Fall is definitely in the air now. Today was beautiful outside until I actually went outside! Our high today was only 50 degrees and last night's low was in the mid 20s. The night before the low was 20! We are definitely working our way towards winter weather. The news even mentioned snow in the week forecast but things can change so I won't hold them to their prediction! Of course, it wouldn't be the first Halloween that kids have gone out in the snow.

I spent the day taking care of Kaity and doing housework and laundry. I have been fighting exhaustion again so I don't get as much done as I would like! I went over to my mom's house this afternoon and washed her outside windows for her. Her windows are really up high on her trailer and I almost had a couple of panic attacks while washing them! I am not too fond of heights! I took my little step ladder over there but it wouldn't even reach the middle of the windows so I walked down to Jay's dad and asked to borrow his ladder. That did the trick but it was kind of tippy and scary! I told mom that next year we would be getting a squeegee with an extension handle! I could only clean half her windows because she has the kind that you have to take the window out from the inside on the ones that have screens on them. We will worry about them next spring! I had to wear a sweater the whole time I was working because of the chill in the air. I would rather work in cooler weather though than in hot weather!

I already changed the time on the clock in our bedroom so I get to sleep in an hour longer tomorrow! Good thing too since I have to get up early for church! I got everything ready tonight so it should be easy going in the morning. I made four loaves of berry bread to take for our church lunch tomorrow. I also am bringing two jars of applesauce. I will have Kaity tomorrow too so she will get lots of attention as usual! The news tonight said there could be fog in the morning so I need to pay close attention to frozen fog on the roads. I am not too keen on the roads getting slick already!

October 28, 2003

The wind is really howling through the trees tonight! We are having a huge windstorm with up to 50 mph gusts. There are places in and around Spokane that have lost their power but so far we haven't even had a power surge or flicker. It was cool today, only in the mid 40s, until late this afternoon when the wind started blowing. Then it warmed up to almost 60. Strange! Especially since the wind is coming from the north! But it will be bringing chances of snow the next couple days and extremely cold temperatures. Everyone I know is getting ready for this storm that is coming. Jay split a bunch of wood tonight and I made sure the laundry was all done and the house cleaned. I still need to make a loaf of bread but I am leery of doing that until the wind dies down in case we lose our power. One drawback to electric bread machines!!

I have been working on Christmas presents and am actually seeing some results from it! I have two of them on the kitchen table that need to have finishing work done to them so I am hoping to complete them tonight. I have been going through pattern books and choosing what to make for people. It is kind of fun and kind of overwhelming too!! But I will just do the best I can do. Each year we try to simplify a little more and a little more. Gifts are great to make but they shouldn't be an added stress.

Jay's mom picked me up some used recipe books and I have been having fun going through them. They have recipes from the depression era and earlier. One of the books even has diary entries. I like the way they cooked back then...simple and basic ingredients! I am hoping to find some great recipes to share!

October 30, 2003

Our weather has started feeling like winter is in the air! We had a cold front move in (it tried to snow yesterday!) and it only got up to 30 today but that wasn't counting the wind chill. It was in the teens with the 30 mph winds! I went down to the pump house with just a sweater on and it sure didn't keep the cold out! I was chilled to the bone! The sun was shining but it was very deceiving. We are suppose to stay cold for the next couple of days and then there is snow in the forecast after that. Our low last night was around 20 and tonight is suppose to be in the low teens. Brrrrr!!!!

I kept busy today mostly in the kitchen. I cleaned the top of the fridge off (yuck!) and then cleaned out the fridge. Our dinner consisted of the left overs I found in the fridge! I made ham and beans with veggies out of the ham bone that was in there. I like using up leftovers! I did more laundry, made sandwich salad dressing for Jay, and made a batch of sugar free strawberry jam that I canned for my grandma for Christmas. I tasted it and wasn't too impressed but hopefully she will like it! I like the sugar jam! It smelled good though while I was cooking it. I also finished another Christmas present today for my sister in Alaska. Last night I started working on a set of embroidered pillow cases for Jenni for Christmas. I needed some busy hands work! So I have been having no trouble staying busy! Yesterday I spent part of the day helping Jenni organize her house and get it ready to winterize. Hopefully it will all be done by the middle of next week. She has to work the rest of this week and all weekend. I might have enough time this weekend to get the storm windows on for her.

