Thanksgiving

Hi readers, just taking a little time to say THANK YOU to all of you for reading. I hope you enjoy some of what you read and get a laugh now and again.  Thanksgiving in the USA is this coming Thursday. It is a holiday for us to reflect on everything we are thankful for. I have SO much I am thankful for.

Here is a short list:

My faith
My family
My readers
My friends
My home
Good food to eat
A nice home to live in
My pets
Love

Take a minute and think about all you are thankful for this holiday season. Peace and blessings to each one of you.

Love,
Deb

November backyard beauty

The other day I was out in the yard and had to stop in the yard and enjoy. Not often in November is there such beauty still blessing my back yard. Well this year it did so I thought I would share some of this late season beauty with you. I hope you enjoy as much as I did. What a wonderful way to count Sunday morning blessings.

A frozen red rose.

Multi-colored rose.

Purple mums.

Pink tea roses.

Red rose.

Yellow rose.

Apples

Yep first it was peaches, now it is apples.

100's and 100's of pounds of apples.

Enough apples to make me whimper in defeat.

Here is a nice shot of some apples freshly picked.

This shot here is of some BBA's as I call them. Big beautiful apples still on the trees.

This shot here is of one of the trees.  You can see a the top how the branches broke from all the apples.

Dehydrated apples are SO yummy and easy to make. This first shot is of the apples freshly sliced and placed on the dehydrator shelves. Yes, I hand peel and cut each apple. Hubby helped to peel when he wasn't picking.

This shot is what those apples look like when finished. Still nice and extremely flavorful.

Here is a sampling of some apple pie filling for great desserts this winter.

The final photo is a sampling of the apples we gave away to food pantries and homeless shelters. I just added it up and we gave 1,030 pounds of apples to these places alone! That does not count all the apples I processed, the apples we gave to friends and family, and the apples that ended up in the garbage because the were not edible.

I put away all my canners, jars, and supplies tonight. I have the dehydrator doing the last batch of apples. Canning season is officially over. My gosh now it is holiday time.... Just shoot me now.

The Nation's Capital

Well after all these years of traveling for work I finally got to see the nation's capital - Washington D.C..  I am glad that I finally got to see some of these historic sites. I was VERY VERY lucky to even get to see anything as we were there the week before the government shut the doors on these wonderful historic landmarks.

The trip was for work. We had to go learn about a new planning software program we are implementing and the company had a conference to share ideas and learn new things. We had to leave on a Sunday morning at 6am!!!! Now that is just crazy but our company will not let us fly direct so it took 6 hours to get there as we had to fly to Dallas first.  We arrived around 1pm - took the metro to our hotel and checked in. The metro stop was right across the street from our hotel so it was wonderful and easy to travel around the city using that system. One of the ladies aunt had some metro cards so we used those! It was fun. We only got caught one time during a busy time where we were VERY close to all the other riders. The other lady I was traveling with is so tiny she had to hang onto me as she was unable to reach the bar to hang onto in the subway car. It was a hoot! Of course we were so packed in she wouldn't have gone far anyway.

So anyway, on that Sunday after check-in we headed to "the mall" which is Capitol hill area not a shopping mall. We began to walk, and walk, and walk, and walk some more. We walked for 6+ hours straight!!! I do not know how many miles but it was over 8 miles.  Next I will just show you some of the sites I did see during my stay. We didn't just walk on Sunday. On Monday after our training we went to Georgetown and walked up and down the entire shopping area. Tuesday we went back to the downtown area and ate at the Old Ebbit Grill. I guess this is where all the political folks hang out but I didn't look for anyone. I just enjoyed the restaurant and the decor.   On Wednesday we went back to "the mall" and walked some more and toured a few of the Smithsonian's before heading to the airport for our late flight back home.

I learned a lot at the conference and saw a lot of historical sites. My brain was full of both by the time I got home. It was a good thing and I am glad I went.  Now we will get into the photo portion of this blog. These are just a few of the things I saw. I didn't even take many photos after Sunday.


I have always liked the Lincoln memorial when I saw it in movies or on TV. I was not disappointed when seeing it in person either. It was even more impressive I would say because I got to see the outside of the monument in addition to the statue itself. I thought it was great and the view from the steps was awesome!

