Recent Happenings

Just some pics and stuff that's been going on around the house lately...

Veronica enjoying some sunshine a couple weeks ago.

Zack posing for the "Zack's Lawn Care" flyer we made.

Francesca's got the hang of her bike now!

Some cute pics of Fresca last week before heading to church.

That afternoon we got some pizzas from "Happy Pizza" and had a picnic at the park.

The boys discovered they can ride Dad's bike.

Francesca enjoys sink time.

The camera lens got foggy, nice effect!

Zack's way of having fun with his little sister.

Getting acquainted with our new beefy cows.

Even Buddy is licking his chops already.

Maybe he'll have some raw meat for starters!

(he loves harrassing the animals 40 times his size)

Veronica enjoying some more grub.

Francesca helps out by getting a few drops into her sissy's mouth.

Francesca's been helpful feeding the cat too.

And today... February 20,

we had a little half birthday celebration in honor of Vincent.

Fresca the Farmer

Happy Fall!

A couple days ago, on the first day of fall, we set out our home grown-pumpkins on the front porch. I was hoping to grow a lot more than this but it's the most pumpkins I've ever had on my front porch and the first time I've successfully grown any.

My pumpkin-pie!

I think fall is treating us well so far...

There are 4 Cinderellas, 3 Connecticut, and 3 Luminaria.

Further decorating shall commence...

Buon Giorno

Francesca and I were up at the crack of dawn... here's some pics of our morning in the garden...

There's my best sunflower!

See the moon?

Thai basil

HOT Thai pepper

A ripening Connecticut pumpkin

Vincent joined us in the the pumpkin patch.

Fresca eating a fig from our funky fig tree.

Have a nice day lovelies!

Walter the Rooster

Well here's our adopted rooster... not exactly what you have in mind when you think of a rooster, is he? We're getting used to each other lately... he doesn't peck me near as much as he used to. A friend of mine that saw him for the first time last week kept asking me,

"what's wrong with him?". Gramps calls him the rooster from the movie Pet Cemetery. He adds a little comical humor to the chicken yard. He's as sweet as can be to our 2 year old hen, Vinny. We'll see how he is with the 3 month olds that I recently introduced to the yard. He did peck at one this morning. Just keeping the teenagers in line I suppose.

Check out Walter's crow... he gets a bit of laryngitis at the end:

Me vs. Spaghetti Sauce Canning

I won!

It all began Sunday around 3:30pm...

Actually it all began a few days ago when I received an abundance of tomatoes from our neighbor's garden.

To peel the tomatoes, dip them briefly in boiling water...

Then an icy cold bath... the peel slips right off.

Francesca enjoyed some tomato while waiting for her mommy to hold her...

Here's a portion of the 20+ pounds of peeled home grown tomato goodness...

Here's some of them seeded and squeezed of most of their juice.

I ended up with 40 oz of tomato juice.

Soon Jason will enjoy some home-made bloody mary's.

Mommy holding her precious tomato stained princess...

More ingredients to be added:

onion, basil, oregano, salt, pepper, garlic, red pepper...

More yummy natural vitamin c and lycopene...

There's my new monster of a pressure cooker! After I cooked the sauce and ladled it into the 9 jars, it was about 8:30. Once I got the pressure up to 11 pounds, they processed for 25 minutes.

All processed and ready to be put up!