Kaity sat up by herself tonight. She was leaning on her arm on the floor and then the next thing I knew, she was sitting up. Not very straight but she stayed that way for a couple of minutes! She fell over just as I got to her with my camera! She is very mobile and can scoot across the floor pretty quick! She sits in her high chair now and eats her dinner of cereal and fruit. She makes quite the mess and always tries to help with the spoon and bowl! She is such a happy baby and very content most of the time except when she is tired or needs changed. She smiles and laughs when we play with her. She is just a great joy to all of us! Tomorrow we are taking her out for Halloween. Jenni bought her a lady bug baby costume and it is so cute! We are going to take her to her great great aunt's house and to both sets of grandparents in Clayton. Everyone said they will have their cameras ready! Poor Jenni has to work so she won't be able to go. But she will get to spend most of the day with her and dress her up and take pictures. Jenni will get to spend most of November with Kaity though since she is only scheduled to work less than 12 days for the whole month. This is the company's slow time until January. Then we will hardly see her that month! 

I went out to the green house and rescued a couple of plants today. I had left the rosemary plant and a couple of geraniums in there and decided I better bring them in before they died! The green peppers and some of the tomatoes froze (I  wonder why??!!) so I will have to spend some time out there cleaning up and dumping plants. The last of the leaves fell off the walnut tree that I have in the bucket so it has gone dormant for the winter too. After I clean up the dead plants the greenhouse will be shut up for the winter most likely. I might have a couple things to transplant or plant but for the most part I am done for the year. I miss going out there and watering!

Before we went to the dump we had to run to town for gas and the guy forgot to charge us for the gas but we didn't realize it until we were almost ten miles out of town so we had to turn around and go back to pay for it. So it took us a while to get to the dump and it was mid afternoon by the time we got there. 

I love taking the back way over the mountain and around the lake in the fall. The trees are turning colors and the air smells clean from previous rains. Soon we will see mostly white snow and very little color. I try to enjoy the colors while I can!

As we were at the dump, I was watching other people dump their garbage and became horrified at the wastefulness of our society. I saw people throwing things away that could have easily been recycled with a little effort. I realized that we as a society are very lazy and very pampered. I doubt anyone could ever get people to change but I think I will start paying just a little more attention to what I buy and how it is disposed of! We do a lot of recycling and thankfully our dump has great recycle stations there too. Jay was able to recycle his old oil and batteries. We already recycle glass, tin, and aluminum. We are fortunate to be able to burn all the cardboard and paper but if we weren't able to do that our dump also has a place to recycle the cardboard but it costs (newspapers and junk mail is free). But cardboard isn't heavy so it wouldn't be bad! We also recycle milk jugs and newspaper when we don't use it all. I felt almost sad as we left! 

After we got home, Jay hooked a chain onto the van and he towed it (while I was steering!) into the woods for the winter so he wouldn't have to move every time he had to plow snow. So now I think we are all ready for winter with the big things taken care of. I still have to put straw on the my plants but that's about it. I washed outside and inside windows on Friday so that is all out of the way! I told Jenni I would help her get her place winterized too so I will still be busy next week. Never a dull moment around here. Sometimes I wish for one!

October 21, 2003

Today felt more like August than October! Spokane broke a record high today with a temp of almost 80 degrees. Tomorrow is suppose to be 80 in Spokane! We are further north so we didn't get quite as warm (thankfully!) but it was still hot...around 74! Wow! I guess the Good Lord is giving us a couple more days to get our work done before the cold temps come! I can't remember a year when we were this warm this late in October. What a strange year this has been! Yesterday it was pouring down rain most of the day and only around 55 degrees. We even had a fire going! Now today was HOT and we had to let the fire go out!

