A Moving Update

Happy Lord's Day everyone!  This is just a quick update on our move.
My mom is here helping us pack and we are hoping to sleep in the new house tomorrow! The new owners take possession of our house on Wednesday.
We are just praising the Lord because He is showing us daily that He is in control of this whole move.
I might not have internet hooked up for a few weeks, so I will try to post pictures as soon as I can.
Have a blessed Sunday.

A Big Change Coming - We're Moving

Some posts are harder to write than others and this happens to be one of those posts.  Now it's not because I'm sad, because I am over that, it is because the Lord has been teaching us something that I really want to be able to explain properly.

I'll go back to the beginning of July when Larry and I tried to refinance our mortgage to pay off some of our bills. We realized we were getting nowhere fast and had to do something.  Well, our broker told us there was no way we could do as we wanted and maybe we should look into selling our farm and look for something less expensive. When Larry said that out loud, I just went to bed and cried, and cried and cried some more. We have been here for over 6 years, almost the longest I've lived anywhere in my life. But Larry said he wouldn't make us move because he saw how upset it made me. THEN, it struck me that the idea actually made sense and would be best thing for us. Larry has to work SO hard just to make minimum payments, it just didn't seem fair to him to stay on.

But this is when we both just started to look to the Lord. I guess we got in this situation partly from the year Larry had been seriously injured by his semi truck and couldn't work and maybe mostly because we hadn't been waiting for guidance from the Lord in our finances and even though I have been very careful with our money the last 4 years, we just really needed to FULLY trust in God.

If we would just have remembered these verses that most Christians know off by heart we might not have gotten in such a situation.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths."
Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV

So, I started looking for something we could afford, but still in the country in our area. And I found only one property on Kijiji (like Craig's List).  It was a duplex, made into a single dwelling, moved onto 7.6 acres on a basement. We went and looked at it on July 14th and knew that this would be the only house that really would be an option for us. But, praying all along that God would completely close the door if it wasn't where He wanted us.

We put our house for sale on the same website about a week later. We couldn't afford a realtor.  We just prayed about what amount of money we needed and trusted God to send buyers or not send buyers if that was His will. Well, within 2 weeks we had 2 offers! One couple had to sell their house first, so we gave them 2 weeks, but they didn't sell it. So, we let the second couple have a go at it. It took about 2 weeks but they have everything settled to take possession September 26th. 

While we were waiting, I started to worry that the house we wanted to buy would be sold and we would have to rent something. That wouldn't be so bad, but we have animals and I wanted to bring most of my apple orchard with me!  But Larry said, if God wants us there, nothing will stop that from happening. So, we just prayed that if God wanted us there that it would still be available.  Larry phoned the man who was selling the  house and told him that we were just waiting to hear back from the couple's bank to see if they could buy our house and I can't believe what he said! Well, I should believe it because God is so awesome. He said that other people were interested, but he told them he was just waiting to see if we could buy it first. Larry didn't even ask him to do that, even though I wanted him to. God was making a way and showing us that He is in control.

But God really wanted us rely on Him. So, it was almost as if He was holding up a candle so that we could take one little step at a time and not see anything ahead in the darkness. Like Psalm 119:105 says, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path"  We really didn't know where God would lead us, but we kept going on the path of open doors. If He closed a door, we would wait and pray for the direction of the next step.

So, we stayed the course and went to a lawyer, had offers written up, sent everything off to our broker and waited. We had to wait about a week to hear, because some things had to still be done, but we finally heard the news that we were all approved and could buy the house.

This is not what we want to do, but it makes sense. We have so much stuff and the new property doesn't have the outbuildings that we have here to store stuff in. So, we have to use an old wooden garage for a barn and we bought a 53' trailer to move everything and then to use as storage there.

But, I feel completely at peace about it. I really feel this is where God wants us and somehow He will bless us there.

I will write more about the move and share pictures soon. The only reason I even wrote this post is because we ran out of boxes to pack in and I wanted to share how good God is and praise His name. He is mighty and powerful.  And to share that the only reason I didn't completely lose my marbles during this whole process, IS because of my trust in the Lord and knowing that no matter what happens, God is here with us and I can find joy it that.

