Hello August!

What happened to Judy in July.....

what is she doing and why isn't she posting???  

Could it be the dog days of summer?

Or

Could it be because she has nothing exciting to post?

Or 

Could it be because she is playing too hard?

Or 

Is it because she is a champion procrastinator? 

I quilted this UFO wall hanging.

It still needs a trip through the washer and dryer.

Then I'll share the finish.

I've been dehydrating extra broccoli from my small deck garden.

We've eaten a lot of it but I want some for winter too.

We spent a lot of time at the beach.

This is the back corner of our lot and it was a small jungle.

We paid for the whole lot, we want to use the whole lot!

So we borrowed our son's tractor.

I say we like I did so much work.

Nope, I mostly stayed out of the way.

Our friend Bill was a huge help!

I took a big bag of half square bonus triangles 

and cut them to the size I need for my new leader/ender project.

I'm doing the new Quiltville l/e project that can be found in the tab section of her blog.

I forgot my rotary cutter at home and was quite mad at myself over it.

Ernie was going to get some diesel for the tractor 

so I asked if he would look at Jack's for a rotary cutter.

He did, they didn't have one.

So my super sweet husband went to Long Beach and found one at Dennis Company.

Oh how I miss the quilt shop there!!!

The poop deck is gorgeous.

Our friends Pam and Bill comes over and waters when we aren't there. 

I couldn't have flowers without them.

Mean while, back at home,

my hydrangeas exploded. 

Absolutely gorgeous this year.

We've been putting wood stove ash on them all winter and spring.

I think it helped a lot!

I made some wine bottle carry bags as gifts for friends.

They were fun, quick projects.

I had to have one too. 😉

I'm UFO busting some of my embroidery work.

This is quite cute up on my sewing room wall.

I have my next embroidery UFO out and have started working on it.

I've also decided to start some wool applique and 

have a couple of kits ordered.

This week we've had fun watching this silly guy 

at his baseball camp.

We brought him home with us 

and had to have pictures in front of the hydrangeas.

I'm ready now for a big quilt basting party in my living room. 

I am ready to quilt again.

I'll be back when I'm back.

Hopefully a bit more often now.

See you soon, thanks for stopping by!

At Home Retreat Day 2

I finished my wallet/purse today.  I'm excited to use it.  I'm more excited that I finished something today.  I'd be even more excited if I opened it up and there was a bundle of money stashed in it.   If I make this again, I'll make a couple changes.  Where the card holders are, I would make that into another zippered pocket instead of it being sewed closed.  That part folds up to reveal a checkbook pocket.  I don't carry a checkbook so I'd make that into a deeper pocket that velcros shut.

I got the solid borders on Orca Bay and then put the side pieced borders on.  No problems at all.  I was pressing the top border and all of the sudden I spotted this!  Whoopsie!!  I bet the bottom border looks kind of like this one..........at least it isn't sewn on.  So I will sit with Ernie, find a movie worth watching and unsew.  Then I'm going to knit.

While Ernie was out getting a head start on next winter's firewood, I made a batch of elk jerky out of hamburger.  A friend had told me she makes her's using her dehydrator and this press.  So I picked up a press in town yesterday and made jerky today.  It's pretty darn good and quite easy!  I got out a couple more packages of burger to make more tomorrow because I know this package will disappear fast.

I'm Done, And...

...I'm done in! I'm tired of green beans. I'm tired of tomatoes. Friday was a long tomato day. Saturday was a short green bean day. I picked the garden clean and snapped all the beans. I couldn't believe there were exactly the right amount of beans for a full canner. No jars were short and no beans were left over. Amazing! So 14 more pints done. And we are done doing beans this year.

Ernie brought home 45 pounds of Roma tomatoes yesterday. Today was spent canning 7 more quarts and 7 quarts of sauce. Both crock pots are full and will cook overnight. I should have 5 or 6 more quarts of sauce in the morning. The dehydrator is full and there are about 6 pounds of whole tomatoes in the freezer. As soon as the last sauce is sealed in jars Monday, I will be officially done!

Except for the apples that we will get next weekend...........I better wash more jars!

My Sad, Sad Tomato Harvest

Here in mighty Western Washington State we've had the worst garden season I can ever remember. The garden weather just didn't want to be here. Heck, I couldn't even grow zucchini! I got 3 itty bitties and that was all.

Yesterday I decided to be done with the garden. I started picking the tomatoes. I picked them all, pulled off the cages and uprooted the plants. The cherry tomatoes are all going on the dehydrator. Most will become tomato powder, a few will go into bread or whatever. I planted several Roma plants, thinking I'd have a huge crop for sauce......not happening. I'm hoping some of them will ripen after picked but if not, we'll have green tomato sauce or something.

