Planting for the future...

It was just lovely outside this afternoon!  I took a shovel and dug up the flower bed right by the house, then planted the autumn bulbs that arrived in the mail 2 days ago (when it was snowing).   Lord willing, there will be daffodils, crocuses, tulips and hyacinths blooming in the spring!

I also cut up all the ripe tomatoes and cooked them into freezer-tomato-sauce.  Then, I put on a pair of disposable gloves and set to work cutting the ends off of the hot peppers from our garden and getting them in labeled freezer bags for the future.  The trick of it all was to find out if the variety of pepper was hot or sweet, as I neglected to write this information down on the marker sticks where I put down the variety!   Most of them were quite hot!!

All the rest of my family went to Bismarck today.  My dad had to see the chiropractor as he threw his back out again somehow and has been in a lot of pain the past 3 days.  My mom needed to deliver some water to some clients and she and Jacob got their driver's licenses renewed and new pictures taken (you should ask them how they like their new pictures).  ;)   Andrew had some business to do too, something with vehicle titles or something. 

SO, I had the house to myself most of the day.  I listened to "Fiddler on the Roof" as I worked... 
  
"Tradition, tradition....
      ....And who does mama teach to mend and tend and fix,
          Preparing her to marry whoever Papa picks?
             The daughters, the daughters...."

More surprises in the chicken barn...

While feeding the chickens this morning, I found 13 tiny brown eggs in the nests.  Yay!!  Andrew says he could eat 6 of them for breakfast and I'm sure he could.  :)

It was so lovely outside today compared to the past 2 days.  The sun was actually shining.  It did freeze last night though.  I had to break a thin layer of ice on the water troughs this morning.  I guess it's time to finish up all those projects we wanted to accomplish before that "W" season comes rolling around.......

We stayed home...

It was very wet and cold this morning while doing the chores!  My clothes were soaked by the time I was done with the 40 minutes worth of feeding hay/grain/water.   Later, I went up to check the cows and was slipping all over the road.  It was a good thing that there is 4-wheel drive in that pickup, as a few spots were really bad.

 I guess I'm glad we stayed home from the wedding, although I was very much looking forward to going.  This is the 2nd wedding we've missed out on in that family due to bad weather!  We pray for Josh & Camille's new life together to be blessed!   They've been such good friends for a long time, so it's so special that they're married at last.  :)  Here's a cute picture of them: 

We did have a peaceful day at home, so that was refreshing.

SNOW!

It's been a blustery day and I'm so glad that we picked our garden produce yesterday!  Yes, we even had snowflakes falling through the sky.  Nothing stayed, but the storm is not over yet either.  The wind is howling and raindrops are hitting my window.  We may not be going to the wedding tomorrow after all (it would be a 5 hour drive)...

 

My room was so cold today that I washed my windows, then covered them with plastic for the winter.  It's a bit warmer now.

 

Mom, Jacob and I oiled all of the squash (it helps them to keep longer as mold doesn't grow well on oil), then hauled them to the basement.  Mom also cleaned all of the cayenne peppers we grew and I turned most of them into Cayenne Tincture.  We made turkey enchiladas for our noon meal and a meatloaf (with our new hamburger!) and hubbard squash dish for supper.  Delicious!

 

My brothers put things into the Quonset that they didn't want to freeze (the sprayer/pressure washer....).  I went out and picked a few more bouquets before the flowers are all gone for the year.  It was also time to bring all of my dwarf fruit trees back in the house from the deck.  One of my lemons is starting to turn yellow now, so that's fun!

 

Here are a few pictures that I took of the header Dad bought yesterday...  

 

 The local John Deere dealership is redoing their lot, so it was a big mess yesterday... 

 Here are the squash we picked...

 ...and some more squash!  It's a good thing that some of us like squash a lot and that the others tolerate it.  ;)

 The last Dahlias of the season...  
Isn't the lawn a lovely shade of green right now?  The recent rains have done wonders for the grass.

 Farewell, summer flowers.  I will miss you!

Now I have to remember the good things about cold weather...  Things like-----the flies die! 

Wheelbarrows full of squash!

That's what Jacob and I hauled into the entryway this afternoon.  I took a picture and will share it soon.  Mom and I picked tomatoes and she pulled the onions.  As I made supper, the other 2 picked all of the peppers too.  We're grateful for such wonderful freshly-picked/pulled produce!!

My original plan for the day was to go babysitting, but Tracy Jo was so sick that her mama stayed home with her today, so I stayed home as well.  It was a good thing, as we really needed to get the garden things in.  Some of us are hoping to head to a wedding in Williston on Saturday and may be going as far as our friend's near Dickinson tomorrow, so the garden was priority today with the probable freeze this weekend.

This morning, I went to Napoleon with my dad as he was buying (trading in one of ours, actually) a different corn-head for the combine and I wanted to take pictures.  We went to NAPA, the bank, and I went to the grocery store too.  I was trying to remember when the last time was that I went to Napoleon and I think it was this spring!!!!  Whoa!  I used to go 3 days a week and our little trip brought back lots of memories of CNA days....

The other big news of the day is that my dad turned the furnace on today!  I made some mulled apple cider in honor of the day. 

Here are just a few random pictures that were on my camera:

The approx. 30lb turkey I cooked all day as we needed the freezer room for the beef!

 Our special very first brown egg of the year from those little chicks we had in the house this spring...  :)    My mom found 3 more today!

 Happy Autumn!

 I was experimenting with different hair-styles one day...  I love our medicine-cabinet mirrors for seeing what the back of my head looks like!  ;)

 The front of my head:  :)

 

~ Good night and God bless you. ~

A table set for 5...

Yes, we're all back under the same roof once more.  :)

A lot of bull...

While I was gone babysitting today, my dad went to Linton to pick up all of the ground beef (the bull).  There was a LOT of it and he had quite a task ahead of him to get it all packed into the freezers!  Paula got off of work early today and, consequently, returned home sooner and I thought I'd be in time to help my dad fill the freezers, but he was just finishing when I returned home.  There was not room in the freezer for the homemade ice cream though, so we put that in one of the coolers and ate a good portion of it for supper.  :)     It will be SO nice to have hamburger to cook with again!!!! 

My dad also had to take out a giant turkey we had in the freezer (a homegrown one--about 30 lbs), so I will have fun cooking that all day tomorrow, if it even fits in the oven. 

We both talked to my mom just a little while ago and she said they've been having a wonderful time.  They plan to be home around 8:00pm tomorrow.  I hope the turkey's done by then......