"....do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Nehemiah 8:10

I felt like I was on a roller coaster ride with my emotions during this whole process. If it looked like we would move, I'd be sad about leaving our farm. But, if it looked like we could stay, I would wonder how we could ever get ahead. So I had to keep this verse close in my mind;

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

Philippians 4:6-7

God is good!





This post is linked up to - Raising Homemakers Link Up & Thankful Homemaker Link Up

In The Kitchen

Wow! This time of year can be hectic. With the harvest, preserving and school starting. But it is so rewarding to pick what you have grown and preserve it into something yummy that you can enjoy in the months to come. And it is such a joy to see my children learn and be excited about learning. Well, I have been busy in the kitchen the last week and school has been SLOWLY starting. Here are some of the foods I've been able to put up.

I was only able to can 10 quarts of Dill Pickled Beets this year. Usually I can 49 quarts as I am able to sell quite a few. Oh well, we will enjoy them this year.

My friend traded me some cucumbers for some of my zucchini. So I was able to make 5 pints of Bread and Butter Pickles. My mom always made THE BEST bread and butter pickles and she lost her recipe of course. I tried once a few years ago and they were horrible! So I tried again and they turned out very well.  I also made the most fabulous, simple Apple Juice.  This apple juice tastes just like from the store, with no weird after taste or anything. This is how I made it:

Cut apples in half and fill a big pot. (I used hard, sour, bigger green apples)

Sprinkle 1-2 Tbsp cream of tartar over the apples.

Now fill the pot with boiling water

Put the lid on it and let it sit for 24 hours

Strain juice (I used a colander with a paper towel in it)

Now you can freeze this juice or can it.

I brought the juice to a boil with about 1 cup of sugar

Sterilized my quart jars in the canner for 10 mins

I processed the quarts for 30 mins.

My son is so picky and he loved it. I also thought it tasted very good, although I do not like apple juice.

This is what the apples looked like after they sat in the pot for 24 hours.

I also made fruit leather. I basically made apple sauce, then I added 1/2 a pint of super hard apricot jam I made a few years back. It set way to firm to use, so I use it for cooking with. Then I lined my cookie sheets with parchment paper. I really try not to use parchment paper too much, because it is so expensive here, but I have tried everything else and parchment paper really works the best. Besides, it doesn't take that much to make these. I spread out the apple sauce fairly thick and even. Then I put 2 cookie sheets in the oven at 200 degrees. for about 6 hours. I had to do this a number of times for all the batches. So eventually, I just put them in the oven after I had baked supper, with the oven off. After letting them sit in there for about 2 hours, I turned the oven on to 200 for about 1 hour, then I turned it off again and  let them sit in the oven over night. These ones had such a nice texture. Then I cut them into strips lengthwise and rolled them up and put them in a bag in the fridge.

When I was looking on a link up somewhere, I can across this recipe for homemade pizza sauce from Foy Update. A neighbour had just given me a bunch of tomatoes, so I thought I would try it. We have been using Ragu as pizza sauce and it isn't that good, but cheap. When I was finished canning up 3 pints, there was still about 1/2 a pint left. So, I made a greek pizza with a precooked, homemade pizza crust I had in the freezer. This sauce is really good. It has a fresh taste, not like Ragu. For a greek pizza, I spread the sauce on the crust. Then spread mozzarella cheese all over. On top, I added, thinly sliced onions and green peppers. I baked this until cooked. After it is cooked, I add fresh chopped tomatoes and feta cheese on top. In the background in this picture, you can see the apple juice I made from small red, sweet apples. I used the same technique as mentioned above, but these apples made a different tasting juice. I am going to use it for Hot Apple Cider in the fall and winter. I will pour a quart or 2 (depending on how many friends are over) into my crock pot with some whole cloves and cinnamon sticks. This will be a very nice on our cold winter days.

Well, now I am just waiting for my tomatoes to ripen, which will probably have to happen inside. I estimate that I will have about 40 pounds. And I still need to pick our yellow crooked neck squash. It will be very nice to be done with all of this and just start to enjoy fall, as it seems to have set in around these parts.

God bless you all.

 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

New King James Version (NKJV)

This post was liked up to Homestead Revival Barn Hop

My Little One is 6

On Friday we celebrated Jacob's 6th birthday. He was so very excited! All he wants is to grow up big like his Daddy and get a job and boy can that kid work! But it was nice just to have a fun day, really thanking God for giving us such a huge blessing in Jacob. He is our baby and there will be no more for us, so I have to savor every moment of his childhood.

