Hexagon Needle Book

I gotta make one of these!

New recipe posted on the Keepers page: Canned Apple Pie Filling

Canned Apple Pie Filling

Weekend stuff

I finally got my energy back yesterday, and promptly overdid things, but it felt so good to be tired out from overdoing rather than just from breathing. :o)

We have neighbors with a wonderful tart-green-apple tree in their yard. They let me pick about 30 pounds of apples last week, and yesterday Kieffer and Lil Miss A helped me turn the apples into 15 quarts of apple pie filling. I gave 2 quarts back to the couple who let me have the apples. I'm now in the process of making jelly out of the cores and peels. I added mint from our mint patch to turn it into mint jelly, but it's not very minty. So maybe minty apple jelly is more what it should be called. It's a beautiful rosy pink color and I do not know where that came from. Green apples + green mint = rosy pink jelly? How can this be?

We also saw Britta moved into her on campus apartment for another year. It has two bedrooms, living room, bathroom and teeny little kitchen which I thought was just adorable. She still has to pay for a meal plan, so the baby kitchen will be for making breakfasts and snacks.

I get pretty emotional when she leaves, even though we are pretty much tired of one another after a summer together, and I'm a little melancholy now. She's only half an hour away and she's where she wants to be.

Kieffer drove the Jeep most of the way home. This is a big deal because he's determined to learn to handle a stick shift and the Jeep is a stick. He did really well, and the sweet old Jeep let him get away with a few jerky starts. She's a good ol' girl.

Or you could live here:

That's right. It's a turn-of-the-century brick church building in Waukon. Complete with pipe organ. Only $87,500. Wow.

RMT/CMT testing process to change

See the whole article here: http://networkedblogs.com/6XaNx

One part that pleases me is this:

This means that a CQE candidate would sit for a 250-question test whereby they would be tested on RMT content first and if cut scores for level 1 content were met, the candidate would then be put through the CMT content. At the end of a single exam session, the candidate would leave either having failed the RMT portion (at which point the exam will terminate), having qualified at the RMT level, or qualified at the CMT level – removing all guess work for the hesitant candidate and ensuring that all CMT candidates will have made it through level 1 content before moving on to level 2.

This is a very positive step in my opinion.

Wanna see something crazy?

Can you guess what this is?

How about now?

Whatever it is, it's got pretty blossoms...

If you guessed, "The chicken pen covered with one giant gourd plant," then you are absolutely right.

Anna of Chickens in the Basement sent me a present this spring of 4 different types of gourd seeds from her own gourds. She had marked them all carefully. I started them in peat pots, and after a couple of weeks, figured they were duds and quit watering them - whereupon they promptly sprouted little bitty gourd plants. By that point I had let them get mixed up. I planted several in the yard and gave a few away. Only one of my plants really took off.

And as you can see, take off it did. This thing is a monster. There's a baby apple tree in the first photo, and every day we go out there and hack the gourd off the apple tree where it has grabbed on and started climbing. There are all kinds of hollyhocks in there somewhere but you can't even see them anymore, they are so engulfed. They usually fall over from their own weight, but not this year. The gourd grabbed onto them and is holding them upright.

I don't know which kind of gourd this is but I am going to have a lifetime supply of gourds, the way things are going. This thing is out of control. :) It's sure pretty!

Here's your chance to live in New Albin...

... and I hear the neighbors across the street are awesome!

http://mississippivalleyrealty.com/461.htm

That's our neighbor J.B.'s place. He's ready to move to an apartment, from what I hear, and has put his house on the market. The shed out back is really cute and just screams to be filled with antiques. The lot is nice and big.

Crock pot sloppy joes

Mary Hunt's Everyday Cheapskate is an email list you can join where you get debt free living tips nearly every day. It's free. I don't always find something valuable, but probably 50% of the time, I do.

Friday's included some slow-cooker recipes. I made this one for supper that night, using 1-1/2 pounds of ground venison rather than beef, and it was really good. (We are also out of Worcestershire sauce AND prepared mustard - I really need to go grocery shopping! - so those were  left out.)

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Slow-Cooked Sloppy Joes

1 1/2 pounds ground beef, browned
1/2 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic, fresh or from a jar
2/3 cup ketchup
2 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons prepared mustard
1 teaspoon chili powder

Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker. Cook on low for 6 hours. Serve on warmed buns with chips and celery sticks with Ranch dressing. Serves: 6.