Fall 2010 Pictures From our Game Cam

Most of the pictures are like this and we have actually maybe 300 pictures of our neighbor mowing the lawn. Back and forth, back and forth. But I do think there is a deer running in the left part of this one.

But most are like this, just different angles of the sun. We get around 350 pictures every time we check the memory card and like I said, maybe 300 are of the sun.

And like this... more sun.


And then we get some like this.



There she (he?) goes.

Oh no! What is Buster doing back there at 10:00 at night!

And look who else is back there. I hope he is not the one stealing eggs.

Holy crap! What is that! Do I see pointy ears?

A coyote I'm afraid... Yikes! Waaaaaay too close to the chicken yard.

Awww... there they are.

That's an apple tree behind them.

Heading for the apples.

Does she smell something scary? That tail is way up.

Ohhhh yeah! See the antlers?

He's a nice one

Oh, this one sees the camera... or hears it.

I don't think he cares.



Uh oh.............................

LOOK WHAT'S COMING IN!!

Makes my husband's heart beat fast!

WOW! WOW! WOW!

YIKES!

Double YIKES!!

What an amazing buck.

OHHHHHH MYYYYYYY!

He's only coming in around at around 2:00 am. I bet we'll never see him during shooting hours. He didn't get that big by being careless.

I'm just happy that we've gotten these pictures.

Til next time,

Beth

Day Trip to the Ashery

We (meaning me, my two sisters, my cousin Sandi, my Aunt Shirley and my Dad) went south to do some shopping. It was a perfect fall day, lots of sunshine and beautiful scenery. We drove through the back roads, along roads that had no power lines admiring immaculate Amish farms and shops.

We had one particular favorite place in mind for our shopping, the Ashery! It's one of the biggest bulk food stores around. we found lots of great things to buy. (During spellchecking I noticed that my dad is in the picture going into the store.)

I am very happy here cause I'm getting all my good stuff and more importantly, getting away from the crowd. The place was packed!

Can't help but take pictures of the buggy.


A beautiful dairy that we passed.





So impressive. We used to have a really big horse but it was nothing like these giants.

I think this is a schoolhouse. We went by kinda fast.

Some of my treasures. My dad mentioned that his mother (an amazing baker) always put currants in her nut bread so I bought a bag and I will use her recipe and make him some nut bread for Christmas. Her cookbook is the only thing that my dad wanted from her house when she died. He laminated all the pages.

We also stopped at a really great apple orchard who's name I don't remember. I bought a few of these amazing Jonagold apples, simply the best eating apple around!

I also bought a bushel of Granny Smith seconds for only $8.00! So I made this pie and I'm so tired today that I forgot it was in the oven but it was still delicious!

Here's my bushel and like I said I'm so tired I can't muster it up to can them. I did put one batch of pie filling in the freezer.

Kevin found these in the garden yesterday so I also need to blanch these and freeze them, tomorrow I guess.

I even burned the potatoes for dinner, forgot about them too.

I always drink unsweetened ice tea but I even drank a glass of coke for some energy but no luck.

They were good anyway.

Have to add a puppy picture. Look how big. Momma doesn't even have to lay down for them to nurse anymore. Only two weeks, three days old and they are so big.

Til next time,

Beth

Apple Pie Filling, Turkeys and Puppies

Apple Pie Filling Sauce...

I guess that is what you would call it. It starts out watery and ends up like gel. Last year I used a recipe with cornstarch but that's not supposed to be safe so I switched to Clear Jel. I kinda like the cornstarch better. The Clear Jel filling was so thick it was like goo. We'll see when I make something with it.

Bad picture, sorry but it got smooth after a while but was very prone to sticking so I had to stir, stir, stir.


Apples all cut up.

Put in jars and poured syrup over then noticed that the sauce was too thick to get to the bottom so I poured it all out, started over and layered it as I went.

Then capped them up and processed.

Some of the jars were sticky so I think it boiled out so I'll be watching those jars and not filling so much next time.

Looks really pretty though.

Remember the turkey with the broken leg? Well, she is fine and back to roosting on the spot where she got her leg caught. Kevin pounded the hooks off of it so they won't get caught again.

(Eileen, it looks like the one in the middle is a tom and on each side are are two hens so I'll be bringing one over when your ready.)

They are so beautiful!
The tom's starting to gobble and strut, just in time for Thanksgiving. (but we're not eating him though, just yard decoration.)

Newest puppy picture, they are getting so big. If you can count them there are seven in that pile!

Til next time,

Beth

YAAAY! A New CAMERA and PUPPIES!

Finally, finally I have a camera!

And this one I'm pretty excited about, that is if I can learn to use it. It is a Fuji Finepix S1800. It's no fancy, expensive one but I am thrilled with it.

I checked reviews and compared prices til I was seeing double but this one seemed to be the best for me. It's got all kinds of features that I have no idea how to use but I am determined to learn.

It's 12 mega pixel and has a macro function so I tried a closeup of this Honeybee on a Moonflower and then cropped it for a closeup.

I think it looks pretty clear, you can even see the shadow of his little antennas. I'm going to try to crop it closer and see what it looks like...

It still looks pretty clear. Awesome!

I am so excited to play with this camera!

Here's a picture of Husband taking the son out for his first tractor driving lesson. The son is not too excited and he did not enjoy it much. Maybe once he learns he'll enjoy it more... hoping.

Finally the canning season is winding down, when it's apples you know the end is near. I used all of our own apples to make apple butter so off we went to the local orchard to get a bushel of seconds for apple sauce and apple pie filling. Actually I should be making the pie filling and not sitting here typing right now but you know...

Cut them up and cooked them til soft.

Ran them through my wonderful Kitchen Aid Mixer attachment.

Set it on the stove to keep hot...

And filled up the jars and processed. This will be so good all winter.


I also have been experimenting with an apple crisp dessert that will work with a jar of my pie filling. I made this jar last year and this is what I will be making as soon as I get done with this post.

I think I have gotten it perfect!

I want to be able to just empty a jar of the filling and then have a quick apple crisp topping when I need a fast dessert. This was almost perfect but I have to maybe double the topping so it's crunchier around the edges but the flavor was yummy.

And now for some great news......


WE HAVE PUPPIES!

Here's the proud daddy, looking all leisurely cause he didn't do all the work.

Awwww, could you just die?

Shelties normally have three to six puppies, she had EIGHT. Poor thing. The first one was born in the wee hours of the night and I was not there to help her and she must have been so scared that I think she hid from it and it died.

But the second one woke me up crying so I was able to calm her down and help and the rest went pretty well. After each one I kept thinking... oh good, she must be done but ooooh no they kept on coming.

They all have really cute markings. One of the boys has a little white heart shape on it's head. So cute. The other two boys have perfect white collars and the four girls all have a little white that goes up a little on the back of their head, just like their momma.

Their eyes will open in a couple days and then I'm sure all hell will break loose.

But for now they are little angels that sleep all the time.

Although one morning at about 4am I heard a puppy crying and I couldn't find it anywhere. I finally figured out that it had crawled into the hem of a pillow that was exactly the same size as him. There was no way to get him out cause he wouldn't go backwards so I had to cut the pillow open. Crazy.

No words needed.

Mamma below is thinking....

GET ME OUTTA HERE!!!

More pictures to come as they grow!

Til next time, Beth