This is a different shot of the Washington monument.  There was an earthquake a couple years ago and to make it safe again it needs major repairs.  The stuff all around the monument is scaffolding to aid in the repairs. I like to think I got a unique view of this monument.

Here is the famous White House. I was surprised how far away from "the Mall" it was. There were a lot of other federal buildings near here but they were all drab and dull. This really stood out and was a beautiful building from what I could see from this distance. It looked like they were getting ready for some sort of event later as there were tents and musical equipment set up in the corner of the lot.

After all that walking around we decided we should see Arlington cemetery. I am very glad we did even if that meant another 2 mile walk...up to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  That was an extremely moving experience to watch the changing of the guard.  I was impressed!

 

Another shot of the guard marching after the changing ceremony was completed.

Click on the link below for:

Video from changing of the guards.

Here is a shot from Lincoln memorial looking over to the Washington monument.

And finally a shot of a tiger jumping out of the Smithsonian. Loved it.

Sorry it took so long to post...

Peaches.

Beautiful yellow round orbs. I think it is my favorite fresh fruit.
Sweet, fuzzy, extremely juicy.
A fruit in the almond family, yes a peach.

The good: This food is very low in Saturated Fat, Cholesterol and Sodium. It is also a good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Niacin and Potassium, and a very good source of Vitamin C.
The bad: A large portion of the calories in this food come from sugars.

Peaches have been consuming my life for the past 2-3 weeks. They were EVERYWHERE in my home. The entry way, the refrigerators, the counter tops, the garage, the laundry room, the freezer....ahhhhhhhhhh.

I made spiced peaches, frozen peaches, peach sauce, canned peaches, peach jam, peach cobbler, and peach crisp.

We had 3 trees that over produced. We had literally 100's of pounds of peaches.  In addition to all the canning and freezing and cooking I did, I also gave peaches to friends, family, coworkers, the church, and people walking down the street. OK so maybe not to people down the street but I did give 150 pounds (yes you read that right) to the local food pantry.

I'm tired and there are two fully loaded apple trees staring at me every day begging me to lighten their load.
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

So hard to find...

It sure is hard to find good blogs to read.  I actually went out hunting numerous times with minimal luck.

One blog was purported to be funny, slightly offensive content. Sounds perfect for me. I viewed it and even subscribed. Very disappointed. All this blogger does is copy things from other places and stick on their blog in hopes of making a few bucks. No credit to the originator and absolutely NO ORIGINAL CONTENT!  I want to read a blog where the person actually contributes something to their blog not just stealing content from other sites and blogs.

Next search was for what I call "mom" blogs. These are blogs other moms write about their experiences raising their children. Baby mom bloggers are flourishing. They are nursing their babies and typing up blogs about poop and feeding and methods to get kids to sleep. I am past that stage so I refine my search to older kids.  I hear the wind whistling in the trees. Luckily a friend at work found this blog Erika and I follow her now. She is a hoot (big smile) and I think we would get along well.

Clean eating, I found a blogger whom I enjoy reading. She is a clean eater and has great recipes but her blog link quit working. I don't know if it is a blogger thing or if she went to a new format so now instead of seeing her blogs I have to go hunting for them. More work = less visits to her site.

My last complaint of the day is when I do get a blog I want to follow they only update once every 4-6 months. I need more fixes than that!!!! I know we all get busy and I have been guilty of going to long between posts but at least I do try.

Still no luck on gardening blogs. They must all be out pulling weeds or squashing bugs. (Pun intended there for your gardeners.)

So if anyone knows of good bloggers for teenage kids, slightly offensive content, or gardening/healthy eating I'd be happy to hear from you in the comment section. Heck I'd even be open to bloggers with a multitude of other things they write about as long the content is original and updated regularly.

Canning - canning - oh and more canning

The blogging is suffering.

Canning this time of year takes precedent.

This week has been green beans, corn, blackberries with relish yet to be made.

Last week was green beans, beets, blackberry jam and cucumbers/pickles.

On top of canning you need to include the items we are eating fresh that take time to dice, slice, and otherwise prepare for eating.

Oh yes, did I mention I dehydrate food also? This year it is zucchini! They taste like chips :-)

Horrors I don't even have any photos of the completed work but I do have one photo from last week showing the beets before I processed them.

So blogging will start up again, just not much before the frost hits! :-)