Treasures

While out and about O Wise One always keeps his eyes out for treasures. The local small grocery/convenience store has a small deli in the back. They were selling this 1 gallon glass olive jar with lid for 50 cents. It will make a great storage jar for sugar/flour etc. or for making pickles. 

And these one gallon plastic mayo jars with lids were 25 cents. 

And with 2 growing grandsons this could come in handy. The price was 0 the lady just wanted it out of her yard. It should go nicely with the sand box and wading pool that we already have for Hank. 

Nothing like spring bargains.

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

The Endless Winter

Sorry I disappeared for a few days there. I caught a terrible case of some sort of stomach bug but am finally feeling better. And just in time I might add! Sunshine has indeed returned to Hickery Holler, all be it briefly. By the end of the week they are predicting a return to 40 degree temperatures and a chance for possible snow showers. Have I mentioned that this weather is driving me crazy? But for today the sun is shining, the flowers are blooming, the birds are singing and all is well. 

Monday is laundry day and I am taking advantage of the sunshine to hang some washed quilts in the sunshine. With a slight breeze they will dry quickly. 

While we're at it let's throw open those doors and windows, turn them ceiling fans on and enjoy the fresh breeze. 

The turkeys are again laying and we are starting to collect eggs for hatching. Maybe enough by this weekend to set our first clutch. These eggs are not washed and are turned every day prior to even being put in the incubator.  

Even though winter is not giving up so easily we enjoy what breaks we get. With cold temperatures and rain almost every day last week the ground and gardens are saturated. There are also rain chances for most of this week starting tonight. After last years drought looks like mother nature is gonna give us all last years rainfall added to our normal rainfall. I have a feeling that when it finally does level off there will be little springlike weather and we will go directly into summer weather patterns.  

How's your spring shaping up?

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter  

Rhubarb Pie From Canned Rhubarb

Curious In The Kitchen left a comment back on the 27th of March asking how to make rhubarb pie from canned rhubarb. 

Rhubarb Pie

4 1/2 cups of canned drained fruit
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups sugar
pinch of salt
3 Tablespoons Tapioca
1 tsp vinegar
Crust

Preheat oven to 400.
Prepare pie crust

Drain rhubarb well in a strainer retaining juice. I used for my pie 1 quart canned rhubarb and I took out a small container strawberries. Thaw and drain strawberries well. This pie will call for more than a quart of drained fruit instead of opening another jar of berries I simply added strawberries.  You can also make your pie with rhubarb exclusively.  

Your canned rhubarb will not be firm but I take a spoon and push on the rhubarb to get out as much liquid as possible. 

To a saucepan add 1 cup of your rhubarb. The recipe calls for adding 1/4 cup water. I added 1/4 cup retained rhubarb juice to pot. Now add 1 1/2 cups sugar, pinch of salt, 3 tablespoons tapioca. Now bring pot to a simmer and cook for about 5 minutes to melt sugar completely and cook tapioca. Add 1 teaspoon vinegar. 

Now add additional approximate 3 cups of fruit to a large mixing bowl. I added the rest of my canned rhubarb and small container of strawberries well drained.  

To that bowl add your cooked sugar, tapioca, rhubarb mixture and stir all well.  

Spoon into a prepared crust. You can find a tutorial for my pie crust HERE
This crust was made using my rendered lard from the last pig we butchered. 

Now place your top crust over the filling. 

Seal and crimp edges

I then brush my pies with a tablespoon milk and a beaten egg to help them brown

Bake in preheated 400 degree oven until crust is browned and filling is hot and bubbly. Mine took 1 hour and 15 minutes. Cool completely before cutting. 

Hope this helps those of you looking for a way to use that canned rhubarb. My neighbor says that her mother used to thicken her canned rhubarb by cooking it with sugar and corn starch and serve it over ice cream as a syrup. 

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Waxing Cheese

With rain in the forecast for 4 out of 5 days this week there won't be much gardening going on. O Wise One is working today tuning up the lawn mower. Found this video on waxing purchased cheese out of the grocery store and find it absolutely intriguing!

