Dilly Beans

Despite being shook up from almost burning down the house, I managed to pull it together and finish what I set out to do. I canned. Green beans. More actually I pickled them.

Mr. B picked one row of beans. We were able to make 9 pints of dilly beans and freeze one gallon. We only pickled the nice straighish beans, the rejects were frozen. I wanted them looking pretty in the jars.

In a few weeks these babies will be ready to complete the perfect bloody mary or make a great snack.

A few months ago I splurged and had theses made.

Custom labels. They have a goose on them. A GOOSE!

Since we end up giving a bit our our canned produce away i thought these would be a nice touch.

They make me happy.

How I Almost Burned Down the House

I'm exaggerating it wasn't that bad. It could have been, but it wasn't. Nothing got ruined, everything is fine.

But still I started a fire.

In the house.

How you may ask. Well, I was prepping things for canning dilly beans; every burner on the stove was going. This rarely happens, I never need all four burners, except when I can or I need to feed a small army. So anywho all four burners were going, I was boiling water, lots of water. Water for canning. Water for sterilizing, water for softening lids, and pickling brine.

The top right burner was smoking a bit. I didn't think anything of it. I hadn't used that one in eons. I just figured it was burning off some dust. (no judging) I returned to my prep work, dishes and clearing counter space. Mr. B was outside.

It was still smelling like something burning. I turned to look at the stove and saw flames shooting out from the bottom of the pan. Quick take the pan off, maybe it is something stuck to the bottom. Nope. Flames still going, getting bigger. Not sure what is burning. Try splashing just a few drops of water on it. (I have enough common sense to know that if it was a grease fire water would just make it worse.) The water made it worse. 
Yup, it was a grease fire.

Grease fire. I know what to do. Baking soda.

CRAP

We had NO baking soda. 

I used the last of it to clean my bathtub.
(in case you were wondering it work wonderfully)

Called for Wes.

"Honey we have a problem"

no answer

"Honey we have a big problem"

no answer

"Honey the stove is on fire"

That got his attention.

He came in. I told him it was a grease fire and that water would make it worse. I also told him that we were out of baking soda. He did a quick look around the kitchen and suggested flour. I thought that would make it worse too, flour can burn. So he shut off the burner. Hello captain obvious, why didn't I think of that. We stood there and watched. I hoped and prayed that it would go out.

The fire slowly died. Whatever was burning must have burnt out. 
Thank goodness for that. It could have been bad. Really bad. 
I went back to my prep work and Mr. B went back to picking beans. My hands were shaking as I did the dishes, thinking how bad it could have been. How I could have ruined everything. The fire department is so far away by the time they would have gotten here what could they have done. Watch it burn. 

Praise Jesus everything is alright. The house is still standing. The kitchen is in one piece. Our stove is fine. We are fine.  

I think I will be adding baking soda to the grocery list. I will also be picking up a fire extinguisher next time I am the hardware store. 

Lookie What I found

I was mowing the lawn on Saturday. I was in the home stretch, mowing the last part of the lawn over by the duck pool. I saw something in the grass. I stopped the lawn mower and cut the power. I jumped off and snatched it up and ran over by Mr. B. Holding it up I shouted at him. Shouted because I was supper dupper excited and I had ear plugs in.

I found an egg.

A duck egg.

The first one.

I thought I better have a look in the coop. Wouldn't you know I found three more.

Four eggs.

The ladies are starting to pull their own weight. No more free ride for them.

Now we have a new project for the list. Build nest boxes so that the ladies get the idea were to lay. I think they are just dropping them wherever they are standing right now.

We didn't get to see how tasty they were. With out knowing how long they had been sitting I didn't want to risk it. I will be checking the coop every day now. I heard duck eggs are awesome for baking and I have had a hankering for cake..

Freezing Green Beans

The green beans are ready. I don't know what I was thinking when I planted four rows this year. That's three more than I had last year. Despite the drought they are doing marvelous and I need to start harvesting and doing some thing with them. These are just the tip of the ice berg.

I decided to freeze these ones. Easy, simple, and far less time consuming than canning.

 Fist I cut the ends off and washed them.

