I’d like to be able to keep up my posting to the point where I have something everyday except Saturday and Sunday. In reality, especially lately, I’ve not been doing very well, because life keeps moving.

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Well, it’s almost here. The day after tomorrow, I’m getting married. And guess what. Last weekend I got a little sunburned. Not too bad, it had already turned to a tan. But now, my arms started peeling. I have little pale spots around my shoulder. I haven’t figured out what to do about it. I really don’t want to have spots in all my wedding photos, though I’m sure I could Photoshop them out. I’ve given up hoping that it will hold off long enough to get married. Now I’m hoping that it will be all be done.

Other than that, life’s going quite well. The garden looks great, although the weeding has been neglected a bit. We’ve got lots of tomatoes ripening up, That pretty much are big crop. We also have potatoes to dig, some cabbage, squash, and some cucumbers that are growing into funny shapes for some reason.

I just bought a dehydrator with some of my shower money, so I’m hoping to dry some stuff out and we’re looking for recipes for dried meals that we can make ourselves and take with us camping.

Soon Matt will be moving into my apartment, and then in September, we’ll be moving out. Hopefully, into a little house near Emlenton that we can rent for fairly cheap. The plan for our lot, now, is to save up as much money as we can for next summer and then build. That gives us lots more time to get it cleared off, which I’d like to do in the winter when there aren’t leaves, and a warm fire is a little more welcome. Not to mention, we should be a little less busy.

I’m so excited about everything that’s been going on. And I can’t wait for this weekend and all of next week. Plus, next weekend I’ll get to see a lot of my family that I haven’t seen for a few years. Still lots to do!

Filed under: family, gardening, moving, wedding by Rachel
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I’ve been meaning to get some more pictures of the garden and all the things growing in it. But, I haven’t, so you’ll just have to settle for the pictures of what we’ve picked so far.

Most of this has come from our garden. Yellow squash that came as a volunteer from last year, potatoes that we dug up just to see what was going on, a couple cabbage, one little cucumber that is a bit funny looking, and lots of tomatoes. The peaches, plums and onions are from the farmer’s market.

We’ve got lots of tomatoes of all different kinds. Some are yellow, some are green with stripes, some are orange, some red and some pink, but they are all heirlooms that we started from seed.

The yellow one on the right is a normal size tomato and the one on the left is the monster that we’ve been watching and waiting for to get ripe. Matt picked it yesterday and brought it up and for dinner we had tomato sandwiches and pasta. It was delicious!

Matt started slicing it up and said, “Isn’t it pretty? Get a picture.” Of course, I was thinking the same thing and already moving for my camera.

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I happen to love strawberries. They’ve been a pretty reasonable price at the stores for a couple months now because of a cold spell in Florida knocking the harvesting time out of whack. And now, Matt’s parents have an abundance of strawberries as well. Matt brought up a couple bags the other day and we made strawberry preserves.

We’re diving into this gardening and eating healthier, organic food thing. Granted, strawberry preserves are packed full of sugar, but we made it ourselves, and I know exactly what it is I’m eating. There’s a total of three ingredients in my preserves and I can pronounce them all. We’re planning on canning and preserving as much as we can this growing season to stock up the pantry in our new house for winter.

This was our first attempt. I wish I had some pictures of the process.

We went with this recipe, and I think it turned out pretty well.

I’m not sure if the syrup was at the right temperature when we added the strawberries. We tried the cold water test to check for the soft ball stage, but it seemed like a very hard ball to me. The thermometer still said the temperature was a little too low. There’s a chance that the thermometer is wrong, which would probably also explain the problem I have with getting dough to rise, or maybe I just misunderstood the cold water test. Regardless, they tasted good and all the jars sealed, so I think we did okay.

I’m liking this grow-it-yourself stuff. I can’t wait for the tomatoes!

The strawberries are still coming, so I’ve got to come up with some more things to do with them. I’m thinking I’ll freeze some, I like to eat them in oatmeal in the wintertime.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Filed under: gardening, Recipes by Rachel
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We took advantage of our long weekend. Saturday, while Matt and his mom were out riding their bikes to get ready for the MS ride, I planted a few more things in the flower bed, did some weeding and took some pictures.

The tomatoes are getting more and more flowers and some have little tomatoes starting.

Filed under: gardening, new house by Rachel
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