Apple Harvest

I am so grateful for all these apples.

Amherst Island Fall Festival

An old-fashioned Fall Fair

Dry Stone Festival

Poster to advertise the weekend on Amherst Island

Yesterday I decided that I absolutely must start cleaning the floors, especially since I brought in so many buckets of garden dirt alongside the root veggies I harvested. That took me all morning as I have to pick things up off the floor and move furniture before I can bring out the vacuum. Then I decided to mow the lawns again as it was a gorgeous afternoon out of doors.After all that hard labour, it was time for a wee nap.   

Mowing grass

When I woke up after my nap at 4:30, I figured another easy quick meal would be another stir fry with chicken over noodles. We only had this about a week ago, so I hoped nobody would notice that we were having it again so soon. The night before, we had tuna casserole, with lots left over. Today (Friday)  is usually when my son goes to  his girlfriend's, so my Sweetie Pie and I forage for our dinner in the fridge. (Leftover night) However, this morning he informs me that she is coming HERE tonight. Now I had to clean up my crafting table. Take a look-see.  

My crafting table

You probably wonder how I can get anything accomplished, but I just need a corner of the table to finish the final product.  I guess I should be thankful that company does come over occasionally to ensure that my table gets cleaned off once in a while. Sure glad I washed the floors yesterday

My dining table

My flower gardens are almost bare because it is the end of the season, but I did manage to find some hydrangea, pink phlox and Russian sage to put together for a centerpiece. 

A beautiful Fall day for drying the laundry

I did have plans for today, but they went by the side of the road when I knew I had to clean up a bit. I did manage to hang two loads of laundry today. This is the second load. But I didn't get any outdoor weeding done. Tomorrow a friend and I are going to Amherst Island for an Irish dry stone wall building event. The Ambassador from Ireland will be there, as well as other dignitaries, historical tours, speeches, etc; but, there will be plenty of other events as well. Should be very interesting and entertaining. I will tell you about it on Monday. Sunday is supposed to be more of the same great weather, so I am hoping to get more yard work done. Wishing you all a wonderful weekend. 

One potato, two potato, three potato, four...

Four and a half quart bags of carrots for the freezer, and my potato harvest.

The final harvest

On Saturday, I pulled a couple of turnip, a few thinned carrots, and I checked one of my potato planters.

Thank you to everyone who expressed concern over my being in the Dumps. It happens from time to time. It goes away. I am not worried, so you shouldn't be. But thank you anyways.

 I made a few cards (Birthday and Hallowe'en). I weeded my front flower bed for 2 hours one morning. I made bread crumbs and I froze bread cubes in 5 cup measures for the freezer, so I can make bread pudding, or stuffing, or overnight breakfast casserole whenever the mood strikes. 

I picked up a few grocery specials at Freshco on Friday. Pork loin roasts were $1.44 a pound. I cut the loins to make pork chops and roasts for the freezer. I picked up some other loss leaders, like red seedless grapes for 97 cents a pound, sugar for $1.44 a 2 kg bag (I bought 4 bags for the pantry), 2 cases of Del Monte veggies for 79 cents a tin, yogurt, and 3 liters of canola oil for $3.97. 

On Saturday, I decided to pull some turnip to see if it was ready, never having grown turnip before. I thinned a few carrots from one end of the row, and because my husband thought that my potato planters had not yielded any potatoes, I decided to check out one of them. The results can be seen in the above photo. There were about 5 pounds of red potatoes in the planter I checked. For dinner that night, we ate mashed turnip, carrots, boiled new potatoes and mince and gravy. 

Sunday we drove to Cobourg to visit with my mom and her husband in the Retirement Home. We ate the midday dinner in the dining room as their guests and had a lovely time. 

Then yesterday I decided that I would pull all the turnip. I must have picked the two best vegetables on Saturday, because these remaining turnips were riddled with brown spots inside. So many times I was tempted to just throw all of them out. But I persevered. Something was eating my root vegetables. I peeled and chopped and threw out so much of the damaged vegetable, that I thought there would be nothing left. In fact, I was able to boil two pots of cubed turnip which I mashed and froze into six meal servings. There certainly wasn't the amount I expected to get, but better than nothing. I left them in the ground too long. Apparently I should have harvested after two months. I will remember that for next year. In fact, I will plant them as a Fall crop in August and harvest after the first frost. After the turnip fiasco, I decided to pick any remaining beans. I never expected the numbers that I got. This was easily the biggest harvest of beans this summer. I washed and trimmed and left them to dry overnight. Dinner was  simply fried hot dogs, chopped potato and onion in garlic butter with a side of tender young beans. 

The bean plants that just keep on giving and giving. 