Rebekah gave Jacob his favorite thing - Marshmallows! and big ones at that.

Jacob and Ben roasting some marshmallows

Silly faces

Later, we had friends over for hot dogs and cake. Grandparents phoned throughout the day with birthday wishes. Jacob absolutely enjoyed his day and I really enjoyed watching my little one grow up just a little bit more.

Around the Farm Part 2

Now for part 2 of this awfully long post. You can find part one here.  Back to all that zucchini. You all are probably getting tired of hearing about zucchini, but this is a first for me and I want to remember what I did with it next year. First, I made stuffed zucchini with the smaller ones. A dear friend had given me some small zucchinis from her garden and I had a few smaller ones as well. So I made greek stuffed zucchini.

I just cut them in half lengthwise. Then I scooped out the insides. I chopped up the insides and cooked them in some oil with salt, pepper, garlic powder, greek seasoning and onions.

I added this to a mixture of bread crumbs. Which I made with my coffee grinder. I love this tool. I even use it to grind my 7 grain cereal that I add to my homemade bread. My hubby doesn't love multi grain bread and the pearl barley hurts my teeth when I bite into it, so grinding it up is a great solution. I like that it doesn't grind it all to powder, we still get some bigger grains. I also added chopped tomatoes, feta cheese and copped frozen lambs quarters. You would use lambs quarters as you would spinach. It is a weed, but it is wonderful. I only picked this one package this year. You can see my post about lambs quarters here.  Then I stuffed the zucchini halves and baked them at 350 degrees for about 35-40 mins. Then I froze them on a cookie sheet and then put them in a zip lock bag.

   

Bread crumbs, feta, tomatoes and "spinach" for stuffed zucchini

I also made a big stock pot full of Italian Beef and Zucchini Soup. I divided it up between 5 zip lock bags and froze them. When we eat this, I will add cooked macaroni.

My favorite thing I made with the zucchini was Sweet Relish.  It is SO GOOD! We go through a lot of relish on hot dogs and hamburgers and this is so much better than the no name stuff I always buy. I have just enough zucchini left to make one more batch, which will make 11 pints altogether. Just enough to last a year. If I knew how easy and good this relish would be, I would have tried harder to grow zucchini other years. I looked on the internet for a recipe and put together one from looking at a few.

This is the recipe I used;

12 c shredded zucchini

4 c onion

5 Tbsp canning salt

Mix all these in a non-metallic bowl. Cover and let sit over night in the fridge. The next day, rinse and squeeze out the water.

Then place the following in a big pot;

1 red pepper, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

5 c sugar

3 c vinegar

1 Tbsp cornstarch

2 tsp dry mustard (I am going to use mustard seed in my next batch instead)

1 tsp turmeric

2 tsp celery seed

1 tsp pepper

3/4 tsp nutmeg. 

Add the zucchini and bring to a boil. Simmer for 30 mins. Pack in 5 sterilized pint jars and process in a hot water bath for 30 mins. I processed mine for 35 mins because of our higher altitude.

Now onto a new subject.  Our neighbour called and asked if we could use some apples. Well our trees don't have that much on them, so I jumped at the chance to go pick some.  Rebekah is in the picture below peeling an apple. I was able to make 4 apple crisps - one to eat that night and 3 big ones for the freezer. Our neighbour told me that her apples cooked up mushy, so that is why I made crisps out of them. She said we could come get more, which I might do so I can make fruit leather.

The kids and I also went into town to pick chokecherries. They grow along the river there. We picked enough to make 8 cups of juice. I already used 2 cups to make a batch of Crab Apple Chokecherry Jelly- a favorite in our house.

We have had other vegetables from our garden too, such as sweet corn. This corn is so incredibly sweet and it grows so well. I always plant Earlivee corn.  We picked it all and processed it. We only enjoyed 15 corn on the cobs. I wanted to get as much as I could into the freezer for winter. We eat corn about 5 nights per week.  I always cut the corn off the cob first and then boil it. We were able to put up 8 lbs of corn kernels. I have more growing in one of our pumpkin patches, but I'm not sure how well it has done.

