Benny the sneaky dog

This morning, I found my neighbor's dog Benny asleep in the back of our "new" pickup truck. How he got up there with his short little legs, I have no clue. I tried to get Huck to jump up inside, but he has gotten too chubby and his legs are even longer than Benny's. What was funny was when Huck got near the truck, Benny would growl at him and chase him off. I guess he's already claimed it as his.

While waiting for the post office to open, I laid down to take a quick nap on the bed with Huck on the floor beside me. When I got up, I went and sat on the couch to put huck's collar on, and happened to look down. There in Huck's pillow lay our neighbor's dog! Such a cute little thing, looks like a Benji dog. Now, how he managed to sneak past the bathroom, past the kitchen, past all the dog and cat food and find huck's bed is beyond me. I always wondered how good a watch dog Huck was remembering the time our other dog Trudy woke us up barking when a cat slipped in through the window. Now I know! I called Nick and told him about it while he laughed with me.

Then I sat on the bed reading the mail. A little while later, I heard chomping sounds coming from the cat dish. I thought, that sounds too loud to be a cat. So, I slowly peeked around the corner and saw nothing. Then I went further into the bathroom and there was that silly dog again! I quickly showed him the way out even though I knew he'd be back.

One of the kids next across the street kicked it in anger after I asked him to leave our yard. They seem to think that our yard is the place to take what they want. Well, the piece wasn't quite right after that and it finally fell off.

Anyways, just as soon as Benny went out the door he immediately turned around to investigate what he smelled. It was Huck's dish with some leftover food in it that Huck didn't want. It was laying by the back door to take to the compost pile. I watched him through the door; he couldn't see me. He snuck his head in and took a slurp or two. Then he scurried back out the door.

On second thought, he decided he liked what he tasted and went back for seconds, doing the same thing each time, then thirds, until finally, he stood outside the door and stepped in with his two front paws and stretched as far as he could to finish the bowl. I was laughing at him. He heard me. He steps back and was all innocently looking at me. "What, I'm just standing outside the door?" he seemed to say. Muffling my laughter, he stretched back inside and licked the bowl clean. Oh well, he saved me a trip to the compost pile.

We've got the back door leading to the bathroom shut by the fan, but I'm sure if I went back in there, he'd be laying on my rug in the washroom.

Canning Inventory

Well, I finally went in and counted everything that I have canned so far. So, I'll know what I need to make more of and what we use this year.
The summary:
Dill pickles: 23 quarts
Sweet (including bread and butter) pickles: 24 quarts, 6 pints, 2 half pints.
Relish (includes both cuke and zuchinni) 6 quarts
Corn: 11 quarts
Green beans: 22 quarts
Bickles: (Pickled Beets) 10 quarts, 2 pints.

Not bad for my first "real" year of canning. And I'm not even near done yet...
I can't wait for apple season...

Canning, herbs and salad dressing

It's been awhile since my last post. I've been so busy with canning, but I'm not complaining one bit. To this day, I have canned 22 quarts of green beans, not bad since our beans didn't do too well. I've got 4 quarts of corn, about 16 quarts of pickled beets, a few jars of relish, about 30 quarts of pickles both sweet and dill. I've got more corn to can today and a batch of sweet pickles to make for a friend. Now I know why everyone loves sweet pickles. The recipe calls for 5 pounds of sugar!!!

It feels so good to see the jars in the cupboard lined up along the shelves. I can't wait until all our shelves are full of things we've made instead of things we had to buy. I am really working on our grocery budget and trying to stop buying highly processed foods.

Our new motto has been if we can't make it we don't eat it. But we are still working through the candy bars and candy. Oh, those addictions! I am trying to find recipes for salad dressings such as French and also a recipe similar to A-1 Steak Sauce. A few years back I found a recipe for what was supposed to be french dressing, but tasted very very bad. I marked it in my cookbook as Yucky! If anyone has any recipes to share that would be great.

You know those salad dressing packets you buy at the store, the one with the herbs and you buy the little container add water to the line, oil, vinegar, or what have you then dump in the dry and shake. I'd like to find a recipe on that. On what herbs to use and what seasonings. I'd like to grow my own herbs too. So, any suggestions would be great.

I want to grow the different types of herbs like culinary herbs and medicinal herbs. I can't remember what the other kinds are. I have been so pleased with our garden this year that was started out as an experimental thing. I think it has done very good. And to think we almost decided not to have one this year.


My life is so blessed.

Harvest time!

Well, I have not written in awhile because I've been so busy canning produce from our garden. So far, our cukes and green beans and beets have come in. I've been canning them all week. I wake up early in the morning and get right to it.

Yesterday I canned from 7 am-3:30 pm. It's not hard work, but it does take time. I learned how to use the pressure canner for the first time and everyone was right, it is easy, once you get the hang of it. A friend of mine came over and stood with me while I did the test run. After that, it was all downhill from there. All that I have pressure canned is green beans, but I am confident to can anything now.

Our goal is to can 25-30 quarts of each desired vegetable. Enough to hold us over until next year. So far, so good. That doesn't include fruits, pie filling, stews, and such. I found a recipe for beef stew that I can't wait to can. As well as baked beans, split pea soup and more. The thought of it is so exciting! A friend of mine asked me to pickle some beets for him as well as put up some bread and butter pickles. So that is keeping me busy as well. But I figure I've got mine to can as well, I just do it all at the same time.

If you've never canned anything before, you ought to try it. Not only is it fun but a treat when you get to enjoy it later.