Last weeks of August

We pulled all of the carrots in our garden; nearly 20 pounds.

For school, Caroline made little imitation boats of the Nina, Pinta & Santa Maria floating across the Atlantic Ocean bathtub water from Spain to America.

We put the canoes in at the river entrance instead of the boat ramp and paddled down the Ninnescah one evening.

Sooo tired after a big day of fun! Cleaned up & sacked out on the floor.

We picked apples and made applesauce. It has been several years since we've had enough apples to make sauce. We have an extra refrigerator in the garage, so we keep a bushel in there all winter long for fresh snacking. And they surely do get snacked...once, twice, three times a day!
  

 

We also dehydrated many batches of apples too. I have to keep these out of sight or they will vanish! They are handy to grab for a last minute snack on the road or when packing lunches. 

More apples for a friends' celebration of Shannon's birthday. Apple Crisp Pizza.

 Biscuits & Sausage Gravy supper for our family celebration of Shannon's 38th birthday.

peanut butter sheetcake for Daddy

Annie made fried won tons with some wrappers that had been in the freezer awhile.

 We had a few giant almost colorless cucumbers that made several pints of dill pickles.

Also...Annie went to an End of  Summer party and baked for Farmers Market again. Riley attended a basketball day camp and had a friend over for the night. Our first homeschool co-op Friday class started up for a new school year. We played softball and ate homemade ice cream at Lemon park on a Sunday evening.

More Tinker General

We are enjoying some fun outdoor toys this late spring and summer. Test driving -and maybe a bit more- is such a treat! Shannon likes the small short jobs and the children like small and big vehicles to ride or drive!

 Baja scooter

Honda Shadow. (I was even persuaded to ride on this one!)

golf cart (We bought it when customer decided not to spend money to fix it. yay!?)

old WD Allis Chalmers 

electric scooter

This kids four-wheeler was quite powerful. Cora especially liked to ride it around the circle drive. She actually got carried away one time when we were all smiling and watching her. She stood up, lost control, and smacked into the house. Oh, the change of expressions was so comical! She was not hurt, though it bent the bike a little.

Shannon had a cement floor poured so he can move his shop into the bigger shed on our property. He traded some mechanic work for part of the job and we've had some various concrete apparatuses lying around.

power trowel

And another pint-size four-wheeler. 

Standing up again! This time on a straight run. Phew, no mishaps!

Such fun! Little joys! Life is good!

The First full Week In August (A Week In Review #4)

Our week started out with a lovely dinner invitation after church service Sunday morning August 3. Later in the day we delivered some food to young friends that had a new baby and older friends who are having health challenges.We had nice catch-up visits with each in the homes we were in.

The children spent some together time reading new library books. Caroline likes the Boxcar Children series, Annie has been reading some American Girl mysteries and Marguerite Henry titles. Riley doesn't check any out, he just picks one up at home and starts in. Here they're munching popcorn as they relax.

We made our first fresh salsa of the year! Just enough to eat on. Our hot peppers aren't quite ready so we used some canned jalapenos. Caroline mostly made it herself, stirring in great pieces of fresh parsley...too much effort to chop finely, you know. The rest of the ingredients she whizzed in the blender. Quick and easy!

We also used some garden tomatoes in broiled Southwest Sandwiches. Mmmm.

Caroline fashioned some swinging tree houses for her and the little girls. They love to relax hanging and swaying!

More tomatoes eaten; in basil pesto pasta this time.

A lovely birthday lunch at Lemon park with a thoughtful friend! She sent me home with a very delicious chocolate chip angel food cake and blackberry jam as well! The details are so delightful!

We have many striped caterpillars on the parsley, dill, and carrot tops in the garden. A few were jarred to watch the metamorphosis process. Meg loves "wooms", whether we're catching them to observe or picking them off leaves to squish. She spots them, but won't touch!

And last but certainly not least, we went canoeing twice up the Ninnescah River with our newly purchased canoe and other borrowed canoe and kayak. Such fun for everyone!

Summer Food, Prepared and Unprepared

Some pictures of the yummy pretties we ate in July...

Sunday night funnel cakes

fresh pineapple honeydew kabobs

one morning of homestead harvest: mulberries, sand plums, squash, beans, & radishes

pineapple mint slushy (We pitched this new recipe, but it looked pretty in the blender!)

Tea party fare in the living room. I'm not sure why the girls like to set it up on the floor??

Crock baked potatoes, loaded, with fresh garden chives.

more garden bounty, beans, radishes, turnips, cucumbers, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, & pepper

Tomato Basil Tart and fried taters.

Tomato Basil Tart
from The Complete Encyclopedia of Vegetables and Vegetarian Cooking

Pastry:
1/2 c flour
pinch salt
1/2 c butter
1 egg yolk

5 oz mozzarella, sliced or shredded
4 large tomatoes, thickly sliced
about 10 basil leaves
2 T olive oil
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
salt & freshly ground black pepper

To prepare pastry, combine flour and salt, then rub in butter and egg yolk. Add enough cold water to make a smooth dough. Wrap in plastic and chill for 1 hour. Roll out into an 8 inch round. Press into base of an 8 inch pie pan. Prick all over with a fork and bake 10 minutes at 375*. Reduce oven to 350*. Arrange mozzarella over pastry shell. On top, arrange a single layer of tomatoes, overlapping slightly. Dip the basil in oil and arrange on tomatoes. Scatter the garlic on top, drizzle with the remaining oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake 30-40 minutes until the tomatoes are well cooked. Serve hot.

I usually make a different crust that isn't so butter-hungry, but this original is supreme!