HARVEST TIME

You have to love this time of year when everything is plentiful in the garden and it is time to do some canning. Well, I have spent the last three days making and canning grape juice and grape jelly. My friend Brenda was kind enough to lend me her juice steam kettle not to mention, showing me how to make the juice. She also gave me three huge boxes of concord grapes, so for the last three days I have been in the kitchen on a juice making marathon. 5 am this morning, the steam was rolling :) 

Some pictures of what I have done. This is not all of it.........I have some jars in the fridge for using now and these are for my pantry to enjoy over the winter. The grape juice is pure with nothing added and it is naturally sweet. I love it mixed with grapefruit juice.

 This is the juice steamer that my friend Brenda loaned me. 

I have it all cleaned up and ready to give back to her.

 Jars of concord grape juice and half pints of grape jelly to enjoy on lemon cranberry scones over the winter.

PUFFBALL

I have had a request to post a picture of a puffball, so here it is. You have to pick them when they are pure white. If they are yellowish they are no good. You find them in the woods and they taste a lot like mushrooms. I am on a canning marathon this week. Making grape juice like crazy!

PUFFBALL

WHAT WAS FOR DINNER TONIGHT?

I know I have posted in the past about the puffballs that we find in our woods. Yesterday DH found three of them and we have been enjoying eating them. I made omelets tonight with red onion, puffball, spinach and cheddar cheese. They were delicious. I just love puffball. We had some steamed green beans on the side and sweet corn on the cobb. 

Omelet made with cheddar cheese, red onion, spinach and puffball

MINI VACATION

A couple of weeks ago DH, Kit and I went up to northern Ontario to visit Sandy and Brian, Sandy is DH's sister and Brian, her husband. We had a great time. Sandy is a wonderful cook, so we enjoyed some great meals while staying there. We had an afternoon of Antique hunting and a visit to one of my favorite shops, The Old Tin Shed. Here are some pictures of the trip.

 One of Brian and Sandy's vegetable gardens.

Brian is checking the potato plants.

Their beautiful home and flower gardens. 

 A walk through the woods. Kit had to stay on her leash all weekend as there are lots of bears in the area. She would pick up a scent and take off and I wouldn't be able to find her. 

 Sandy and I at the OLD TIN SHED.

Kit......licking her chops :)

WHY IS IT???????????

Why is it that whenever a quilt is being put together there is a cat involved :) Today was wet and cool, so I thought I would put together this log cabin quilt top. I had the blocks finished but hadn't put it all together yet. I put it together in the Barn Raising pattern. Kenya decided to supervise the process. Did I ask for a Supervisor?????????

HAY SHORTAGE

This year has been so hot and dry that there is a huge hay shortage, not only in southern Ontario, but through the US also. Our second cut was so sparse that DH found a way to get it into a windrow so that he could bale it. If he had used the hay rake, the alfalfa would just have fallen off of the stems into the ground. He creatively used the sweeper from the lawnmower hooked to the ATV to gather it up, and bale it. We only got 12 bales, but it was better than what we would have it he had not used this method, and that would have been 0. He is a picture.

A FINE TRIP TO NEW YORK

I just returned late last night from a weekend trip to Syracuse, New York. I was there judging a horse show and what a great show it was, so many wonderful horses. The other three judges I worked with were great and so was the ring steward and show committee. That helps a lot when you are trying to judge so many horses in so many classes over two days. The weather was so hot. On Saturday with the humidity factored in, it was 106 degrees, and Sunday was almost as hot, but very windy and we had a couple of showers go through in the morning.

On my way to Syracuse, I made a couple of stops. There is a little Quilt shop in Caledonia, NY. called the "Chestnut Bay Quilt Shoppe" that I stop at whenever I visit New York state, and last year, compliments of my GPS taking me into Caledonia the back way, I came across a little Primitive shop called "Primitive Country Gifts" www.primitivecountrygifts.com in the little hamlet of Mumford. I definitely had to stop there again. I was in all my glory last year when I found this shop. It consists of two floors in a historic building filled to the brim with wonderful primitive goods, lots of them hand made. The wares are displayed beautifully and there is coffee and samplings of different jellies etc. that they sell. When you walk into the store, the shopkeeper gives you a warm welcome and lets you know there is fresh coffee on and to help yourself. As you browse the shop, there is so much to see...........Antiques, candles, braided rugs, handmade primitive dolls, prim magazines, primitive greeting cards, wool and patterns for penny rugs etc. (I even saw some of Karen's patterns, KM Primitives for sale there). With the permission of the shopkeeper, I took a few pictures of the shop. If you are ever in Western New York, please visit this shop. You won't be disappointed. I found myself a wonderful granite wear bowl at a great price and a few other goodies.

The shop from the outside

Barn stars, wreaths, coverlets, lamp shades

Lots of baskets, curtains, and flicker lights

Fresh complimentary coffee and samplings

I call this the "Crow Corner" Lots of crow items for crow collectors

Lots of dough bowls, candles and lamps

A great selection of braided rugs

Colonial lamps and furniture

Cards and magazines

The shop from the outside

A great selection of wool and patterns

Signs and homespuns

MY HOW SHE HAS GROWN

I just took some pictures of Sammy our little black kitten that was born in the spring. She is from Izzy's first litter of One. Yes, she was the only one born. And boy is she cute. I have had a lot of inquiries about her, so I took some pictures this afternoon so you can see how she has grown up.

 Sammy is playing in the grass outside of our barn

 She loves to play on the hay elevator

 Laying on the floor of the barn

 Sammy

 Izzy and Sammy 

Kit wanted to be included too