Today the dehydrator will be full of tomatoes, peppers and some carrots. At least the carrot crop is good, the darn slugs didn't get them all. I can't wait to leave the gate open so the chickens can go in and have a party.

**In the top picture the bowl is full of water. The second picture looks rather Christmasie doesn't it......oh, I am not ready to even think that way!!

Onion Processing-Day 1 Results

Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be blogging about onions. Not just any old onions, these are Walla Walla Sweet Onions from Walla Walla, Washington. Isn't that fun to say?? My friends live in Walla Walla, Washington. Hi Marilee, Hi Mary C!!

I remember as a kid when Walla Wallas were first in season, mom would peel one and eat it like an apple. To this day, that still makes me shudder. I love them but I can't eat one like that.

So the first photo shows one of eight trays after they have been dried. I loaded them up pretty good. 16 chopped onions yielded 3+ pints dry. Time in the dehydrator--20 hours. I think I will rotate the trays tonight though. The bottom 2 trays weren't quite as dry as the other 6. I'm giving them another couple hours while I prepare the next round.

The second photo shows the Sweet Onion Relish. With my adjustments to the recipe, instead of 3 pints, I ended up with 5 1/2 pints. You know that happens sometimes when you make relish. It isn't like when making jams or jellies, the recipe doesn't have to be exactly the way it is written. Of course I had to try the relish for breakfast. I want to keep my family safe. Just let me say OMG!!! The Ritz with relish is delicious but now I'm thinking gourmet. This needs to be put on some cream cheese and eaten with Wheat Thins. Watch out Top Chef, here I come!!!

Onion Processing Day 2 begins now. More relish and more drying. And Ernie wants onion rings with dinner. Yes, I do live an exciting life!

Kitchen Gadget Fun

While at the produce market yesterday, I bought a $1 bag of 5 apples and a pear from the discount bin. They didn't look too bad, a bruise here and there but not pretty like the apples and pear we like to buy.

I cut them up last night and loaded up the dehydrator. This morning the little bits were all nice and crispy. I can't throw away a perfectly good jar, not when I have a Food Saver and a large canister. Did you know you can seal up these jars if you put them inside the canister and seal the canister? When you release the vacuum seal from the canister, the jar lid pops and it's sealed!

This mix of apple and pear bits are labeled and put in the cupboard until its time for oatmeal cookies. Or maybe just as a snack!

Now I just have to figure out how to get the pickle smell out of some other lids. After a trip through the dishwasher, the smell remained. I thought soaking them in baking soda would do the trick but after they were closed up for a while and then opened, I could still smell the pickles. Any suggestions?

Now to tackle that bag of onions!

Edit 11:30 am: 16 onions peeled and chopped to fill the 8 dehydrator trays. Turned it on at 10:30 am, will check it around 4, again before bed. Then again in the morning around 6 or so. That will give it about 18 hours. Hope I don't have to get up in the night to go out to the shop--it could be scary out there. :) I'm very curious as to how much this will yield.

Kitchen Gadget Love

If you know me at all, you know I love my Big Red Mixer. One day while reading Chickens In The Road/Farm Bell Recipes, there was this blog post - The Strainer of he Gods. Loving my attachments as much as I love my mixer, I knew one day soon I would need to own the Kitchen Aid strainer/juicer. It attaches to the grinder which I already own and use.

Taylor, my sidekick and I went to the produce market yesterday and bought a flat of raspberries. The strainer/juicer arrived yesterday also. Co-innky-dinky? I don't think so.

We made juice, 2 1/2 quarts of pure red goodness-there are a few seeds but I think that may have been from be being a rookie. Soon we will make raspberry jelly/jam (whatever!) and some raspberry syrup for this cheesecake or ice cream or pancakes...


The raspberry pulp was spread out on a fruit leather sheet for the food dryer. I had apples to dry so this morning I loaded up 5 trays of apple slices, 1 tray of apple peelings and 1 tray of mango slices. If I'm going to plug it in, I like it to be full.

The raspberry pulp and the apple peelings will be made into powder for tea flavorings. Here is a great video on making your own teas. Dehydrate2Store is an excellent website loaded with information on food drying.

Strawberry Goodness and A Friend's Giveaway

Daughter Crystal got me a flat of strawberries yesterday and today we now have some fresh jam. Or is it jelly? I don't know, I can never remember which is which and really, I don't care! I do know it is delicious!

Granddaughter Taylor is spending the weekend so this morning she blended berries for 3 trays of roll ups and sliced 1 tray for the dehydrator. The girl doesn't like fresh berries but will eat the roll ups that only have a little apple juice for sweetener and the dried berries are like candy. Funny girl.

Kat at Kathy's Fancy Stitching News is having a giveaway to celebrate having 10,000 visitors. You should go visit her and increase her numbers. She is a very nice lady.

I think I need to make some toast and have a peanut butter and strawberry jelly foam sandwich for lunch! Yumm