Queen Anns Lace

Queen Anns Lace

Maya, the Spud (thats the dog) and I went out for a short walk this morning. It turned into a nature walk. We saw butterflys, crickets, milk weed, butter cups, burdock, wheat grass, some pretty purple flowers and lots of Queen Anns lace.

We picked some QAL and brought it home with us. Maya cut the stems and placed each in a little colored water. We are waiting to see how long they take to change color. Fun.

Ahhhh Soup!

Lordy Lordy- Look at all the soup!

Its done! Done! Done!

44 Quarts of Beef and Barley and 42 Quarts of Chicken. Thats alot of soup. This is my photo shop version of what that looks like. Wo!

We ended up doing a x12 version of the chicken recipe. The last 4 put the girls over the edge. Yikes. The attitudes took a dive when I put those birds on the table for picking.

We did find a good way to pass the time while we each pick the meat off a boiled bird though. We played ABC games. We even made one up. "I married a celebrity (you have to name the hotty) and we named our beautiful child ________". You take turns. The first one names their kid a wacky name starting with A and the next one starts their kid off with B. Of course celebrities have an unfortunate knack of staining their children with horrid insane names so the game is a blast. Good practice for Maya too with ABC order and beginning sounds.

Anyway- now we are all rejoicing.

HURRAY!!!!!!

MORE soup ALREADY !?!?!?

More Soup Already!?
This is what the girls shouted when I said today was the day for chicken soup.

This soup is alot less work than the beef and barley.
All the girls chipped in with the cutting while I worked on the soup stock.

Again, I bought the veggies but we had the chickens we raised last year on hand. We are just starting with a X8 batch. Not sure how many quarts that will get us. We will make more as needed. Shooting for around 35-40 quarts. This is the 3rd time doing this soup. I like it because you can just chuck in a little rice, noodles, potatoes, or even dumplings- whatever- and you have an instant meal.

Wonderful hand me downs.

When Grams,

Great Aunt Judy and Aunt Rae

came to visit for the wedding they did a great thing. They brought a big ol bag of hand me down clothes for the girls.

Not much delights the members of this family more than a black garbage bag of treasures.

Vayda was inspired by this pair of mossy green vallure over-alls. I thought the look rocked and made her pose for some snap shots.

What a cutie!

Puppet Show.

We had to stop the canning action to view a fabulous puppet show written and directed by Maya Rae and neighbor Saige and performed behind our couch. It was titled- "The Hunt" and had alot of critters eating a lovely couple...? Hummmm. Anyway- it was cute enough to grab the camera for ;)

Beef and Barley Soup.

I have wanted to make beef and barley soup since last year but never got to it. Well, we have now!


I found a great recipe on the internet. We spent an entire day cutting veggies. 50 carrots diced is no small feat!!! Yikes. The girls survived the great effort. Everyone kept a good attitude too. We made a total of 44 quarts in all. It took 3 days of presure canning.

I had to purchase the carrots, onions, garlic, celery and seaonings but we had the 4 roasts on hand.

In the end they cost .89 cents each!

The soup tastes great. Yum.

Wedding Day!

My second step son, Aaron, married his long time girl friend, Shelley on Sunday the 15th. It was a lovely Baha'i wedding. We all had a nice time. I will add pictures when we get them back. In the mean time- this is what I made for the wedding gift.