Take a look....

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

I Wish

"I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.

I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.

I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.

I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much 

bigger.

I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.

I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.

I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye."

Cleaning a Bathroom On A Budget

With spring cleaning season right around the corner I thought it the perfect time for this post. First of all let me say that this post is meant to give you ideas while sharing how I clean my house, safely and cheaply. There are thousands of sites floating out there on the internet about natural housecleaning and I am simply sharing what works for my family, my house, my budget and my lifestyle. Work at developing what works for you. I use very few of the products pictures above. Even with coupons many of these products are simply unnecessary in my opinion. Most things in my house can be cleaned simply with natural things out of my own pantry and cupboard. 

The Bathroom

I'm going to start on the bathroom because it is probably one of the two rooms in the house that gets cleaned the most. The other is the kitchen. 

First thing is forget those expensive paper towels. Old rags are your friend.  

What do you clean your toilet with?  How's that for a question?

I clean mine with cheap SOAP!! Many people like to use bleach and such but I just don't think that is necessary. I buy cheap Walmart soap. A huge bottle costs a couple bucks. Many use a natural liquid soap like Dr. Bonners to clean their house. I'm not paying that much money for natural organic soap to flush down my toilet. 

I put my cheap soap into a recycled dish detergent bottle. Squirt a little in. Throw in a half a hand full of baking soda and swish around then I let it sit for about half an hour swish again and flush. Then I follow that up with a spray bottle full of 1/2 cup dish detergent and the rest straight vinegar. I spray that onto the bowl and let it sit until it is flushed the first time. I then clean the seat and toilet base with the same spray. 

For the shower I use that same vinegar and dish detergent spray. Spray on and wipe off with my old rags. That spray will disinfect and cut any soap buildup. If you do happen to get something that won't come off with that spray simply make a paste of a 1/4 cup baking soda and enough liquid dish detergent to make a paste consistency. Use like soft scrub then rinse. As you can see my shower is almost 10 years old and look at the shine on it still.     

  

How do I clean the glass in my bathroom? Years ago I bought these glass cleaning cloths. You simply wet them with plain water and wipe the mirror down with the yellow side.

 Then shine with the blue side. Then rinse the cloth and hang in the shower to dry. Fold and put back into the bottom drawer until next use. Absolutely no chemicals and I do this a couple times a week. Usually after my shower when the mirror is steamed up. 

 On the sink I also use my baking soda and dish detergent paste on and then I spray the counter with my vinegar and spray and wipe. 

 I then make sure that there is plenty homemade soap available for hand washing and showers. 

I then knock down any cobwebs with my homemade swiffer pads and go over the light fixtures over the mirror. 

Last thing I mop the floors with a vinegar and water solution and my homemade mop pads. 

And that is how I clean my bathroom. Now about twice a year I do wipe down my wood cabinets with Murphy's oil soap just as my own mother did. And atleast once a year I wipe down the painted walls with a vinegar solution also. 

Okay homemakers out there I want to hear what you do differently!

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Owen Augustus

New grandchild Owen Augustus has returned home from the hospital now with his family. Augustus has been decided as his middle name. It is a family name from her father's side of the family. 

Hank wanted to name his new baby brother Batman. 

Mom and Dad were not on board. 

Now that Mom and Dad were home from the "baby store"  we returned Hank back to his parents and his own bed. Whew am I wore out...

There is a reason god makes young women able to conceive!!

Again I cradle a new grandchild in my lap, again I look into the eyes of my child's own child and see the next generation before me. I have to wonder as I am sure most grandparents did before me what the future holds for this child. What will the world be like when he is a man? 

 But for now Owen Augustus sleeps peacefully in grandma's lap. His belly full, his diaper dry and all is well with the world. 

And grandma is thankful for another prayer answered and another blessing bestowed. 

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Storms

Severe storms went through our area last night bringing heavy rain, high winds and hail. This morning the rain continues and the news is full of rain totals in some areas of 5 inches or more, road closings and flood warnings. I have already received several emails inquiring as to our safety so I thought I would let friends and family know we are safe and sound. I actually got quite a bit accomplished yesterday.  