 

(Please ignore my disgusting sink, it's old and pealing paint. We are not going to get into why someone would want to try and paint an enamel sink right now. I have a replacement sink in the basement. We just need to install it. Let's  pretend it's  nice shiny white sink for now.)

 Then I blanched them in boiling water for about three minutes. They will turn a deeper green color as they start to cook.

Immediately put them in ice water to stop the cooking.

I laid them out on towels once they were cool to absorb some of the water.

I laid them on a cookie sheet and put them in the freezer for about a half hour. Then transferred to gallon freezer bags. I hate it when you just dump things in a bag and toss in the freezer. Then when you want to use it, what ever it is, it is frozen in a big lump. By starting the freezing process with the beans laid flat on a cookie sheet we can avoid the nasty clump.  I can simply pull out however many handfuls I want to use.

We Have Lights and Power

While mom and I were ripping out carpeting this past weekend, the boy played with the electricity in the mud room. We know have lights on a switch! The one in the mud room was on a pull chain. Now we have two lights on that we can flip on with a switch. 

We also have a light on the porch, on a switch. Moving up in the world. We opted for a halogen security light. Most of the stuff at the home improvement store was the "rubbed oil bronze" color. I love it but it doesn't go with the white and black exterior of the house.  The ones that would go with house were limited, and not so nice. And with the security light we have a better and brighter view of the yard, easier to spot the predators that might come after the birds. 

The boys also installed three of these. 

We didn't have any outlets in the mud room before, unless you count the one on the light fixture. That we never used. They also put an outlet on the porch. Most exciting part of the whole adventure. We no longer have to run an extension cord from the kitchen if we want to use power tools outside. 

Bye Bye Old Smelly Carpet

My parents come over on Sunday morning with their friend Jeff. The boys played with electricity and rewired the mudroom, post on this to come soon! While they were doing this my mother and I tore up carpeting. It seems that we have been doing allot of that lately, last time it was the stairs and hallway.  

Two of the bedrooms, what will be the master bedroom and sun room, still had carpet. Old carpet. Carpet that had a slight odor of old people and cat. It needed to go.

Once we got all the stuff moved out of these spaces the rippin' and a tearin' went rather quick. It seems like we just shuffle all of our crap from room to room upstairs. Because we are in the process of redoing the house most of our stuff still has to find permanent homes. It doesn't seem like we have that much crap until you have to move it, for the fourth time.  

That black stuff is just loose pad from the carpeting that needs to swept up. We will give the floors a good cleaning and like the hallway and library we will simply paint these floors white.

My goal is to have everything painted (walls, floors, ceilings, doors, and trim) By the end of the month. That gives me two weeks. We shall see how this goes.

Kitchen Curtains

I finally got around to putting some curtains up in the kitchen. The windows did have mini blinds on them, which I left. In the morning the sun blares in this room and it is nice to be able to block it, especially in the hot summer months. The windows needed something more, they were rather bare and needed some dressing up. I decided on a valance something that wouldn't block the view of the back yard but still make it look homey. I couldn't find anything in stores or online that I wanted, so I got crafty and made my own. I even lined them, as the polka-dot fabric was rather thin.

(please ignore the crappy door, that will be replaced soon)

See that hot pan holder. My sista went to Vegas this spring. I told her to bring me back a supper kitschy souvenir. A pot holder with the Vegas strip on it; I think she pulled through.

Sneak Peak

I'm painting furniture again. The TV stand turned out so awesome that I thought I would give it another go. More dressers, this time for clothes not movies. 

I started this project oh, about three weeks ago. Still not done..Life happened. You know vacation, it started to rain again so the grass needs mowing, work, and the never ending battle to try and keep the house clean. But its getting there. The big reveal is to come soon. You know like the in the next six months.

As a side note: If you are going to paint furniture on your back porch wear sunscreen. Or just do it topless. A tube top would work too, but where's the fun in that. 

Stinky Fish Dog

About two years ago my mother made a comment about Gus smelling like dead fish. The nieces happened to hear that. They were young and impressionable. From then on out Gus was the stinky fish dog. He doesn't really smell like dead fish he smells like dog. But you can't explain that to those little girls. Nana said he smelt like dead fish and that was that.

