Busy Canning Season!

I have to admit that in between homeschooling the kids I've been canning everything possible. I haven't taken a picture of our canning shelves yet. It's wonderful to see the variety of colors and foods that the Lord has allowed us to preserve. I don't think that I have any green ones, which is kind of unfortunate:). Maybe one of these years we'll have enough cucumbers to make a batch of dill pickles. We had plenty of peas, but the kids only like to eat them fresh, so we didn't think it was worth the extra work. I'm contemplating canning corn in the future too. This year I just dried it and we'll grind it for cornbread this winter. I love when the weather is cool enough in the mornings to motivate me to bake in order to warm the house without succumbing to turning on the furnace. I think it's been around freezing a couple times already, but thanks to all our wonderful quilts we're nice and warm without the furnace yet. Holding out as long as possible:). We have hot cocoa on the really cold mornings and do our chores as fast as possible, which is usually enough to keep us warm til the sun comes out in full force.

School days seem to make the weeks go by even faster than usual. It's hard to believe that we're in our 5th week already! It's October, so we'll probably have some birthday posts coming up. Kiersten, our first prairie born girl, will be turning 4 on Thursday. Amazing how much has happened in those 4 years. January will be our 5th anniversary of moving to Saskatchewan and bring the birth of our 3rd born prairie child:). I find it interesting that our 3 B.C. born children have all gotten car sick while driving through the mountains over the past couple years. Wonder if there's something hardier about the prairie babies:). They definitely had a much colder winter to live through their first 5 months of so. I love the mountains, lakes and rivers, but over time I've found that I like driving through the prairie better. It's more relaxing and the other cars don't seem to be driving so close:).

I hear the timer for supper, so I'm thinking this is a good time to sign off.

Back to Baking...

Baking Day has officially come back! School definitely helps us to be more scheduled and I think everyone is pleased to see containers of baking on the counter again. We've had a couple cooler days this week, which we've definitely taken advantage of. The first one we made 56 jars of jam and syrup. I think this is a personal record for one day and it's nice to see our canning cupboard downstairs filling up in preparation for winter. I know I shouldn't say that word, especially since we haven't had Fall yet, but it's inevitable. Fall is probably the shortest season around here because winter likes to take over before it's official calendar date. We've been enjoying fresh English Muffin Bread, Snickerdoodles and a bit of fruit leather that we made in the dehydrator. It makes me wish we'd had a lot more apples and things, but we're definitely thankful for all the things that the Lord did bless us with. There are still several more batches of jam to be made, but we'll save those for another day.

On another note: We started working up a spot for our new garden. We're really just scratching the surface and will go for more of a deep cultivation in the Spring, but still quite excited about it! Our first garden spot had a frost pocket and the second area seems to be an area that ends up flooding each spring. The new one is close to the house and shouldn't have issues either way. We'll be downsizing for this one, but gradually expanding as the kids get older. Scott loves growing things in his greenhouse and will probably expand that a bit next year instead of a bigger garden. We had an abundance of homegrown watermelon, some cantaloupe, some peppers, ground cherries, lettuce and lemon cucumbers that did well in the greenhouse this year.



4 months or less until we meet this new little one!!!!!

Hidden Hollow Highlights

I'm so far behind with blogging that I just figured I'd just give the highlights of our activities over the past month or so.


We had a fantastic time with the family all here for the barn raising!

We started the 2013/2014 School Year!

Scott completed several independent jobs and started working more regularly for Kindersley Glass.

We had our first Ladies Bible Study and had quite a good turnout of ladies.

The road reconstruction by the church is almost complete. We thought it was done, but then they started putting on another layer.

Scott and the kids slept up in the barn fortress for the first time!

Garrison came down and showed me that he lost his second tooth:).

I had the second ultrasound and everything looks great! Now the name game begins...

Lots and lots of yard work going on around here...

We started Bible Institute Classes at the church on Thursday nights. Pretty good turnout so far:).

Adelaide has a butter addiction and tries to sneak off with it as often as possible...

Elyssia and Garrison had their first spelling tests. 100% for both of them!!!

The hollyhocks are cut down and the rose bushes have been pruned.

My oldest brother went to Nepal and back safely:).

A friend's husband made chief and we rejoiced that she had the opportunity to join him in Japan for the ceremony!

Joanna Seay gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. So excited for them!

We super deep cleaned the house!!! Can you tell I'm excited about that one:)?

We canned peaches and pears for the winter.

The weather has been between 90 and 100 degrees for most of the past 3 weeks. Very unusual to have it hot for so long in this area.

We had our first blackberries ripen. Not sure whether I'd say they taste great. They're definitely not the quality and sweetness of the wild ones back where I grew up.

I made scones this afternoon and I'm off to try one before it's milking time and back to church for the evening service...