A Saturday of Canning!

I have been practicing up with my new camera lens and taking pictures of objects.  It is harder than I realized to transition from taking pictures of people to taking pictures of objects.  

This afternoon as we were canning our Asian Pears I noticed how cool they looked as we were peeling them.  Thank heavens for a peeler, I was dreading doing it by hand, and this way makes for much better pictures!

We canned 31 quarts, of Asian Pears, I am a bit canned out at the moment!  

If you have never had an Asian Pear they are worth trying, you may have heard them called an apple pear as well.  They taste just like they sound.  They grow in the shape of an apple, have the texture of a pear and are very sweet to the taste.  They have become one of my favorite fruits, good thing we large tree of them in our back yard!

I hope everyone is having a fun weekend!!

TTFN

Brooke

Backyard

Before:

When we bought this house there was no grass on the property!  Everything was gravel!  If you don't like to mow that is an excellent solution.  However my daughters didn't enjoy rolling on the gravel :)

So everything had to come out!

Taking it all out was NOT fun!  There was more in this backyard than we realized. There was another pond/waterfall in the back corner, and a big bird cage right in front of those dirt mounds.  The dirt mounds are just 3 of the 8 composting piles.  The whole backyard was covered with cloth!  There was also a buried fire pit and a picket fence we dug out! 

After:

We laid our sod 2 weeks ago...I mowed it today!  It was a great feeling!  I LOVE THE GREEN GRASS!!



My dogs also love the green grass!

We have loved having the sport court.  We don't use it for sports...YET!  But my daughters love to ride their bikes on it.

We left the little stream and the Koi Pond.  It is on the side of our home, I love the sound of the water and the relaxing feel of this area.  In this area we also have 2 pear trees, 3 apple trees, 1 plum tree, 1 peach tree, and 2 grapevines.  Last year I loved having all the fresh fruit!

We are in the process of gating it off with a vinyl fence, to keep little ones out!  Once the fence is up I will take better pictures of the WHOLE area!

 And last but not least our cute little red shed!  They built this and I just LOVE it!  It is so darling one day I think it will be my girls playhouse!!

YARD WORK & the BACKYARD!!

I have felt like a slacker when it comes to decorating lately!  The weather has been so nice lately I just haven't been able to stay indoors!  Here is a sneak peek at my backyard!

I think the before picture actually looks better than the after!

When we bought this house the backyard was all gravel with planter boxes, and a sport court.  We really wanted grass for the girls to play on so the gravel and planter boxes(above) had to go....We are keeping the sport court!!

We will not call this the AFTER picture....

we will call it the 

WORK IN PROGRESS 

picture!

In the corner where the wheel barrow is there used to be a waterfall, a bird cage, composters, a fire pit and a cute vinyl fence. Everything that is dirt will ONE day be grass!  Good thing I like yard work right?

My youngest daughter wanted to help out too.....apparently the dirt is good in our backyard!

TTFN

Brooke

The outside progress!

This is what our house looked like when we bought it.  I know some people love the overgrown look but it isn't my favorite!  It attracted too many bugs and yes it attracts snakes too YIKES!  I HATE SNAKES!!

 So....It all came down.....with a little help from the family and my brother's chain saw.

Under the flowers was this cool dry scape pattern with gravel, river rock and flagstone.  I liked the pattern and the way it was laid out but with 2 little girls we need grass!

We had to tear the railing down, because the vines that were growing on the house ruined it.  And yes we are still working on getting it put back up!  

I love the curbing, and the flagstone planter my husband made me up by the house!  I LOVE flowers, so I made sure I had lots of room for them!

The first of December we had a HORRIBLE wind storm with wind gusts of over 100 mph.  The flying objects cracked and broke our siding so we are in the process of replacing the siding. 

                    My daughter tells me she really likes having a pink house!

 I have never put colors together for an outside and once all the vines came off of the house we noticed the shingles don't match the brick.  So trying to make everything come together and looks good has added a few gray hairs.  

We are doing Hardy Board and Shakes, I am so excited to see it done and hopefully it is how I am picturing it in my head!  

TTFN

Brooke

Reliance

 One of the many wonderful things about this house is ALL the produce that is growing!  

Yesterday we had taco's and everything with the exception of the meat and tortilla's came from the backyard.  What is it about growing your own food that makes you feel so fulfilled?  

The previous owner of our home was an amazing gardener, I think I have one of everything

*Asian Pear

*4 different apples, one that she has trained to grow on a fence(pictures to come)

*Plum

*Peaches

*Pears

*Grapes

*Raspberries.....and yes the list goes on

We also have a stream they put in by themselves...however I have a love hate relationship with this stream....it attracts snakes!  AHHHH!!!  I HATE THEM!!!

Pictures of the stream to come too!

So much to learn about grapes...I hear it is best to pick them after the first killing freeze to seal in the sugar!

Aren't these tomatoes cute...they are Pear Tomatoes!!  I usually HATE tomatoes but I LOVE these guys!

I also have red and white raspberries...I never knew there were white raspberries but they are good

And Asian Pears...I had never even had one but they are good. I am going to try canning Asian Pear sauce.

A whole new adventure so excited!!!

ttfn

brooke