canned chicken

I have never been a fan of the pressure canner. With that said, i purchased one yesterday because i found a great deal on chicken and knew it wouldn't fit in the freezer. lets just say that when people look in my freezer they stare in unbeleif (for a full minute or untill i tell them to stop)at how full it is. i like to be prepaired.
Anywho, i canned this chicken and have 7 q waiting in the fridge that didn't get in. I love to can, i have found a way to can in the off veggie season.

update: i've picked 8 peas from my pea plant.

I have canned

So far i've pickled cauliflower (5 quart), made 4 pint low-sodium dill pickles (2 pint didn't seal), and 5 pint pickled banana peppers for pizza! I've not canned any of these before so i'm a little leary of how it will taste.

i'm excited to get going. it's not so bad when I do 1 batch at a time but i like doing more at a time just to get it done.

today i need to foodsaver green peppers. I picked tons from the garden but the I purchased 24 from wal-mart when they were .50 each. I've got to go get busy!

garden harvest

I've got to brag a bit. I canned 2 quarts of pickled cauliflower Saturday, purchased from my amish friends a few weeks ago. I then canned 5 pints of banana peppers, all picked from my garden.

here is the pic of my garden harvest sunday afternoon. it is only going to get better from here. Mandy, did you see the 2 peas? I have atleast 2 more growing. hehehe eat that!

give away!

I would choose the black and white fabric. I LOVE the dress cut for a shirt. It is so cute.

Check out http://the-fabric-shopper.blogspot.com/2009/07/giveaway-honey-girl-pattern-3-yards-of.html

My day out (alone)

I have to say i had a lot of fun yesterday driving around by myself which usually doesn't happen. i hate to drive, anywhere. A quilt shop was having a sale and i had found some dotted fabric there about 3 weeks ago. I walk in and *gasp* they had rearranged their fabric display. I think i'm not the only one who HATES that. I didn't find the fabric so i saved myself some money.

I did find 3 bolts of red/white for my little quilt. one was stripped so it gave me around 8 prints for the cost of 1. i usually dislike fabrics like that but in this case it is perfect!

I purchased a brown to go with the queen quilt i'm sewing for my DH. again, i usually dislike batic fabric but it matched in the sunlight. so instead of cutting and sewing yesterday and today i've spent the time browsing quilters blogs and putting up the pool.

This is the cool part. I found 2 outdoor play toys for $8 each. the sad part was the GW was having a garage sale but NOT during the hours i was there. they wouldn't sell the items at the discounted price within a 30 minute window after the fact. I figured why not have an all day sale instead of splitting it up. Oh well, now I need to sanitize the toys so they are ready for Tuesday. Another thing i found (they sold it seperate instead of with the outdoor toys) was an outside chair for kids. I thought "oh great, they will fight over the chair but atleast there will be a chair".

I was gone for 6 hours and met my DH for lunch for the first time sence we were married. Fun fun fun.

Pool is up

The pool is up and running. This time i can't get in without a ladder. still slightly uneven but i think i'll still be able to float around in it. The filter was leaking water so quickly i was sure it was coming out as soon as it was going in. The ground is SATURATED with water from the hose that leaked and from the filter. It is a mess!

Now the bummer is that it has been SO cold (60-70's) that i'm not getting in until the sun has smiled for 2-3 days.

not drama really, just annoyed!

A guilty pleasure that i've not yet gotten to use is our new easy up pool. We take it out of the box and dump it on the ground. THEN we read the directions (that is how it normally goes). 2 hours in sunlight then 1/2 inch of water to make sure the ground is level (it isn't) and then move it until it is (we didn't). I really should have taken pictures but let's just say a pool half the height it was intended is NOT what i call a pool. I call it a bug bath because that is what they are using it for.

so, we are going to have company next week. My sister and her children who wake up every morning saying "Margaret's pool" over and over. Now, the pool has been turned over on it's self to drain. I climbed in the pool clothed to pull the inner plug once it was hooked up to a hose (i had hopes of watering the garden (the easy way) but.....). After hauling buckets over and over I got the little red wagon out of the garage and made about 15 trips with 3 buckets sloshing all over the place. My mom and I didn't even empty 1/3 of the pool.

Long story short, this time my husband will level the ground (tonight) and then fill the pool. hopefully it works or a neighbor (3 miles away) will get an impromptu visit from me asking how in the world their easy up pool actually made it up and didn't get sent back to the manufactor.

promises to miss kitty and sydvishous that the pool will have water in it when they arrive, I just can't promise the need of a ladder to get in and out of the pool.

give away by ryan

Here are the loot/booty/goodie packages you can win (in no particular order). I am giving away 4 (OR MAYBE MORE!?!?!) different prizes to four lucky folks.

PRIZE #1: A set of six (6) patriotic theme fat quarters. HAPPY JULY 4th!!

http://imjustaguywhoquilts.blogspot.com/

Nada

I haven't posted in a while but everything keeps happening anyway. Normal things like watering the garden, mowing the lawn and housework is where it's at.
nothing exciting or new so hang in there and check back in a few.