more canning

More canning! Today (Friday, 8/28) I am making tomato soup! We haven't had any for a year because I didn't do any canning last year with a new baby due. So I have lots of things to make! I have already done 16 quarts of cherries and now I am working on tomato soup. For as long as I can buy tomatoes at the local farmer's markets, I will make tomato soup, chile sauce and salsa. I also bought 3 dozen ears of corn today that I will blanch and freeze. A friend is picking up a box of peaches for me (she got a box for herself) that I will bottle. I also have some strawberries in the freezer to make into strawberry jam. I would also like to make peach jam and applesauce.

One of the best things I ever bought for canning is my camp stove. Seven years ago, the Allen family gathered at Grandma and Grandpa Allen's home for what turned out to be the last apple harvest for our family. G&G had several apple trees. That year the apples were all pressed into apple cider. Everyone who lived in Utah gathered to their home to sort and wash the apples, take them to the cider mill and then to process some of the cider into apple juice. We had three camp stoves set up in the garage and 6 pots of water to process the cider. We set up an assembly line to warm and sterilize the jars, lids and rings; fill the jars; put lids and rings on; get the jars into the pots and watch them. It was pretty cool and I decided when the time came I would do the same. The first year we lived here I bought a camp stove and made tomato soup and salsa. I think that's all I made that year. Anyway it was great for keeping heat out of the house and so I am doing the same thing again this year.

starting up again

With the start of school, Cub Scouts and Activity Days will be starting up again. This past Wednesday was Pack Meeting and the ward had a BBQ at a local city park. It was a lot of fun and we had fun chatting with some of the neighbors. I am really grateful to our local ward for welcoming our children into their activities, even though we are not members of the ward. They have done a lot for us and it is much appreciated!

back to school

Well, we are back in school! School started on Monday, August 25th. I took Christie and Jordan to school and went in with them to see their classrooms and meet their teachers. Jordan is in 3rd grade and Christie is in 5th grade. Christie started 3rd grade at Westbrook and we just loved her teacher Mrs. Gertsch so we requested that Jordan be put into her class and he was! Mrs. G. wasn't in the classroom when we went in but since I've already met her it wasn't a big deal. Christie's teacher is Miss Blake. She seems really nice. Seems the 5th grade classes don't rotate among the teachers like they did when I was in 5th grade (eons ago, it seems) but the teachers do rotate for certain subjects. Each day this week Christie and Jordan have come home happy and excited to tell me about what they did that day. Looks like we're going to have a great year!