Jay uncovered my straw for me but it was too warm to cover my plants. I am going to try to get it done tomorrow in the early morning! That's all I have left to do to complete my winterizing. Jay finished washing the outside windows for me today. I have a couple of them that I can't reach even with a ladder so he does them for me. I worked for a while on my craft room and made some progress. I need to move some stuff around and that is going to make a big mess so I didn't attempt it today. My back is still bothering me some from the work I did on Saturday. So I decided that I better take it easy and listen to my back!

October 23, 2003

Yesterday didn't get quite as warm as predicted but Spokane broke another record high at 75 degrees! It wasn't that warm out here but it got up to about 70. Not bad! Jerry came over and helped me finish the winterizing. Jay had to work and I needed help lifting bales of straw, etc. I was so RELIEVED to get it all done. One less thing that I have to worry about now. All the gardens are all cleaned out and the plants are protected under a nice layer of straw for the winter. Jerry even helped me clean out my compost barrel that Jay made me and I was so thrilled with the beautiful black "gold" dirt that we were scooping out! It filled about six or seven five gallon buckets that we stored in the green house for use next spring. I was so thrilled with how fluffy it was and how rich it looked. Just think...it all started with kitchen waste! It doesn't take much to make me happy!!

It was cool enough today that I was able to make some banana bread. I had a couple of dead bananas and needed to do something with them! The sun was shining and it looked nice outside until you stepped outside. Then the wind hit you and it was downright chilly. Our high today was only about 50 degrees...quite a difference from the past two days! I spent as little time as possible outside today! The wind just made my bones ache. So I cleaned house, baked bread, and put a ham in the oven for dinner. I was avoiding starting a fire in the wood stove but tonight we had no choice. It is only 30 degrees right now! It is going to be very cold tonight! I filled the two bird feeders that I still have out for the winter but it will only be another day or so before I have to fill them again! I put all of my feeders away except two because it is impossible to get to them when the snow gets deep. Two is all we can keep shoveled out! I have some lard in the fridge from our pigs that I want to make some suet with for the birds this winter. They will eat well!

Jerry and I made more salsa today. We had another 25 pounds of tomatoes that were ready! I am getting so sick of canning though that I have decided that anything left by the end of next week will go to my neighbor! Jay's mom bought me two boxes of apples and Jerry and I are going to can applesauce on Monday. So all that will be left is tomatoes and some jam. I am getting sick of tomatoes though! I have canned over 100 pounds of tomatoes this year and I still have around 50-60 pounds that aren't ripe yet! I am definitely tired of messing with them!

This afternoon when I finished canning, Jenni and I took Kaity over to the Octoberfest that was put on by our local grange that is just a couple miles down the road from here. By the time we got there, most of the activities were done but some of the booths were still set up and the quilts were still hanging up. They said they got a good turn out and were hoping that the grange would be saved. It has been there since 1936 and is a landmark. There is a small group of people that are trying to get people interested again. I thought their idea of games, pony rides, and door prizes was a good idea. I bought some homemade soaps from a Mennonite family that had a booth there. I was fascinated with the wool spinning...it was soft! I even saw a good friend of mine from high school! People were sure staring when we were hugging and laughing! I haven't seen her in almost a year since she moved to Spokane. Her brother is the father of my son Jason. So we go way back! All in all it was a nice time and Kaity of course attracted lots of attention. She draws people to her like honey draws bees! It is amazing. Everywhere she goes, people stop and talk to her and she rewards them with her angel smile!

Jenni helped me go through jars in the pump house after we got home. I am giving some of my quart jars to a lady at church who needs jars and has a very large family. I was glad to get rid of some of them!! In the process of sorting jars for her, I came across a big box of pint jars for me. Hurray!! I am almost out of jars again but with this box I should have just enough pints to finish off the applesauce and maybe have a few left over for jam! I should be taking the hint that it's time to quit canning when I keep running out of jars!

October 13, 2003

Jerry and I got started early this morning with the apples and it still took us the better part of a day to finish them! But we got 38 pints of applesauce so that was great! We also got some winterizing stuff done while we were waiting for the apples to cook.

