Well, both my cameras broke. So I can’t take pictures right now. No idea what the deal is but they won’t hold a charge. Either of them. On top of that Dell sent me a new computer, which broke and they sent a replacement which is different than the computer I ordered - albeit better - however none of my graphics programs will work on it because of the accelerated graphics card. So now I have two new Dell computers, one broken, one nice but not useable. Dell keeps calling me every other day to tell me my real replacement is “in production.” Remember what I said about Dell a while back? Well, let’s just not go there right now m’kay?

I have 40 lbs. of peaches sitting on my counter. The twins are insisting on “honey spiced peaches.” Which is fine, I like to make them happy. And it does sound yummy. But, remember all that big talk I had about not doing any more canning. Well, let’s just not go there EITHER — m’kay? Luckily my mother-in-law has given me all her canning stuff. I have the goods, the equipment and the eager diners.

Yesterday I put up about 16 lbs. of freezer pickles. I must say, they are scrumptious. But now I have no freezer space.

No pictures! But here are recipes:

Honey-Spiced Peaches

Makes about 3 (32-ounce) quarts

What you will need:

8 pounds peaches (about 24 small)

1 cup sugar

4 cups water

2 cups honey

1-1/2 tsp whole allspice

3/4 tsp whole cloves

3 sticks cinnamon

3 (32 oz) quart glass preserving jars

Directions:

1. PREPARE boiling water canner. Heat jars and lids in simmering water until ready to use. Do not boil. Set bands aside.

2. WASH, peel and pit peaches. Leave peaches in halves or cut into slices, if desired. Treat fruit to prevent browning.

3. COMBINE sugar, water and honey. Cook until sugar dissolves. Add peaches in syrup one layer at a time and cook for 3 minutes.

4. PACK hot peaches into hot jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Add 1/2 tsp allspice, 1/4 tsp cloves and 1 stick cinnamon to each jar.

5. LADLE hot syrup over peaches leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe rim. Center hot lid on jar. Apply band and adjust until fit is fingertip tight.

6. PROCESS filled jars in a boiling water canner for 25 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed.

Moving on to pickles. I went out to the garden and found bucket after bucket of cucumbers ready to go. The twins have been eating the cucumbers right out of the garden like bananas — so I had no idea I had this many ripe cukes. I went to work finding a good recipe, and I wasn’t in the mood to do another canning bath so I researched these freezer pickles.

Surprisingly, these pickles are really, really good. Better than I thought they would be. I cut down on the sugar by two cups. Doesn’t seem to make a difference. And I did use organic turbinado sugar. And red onions from the garden.

4 pounds pickling cucumbers, sliced

8 cups thinly sliced onions

1/4 cup salt

3/4 cup water

4 cups sugar

2 cups cider vinegar

Combine cucumbers, onions, salt and water in two large bowls. Let stand at room temperature for 2 hours. Do not drain. Add sugar and vinegar; stir until sugar dissolves. Pack into 1-pint freezer containers, leaving 1-in. headspace. Cover and freeze for up to 6 weeks. ( I think they’ll keep much longer than this) Thaw at room temperature for 4 hours before serving.

What I did was use up every empty jar I had in the house that had a lid. Vlasic jars, salsa jars, jelly jars. Which is nice because it doesn’t take expensive specialty “canning jars” with special lids. Courtesy of Mother-in-law I got a ton of jars to use for this. Thanks Charlotte!

Mark and I went for a nice ride last night. He rode Loki the new big boy and I rode Bean’s mare Stella who is as sweet as pie when she is out with other horses. Alone she is horribly barn sour and no fun at all. I need to work on that.

Yaya, the dehydrator was a cheap Nesco one. I tried to find it on Amazon but they don’t carry the same one. I think it was made specially for the big box store where I got it, and as such will not hold up for very long. I have my eye on a really nice one from Cabelas once I can save up my pennies! I really think dehydrating is the way to go and I am dehydrating about 10lbs. of these peaches. I’ll use them in granola for the twins over the winter.

Edited to add:

This is my bad — I wasn’t very clear on this and Yaya’s comment made me realize it. I didn’t freeze the odd jars, those are in the fridge for quick eating. I did use the can-or-freeze jars that I had handy to freeze. I also found some recipes where they just did ziplock for the freezing of the pickles and that worked for them.

The garden is starting to do its thing. Years ago I bought a ton of canning stuff, canned all my veggies then got freaked out when I read about everything that could go wrong during canning and how it could be bad, very bad. I am sure that a lot of it is propaganda, but still I was a hormonal new mom of twins so I didn’t eat much of what I canned, and wasted a ton of money investing in jars and lids and pressure canners and racks — all that stuff. Stuff I can’t find now that we moved 7 years ago and I stored somewhere and have no idea where. So it goes.

The next year I tried freezing. That worked better. Until we lost power for about a week. There went all my frozen veggies.

So this year I have tons of produce, no ambition to can it and a freezer stocked with buffalo meat (with a generator earmarked just for it if the power goes out again)

What to do?

Enter my new best friend — a dehydrator!

I got a cheapo dehydrator at our local discount store to try it out. Boy, does it do the job. Now I have pounds and pounds of produce stored, ready for winter and chopping into stews and breads and pies and even carrots for carrot cake. And it will be easily transportable if we decide to go camping or whatever. Load up a baggie and the dutch oven and get ready for gourmet.

These oatmeal cartons make perfect containers.

Don’t worry, I am still making jam. And jam and jam and jam and jam.

