Hello Monday: HooHoos, Corn and Apples

 

Autumn has been busy here. My busy may not be as busy as yours, but alas it is busy for me. 

*Making HooHoo orders and sending them to their new homes. I love how you can see those big round eyes through the packaging.

*Picking corn before the Coons get them. Recently our YorkiePoo bee-lined for the garden. I followed her to find cornstalks pulled down and shredded corn. Definitely a sign of Coons. So what does a girl do, but rearrange her day to pick it all. Not good at sharing with chicken killers and knee-biters(yes, I was bit...different story). Blanched it, froze it and hung some of the bitten cobs for seed.

*Apples....sigh. The trees were loaded this year. We have 7 trees. We munch from Spring til Fall on fresh apples. I picked a wheel-barrow full of different varieties and then promptly forgot about them while visiting family in NY State for a week. It rained while I was gone. Good thing is my wheel-barrow has a few rusted holes haha! So I am culling about a fourth of the barrow, but freezing the rest.

I look forward to apple sauces for pancake topping, etc this winter and knobby apple cake. yum!

from tournament to market

We had a busy weekend with a 3-day soccer tournament in Tacoma with Sophie's soccer team the Mavericks. They are an amazing group of young athletes who won a tournament of 5 games spanning 3 days and one of the games against girls 2 years older. Way to go Mavericks and Sophie!

We decided since we were under an hour away from Pike's Place Market to spend the rest of the Sunday afternoon there as a family (except for missing Zack). It was just what I needed...to stroll amongst the throngs of people of all different kinds and people watch, smell wonderful smells and hear street musicians...sigh.

(living statue-loved how he played with the little kids)

we found inexpensive parking (hoorah!)...found our way to the top of the market (hoorah!)...found yummy foods for less than an arm and a leg in a little mom and pop type deli. they had amazing huge baked potatoes loaded with goodies that you microwaved. we dont own a microwave, and we survived. :)

the hum of the market was wonderful with so much life and different types of it at that! its funny that i find myself a person that is balanced between intro and extrovert. i love my alone time and quiet...hence living rural on a farm BUT i love all different types of people too...and the buildings, oh my.

it was a fun day and im glad Tessa suggested we do it. my girl Aliss also bought me an amazing bouquet with the most beautiful dahlias in it. sigh. you are amazing Pike Place Market. we shall meet again and hopefully this time it wont be years in between.

over-the-garden-fence friends

When your neighbor is a Master Gardener and you ask her what certain flowers are and she shares them with you over the garden fence :)

My favorites are the purple orbs...some sort of thistle plant. Since I am fighting the ugly-thistle variety it is insane that I would like any form of thistle ha!

to the beach

My amazing daughter Tessa said we should make a visit to the beach as a family after church last week. At first I thought it would be too much work, but am so glad we went. I packed snack foods like cheese cubes, pickle spears, sandwich fixins and crackers in the picnic basket along with a blanket and pillows and off we went.

Tessa, Elijah and Fiona look absolutely adorable as a young family. This was Fiona's first time walking in the sand. Oh those baby toes...

Aliss, Hannah and Sophie spent quite some time climbing all over the rock jetty. And when they came back Sophie and I walked in the surf. We started out barely in the water on our walk away from the picnic area and by the time we got back Sophie was hip high in the water. She is in the photo above almost out to where the surfers were...she could have high fived them!

Great family day for some down time while the nice weather is here. I have felt a small shift in the mornings and evenings...Fall is coming closer.

babies, window seats and Hoohoos

my sweet little grandbaby Fiona LOVES baths in grammies sink. her momma keeps little boats here for her to play with. there isn't much sweeter than a baby straight  from a bath.

window seats that over look a chicken yard, plum trees and a pasture....sigh. peaceful.

i have been adding to my lissilulu shop over at etsy. the added hours my family needed for our budget didnt come through so i am returning to my indie business lissilulu. head on over and take a peek...i would love to chat about something special you would like made. :)   lissilulu.etsy.com

hello and apple sauce

I hear crickets here....seriously, sorry friends.

I have missed this place  and will try to be more diligent in making this blog a part of my life again. I have loved having this as a part of my extension of life on here and on my old blog, lissilulu for the past 10 years or so...sharing life with others and vice versa. :)

I feel so happy to have come to the place that I recognize that I miss being here and part of something bigger.

Another thing that I have come to realize is that I really want to be more diligent. I have several great examples of diligent women in my life...one being my own mom. She hunts, butchers, fishes and cans, picks and cans. I know I am not a hunter, but I have 7 apple trees and about the same of plums on my farm.

 
I say less Facebooking and more preserving. It's prime time right now for one of our trees. Although, this tree is the transparent apple tree so we mostly like to eat the apples fresh off of it.

I have been told by Tessa though that I am becoming more and more like Lewie and Carol (the previous home owners) in the way that I want to make sure that the apples that fall from the tree get used properly before anyone picks from the tree. lol!

I have to say that I am more of a protector of that tree than any of the other 6...those transparent apples are soooo tasty!

The apples in the fruit tower are for eating and the ones in the casserole dish, along with others that I will cull that have fallen will be a batch of apple sauce. I might even get adventurous enough to can them instead of freezing it! Livin large! ;)

I think I will pit the plums, cut and freeze them. That's if any of them make it past me eating them. They are sooooo good! The chickens are enjoying them too as they fall in their coop. 

spring in the PNW

 

:: blossoms ::

plum

daffodils

rhodies

lilacs

primroses

-so far and now-

apples

cherries

bluebells 

corn and tomato seedlings are sprouting in the diningroom window and beside them on the floor are 4 chicks growing from down to feathers. i have been digging a strawberry run, but not getting very far. i have high hopes of having 3 runs 2.5x15 ft long...either illness or weather has slowed the progress down to having only dug about 7 ft into one run.

the daylillies and peonies that i transplanted after thinning cramped plants are doing well. i LOVE the idea of more peonies on the property. thinking of planting some daylillies between the neighbor and our mailboxes along the road.