Mountain Musings

Garden Bounty

Our garden has been producing well. While most crops are petering out now that we are nearing the end of August, the tomatoes are still going strong. So far this summer, in addition to the ones we've eaten, I've processed 160 lbs of tomatoes, mostly by canning but some put up in the freezer. There are still more to be picked....Granny says they are coming out of my ears, though we have not yet harvested as much as we did last season! She has loved being here this summer to enjoy our fresh tomatoes, especially her favorite "pink ones" (Brandywine heirloom).

One way I have used the mounds of smaller paste, cherry, and pear tomatoes is by roasting several pounds at once along with garlic and onions, to make a flavorful sauce. One day for lunch I made pizza with a zucchini crust, topped with sliced tomatoes and fresh mozzarella.

The tally of jars stored away for the winter thus far is:

• 7 pints spicy tomato salsa
• 20 pints tomato sauce
• 27 quarts tomato sauce
• 3.5 quarts dill cucumber relish
• 6 pints zucchini relish
• 7 pints cinnamon cucumber pickle
• 5 quarts dill refrigerator pickle

What has been coming from your garden? Do you have a favorite recipe for preserving certain vegetables or fruits?

~Hannah

35 years!

~Tom and Deb on their wedding day, August 1980~

 

A very happy special anniversary to our dear dad and mom! 35 years ago today, they were united in marriage together before God. Praise the Lord for His faithfulness in their lives over the past 35 years and what He has done in our family. Their example and instruction has been an encouragement to us as their children.

Aren't they cute?

Happy woman and happy man! If Heaven be found on earth, they have it! At last, the two are so blended, so engrafted on one stem, that their old age presents a lovely attachment, a common sympathy, by which its infirmities are greatly alleviated, and its burdens are transformed into fresh bonds of love. So happy a union of will, sentiment, thought, and heart exists between them, that the two streams of their life have washed away the dividing band, and run on as one broad current of united existence till their common joy falls into the ocean of eternal felicity. ~Charles Spurgeon

This weekend they are enjoying a trip away to celebrate, so let's try to reach 35 comments wishing them a happy anniversary, to read when they return. :)

~Hannah

Sisters!

Sisters are wonderful to have, aren't they? I'm grateful for the Lord blessing me with Hannah as an older sister who has always been a godly example to me. *hugs Hannah*

This week we had a fun lunch with some girls from church, and we both dressed in our bright flowered skirts with colorful tops. Naturally we had to take some pictures together - and I couldn't resist posting a couple. :)

~Sarah

Saturday Afternoon Work Day

On Saturday afternoons, once we're finished up at market, Hannah and I often go down to Jonathan's house to help with anything he needs us to do. As you can see by this white board in the laundry room, he has plenty of tasks still on the docket, plus more after those are finished. (This board used to have a whole lot more written on it, it's looking rather empty now!)

Yesterday, we arrived around 3 o'clock, and Jonathan put us in charge of running the telephone wire. They are going to have 3 telephone jacks in the house, and we had to run the wire starting in the kitchen and making it all the way upstairs to the master bedroom and then back down through the floor to the main living room.

While we were busily stapling wire, Jonathan was under the house continuing his work on plumbing the water heater. He is almost done with all the plumbing for the house!  

Here's Hannah securing wire up in the rafters along the running board. We took turns up on the ladder, and while she was up there, I was drilling some holes in the floor that the wire ran through to get back downstairs.

We finished up a little after 5 and headed home for supper. Well, at least Hannah and I did. Jonathan stayed later, as he usually does. He gets home quite late every night from working on the house.

Meanwhile, back at home....

Dad has been working on setting up his wood shop in our garage, mainly getting things rearranged and organized for the purpose of starting work on Jonathan's cabinets. He has a new table saw, and yesterday he, with Mom's help, was setting it up. He's almost done!

All in all, it was a productive Saturday! What have you been working on at your house lately?

~Sarah

Garden Girls

Last week Hannah and I had the opportunity to stroll through a beautiful and serene herb garden.

Here's Hannah inside the garden arbor...not much bright color but lots of luscious greenery:We both delight in taking photos of flowers, nature, and gardens. Here's a garden butterfly Hannah captured: Here's a bit of color...flowers planted in a vintage wheelbarrow...love this! Do you love picket fences and garden benches like I do?And here are some flowers growing around the Mountain Musings homestead this summer. Hibiscus, coneflowers, and black-eye Susans surround the garden: I love the beautiful purple Russian sage blooming by my purple Lovers Leap birdhouse: And more black-eye Susans surround the garden shed: Beautiful fuschia hibiscus: Since Hannah and I are the Garden Girls in our family, I'll have to show you a picture of a little girl watering her beloved flowers...but this was more than a few years ago, and I've changed quite a bit, eh?

But my love for flowers is still a part of me, because this is where I'm from: ~Deb