I had a bag of garlic in my pantry that was starting to go bad so I minced it and threw it in the dehydrator. Yes my house smells like garlic! 

I also managed to get my broccoli, cabbage and onions replanted. Those of you that follow my blog know that a groundhog managed to clean out my garden several days ago and I have started over. On the groundhog front we still have not managed to catch the culprit but with high winds, lightning and heavy storms O Wise One was not able to sit out there last night. He has been spending several hours every evening staking out the garden with a gun in an attempt to catch the fiend. As for me I have gardened all my life on and off and I know that each seed I plant is a roll of the dice. A hundred things could go wrong before that seed bears fruit and I get a harvest. You accept that risk with every seed that you plant. Still at times gardening can be very frustrating but I am hooked. Yes my name is CQ and I have a problem : ) 

I also managed to get both dogs bathed and clipped yesterday. Boy that was a job! I had let their hair grow out during the coldest months and Gypsy looked like a little black woolly sheep. It was just in time too because with the thunder, lightning and hail both dogs ended up cowering in the bed last night with us....

We have gotten over 3 inches as of this morning and the rain continues. I am going to finish my laundry and think I will crawl under the quilt frame to finish out this storm. Hoping everyone out there in the path of these storms stays safe.

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter 

Spring 2013 Right On Schedule

Temperatures here continue to fluctuate with early spring. 50 and 60 degree temperatures during the day with the nights dipping down into the 30's and 40's. The last several weeks have been extremely rainy and it is looking like a cool and wet spring shaping up for us. I am hoping all this moisture combined with those late snows will bring an end to the drought conditions that plagued us last year. The Old Farmer's Almanac places our average last frost date at April 15th so I would say we are pretty well on schedule.  The fruit trees all reflect the spring like conditions and as always the plum trees are the first to bloom. This is always my fruit crop that is lost many years to late frosts. With a low of 28 predicted for this upcoming Friday I am a little worried. 

But for now I will simply enjoy the show and pray knowing that for every crop failure there is usually a boom crop of something else to replace it. God usually provides and rarely do we ever go hungry. 

It's funny to see the bright blossoms up against a backdrop of bare and gray trees. 

The Indian Blood Red Peach blooms are just starting to open on this rainy Monday morning as I take pictures and write this.  

The apple trees are just starting to leaf out.

The flower gardens are again awash with color after a long and dull winter. 

And the daffodils that I have tucked all over this farm are sprinkled like yellow specks of sunshine around trees and shrubs and along sheds drinking in all this rain. This double daffodil was originally dug from around the old burned out farmhouse that was original to this farm. There are now many clumps of this spread around the place. 

With all the rain the grass is again green and will soon need mowing. A little patchier after the drought but with a little reseeding in places it will be as good as new. If there is one thing this old patch of rolling prairie can grow it is rocks and grass : )

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Wiped Out

  As of this Tuesday morning my garden has been wiped out. 

30 broccoli plants look like this!

Or even worse this!! 25 beautiful cabbage plants gone......an entire row of peas also gone. 

18 inch high romaine lettuce has been eaten almost to the ground in one night. We had been eating that too! The entire garden has been wiped out over night. The exception is the potatoes, onions and carrots which aren't up yet. 

Not a deer track in the wet mud. Way too much damage for a rabbit or two. 

O Wise One is not a happy camper.. he has declared war and thinks it is a groundhog that has moved in somewhere. It's been several years since we have had a groundhog around since he killed a mama and 7 babies under the chicken house a couple years ago. The gun is now stashed out in the shed ready to go. Live traps have been set EVERYWHERE. He is talking staking out the garden tonight with the gun and has even strung lights out there. Contemplating breaking out the steel traps : ( Kinda reminds me of the movie Caddy Shack : )

He has taken his first prisoner of war!

Just a warning the bullets are gonna start flying real soon. Sure hope Walmart has some more!

As for me I guess I will drag out the potting soil and seeds and start again......

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter