Happy Halloween

Halloween was quiet this year as we only had the two granddaughters with us and no one to take trick or treating.  Joseph answered the door this year instead of me. Ashley came over and we made donuts and wassail as we always do, along with Sloppy Joes and deviled eggs.  We had quite a few trick or treaters for a change.  We only had two bags of popcorn leftover at the end of the evening.  We started to look through the cupboards to see what we could give out if we ran out of treats.   

Here is my little helper, patting out the dough. It is natural to have someone helping me cook. 

 We gave donuts away to some of the families in our neighborhood.

 Our pumpkin never turned orange but it still was good for carving. Joseph is getting lots of help.

 Keith spent this last year working on chain-mail as well as the complete outfit. 

 There are many hours in this as he made each individual link and then linked them together to create the chainmail. We quilted the fabric for the jerkin which also has leather straps with buckles. It was a challenge for me as well, as we had to design and make the pattern for the jerkin. 

  He spent the evening with a group of friends. 

Our new little granddaughter being held by her sweet mom.

fall 2013

These are pictures from earlier this fall. This has been sitting in my draft section waiting for me to find time to write.

As always the maples were pretty this year. 

 

 

These are our gals.  We are now getting three to four eggs a day.  They love wandering around the yard and scratching for bugs.  They loved my grapes earlier this fall.  Because of cats they only get to be out when I can keep an eye on them.

We painted the playhouse on the outside this fall. Hopefully next spring we will get the inside fixed up.  Audrey loves playing in it. 

We painted the coop opposite of the playhouse.  Joseph wanted a barn red for the coop.  I think it turned out nice. 

Our chickens think they need to come in the house when the door is open.  Of course this is not acceptable so they get escorted out the door very quickly.

 

A pumpkin we grew.  The vine had huge leaves and was really pretty.

Zinna's in the backyard.



Enjoying a snack.

 I've been busy canning the last two months.  The peaches, pears and apple trees produced well.  This is some strawberry pie filling I made when Joseph brought home a flat of strawberries from the store the were a really good price.  I thought this would be fun to have on hand for crepes.  I also made blueberry pie filling for the same reason.  It is fun to have variety in our food storage.  I tried Apple jelly made the old fashioned way but I over cooked it.  It is really pretty in the jars but a little hard.  If you heat it up in the microwave for a few seconds it softens it so we can spread it.  I still have a few apples still to bottle.  Hope to get those done soon before it gets too cold.

pheasant hunting

We got a text from Eric today telling dad to check his e-mail.  We thought others would appreciate seeing what he's been up to lately.

 

 Eric and his roommates

He said he is going to learn how to cook pheasant. Looks like they will have several meals in the upcoming future.