Chaos is wearing thin, Pectin info, Frozen fruit Co-op, and .......... Homesteadbloggers.

I have come to the determination that the building of a pantry in the middle of my chaotic life has it's limits.  I am really good at chaos, as I have said, but there comes a limit even to my patience in this.  The progress is so slow compounded by the fact that, due to new FDA rules, Poppie is being weaned off of his long term pain meds, which is causing him a lot of pain and he simply tires out sooner than normal, the pantry is moving along at a snails pace.  It has given us time to tweak it as we go because every advancement has time to be accepted before we get a new advancement.  We do get to decide if we like something and if not have the time to change it as it goes along.  I do have a limit to how long I can take living in a room full of boxes when I haven't even moved anywhere, well I have if you get to count from on room to the next over and over.  I am done whining now, I do love the changes, I just want to be able to paint and tile which will be the beginning of the end of that room, more to go though.

I got a chance to use my orange citrus pectin yesterday.  I had about 6 lbs of sour cherries in the freezer from last year.  Cubbie, Boy and I took all the stems off of them and put them in the big pot.  I was tired last summer and just picked them and froze them so they were as they had been when they came off of the tree.  We added water, squished them and made them into juice by boiling them for 10 minutes.  I got about 6 cups of juice, mixed equal parts of the orange pectin and sugar.  We boiled it and it did take about 45 minutes but it finally thickened up to a good gel.  I am not sure how thick it will actually set up.  I sealed them in to jars.   I must say that the orange citrus pectin has a taste, it does taste like bitter oranges so if you use it with something compatible with the orange taste it is a very good option for free, or reclaimed pectin, but if it is a jelly you are making that isn't complimentary to orange probably not a good choice.  I can't wait to make the apple pectin so I will have a second option, and since it is more bland I will probably use it more than the orange citrus.  I am not sure cherry was a fair use of the orange citrus pectin for a first go, cherries like peppers is fairly hard to jell as it has no natural pectin.  The kids liked it though when asked the Ladies, who had been at school when I made it, what kind it was they thought it was cranberry relish jelly.  I think the cherries were sour enough and the orange flavor reminded them of my cranberry relish which I do often put orange and jalapeno in to cut the sour. They did like it but I think in the end I will probably use it as a sauce to make orange chicken or other Chinese style foods.  All in a all a successful pectin.

I have a friend the did a co-op for bringing in frozen fruits, purees and jams in to our local area last year.  She is not able to do it this year, so I am going to do it this year.  I am taking orders and have to get them all together and sent by June 30th.  I hope to have all the orders in by June 20th so I make sure to meet the deadline.  The fruit is of excellent quality, I saw some of it as Lady bought some last year.  The fruit is out of Bithell Farms of Oregon.  I hope I manage to get everything done, on the timeline I am hoping for, so all the people can get what they want and share in the bounty of the fruit.  I had never really thought much of co-op's before but it seems to have become something more normal in my life.  BBFC is the first co-op I was really ever a part of, well maybe the first that was actually called a co-op.  I have since been a part of another co-op that one of the BBFC VAC has offered.  This will be the first co-op where I have to do the work to bring it here (except for the info from the lady who did it last year), and not just the under work where someone else actually does the lions share of the work to bring it to our community.  If it works out I can see myself doing more co-op for other items we might need in this area.  I did just get accepted in to another co-op of sorts.  It is called the Homesteadbloggers, it is a group on Facebook that promotes each other blogs and homesteading endeavors.  I am excited to see how it goes with them.  They seem to be all like minded peoples to my concepts in life, oh, I am sure we all will have differences but it is a new experience and I am excited to see how it goes. 

Off to do my chores before the grands arrive.  Maybe I will get to paint of tile later.... well one can hope can't we?  I hope your day is filled with the Lords love and warmth, you know when I pray and praise him I can actually feel his warmth in my soul and it is so comforting, I hope that for you.... tomorrow.  

CAKLs fun, Last of Pre-school, Drama has a procedure, and stuff.....

Tuesdays, as you know can be a busy day at our house, we sort of just run out of time to do all the things that we could do more so than any other day of the week.  We started with Poppie and Mokie going down to move more stuff from Bugs to storage, they are finally making lots of progress and should be done soon.  Cubbie had her last day of pre-school for this year.  She was excited to show Pre-school her puppies, she had had to wait until their eyes were open to bring them over to show her teacher.  Yesterday was the day they got to come.  They are all very cute, one is a little blonde, on a little red with a mask and one is a black and tan.  Pre-school thought they were to cute and Cubbie was happy to share them with her.  They had a busy day, we got to go over Cubbie's progress over the last year.  They made a dessert of worms in dirt, Cubbie got to roll and smash cookies into dirt.  She had a grand time, Cubbie does most of the time but sometimes, like Yogie, she is not a morning person and can be a grump.  No grumps for the last day, just a nice in tuned Cubbie.  We said our goodbyes until next school year.  Oh, we might see Pre-school in the summer but it will be for fun and not for teaching.