I put the insulation back in the green house and he duct taped the windows shut. When I went into the green house this morning it looked like a couple of plants had been frosted so I decided I better get it insulated. Bert and I still have some green pepper plants in there! As long as we had the duct tape out we decided to tape the windows shut on the house too. It was nice not to have to climb a ladder to tape them shut. Jerry is over six foot tall so he reached the top with no problem! So a couple more things done and one more step closer to being done for the year!! I went through the tomatoes again and picked out two boxes of ripe ones. Then I loaded all the unripe ones up in the Blazer and took them over to my neighbor! I am so tired of canning and messing with tomatoes so I decided I was finished! Vicki was glad to get them though. So tomorrow Jerry and I will be doing the last of the salsa for the year. Then all I will have left to do is some jam.

Kaity can reach the floor in her walker now so she is all over the living room. I don't think she has realized how to make it go where she wants it to but she likes being upright! She has a bad cold that isn't getting better so Jenni is taking her to the dr. on Wednesday. Poor little kid. For a while there I thought she was going to get over it without going but now it doesn't seem to want to go away and is getting worse. She is drooling all over too so I suspicion that she may be cutting more teeth. That's all she needs now! She already takes our fingers and put them in her mouth to bite down on. It smarts! She is still a good baby even when she doesn't feel good. But she likes being held more and sleeps a lot more. Poor little girl!!

October 14, 2003

Another busy day today but also a very productive one. We finally finished the canning for the year and I definitely breathed a sigh of relief! We made salsa this morning out of the remaining tomatoes. I think I definitely have enough for a year! Jay loves it because it is so chunky! He will have lots to snack on. We spent the afternoon finishing up a lot of the winterizing. We cleaned up the pump house and Jerry cut the styrofoam for me to use as insulation in the vents. It worked like a charm. We filled the lids of egg cartons with mouse poison and put it in the pump house and under the trailer. Hopefully that will slow them down! We cleaned out most of the flower beds except the big one next to the house. That one is a mess since I didn't take very good care of it and it is full of weeds. I'm not looking forward to cleaning up that mess! 

October 15, 2003

I took Jenni and Kaity to the dr. today. They both have a virus that is going around and is hard to shake. The dr. said it could take weeks or longer. There isn't much that can be done unless it turns into a secondary infection. I pray that doesn't happen!! The dr. weighed and measured Kaity and she weighs 18 pounds (!!!) and is 25 1/2 inches long. She has grown an inch and a half since last month!! So she is growing real well!!

It is suppose to start raining tomorrow so my main goal today was to get things done that I didn't want all wet! I covered the garlic in the garden with two bales of straw and so now am officially done with the garden till next season!!!

I watered the tomatoes and green peppers that are in the green house and filled all the watering jugs. I even have a couple of small cucumbers growing! I picked all the patio tomatoes that were ripe and washed them for eating. I ate a couple while I was cleaning too! Yummy!! I rounded up the last of the bird feeders that I store for the winter and put them in the green house. Then I cleaned the porch off and turned the picnic table into a dog house for the dogs for this winter. I wrap the picnic table with a tarp and then push one bench against the back to hold the tarp in place and place the other bench on top of the picnic table upside down to hold the front of the tarp. Works great!! I had purchased a couple of nice old blankets at yard sales this summer and piled them up under the picnic table. Now the dogs will be all snug when the cold weather hits! I started to insulate the vents in the pump house but over the years the styrofoam pieces have broken and now don't fit right. Jay said he would cut me out two new ones for the vents so that is on hold for now. I put some of the insulation in the holes but the styrofoam is what holds the insulation in! Hopefully I can finish it tomorrow or the next day.

I finally got around to checking out the tomatoes in the boxes that are ripening and boy do I have tomatoes now!!! I figure I have close to 20 pounds or so to make into salsa tomorrow. Jerry is coming over in the morning to help and Bert is going to try to make it too. I couldn't believe how fast the tomatoes turned! It seemed that for a long time they just sat in the boxes green and then all of a sudden decided to start ripening. I still have quite a few that will be ready by the weekend too. I will be glad to finish with the tomatoes though. I am tired of canning! I still have apples to do too. It is suppose to be one of the best years for apples in our state too. Everyone I have talked to said that they didn't have much flavor. Maybe because there hasn't been a good frost yet to seal in the sweetness?

