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Strawberry Pie Filling

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  Strawberry season is still in full swing, and the berries are delicious at this time of year. The Bible says that the Lord put everything on this Earth we need to live (Gen 1:29), and strawberries have to be one of my favorite ways He did this. One of my favorite ways to preserve them for the rest of the year is to make pie filling with them. From the basic pie filling, I can make cheese cake topping, fried pies, top pancakes and of course I can make strawberry pie.  To make strawberry pie filling, I use a product called Clear Jel. This is a modified corn starch that can withstand the extra heat of canning. It comes in different sized containers, but I usually buy it by the pound. I haven't been able to find it in any local stores, so I buy it online, but if you are lucky enough to find it locally, that would be better.  Some of my jars didn't take on that smooth red consistency that store-bought fillings have, with this recipe, so I think next time I will use some of the sug
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Strawberry Season: Making Jam

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    It's been almost three years since Randy passed (and since my last post). Since then, I sank into a depression,  I took over the machine shop, I've gone through the worst of the COVID "crisis" alone, lost two of my three dogs, watched my daughter fight cancer three times and I have now become a new REALTOR.  Working both the machine shop and as a REALTOR, I don't have a lot of time to do the things I love, but canning seems to keep me grounded and helps me relax. Today, since it's strawberry season, I made and canned strawberry jam. Making jam is pretty easy, uses a TON of sugar, and tastes so much better than anything I find in a store. I found a recipe on Almanac.com, called Prize Winning Strawberry Jam, and I made it my own by changing it a tad.  After I cut the tops off 10 cups of strawberries (a double batch) I put them into the pot and added 10 cups of sugar. The recipe called for 12 cups, but dang that is a LOT, 10 cups even made me nervous, but it
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Sorrow and Growth

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I haven't posted in a long time, because for the past many months my husband has been fighting cancer. His doctor has now called in Hospice and told us it could be any day now. The nurse says any day could be several months, so for the time being we are in limbo, with him too weak to do anything and me not willing to leave his side. I almost feel like ghoul, like I am sitting here waiting for him to die, but the truth is I would give my right leg to have him well again. Without him life is scary, but on the same turn I am starting to feel caged. I literally cannot leave him alone, so this means I have to have someone else here for me to be able to work, tend the chickens or anything, which makes me feel caged. This makes me cranky, and I don't want to be cranky to him, but being human it happens sometimes, like when he won't take his meds. I don't even know why I worry about him taking his meds, and I have stopped worrying about it, except with his pain meds. I do NOT
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Black Moon Friday

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Tonight, September 30, 2016, will show a black moon. A black moon in itself isn't very spectacular, since it's simply the second new moon in the calendar month. What's so incredible about a black moon is it's appearance. You can see nothing, nada, zilch.....just empty, black, midnight sky. This occurance only happens once every two years or so, or at least the last one was in 2014. Why does this fascinate me so much? Because it keeps me humbled to the emptiness I felt before I followed Christ. Many don't know this, but at one time in my life, I could tell you over 100 ways to commit suicide. I tried a few of them in fact...thankfully (now) unsuccessfully. I KNEW God existed. I KNEW heaven was waiting one day, but that wasn't enough to just KNOW it. I hadn't experienced it to understand it. I was still as empty as the sky on Black Moon Friday. One night, I prayed...throughout my prayer I was screaming at God for everything bad that happened t
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The End of the Season

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Life has gone crazy around The Garden of Weeden. Business is starting to go well, the garden kept me busier than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs, the processing and harvesting has kept me deliciously busy and well that has kept me from doing other things I enjoy....like sleeping. I apologize to all my online friends for neglecting y'all so much lately. We survived our birthdays. That old saying, "Life is like a roll of toilet paper, the closer to the end it gets, the faster it spins." is becoming more apparently true. I still deal with pain almost daily, but I refuse to let it stop me. I did learn about another herb to try, that's supposed to be as effective on pain as morphine without all the side effects. Problem is, noone sells it, and it only grows out west, and well I am as far from "out west" as one can get and still live in USA. I am working on getting some though to try. I finally figured-out the best way to ingest another herb
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God's Sense of Humor

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My husband "retired" about a month or so ago. Well, that's what he claims he did. We are building a farm. We live mortgage free, we have no utility payments, since we are 100% solar and wind powered. I grow a LOT of our food, and we're adding chickens for eggs and cattle for beef and other trading purposes. We are in the process of building a house, again payment free.  So really, we have no bills other than some food (my Doritos addiction) and entertainment. This is why he claims to be retired. He says he just wants to be a farmer. We are both tired of the hustle and bustle of trying to achieve a standard that was set by someone else. We want simpler, not easier. And we found it.....in our farm. He was talking to his mother on the phone a few days ago, and I heard him exclaim that he's never been as busy as he has been since "retiring". His business, that we used as side money, but now live on the proceeds, has suddenly "taken-off"! It ma
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Round Peg in a Square World

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And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Romans 12:2 nkjv   I have always felt like a square peg in a round hole. In school I was too book-smart to be any good for anything else. In sports I didn't have the self confidence to succeed. In life I am too blunt, and I tend to offend people. Whatever the reason, I just don't fit. I used to seek my place in this world. It finally hit me (the renewing of my mind). After too many years of seeking, I now know why I fit into nature more than anything else. I am not a square peg in a round hole. I am a round peg in a square world.  Life is round. It's cylindrical, cyclical, it never ends. Nature is round; a round planet in a solar system that is revolutionary. Plants sprout, grow, produce, die, and then the seed carries on. To really get anywhere in the world you need something round....wheels come to m
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