Girls Day!

Friday I went to my sister, Joni's house and we just hung out and bought maternity clothes for her then her husband came home early and we met Risa at Jordan Landing and did some shopping. These pictures of us are at dinner at Chili's. It's so fun to hang out with the girls. I don't remember who said it but it's been said that every man needs a woman and every woman needs a man and a woman she can talk to. I have been blessed with four sisters and two or three daughters. Hmmmm, oh well. We are planning a scrapbook day in October. It's fun just to get together.

Saturday Risa came and we bottled 48 quarts of peaches and about 15 frozen quarts plus the dehydrator full. There are still a few remaining on the tree. We will probably do another batch of jam and we haven't even gotten to salsa yet. My body needs the peaches to be put away. I'm gaining weight like crazy.

Peach Jam

These beauties didn't even wait to get picked. They jumped off the tree. Probably afraid of our morning canyon winds. Some were a little bruised so we made peach jam. It is yummy and all those behind the bottles of jam are yet to be preserved plus half a tree more. They are not as sweet as they have been in the past. The winter was harsh. The spring cold and wet and the summer hot and dry. There are plenty of people that want them anyway so we shouldn't have to bottle all of them.

My Husband is Falling Apart

Our second daughter has decided to try life on her own as an apartment dwelling college student. She met a couple of girls online that were not prissy types (she couldn't take that) and they have been looking for a couple of months for just the right place considering location, price, safety and the privilege of keeping animals with them. They found a nice place and she cleaned tanks and fed her menagerie. (tarantula, snake and lizard. The cat stays with me and all her birds have now died) She is not taking much and we only had to move her bed, a microwave cart to put her animals on and an old second hand round bamboo chair.(they have a name but I forget) We got her moved and left her to settle. Easy job.
The next morning, EARLY, D woke up in extreme pain. His shoulder hurt and he couldn't get comfortable. It hurt in any position. 4 ibuprofen didn't help so he tried 2 Lortab. It took the edge off some but we made it up to Instacare as soon as they opened. It turns out he has an aggravated bursae. It doesn't take much just some awkward movements. According to Wikipedia: shoulder bursitis is more commonly caused by overuse of the shoulder joint and related muscles. After the spring event of back spasms that had him gasping with every breath I'm concerned that my hard working, in shape, raquetball playing husband is advancing in years. He's not even 50 yet. He still gets over these things quickly though and after resting one day was back to doing maintenance at the salon and we together bottled 16 pints of peach jam. Ahh, that brings me to my next post.

My Favorite Place

This is the actual view from my favorite chair looking out my front window. I love to watch the seasons change on the mountain. I especially love watching winter turn into spring and then into summer. There is a retention pond accross the street so we don't have a house close to hinder our view. Today the clouds are sitting right on top of the mountain and there are some beautiful red leaves adding new color to my mountain.
I don't get as much time as I like to sit here and it's probably a good thing. I've sat with the computer on my lap almost all morning and I can feel the permanent change in the shape of my behind. I have more work to do and then I'll do my running around. I'm just happy I get to see this every day.


This is the view without the blinds. This is the benefit of living in the mountains. Come winter I'll be cussing all about the problems that come with it. I'm just glad I have a 4 wheel drive. :)

Harvest Time

I spent the day picking, peeling, slicing, chopping, cooking, bottling and steaming apples. Guess what I have? 26 pints of applesauce. First of all Daren and I went to the store and got a peeler/slicer so that part went tons faster. I did it all by hand last year and it wore me out.
We also got some carrots dehydrated and peppers chopped and frozen. It's amazing how full the deydrator racks are and when you come back to them you have a few little carrot chips. I'm wondering since the dehyrator was on my deck and so were the cats if they took a liking to carrots and found a way to get in and eat half of them. It's just amazing. Where did they go? Who knew there was that much water in carrots?
Pictures coming when I figure out how. haha