Thinking . . .

Yeah, I know, duck. No, there is nothing burning.

I am thinking of a name change for the farm, the website, etc. The house we live in used to house a gal named Catherine Buxbaum, and she wrote a book called Iowa Outpost. Its out of print, and hard to acquire, but I'm thinking of changing the name to Outpost Nubians. Amon Eruanna is proving to be too strange, too irksome to have to keep explaining, etc.

Here are some pictures of our last smoking adventure. The best batch yet. Very tasty venison summer sausage.


Night before last we had the killing frost. So a new season begins for me, as I can leave the canner put away, at least until after Thanksgiving when there will be venison to can again. We've been making the sausage from last season's venison from the freezer.

The apples are done. I've made over 50 quarts of applesauce, some apple jelly and apple butter, and baked goods here and there . . . Then, this past weekend the hubby and the children took the rest of our apples to a cider press, and we have over 27 gallons of cider in the freezer. Pretty nice!

All my balloons . . .

The above photo was taken on the first day of school. This little green guy, or maybe his brothers and sisters also, has been spotted all over the yard this summer. And now for a tangent jump . . .

Whee! So, I have this little punk imp that lives in the back of my head, and every once in a while she needs appeasment, so that's why my taste in music never seems to mature. Yes, you are shaking your head, and most the time I would agree with you.

So I have stumbled across a band, fairly new I believe, and now this song is stuck in my head, held there by the aforementioned imp.

So google Children 18:3 and listen to that song, or better yet, watch the video. Pretty fun!

first pangs of fall '08

My beloved geek gave me a whole new hard drive just for my photos, so I feel like I'm back in business. There have been a couple of tragedies in my extended family, a couple of funerals, so I'm definitely ready to get back to life here at Amon Eruanna.

Uncounted numbers of folk have waxed poetical about flowers, but have you noticed how they are always there, always able to incorporate some form of delicate beauty into the worst situations, or to celebrate any occasion? Birth, death, sickness, congratulations . . . more than likely you will find a flower of some kind there. Even an ordinary day is set apart when you take a few moments to observe a flower. From just a practical standpoint, they are there to ensure the next season's flowers. From a more abstract one, they remind us of God's diversity, His ability to contain power and emotion in the most delicate petal. Or maybe He just knew that something inside us craves beauty. Our Creator sure knew we needed them, and made them just right.


Ok, and just so you know I haven't been slacking, here is some of our lovely harvest.

aww, applesauce!

We are enjoying, and are very thankful for, a bumper crop of wonderful apples! This past weekend our Des Moines relatives came down, and we spent a lot of Saturday coring and chopping and cooking and milling apples. I was so blessed to have the help! I have a Foley food mill, which is powered by me, and my arm, shoulder and back are quite sore. I ordered the fruit and veg strainer for my kitchen aid today. That, my friends, is powered by electricity, which will be much better on my back, arm and shoulder. But I am glad to report that the applesauce, with 'our secret blend of spices,' turned out pretty good. There is much more to be made. I am also going to can some apple pie filling, and might try making apple jelly. Of course, I will have to make a batch or two of crock pot apple butter.

I picked the last of the grapes today. Last week I made four batches of jelly, so these grapes are going to be made into good old grape juice.

Today my better half tracked down a source for good quality organic pork products to blend with our venison for sausage making. He is really looking forward to firing up that smoker! He loaded the loft in the barn with hay bales today, and the goats had fun nibbling at the bales in the truck bed . . . meals on wheels!

still here

The grapes are ripe. The generous neighbors' peaches are ripe. Our apples are ripening.

The neighbor girl said to me, "No offense, but are you, like, always in the kitchen?"

Well, I did get to get to Knit-n-Wine Friday night, and connected with some dear friends. And got my second blackberry sock started!

Apparently, I've filled up our hard drive with pictures, so I'm waiting until my handy dandy household geek puts the second one in. Then I'll have more pictures up. Until then, you'll find me in the kitchen, canning peaches, applesauce, and grape jelly.

summer is ending

I can't believe the children are back at school, the days are getting cooler, and summer is closing. Time to start planning the late winter/early spring kidding. Thinking about trying to sneak in some late season beets, spinach and radishes. I've canned over 30 quarts of green beans, and I think there still may be a few out there. I'm going to make some homemade catsup, just like my grandma. I've been making some crystal pickles, and Friday I'm going to try my grandma's recipe for lime pickles.

My Uncle Bud has been visiting us, and he picked some wild cherries for me, from which I've made some tasty jelly. He lives in Missouri, but he came up to take us to the Iowa State Fair. We partook in many tasty things on a stick, watched some robots destroy small appliances, and had a lovely time. Pictured is the hackberry butterfly that lit on E4's Iowa State Fair hat. I think one of the big highlights for me was seeing a real live trumpeter swan that was on display at the DNR building! The other was running into some much missed, dear friends.

Jammin' (and Jellyin')

One of the things I really love to do is make jelly and jam. A couple of weeks ago I saw that peaches were priced low at the store, so I made two batches of peach jam and one batch of spiced peach jam, which is so heavenly, its like spreading cobbler on your toast. E1 is responsible for the artistic arrangement above. Maybe we can go into the food styling business when she gets older, huh?

Over the 4th of July weekend I made black raspberry jelly. We ate a little, and now I've hidden the rest of it until the first snowfall this winter. Which is why I made so much peach jam - to keep us out of the b r jelly . . .

This summer I'm also hoping to jelly some blackberries, and we also have some grapes coming. From those I will make jelly and at least one batch of spiced grape jelly, which is a bit different but very good. I'm toying with the idea of making some jalapeño jelly also. That would be good over some of our chevre to serve with crackers, I think. Then later this summer and into fall we will have quite a few apples, so I will make apple butter in the crock pot and put that up into jars as well. And I'm always praying for someone to say, 'we have extra (whatever kind of fruit) , could you use some?' Well my goodness, yes, and I'll start jammin'.