Remember when you were 5 and I was 7? There was a kid that lived next door and he was mean and tough and scary. Remember? His name was Michael Butcher. He was 7 too. He used to beat up all the neighborhood kids and we were all scared of him and we would scurry to get out if his way if he was in a bad mood.

One day I looked out the front door and saw that Michael Butcher had you down on the front lawn and was roughing you up. I had no idea what you did, but he was really giving you what for. All I know is I saw red. You were just this little 5 year old kid and this big bully thought he could beat you up. I ran out there and pulled Michael Butcher off of you by his quintessential white T-shirt and told him “NOBODY picks on my little brother!” the next thought through my head was “Oh crap. What have I done?” Michael turned on me and  we went rolling across the front lawn. I remember having a bloody nose, but I also remember that Michael Butcher was limping pretty hard when he took off for home.

Why am I blogging about this? Because although I know we haven’t always gotten along, NOBODY is allowed to treat my brother like garbage. That’s all there is to it.

You hang tight. And you remember that there is light at the end of the tunnel. And above all, you are one of the smartest, kindest most giving people I have known in my life. I know it. And now the whole internet knows it.

When the twins were about 4 I found a pair of Swedish Gotland ponies. They are a rare breed, only about 200 of them are in the United States. Since I am 100% Swedish, this was a great find for me. The ponies were brother and sister and I got them as weanlings, so their training was all up to me. The first pony was this cute little palomino. He was a dream to work with; willing, quiet and smart but not too smart. He made a fine first pony for my timid little girls. We named him Tomte which is Swedish for gnome or “little elf”.

Then came his sister. We got her the next year as a weanling as well. She was a different story. Oh sure, she was fine and cute as a baby, we named her Lucia after the Swedish saint of light. As Lucia grew she became very mare-ish and a little too much pony for little ballerinas to ride. We slowly changed her name from the pretty Lucia to the more appropriate, impish Lucy. I made the mistake of putting Bean on Lucy bareback one day and she got dumped. Hard. That was it for Lucy. We found a good home for her with kids that were a little more aggressive than my girls and it was a good fit.

Don’t you worry about Bean. We found the perfect horse for her. Meet Stella, aka “Mary Moo Cow”. If Stella was anymore mellow she would be dead.

It soon came to pass that Lula was getting to be too big for Tomte. I agonized over what to do. I didn’t really want to sell him, but if we were going to get another horse for Lula to ride we would need to do something with Tomte. We couldn’t keep more than four horses on the place.

Then, just last week I was out riding my bike and passed by the place where I used to go to horse camp in summers when I was a teenager. I had always debated about stopping and saying “hi” but never could quite muster up the courage to knock on the door. This time the woman who runs the place was outside and waved as I rode by. I bit the bullet and stopped. I told her, “I know you won’t remember me, but I used to go to horse camp here about 30 years ago.” It took her all of five minutes to say “Oh my! Lisa!” We were hugging and I was crying. Her daughter was there visiting that day, a woman I remembered as a little girl who used to follow us “big” camp girls around. She remembered me too and low and behold she had a little boy, 3 years old — and they had just lost his aged horse and he had nothing to ride.

I guess you can see where this is going. Tomte is now at their place. A beautiful ranch right down the street. I didn’t sell him, but they get to keep him as long as they need to (there is also a 3 month old brother to the little boy who will be pony age just as the boy is outgrowing him). And I’ll get him back in 15 years or so, and maybe I’ll have grandkids coming ’round about that time. You never know!

Stay tuned. Wait till you see Lula’s new mount. Let’s just say his name Loki — which in Norwegian folklore means “giant” — really fits him.

Oh how I wish you could smell my kitchen right now! Cinnamon sticks, whole allspice and apple cider vinegar.

Mmmmmm — pickled beets!

Mark and the twins went to pick wild raspberries last night. They found a good-sized patch when they went camping that is not too far from the house. They went last week and picked about 6 cups worth, but since I needed 4 quarts to make a double batch of jam, they decided the raspberries that time ’round would be better on ice cream. I agreed, and oh it was good!

They went last night to pick more, hoping to get 4 quarts for a double batch. Instead they came home with a meager 3 cups. I started to chew them out until I heard what happened.

Seems Mark was picking down below from the twins when he heard a distinctive rattling sound and a rattlesnake reared its ugly head. It was ready to strike! He high-tailed it out of there, grabbing the twins and the berries and took off for home.

I guess I’ll forgive them for the lack of berries

So what’s a girl to do with only 3 cups of berries? Head out to the garden to scrounge for rhubarb, that’s what! And put up 5 half-pints of the best raspberry-rhubarb jam ever!! Boy is it good!

Made with organic turbinado sugar too. Mmmmm!

…Living on a farm which is one’s own, far from the hectic, artificial conditions of the city–a farm where one gets directly from one’s own soil what one needs to sustain life, with a garden in front, and a healthy …family to contribute those small domestic joys…
THOMAS EDISON

My dad died in December. His memorial service was today in Stockholm, Sweden. I wish I could have been there. It’s hard to be without a dad.

So most of you know from reading my other blog (which I am probably going to abandon being as I own this domain name and the other is a wordpress-owned blog) — anyway — you know that I did a marathon this spring and actually finished. I am thinking about doing another but I have to decide — do the marathon in October or a triathlon in September? Tough decision. I really liked doing the marathon. The triathlon is an open water swim and I really hate to swim, even in a pool. But, I do have a brand new tri bike. But! I have a heck of a time using the new tri bike as I am not used to being clipped in or the aero bars. What to do? What to do? Stay tuned . . . I’ll figure it out. And deadline to register for the tri is today. So I better make up my mind. Maybe both?

I think one of the red hens is getting lazy.