When we were up north Gus and Murphy, his BFF forever, found a bag of fish guts to roll in. First time he has ever rolled in anything gross apart from cow poo. Well the Beans goes to Nana, now they both really do smell like dead fish. It was one of those moments that you remember. She said it so matter of fact, and it was so true. 

 Well we have been at home for two weeks now. I thought it was all behind us, the rolling in nastiness. Not so much. The past few days Gus has been going on adventures and coming home rank. Not like dead fish, but like dead something.

Sunday I thought maybe he rolled in cow crap. But the smell wasn't quite there. Hey, we live in the country I know what cow poo smells like. He got a bath. At least when you tell him he stinks and needs a bath he willingly walks to the bathroom and climbs into the tub and waits.

(how many dogs do you know that do that!)

Tuesday he disappeared for about an hour. You need to know something about Gus. We don't tie him up. He normally stays around the yard. If he does go visiting he always comes home with in a half hour or so. If not the sound of the ATV makes him come running. So anyway Tuesday he goes on an adventure. He found something. He rolled in it. He brought a piece of it's bones home to chew on. Yup G-R-O-S-S!! It was beyond nauseating. He got a bath. He got scrubbed with doggie wash, twice. He even got his teeth brushed. 

Wednesday night I let him out and I made a bee line to the bathroom. He was literally outside by himself for five minutes. He wondered off again.  It was like he was thinking about it all day. As soon as he was free of the house he ran to it. He rolled in it. He reveled in it. Then he came home from his rot binge and felt like crap. Mom was mad. He knew he was naughty.  Draw the bath and wait for him to be ready to come inside. Eventually he was and he was marched straight into the bathroom for another bath. He got scrubbed with doggie wash twice. At lest he didn't bring any pieces home with him.

Three baths in four days. I am now out of doggie wash. And there still is a slight odor to him, if you bury your nose in fur in just the right spot you get a slight whiff. Let me tell you getting the smell of rotting flesh out of a dog is not easy. I blame Murphy. He never did anything like this until she introduced him to the bag of rotting fish guts.

Pesto

When I first moved out on my own, my mother bought me a small food processor, you know the little one that can do an onion and that's about it. One day after I used it I set the plastic bowl on the stove, we had a small galley kitchen in our apartment. I set it on a hot burner. It was ruined. I mentioned to Mr. B that I would like a new one for Christmas. He mentioned it to his parents. His dad did the Christmas shopping that year.

I got a food processor. The mother of all processors. A TEN cup.

(instead of typing food processor we will now refer to it as FP).

The exact words that came out of my mouth were "What the (adult word that rimes with duck) am I going to do with a FP this big" 

Fast forward two years. I LOVE it!! I couldn't imagine my kitchen with out it. Home made pizza sauce, no problem. Homemade ranch dressing, I'm on it. Remember that time I made that pie, why the bad-ass-10-cup-FP made light of that crust.

Last night I busted it out and made Pesto. With basil fresh from the garden. Not having cable TV or a satellite Mr. B and I have a limited number of channels, PBS stations being the bulk of them, and gospel channels..So needless to say we watch our fair share of cooking shows. Lidia's Italy being one of them. I think I have seen the episode were she makes pesto about 4 times. Looked easy enough, so I thought I would give it a try with my abundance of basil needing to be used. (did you know you should harvest your basil before it flowers for optimal flavor. Amazing the stuff you can learn on the Internet.)

The green goo, know as pesto, was not very photogenic in the evening light. But it sure tasted good.

 One more yummy dish thanks to the FP.

Seriously if you don't have a ginormous FP I suggest you go out and get one. I'm told Fleet Farm has them on special around the holidays. (remember the father-in-law bought mine and where else does one do Christmas shopping than at a farm supply/hardware store)

Updated Porch Posts and Tool Belts

After our extra long weekend of family togetherness it was back to work for me on Wednesday. Mr. B, on the other hand had the rest of the week off. The whole shop had Friday off, and "Maggie it doesn't make any sense to go in for two days." 

