on mine.  :)

Jeff said yesterday that it's hard to believe this is really true, that Jed is really ours.  I know exactly how he feels.

I'm glad it's not just a dream.

I'm SO glad it's a dream come true!!!!!  :)