Our neighbour that had the apples also had sour cherries. I have never had these before or used them in baking. We picked a box full. I am just pitting them and freezing for now. I think I would like to make some cherry pies.  If anyone has a great pie recipe or any other recipes that use sour cherries, could you leave a comment with a link or the recipe? I would really appreciate it.

So, now we will continue with the harvest. I look forward to pickling my beets and the cucumbers my friend gave me this week.

This post is linked up to Homestead Revival Barn Hop #76

Around the Farm Part 1

I wanted to use this opportunity to show all our family, friends and blog friends some of what's been happening on our farm.  When we moved here 6 years ago from British Columbia, I had a dream of having a u-pick apple orchard with pumpkin patch and all sorts of kids activities. Such as games, wagon and horse rides and have a full concession with a store.  We planted the apple trees 5 years ago and more 4 years ago and we have been having a public pumpkin patch for 5 years now.  Well, finally this year we have had some apples on about 6 trees out of about 60 trees. We were pretty excited! In the picture below you will see a variety of apples called, Parkland. They are very yummy.

Our pumpkins are doing incredibly well this year. We hope to have a concession at our Pumpkin Patch this year along with a little store where I can sell homemade jams and jellies and lots of really nice household items. Like shabby chic place mats, cute salt and pepper shakers, etc. I have a huge collection of vintage household utensils and other wares to sell as well.  Some of our pumpkins look to be about 15-20 lbs already. Our white pumpkins, jamboree and jack-b-quik's seem to be taking longer, but our weather forecast is looking favorable and hopefully they will come along.  The next 2 pictures are of one of our pumpkin patches and the third one is of the gourds.

 

This year was the first year in my life that I was able to grow zucchini! Really, I have tried, but nothing ever grew. This year a lot grew!  In the picture below are some of the zucchinis I got out of the garden, (I traded the big one (8lbs) and a medium one for a ice cream bucket of cucumbers with a friend), and my only red tomato, (although the plants are loaded), my only cucumber and some of the apples the boys picked.

Ben and Jacob had a blast grating up the zucchini in the food processor.

I have lots more to share, but my computer has been so slow in uploading these pictures. So I will have Part 2 of Around the Farm coming up. Stay tuned...

On The Home Front

I love summer. There are so many different activities to do before winter sets in and we stay mostly indoors.  The last couple of weeks have been no exception.  First, our church hosted VBS. They put on a program by Answers in Genesis called, "The Incrediworld Amazement Park". It taught about God's creation and how he did it in 6 days. It was lots of fun and this was the first year that Rebekah could be a crew helper. I was happy they paired her with me. We had fun leading our crew everyday.

Rebekah, waiting for the VBS day to begin.

Playing games outside.

When we playing games outside, the bees were SO BAD.  A crew leader was stung one day and then that night I had coffee with some homeschool moms and one of them had a great tip. When you get stung, quickly pour some bleach onto a cloth or paper towel and dab it on the bee sting. I had to draw attention to that tip because just the next day, a little boy on our crew was stung. Luckily my friend who was helping with the toddlers reminded me of what our friend had said. We were right next to the cleaning closet and got out the bleach. Now this boy was screaming real bad and when we dabbed the bleach on, he just stopped. It was really amazing. Thank you Chris!

After our fun at VBS, we decided to use up one of our 3 family passes to Science World that the kids won by entering a coloured picture of the weather and sending it into the news station. 

The family pretending to fly a jet in the airport activity area at Science World

Jacob playing with the water activity center

Rebekah looking at something that seems really interesting.

That night, we thought it would be nice to cool off at the brand new water park our town has opened. But when we got there it was already having some technical difficulties. So we just played at the park next to it. Then we went to McDonald's so the kids could redeem the free ice cream cone coupons they won at the County Fair for playing the games they had set up.



Here is part of the water park. This is going to be such a blessing on hot days.

 We have also enjoyed a day at the beach and went bowling for the first time as a family (minus Larry).  I was worried that the summer was just going by and we have been so busy with other things, like the garden and running errands. I just wanted to have some fun with the kids before it starts getting dark at 4:30 in the afternoon. So this is a good start. We hope to have a bon fire for Jacob's 6th birthday next week so he can eat one of his favorite foods - marshmallows! And we will purpose to really enjoy what few days of summer we have left, all the while happily anticipating, my favorite season, fall.

I have linked this post to Homestead Revival Barn Hop #76 and Raising Homemakers