October 7, 2003

Jerry and I spent part of the day today making and canning salsa. I think we did around 10 quarts of it! Not bad. We had 25 pounds of tomatoes that had to be dealt with! It was sooooo good!! I had some for lunch! I sent some home with Jerry too! Jay's mom came out this afternoon and brought 12 quarts of grapes for me to make jam with. Guess what we are doing tomorrow??!!

Jerry also helped me clean the living room and kitchen windows (inside) and put up the big heavy storm windows. I still have some smaller ones to put up but the heavy ones are up! Jay took down the air conditioner this morning so now our bedroom isn't as dark anymore. It's kind of nice to see out the window now! Hopefully the weather will hold and I can get more outside chores done tomorrow.

Jenni was suppose to have surgery tomorrow but she cancelled it because she caught a cold. It is rescheduled for next month. I think she got sick because she got run down from working so many long hours. She has six days off now so her and Kaity can hang out a lot! It gives me a break too! Hopefully she doesn't get as sick as we did!

We got a little bit of rain last night but not a good soaking. The high today was only 60 but the wind made it feel cooler than that. Hopefully we will get more rain this week!

October 8, 2003

I should have known how this day was going to be first thing this morning!! I was watering my plants and knocked over my big aloe vera plant and busted it up pretty good and broke the clay pot. I was in a hurry to get things done because Jerry was coming over to make grape jam! So instead of being ahead of the game, I had to take my plant outside to the green house and try to save it's life!! I was just finishing cleaning up the mess when Jerry got here. So we started working on the grapes getting them ready to cook down. That was the easy part.

I didn't have my food strainer so I borrowed the one that Bert got at a yard sale. Well, Jerry and I came to the conclusion that they aren't good for straining grape seeds!!! The strainer got so gummed up with seeds that we couldn't turn the handle so Jerry tore it all apart (he had a hard time getting some of it apart!) and then put it back together. We should have left well enough alone but decided to dump the last little bit of grapes in there. BIG mistake!!!!!!! The strainer got so gummed up that time that Jerry couldn't get it apart and he spent 45 minutes messing with it! What a joke!! But he was very persistent and it paid off for him. But we didn't use it anymore, we just quick washed it up!! I didn't have as much pulp as I wanted so instead of making jam we were making jelly. I have NEVER made jelly the old fashioned way. So I jumped on the phone and talked to Jay's mom (she was my teacher!) and we finally got the juice cooking after noon. By the time it finally cooked down to the jelly stage, it was after 3 PM.! We had other plans too but those got cancelled due to the jelly mess. But after it cooked down we tasted it and it was wonderful. So we decided it was worth all the frustration and mess! But personally I don't look forward to making grape jam anytime in the near future!!

With the cooler weather I have finally been able to do some baking. I made a loaf of bread this morning and two loaves of banana bread this afternoon. I fixed meat loaf, spaghetti squash, and asparagus for dinner. It was nice to turn the oven on! The house needed heating up anyhow!

October 9, 2003

Today was much cooler than it has been in a long time. It was only 53 degrees and the wind was blowing pretty good. It was actually chilly! We had to start a fire tonight because the high tomorrow is suppose to be cooler than today with very cold nights. Now it really feels like fall! I love the leaves on the ground and walking through them. I love the rustling sound it makes! Plus cooler weather makes working outside much easier. Jay rode his motorcycle to work this afternoon and wasn't going to take his coat. I finally convinced him to take it and he said he was glad. I could imagine the wind chill!

My arthritis was acting up today (I can tell I have been doing work!) so I just kind of putted around. I cleaned Kaity's room and washed her curtains and windows and put the storm windows on. Now her room is all nice and tidy! I sorted through the tomatoes and have a box and a half that are ripe! Jerry and I are going to be busy on Saturday!! I did a little more cleaning and then called it a day. Jay's mom called tonight and informed me that she is picking me up two boxes of Golden Delicious apples tomorrow. So next we will be doing apple sauce! I will be glad when the canning is all done! I'm getting close now since I have been waiting for apples. Jerry's help is so very much appreciated! I wouldn't be able to do all this without his help!!