I got to go to CAKLs, one of my ladies was not there to learn to bind off her scarf but the other was there.  She had struggled with her scarf and is going to get the bigger yarn so it will be easier for her to do for the beginning one.  I, in the mean time, decided to show her how to knit with regular yarn.  She had brought a knitting learning book and said that it didn't look anything like what I was showing her how to do.  I was excited to see the book it was one I had used as a child.  I told her it was like what she was learning but because the scarf yarn is so different it looked different.  I showed her how they were the same, she was so excited when she could see that they were the same.  She spent the rest of the time learning to knit and really getting the process, I hope she stays with it the rest of the week until we meet at CAKLs again. I also told her one of the reasons I liked the book she brought was that it had a monkey knitting on the front, as a child it always gave me moral support to see it.  I figured if a monkey could do it I could.  She laughed and sort of used that as her mantra, "if a monkey can do it I can".   She really is doing well at her knitting more so than she actually knows.  I also taught a young lady that has come the last couple of weeks to knit, she is a natural and took to it like a duck to water.  Pre-school has said she will join us sometime after her last days of pre-school are done for the summer.  It will be nice to have her.

Drama has a heart procedure today.  I pray the Lord is with her and gives her an out come that is successful.  She has been struggling with so many things since her heart attack and it is time that she just can have a less stressful time of it.  Recently there has been some extended family struggles but it is something she needs to just walk away from and not let the stress overwhelm her.  I have stayed out of the struggles and have no intention of getting involved in it as I can't change what is going on and don't need the stress and problems in my life.  I will not be made to participate in it and am glad I am in a place in my life where I can say, "this is not my problem and I will not be dragged in".... It took a lot of prayer and growing to come to that in my life.  I am praying for God's wisdom daily and he is blessing me with some, amen. 

I am hoping to get to tile in my pantry soon,  the closer it gets to done the more I want it done.  Pre-school asked me yesterday if it was hard for me to live in chaos.  I told her not really my whole life has been one of chaos so it is really just another day of my life, isn't that sad that chaos is my norm?  Maybe some day I will really become an adult and live in the calm and peace of organization, not, I am sure that is just not me. 

I pray the Lord blesses your day with serenity and peace.  I hope he gives you his blessing and you feel the love he has for you and respond to his calling.  May this day be the day of your salvation or the first step down it's path.  The Lord be with you this day... tomorrow.

Progress continues, swollen feet, conks and Cubbie renews her love....

We are making progress on the pantry,  it seems to be at a slow pace and maybe it is, funny we are not as young as we used to be so can't seem to keep up the old paces.  We did get all of the old carpet out, four of the base cupboards are set in to see what the spacing will be, I think it is going to be great and maybe better than we had originally thought.  I like when your plans unfold in a manner that are better that you hoped.  We have to take out the frig that is dying and get the strawberry beds made. The strawberry starts came and they are wonderful so need to halt pantry progress to make them all tucked in so that they can grow and the Lord has blessed us with cool wet weather in which to do just that.  I think that is part of the reason we have made such seemingly slow strides.  We simply have all sorts of ways we are pulled each day and that gets us off track, as do all of you I am sure.  Mokie and Poppie have more of Bugs stuff to move and I have CAKLs later, I guess life is a never ending quest for which needs you actually spend your time on.  We just try to do the best with the time we have.

We did get out and conk hunt on Saturday, it was really nice to be out of the house.  Poppie and I both are paying for the outing.  I tweeked my hip and it is really giving me havoc and my feet seemed to be swelling up, probably from all the time I am standing on them in a confined space and then hiking in the woods for 5 hours.  Poppie's back screamed at him most of Sunday in revolt to our outing.  It seems we need to get out more so it isn't an all or nothing event.  Oh, by the way we got a whole box of conks so win win. 

Cubbie is slowly getting over her fear of the pony.  I think that her having some fear of the pony is a good thing.  She did get a great big bruise on her groin that serves as a temporary reminder of why you should never go behind the pony.  She still has a fear and we are trying to explain to her that a little fear of the pony is good for her.  She will probably just get over it and go back to being the budding extreme adventurer she normally is in her young life, why should we think she will be any different with the pony I don't know but we are trying to keep her a little afraid.  She is not allowed to be in the pen alone.  She so far is adhering to the rules. She told her Uncle Bug, on the phone, yesterday that the pony kicked her, he asked her if she wanted him to shoot it.  She was aghast and said no, so she still loves her pony through the fear.  It was funny to hear her tell us that Bug said he would shoot the horse because it hurt her.  I think she felt proud that he would defend her, no one else had offered to shoot the horse for her.  She is wanting to name her horse, Twitty or Strawberry Short Cake, and her momma and daddy are having none of it.  Alas the pony has no name as yet. 

BBFC this week, Lady is going to be away so this will be the first one by myself, I think I am up to the task, we have great volunteers, plus Mokie and Poppie will be there to help.  Mokie gets to take time off from work to come help.  I contributed for a basket for her to thank her.  Poppie just gets my thanks, I hope that is enough, oh and he can have some of my basket but that is not usually a big treat for him.  He will eat the veggies and fruits but it is not a love relationship.

I hope the Lord blesses your day with his Glory and Grace.  Maybe your heart be filled with his love and caring... tomorrow.