WHAT!! 

 He assured me that he would do something productive around the house, not sit on his bum playing video games. OK. We shall see, track record in that area isn't superb. 

He blew the record out of the water. He was a super amazing DIYer and handy man while I was at work. I came home on Thursday to Mr. B putting the finishing touches on our new porch posts. He was wearing a tool belt. My heart goes pitter-patter when Mr. B has on a tool belt, not that you needed to know that.

I'll just stop now and let you admire his handy work with I think about my handy man.

Gus Gus was playing Vanna White while I was snapping the photos.

(Look how green the grass is!! We have been getting rain.) 

Because Mr. B was just about finished by the time I got home I was unable to take any before photos for you. You needed to see how crooked one of the posts was. Mr. B said it was like a drunk farmer installed it. I did get these so you could see how bad the old ones were.

They were so rotted out on the bottom that they were swaying in the breeze. They weren't great last summer and when down hill rather quickly last fall and winter. I think there were bugs eating at the wood and Patty and Bernie pecked at the wood trying to get at the bugs. In the process doing a number on the layers of paint.

Luckily they are mainly for decorations. If we got a really heavy snow I'm sure they would do some support work for the overhang. The old posts were the fancy pants turned posts. We opted to go with straight 4x4s. We thought the nice clean lines would look good with the farmhouse. That and they were much easier on the budget. Since we went with the treated we will hopefully deter any bugs and rot for a while. I will just have to wait till next spring to paint. Zebra stripes would be awesome! Wonder what Mr. B would think of that...

He did put the thermometer back up, what country porch is complete without a thermometer?

Sad Tomatoes

 So excited to harvest my first tomatoes when we got back from our weekend away! Nothing better than fresh tomatoes straight from the garden.

However it was not meant to be. My first ripe tomatoes were small. And looked like this.

Edible, I think not. Some quick research with the googler and it turns out the have blossom end rot. They didn't get enough water at the right time. Hopefully the rest of my tomato crop isn't ruined. I think next year we will have to mulch around the babies to keep the moisture in the soil.

As with most things around the Acres you live and learn.

An Extra Long Weekend of Family Togetherness

We made it back safe and sound from our mini vacation. It was wonderful to get away from work and the Acres for a few days. And spending time with my family wasn't bad either. It was probably the best weekend of togetherness in a few years.

We spent the Friday at the water park, Noah's Ark. Got there at open and stayed until close, yeah we are die hards. My sista's little people are to the age where they can go on almost all the rides (no more hanging out at the kiddie wading pool!!) The Beans is a little on the tiny side, so not tall enough to do some things. She is 42 inches exactly, the minimum requirement to ride the quadzilla water slide. I think the Beans, her sister, and I went down it five time in a row towards the end of the day. They are going to have to start weight training for next year; Aunt Maggie isn't going to carry their mats up the hill again.

Friday night Mr. B and I went to a wedding at a resort near the dells. Good times. A few drinks with our friend Captain Morgan and dancing. Oh and there were masquerade masks, how fun is that!!

Saturday morning headed up to the cabin for a weekend of hiking, beaching, boating, campfires, and cocktails. Oh and riding my nephew's mini bike and shooting things with the pellet gun.

(How come grand kids get all the cool stuff? we never had a pellet gun or mini bike when we were little. Maybe my sister and I were to busy being princesses.)

Gus and Murphy, the parentals dog and Gus's BFF forever, found some dead fish to roll in. NOT AMUSED!! It was nauseating, that must be one of the worst smells ever. They needed a bath ASAP.  Mom just did dishes so there was no water. The water pressure at the cabin is not that great, to put it bluntly it sucks. Into the truck to the boat landing. Gus knew he did something wrong and he only likes to ride shotty, not in the bed of a pick up. So that was an adventure to ketch him. We got him there and they both got shampooed three times to get rid of the smell. Now Mr. Gus is all handsome and smells good. He needed his quarterly bath anyway.   

 Besides the dead fish incident, a bee sting, a scraped toe, and a pinched hand, it was a wonderful weekend full lots of good food, good drinks, and good people. Can't wait till next year.