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(Burgaw, North Carolina)
The Daily Life of An American Family
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Good Morning! Another fairly warm
but not extremely hot day in SE NC. The wind blew a good bit which
kept you cooler, but also dried out everything. Beginning today, I'll
have to get back onto my watering program until more rain comes our
way. According to the forecasts, there is no appreciable chance of
rain until next Thursday. The hot, dry days of summer.
I FINISHED THE BEANS!!! I was able to pressure can the last three
loads of green beans yesterday. I have 2 12qt. canners, which hold
about 7 qt jars a piece. A couple of years ago I was looking at
getting a new canner and almost bought one of the large double rack
ones. On thinking more about it, though, I decided to just get another
one the same size and use the two for a double batch. The main reason
for this was that I have a hard time lifting the one I have now, and
I'm only getting older. I was afraid that the bigger one would be too
much for me to handle. The system works fairly well. I load one
canner and get it processing. When it has 15-20 minutes left on the
timer, I load the second canner so that it is ready to begin as soon as
the first one comes off. By the time the second canner is almost ready
to come off, the first is ready to open and be unloaded. When I have
nothing else going on I can get a lot canned in a day. I don't usually
have nothing else going on, so sometimes there is more lag time between
batches than the ideal would suggest.
We were also able to get the corn given to us shucked and silked.
Because this corn was somewhat wormy, I decided to can it off the cob.
So we cut it off and canned it in pint jars. This corn will be used
mainly in soups and recipes. I got one batch of 10 canned and will
finish it up this morning. Ray is planning on purchasing some corn
from a friend of his and trying to resell it at the Farmer's Market on
Saturday. Whatever doesn't get sold, we'll put up.
While everything was canning, I was able to try out a new pattern for a
crocheted washcloth. Boy, was that a lot easier and much quicker. I
completed the cloth in less than an hour. I'm much slower at knitting
and can only get one cloth done in a day. This will make a nice
alternative during the hectic summer days. I'm trying to get 3 done
for Saturday's market.
I ended up with 22 pints of berries. Boy, it sure looks like more in
the bucket. Ray had 12 presold and then we partially filled an order
for another 36 pints. I have everything I can pick on Friday sold as
well.
We just started to put our tomatoes on the market and they are going
fairly well. We were a little concerned about shifting our focus to
selling from the house as a man just recently opened a produce stand a
little over a mile from us. But evidently he is charging exorbitant
prices and is not known for his honesty in dealing. I think, also,
that people prefer to buy from the actual farm where things are grown
so that they can see it. It makes them feel more involved.
Well, it's time to get busy. There's the canning to do, we are
visiting with another family today so that the dogs can train in
flyball afterwhich we are picnicing at the local battlefield, and
finally, Michaela wants to try to visit a neighboring counties animal
shelter and rescue a dog about to be put down. With the 4th coming up,
there's plenty to do.
May Yahweh bless you in this new day!
Laurie
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Posted by Laurie
@ 06:18 AM EDT
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Good Morning! While the heat
continues here, it is bearable. The 3/4 inches of rain we received
over the weekend are about gone and we will probably be picking up our
watering again in the next day or two. The blueberries, blackberries,
and tomatoes are coming off full force now and are starting to get hard
to keep up with. That, in addition to the corn coming in bushel on top
of bushel, is keeping me really busy. I'll warn you now that, in the
next few weeks, as canning gets in high gear, I may miss a few days. I
am working on posting on my canning, picking, etc. with pictures, but I
really don't like using pictures since it takes me about 3 times as
long to make a post.
Yesterday was long and busy. I am still working on
canning the green beans. They are holding up fairly well in the
refrigerator considering how bad off they were when we got them. Most
of the morning was spent cleaning out the pantry. I had been planning
on doing this, as my in-law's still had a pile of stuff in it that
needed to be cleaned out, and I had a pile of stuff that needed to be
cleaned out. But I had really wanted to do it slowly and clean and
repaint while I was going through it. That was not to be. I am up to
almost 70 jars of green beans and had absolutely no place to put them.
We've been eating in the den because they were sitting on my kitchen
table. Finally, I had had enough of that and broke down and just
started cleaning it out. I found enough room for the beans and I WILL
finish them today.
Ray brought home about a bushel of yellow sweet corn yesterday, so that
will have to be put up today. I can't decide whether to leave it on
the cob or go ahead and start working on canning off the cob. Ray will
be purchasing another 2 bushels this weekend so, whatever I am going to
do, I'd better do it. We don't have enough room to grow some of the
large crops, like corn, etc. Next year we are going to try to rent
some acreage around here to put some of these. Right now, with the
exception of those green beans, what we have purchased has come from
friends/family. This is like the next best thing and I know they will
return the favor with the blueberries and tomatoes.
I picked about 36 pints of blueberries yesterday evening. I don't have
an exact tally yet as they had to be allowed to cool off overnight. So
they have to be packaged up and delivered. I am currently working from
a waiting list on my blueberries. Which is a good thing, except the
children are eyeing me wondering if we will actually get some put up
for ourselves. The way I think I'm going to have to work it is to take
whatever is left from the Mon/Tues picking and put it up for ourselves
as the Friday's pickings are all sold, between our farmer's market and
the state market.
Joshua had his first 4-H workshop yesterday. Mom let her little man
ride into town with his older sisters and be dropped off at the
building (with an older sister). I gave him the lunch he needed and
the money for the class to pay the receptionist. He is so grown up,
even at 7, and I find myself being more stretched at times than him.
He is learning to handle so many situations by himself so well. It's
hard for me to step back and let him take over. Boys are so much
different in this respect and I find it much more difficult not to
think of him as "only 7". I also forget how much he has watched his
older sisters do and learned how to handle various situations. It's
almost like he was born knowing. He really enjoyed the fact that he
was going to get to go to the workshop "without a sister, even
Samantha". He was so excited when he got home and could tell
everything without any competition from others. I think he grew 2 feet
yesterday.
The olders were invited over to some friends' home for the evening, so
after chores they left. Ray and I still had a bunch left to do and it
was quite late when we finished up, especially since we were met with customers several times. It was after 8PM when we
finally ate supper, which is unheard of around here, then after 9PM
when we fell into bed. I really don't remember the last time I was
that exhausted. I am so thankful that Joshua and Samantha were
satisfied to have a sandwich and a movie. I was too tired to think,
much less talk, and ended up leaving the kitchen just as it was. Now
that has to be straightened before beginning today's work.
Speaking of which, I had better get started.
May Yahweh bless you in this new day!
Laurie
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Posted by Laurie
@ 06:09 AM EDT
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