Canning

This year I am actually getting enough produce from my garden to start canning the extra.  I learned to water bath can with a couple of friends a few weeks ago and we spent the day making pickles.

 

Here are most of the tools and ingredients (except the canner itself).

 

We made dill pickles, bread and butter pickles, and some dill relish.  So far I have only tasted the relish but it was delicious!

 

Now that the tomatoes are coming in I have been making spaghetti sauce and salsa.  The spaghetti sauce has to be pressure canned (which I do not know how to do, so I freeze it instead) but the salsa can be water bath canned.  Here are my first eight jars of salsa!

 

I have also been freezing some corn and we are enjoying lots of other veggies fresh.  I can't wait to expand the garden next year and see how much I can grow!

Atlanta Trip

Matthew and I took a short, mid-week vacation to Atlanta this week to watch the US men's soccer team play in the semifinals of the North American Gold Cup.  Before the game we met up with my cousin and her two kids for lunch (no photos).  Then we checked in to a hotel where we met Emily (Matthew's sister) and her husband Miran.  The four of us headed to the Georgia Dome to watch both semifinal games.  Unfortunately, the US lost their game but the second game was quite exciting between Mexico and Panama.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a late night watching the games, we didn't get back to the hotel until about 2:00 am.  In the morning Matthew and I went to Bodies, The Exhibition, where we learned about all the different organ systems of the human body with real and well displayed specimens.  Emily and Miran elected to visit Coke instead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After meeting back up with Emily and Miran for lunch at a delicious Mediterranean restaurant we all signed up for a tour of CNN.  Here is a mock room where they showed us how each broadcast is set up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here's a shot of one of the rooms of writers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We didn't get any photos of the four of us, but here is one of Matthew and I after the tour.  We parted ways after this and headed home.  It was a long two days but a fun mid-week break!

 

 

Weekend in Helen

Matthew and I spent last weekend with our friends Edward and Jamie in the mountains of north Georgia.  We left Friday morning and visited an exotic animal sanctuary on the way up (no photos).  After dinner we drove to our accommodations, another AirBnB place, this time a two bedroom cabin that we had to ourselves.  Here's a look at our bedroom and all of the pillows on our bed.  It also had a great room with a kitchen and a hot tub outside on the deck.

 

Saturday morning we drove to a nearby town to tour an old gold mine.  Here we are waiting for our tour to begin.  Matthew takes the first part of this sign quite seriously (and the second part is for me!).

 

Now we are headed into the mine.  Our guide didn't have a beard like this guy, but he was still entertaining and informative.

 

Down inside the mine.

 

After our tour we learned how to pan for gold.

 

We even found some gold!  (of course)

 

In the afternoon we changed into our swimwear and rented a tube to float down the Chattahoochee River right through Helen.  It was crowded but we still enjoyed ourselves.

 

Selfie Time

 

Each couple tied their tubes together and eventually we tied all four together because we ended up separated several times. A four person selfie was a little more challenging!

 

We had dinner at a local restaurant and then went to a vintage photo shop to dress up for a silly photo.  Matthew and Edward wanted to dress as confederate soldiers while Jamie and I pretended to be southern belles.

 

The next morning we squeezed in an ATV tour around the mountainside before heading home.  This tour definitely had the most in-depth instructions, including a short driving test, before we set out.  Luckily we all passed and no one had any trouble driving the trails.

We had a great time and really packed in a lot of adventures but we're glad to be back home too.

Random Happenings

We've been pretty busy over the last few weekends but I haven't taken too many photos.  Here is a random collection of the few shots I did manage to snap!

 

Matthew trying not to knock over the Jenga tower at one of our game nights.

 

We did a moonlight horseback ride with some friends and neighbors over the July 4th weekend at a hunting club a few miles away.  It was dark for the ride of course, but here is a photo of the cookout we enjoyed beforehand.

 

I've still been harvesting lots of delicious produce from our garden and this is what I have been taking to all of the cookouts we've been attending - a homegrown veggie tray! (My grandma made the basket too!)

And my lunches have been very healthy.  Caprese salads, lots of yellow squash and cucumbers, and even a few cantaloupe.




















And last but not least, the one and only photo I took during Cecilia's brief visit!  Matthew and I played an exciting game of Omega virus with the girls.

Horse Trailer

 It took several weeks, but our new horse trailer is finally clean enough that I feel good about posting photos of it on here!  I spent many hours scrubbing the black streaks off of the outside and then polishing it with wax.  Here is a during photo to show how bad the streaks were. 

 

We also pulled out all of the mats in the horse area and took a power washer to it. 

 

All clean and shiny!  The passenger side.

The rear.

 

The driver's side, with awning extended.

 

This trailer has two doors on the back, one into a small tack area and one into the horse area.

 

A better view of the horse area (already dirty again from hauling a horse!).

 

 

The "camper" part of the trailer, also known as the dressing room, had some cabinets already installed when we bought it.  Here is a photo I took the day that we bought the trailer.

 

While we were trying to fix one of the connections on the outside of the trailer, we ended up having to move the cabinets on the inside and discovered some water damage.  The lower cabinets were not salvageable but we'll save the upper ones.

 

Behind the cabinets, once we removed the wall.  We will be doing some wiring work before replacing the lower cabinets.

 

It's pretty much a blank slate inside now!

 

The new hose connection and electrical connection (photos taken before washing and waxing!)

 

The only other thing we have fixed so far is this little dent in one of the fenders.  Here's a before photo.

 

During.  We had to remove the wheel, beat the metal back into shape, and then install a new marker light on the fender.

 

After.  Not quite as good as new, but once we replace the black trim it won't be very noticeable.  And all of the lights are now working!