Saturday, April 27, 2013

Garden tilling, Tattler success, and the tattles begin.....

The morning started with a batch of reprocessing to try and seal the 5 jars that didn't seal, well there were actually 7 but 2 were pints and I rarely reprocess pints.  I used the pints to make Poppie soup, two pints of unsealed spaghetti sauce, I quart of canned pork, one chopped giant carrot that the little girls couldn't eat all of, three chopped red potatoes from my BBFC basket, lunch for Poppie.  Poppie actually really liked it, as did both Bubbles and Cubbie, success.  I reprocessed the jars with a 1/4 turn backwards, Prisilla, hadn't comment to my blog at that point so didn't get her advise before I started the batch.  3 of the jars did not seal.  I chopped 25 pounds of carrots as I processed the jars.  I am sooooo glad I have a meat slice, makes them uniform and it makes it much faster and easier.  Cubbie helped me peel them with the potato peeler, she is very good at it, who knew.  I got 11 quarts.  I process one batch of 7 with a tighten and turn back 1/4 inch.  The second batch had the 3 spaghetti jars from the 1/4 turn turn back and 4 quarts of carrots.  I prayed this method would work better, it did all 14 jars sealed.  I went on to make 10 jars of mixed spicy pickled veggies.  I used all the rest of the carrot, broccoflower, broccoli, pablano peppers, cucumbers from the BBFC basket, plus I added red peppers, mushrooms, garlic, cauliflower, horseradish, minced garlic, whole pepper corn, black mustard seeds, dill, apple cider vinegar, salt and water.  I can't wait for the 6 weeks to see how they turn out.  I think that I have finally gotten the Tattler's figured out, the last two batches 100 percent success in sealing.  I think I love them, I am keeping the boxes they come into store them in as they are kind of fragile and need to be kept right to make them the economical blessing they are meant to be.

Poppie has been tilling the garden the last couple of days.  We have nearly a 1/5 of an acre of garden and will be expanding a new area so will have a 1/4 acre soon.  We are going to be putting in a cellar around the pump so it will be a pump house/cellar.  The garden expansion will be around the cellar.  We have lots of excess cardboard boxes from the BBFC and part of our responsibility is to upcycle them.  No one in our town recycles them, to far from a recycling center to make them even worth the gas.  Poppie has decided he is going to run them throw a chipper and mix them with goat manure for building up his new expanse of garden.  I can't wait to see what the end result is.  I think it will be a lot of new topsoil.  Win win.  Poppie was tilling last night after the kids had gone home, but our little Bubbles came to the garden fence and begged to be lifted over to spend time with Nannie and Poppie.  She kept begging ice cubes from my glass of ice water, I almost shuddered to put the ice cube in her little dirty hand, but the best way to be immune to germs is to have them as part of your life.  She loved running threw Poppie's newly tilled soil.  She would sit in it and throw it up in the air, it rained down on her like sweet rain.  She had a great time and since Poppie has to till several more time to let the weeds dry out and die in the sunshine, he let her play to her hearts content.  The joys of a sunshiny spring.

The older kids were riding their bikes up and down the road at break neck speeds, well it seem like it to me. The were playing in the old pond catching newts.  Cubbie calls them salamanders, or the way she say it "Samalanders".  I found one the other day in the goat pen, I had tipped the water trough over and there lay one.  It was all in a ball I thought dead but Poppie said it was just cold.  I picked it up and gave it to Cubbie, it warmed in her hand and soon crawled up her sleeve.  She giggled in delight.  She and Poppie took it over to the old pond and released it.  Mokie said later they could catch a few for the fish tank.  We learned a few years ago they are easy to keep as they love dog food.  It makes for a dirty tank but they love it.  They had been playing a little while when one had to tell on the other.  I dislike tattling almost more than anything in a child, I having been a victim of it as a child have never abided it in my kids or my grands.  I always asked them if it is a tell or a tattle, tells are for the safety of another child, tattles are just because you are being mean and didn't get your way.  They all know the difference.  One came to tattle and I told them to go work it out amongst themselves.  All in all a wonderful spring evening with our little family. 

I hope that today brings you the boundless love of God,  I hope his word is heard in your heart, I hope today is the day you respond to the voice of God.  He calls endlessly to the lost, today is the day of Grace... tomorrow.

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