I began the morning by sorting out the very young and tender beans into the freezer bag on the far right, and the very large and woody beans to dry on the coffee filter in the centre. They will dry out to be used as bean seeds for next season. The rest of the beans were cut and placed in four freezer bags.

 And because of the turnip situation, I decided I would harvest all my carrots since they were planted right next to the turnips and are also a root crop. I am so glad I did. Some of the carrots had to be thrown away. Something had started eating these as well. These are the ones I managed to save. Tomorrow I will sort them by size and chop up the larger ones for the freezer. I will also be harvesting the rest of the potato planters tomorrow. I obviously neglected my garden much more this summer than last. Next year, I will apply myself more. We have been eating from the garden pretty much throughout the past couple of months, and with what I have put away in the freezer, we should be eating well for a couple of more months. We could have had a few corn on the cob, but I let them dry on the stalk. I will use those to decorate my front porch, but next summer I will be planting more corn. I didn't think they would actually grow, but they did. I just ignored them. Before I started in the garden this morning, I put a pork loin in the crock pot (no fried potatoes and hot dogs tonight). Now I will boil up some of those new red potatoes and some baby carrots for dinner. Have a great evening. Isn't it nice that the new Fall lineup has started this week on television? 

Down in the Dumps

Lego boxes to "wrap" items to go into the Advent calendars

More Holiday Crafting

It was Saturday and it was raining. Those are two very good reasons not to want to do anything. So I spent most of the day yesterday taking all those birthday sentiments that I looked for this week, and put them into separate documents to print out for cards when I am ready. It is a HUGE job, but I am so glad it is done.

And since I had new sentiments ready to go, I put together five cards with those water coloured images I had painted.  One will go out into the mail later in the month for another September birthday. The other four will be saved in my stash to go towards making up card packs as gifts. I include the envelopes and postage stamps.  

Even though I am crafting, I try to get other things done that don't require a lot of supervision. I cooked up five chicken leg quarters. I washed dishes (in the dishwasher). I did up laundry (in the washing machine). I made chicken stock (simmered in the crock pot). At some point, I have to stop the crafting for a while to put the dishes away, hang the laundry, and pull the meat off the chicken bones and do something with them; but while things are happening on their own, I have time to concentrate on my crafting. 

So I got enough meat to make chicken stir fry with one lot and I froze another for a casserole. I bought fresh bean sprouts on Friday morning to make a Chop Suey, but forgot it was made in the crock pot until I started to make dinner around 4 o'clock. I sauteed the last red pepper in my fridge, as well as some of my frozen broccoli, carrots and green beans, and added the sprouts. My husband isn't fond of plain white rice, so I served it over Chinese noodles (Ramen). I have a large container of veggie broth in the freezer and a jar of it in the fridge to use in cooking this week. I will have a container of chicken broth for the freezer as well. 

So on the subject of crafting, I am posting some more very poor photos of some Xmas gifts that I have made in seasons past. They might give you some ideas for things you want to try making as stocking stuffers. In the photo below, the packaging I made from here. The graphic and printable poem came from here. The website at organized Christmas has a lot of free printables and ideas for gifts. I have used a few of them. 

Snowman soup is instant hot chocolate, mini marshmallows, a candy cane or peppermint stick and Hershey's kisses.

This is a photo I have taken from the internet. My bracelets last year were similar. They are wraparound bracelets made with memory wire....so easy. 

The year before, I made paper  bead necklaces for the women and bracelets for my grand daughters made with elastic cord. 

Survival kits are fun to do. I got my inspiration from Budget 101.

On the left is a decorative cover for large post-its and an accompanying pen slot. Instructions are from Blooming where I'm planted. The package on the right holds a chap stick or lip balm. There are lots of different patterns on the internet, but this one was made with Qbee's Quest.

Another lip balm holder on the right fashioned as a purse found at Frenchie's You tube channel  here

I have also used it to hold nail polish, or candy. I try to give a Xmas ornament every year in the kid's Advent calendars. This particular year I made them in felt.....snowflake, gingerbread man. candy cane, babushka doll, etc. I haven't thought of what I will do this year. 

So there you go. A few more homemade gift ideas you may try for yourself, or not. I will send some more at a later date. Have a nice "rest of your weekend".

Getting things done and some crafting in between.

Tried my hand at water colouring some stamped images for cards last night.  

Iced cold Lemon Ginger herbal tea

An Organized Life

Lemon Zinger iced tea....Was it worth the wait? You betcha.

Happy Labour Day

Red Sedum - Dragon's Blood Stonecrop

I rescued this poor plant from being crowded out by my Obedient plant in the back yard. I put it in the front bed where I just neglected it, and it has thrived. It loves dry soil. It is a nice touch to the Fall garden. 

This week

Perennial Hibiscus