July Jumble, #1

On the left: a normal large egg.  Poor hen who laid the egg on the right!

Our first green bean harvest.

Joseph liked the look of this fruit pizza!

Waiting in line for the Krispy Kreme special!

This little guy was attached to our front window one evening.

Girls' lunch out.

Look at all those beets!

Sorting by size.

Beets got boiled.

Rubbing off the skins.

Slicing with the mandolin.

Yummy pickled beets!

Sacks and sacks of cucumbers, oh my!

Pickled green beans, aka dilly beans.

Anthony, Eggs, Beets, Boys and Kittens

A funny little video of Anthony:

In March, we put some hard-boiled eggs (peeled, of course!) into the beet juice left from a jar of our pickled beets.  After a few weeks, we tried them and they were pretty good.  Something else to do with our plethora of eggs!

They look rather pretty.

Dominic was reading Curious George to Joseph and Anthony in this picture:

Three boys not fighting is a good thing!

On the Feast of the Annunciation, March 25th, we came home from somewhere in the afternoon.  The dog came into the garage when we drove in and started acting weird, barking and sniffing and trying to get up high. I instantly suspected what was going on. 

See our double stroller hanging high on the garage wall?

Mama cat found a snug place to have her kittens!

When mama cat left for a bit, I took a picture of the five little kittens.

After a while, I moved them down to a box with some old clothes.  The kids were highly excited by all of this.

Garden in August

In early August, we had a sauerkraut-making day:

Tons of shredded cabbage...

...go into the crock for fermentation.

I slogged through mud in early August to pick the cantaloupe and watermelon.  The watermelon got washed off before this picture:

A full load.

These made our dining room table and chairs look small.

Watermelon Chocolate Chip Muffins.

Another big load three days later:

The cantaloupe were hit-and-miss this year, some really good, some really bad.

Only two days later:

Getting ridiculous!

The watermelon that got cut right out of the garden.

Okay, so this was posed.   :)

This was not.

The older three were enjoying their watermelon...

...while the younger two...

... just made faces for the camera.

Some of that watermelon made it into the house.

Beet jelly that I made in the middle of August.

And finally, pickled okra at the end of August.

Bumper Crop of Beets

In early July, Dan and the boys harvested much of our beet crop.  This was our first year growing beets, and they did well. 

The boys were in charge of cutting off the tops of the beets and taking those tops to the chickens.

Anthony and his beet.

Joseph stopped for a smile.

Look at all of those beets!

His expression says it all!

Yep, three-year old with a sharp cutting tool.  He did well!

Beets were sorted by size.

Each size of beets was run through the boiling water bath to cook them and loosen the peels.

Anthony watched Daddy slice the peeled beets with a mandolin.

The kids loved to eat around the tops of the beets.  Man, those beets tasted good!

Our rows of pickled beets.  Yum!