A Beautiful Sight

Remember this?

The grass all dug out by me

Daniel's part of the digging

Well it eventually turned into this...

Beautiful Tomatoes

And today it looks like this...

And from that we got all of this...

We brought in so many beautiful carrots. This is by far our best carrot year ever...which wasn't really a hard record to beat. Our first year we didn't get any...that might have had something to do with somebody digging up every last carrot in the middle of the night before they were even big enough to call baby carrots. The other years an elderly sister in our ward let us use her garden spot. She lived only a block away, but still it was hard to really care for a garden, so the carrots were never thinned when the should have been thinned. This year, I was really able to baby my garden to my hearts content. Our tomatoes, tho slow, also produced beautiful tomatoes, so perfectly round and a really good size. So far I have had enough ripe tomatoes to make one delicious batch of salsa, and soon, I'll have plenty more to do more salsa and stewed tomatoes. My only disappointment were my cucumbers and my cherry tomatoes. Neither of them produced much of anything. I got barely enough cucumbers to make two 2 quart jars of pickles, and a few nice big ones to enjoy eating.  All in all it was a good harvest year. I today as I dug up the rest of the carrots, I felt satisfied with the results and extremely blessed. I look forward to next year, mainly because I won't have to dig out my garden spot first, I can just go directly to planting. YEAH!

In addition to my gardening, I have also been having tonnes of fun and making huge messes canning various fruits. Take a look and my beautiful storage shelves.

Top shelf and half of the second shelf are pears
Third shelf and other half of second shelf are peaches
Forth shelf is red apple sauce made from my crab apples, apples from my sisters tree and Gala apples I bought for wicked cheap at my favorite local grocery store. My crab apples turned the apple sauce red.
Fifth shelf is apple pear sauce...so yummy!
Sixth shelf is whole crab apples(stems an all) canned in a thick syrup...it's like apple sauce on a stick.

Top shelf is jams from last year. I never did get around to making any jam this year.
Second shelf has some tomato sauce(last years), canned beets and apple pie in a jar.
Third shelf has the beginnings of my salsa and my small selection of pickles.

I love opening the door to my storage room and seeing my shelves all full of bright coloured jars filled with stuff I created. I feel like a genius. I feel amazingly grateful for my many blessing. For the blessing of a great harvest and for the blessing of my gifts and talents that allow me to fill these shelves with beautiful delicious food. Life indeed is great!

random answers

My friend has this posted on her blog. And since I haven’t blogged for a spell I thought I’d copy this.  
1. I've come to realize that my last kiss: was simple, brief but not with out passion.
2. Last night: I was sick...yuck.
3. I drink: when I am thirsty, or when I am craving something sweet
4. I eat: delicious food frequently
5. I love: my family, all of them. Brothers, sister, parents, cousins, aunts uncles, nieces, nephews, grandparents, In-laws in all varieties and of course, and most importantly, my own husband and children. I love them all. I don’t know what I would do with out any of them. Life is always a party when there is a family get together.
6. My bedroom is: a bit of a mess :(
7. My love life: more than I could ever have asked for.
8. I hate it when people: don’t do what they said they were going to do.
9. Love is: fabulous.
10. Marriage is: the biggest adventure of my life.
11. Somewhere, someone is thinking: “am I good enough? Strong enough? Smart enough?...” YES YOU ARE!
12. I always: laugh...at least I try too.
13. I have a secret crush on: it’s not a secret anymore...it was outed along time ago.
14. My cell phone: is non existent
15. When I wake up in the morning: I make breakfast and lunch.
16. Before I go to bed I: lay awake thinking for hours about nothing that is really that important to lay awake thinking about it.
17. Right now I am thinking about: these answers.
18. Babies are: cute and cuddly. Stinky and sticky. Lovable and funny. Grumpy and screamy. And possibly the most unpredictable creation ever...which makes them the best thing in the world.
19. My house: is sufficient for our needs, and I absolutely love it.
20. Today I: try to get through some of my to do list.
21. Tonight I will: lay awake thinking about nothing yet again.
22. Tomorrow I will: try to get a through some more of my to do list.
23. I really want to: be better at keeping an organized, tidy house.