Presidents Day Weekend Pt 2

Next up was Sunday in our weekend adventure. It turned out to be a cold and windy day, I was thankful for the good weather the day before. We turned our attention to indoor projects I had planned. In our weekly CSA box we had gotten a ton of kiwi and they were everywhere, I had also ordered a 10 lb bag of ugly apples and a few weeks ago I had ordered a bag of oranges. I wanted to use this fruit before it spoiled so canning it was.

First up were the apples.

I bought these with the intention of making apple sauce for Katie, it is one of her favorite foods.

First I cored and sliced them.

Then cooked them in and inch of water.

After running them through the food mill they were processed and here you have apple sauce. 10 lbs of apples plus a few more came out to about 4 quarts.

Next it was time to deal with the kiwi. I found a recipe for Kiwi Jam in the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving. The recipe uses kiwi, pectin, sugar and pineapple juice. We had about twelve kiwi and this used them all. First, I peeled and chopped them.

The ingredients were mixed and cooked then I added the sugar and cooked it more. 

We canned and processed it and now have kiwi jam.

The biggest challenge was the oranges, there is not much you can do with them but eat or juice them and we were not eating fast enough. When looking for something to do with kiwi the thought occurred to me that you can can oranges too, orange marmalade it was to be from the same cookbook as the Kiwi Jam.

Oranges are sliced, I think they look like little suns.

Peels are removed.

The oranges pulp  is chopped and some of the peel along with sliced lemon are mixed and heated to a simmer. 

Next the mixture has to sit in a cool area for 12-18 hours so that puts it into day three of the weekend. Who knew marmalade needed resting time...not me, but the garage is a nice cool area for it to rest.

Presidents Day Weekend Pt 1

Presidents Day weekend presents a wonderful opportunity to get projects done around the house. In the back yard this year we are planning not only a garden but I want to landscape it as well. In the week before the holiday my brother tilled the entire back yard. The little flags are the sprinklers, wouldn't want to run the tiller over those!

Saturday morning Katie went out to check on the work and dig a little to make sure it was done right.

The first delivery was of shredded bark, there is going to be a border along the fence and around the pomegranate tree. 

Inside the border will be bark to help keep the weeds down and keep the water in. The sprinklers along the fence are going to be changed into a drip system so when the sprinklers are running the drip system will be watering the pomegranate, grapes and whatever else gets planted along there. 

Next came the delivery of mulch, a much larger pile than last year.

The first thing Katie did was go for a hike.

Then in true southern California fashion she started making "dirty snowman". 

The work began getting all of the mulch to the backyard, my goal was to finish before the sun went down.

Katie worked hard helping at the beginning, pushing and pulling the wagon.

She also helped Uncle dump the wagon and make sure it was empty.

She tried very hard to help shovel as well,  next year she will be a pro at this.

By the afternoon much of the yard was covered. We were trying for three inches of mulch where the garden is going and one inch on the rest. There will be corn planted in this far end of the yard which will expand the garden this year.

Later in the evening we were finally getting the pile down, Katie desperately wanted to help and we were racing sunset at this point so she started shoveling more.

So close to being done! I am glad to say that we did finish and were all exhausted by the time the sun went down.

It is that time of year again...

The garden is underway. There had been a major lack of winter this year so a few weeks ago my brother planted the first round of seeds, kale, broccoli and some herbs. Then recently Katie helped plant the next round.

The first round are getting pretty big.

Here are the ones Katie planted, just starting to sprout.

We have  moved the plant shelving in the garage this year with the mild weather, so far it is working out good. We will soon be working on the backyard getting the ground ready for the garden and attempting to landscape the rest of the backyard.

Babies coming...

Two of my AmeriCorps *NCCC team members announced that they were pregnant a little while ago. First is Jodi who announced she was having a baby boy, he is due February 29. Next was Anna who is evening out the boy/girl ratio with a baby girl due three weeks later in March. 

What better reason to get busy sewing and make some baby quilts! I chose the Baby Lattice Quilt by Amy Smart through the Moda Bake Shop using Lily and Will and Lily & Will II. I did not take many in progress pictures but I was really happy with how they came out.

Before quilting:

After quilting and binding:

A closer look at the binding and the back fabric:

After quilting and binding:

Another look at the top:

A closer look at the binding and back fabric:

Hopefully these will keep the new babies comfortable and warm.

Throw the bean bag...

Recently my Mother saw the bean bags at her library and decided to to try cleaning them. When you think about it bean bags at the library can be a little disgusting after hundreds of storytimes. She took them apart, discovered rice inside, cleaned the fabric then put them back together. Katie was very excited to have the bean bags around. I had been meaning to make some bean bags for awhile but never gotten around to it. Well the cleaning of the library bean bags was motivation. We went to the fabric store looked for some fabric, we found a remnant of a very Katie fabric. It is an outdoor canvas and very heavy duty.

My Mom cut the fabric, sewed bags then filled them with rice.

Katie really likes her bean bags, she throws them around and dances with them. Olive likes them too.