Doe a Deer

This little doe was out our back door resting for a long time today.  I took some pictures of her laying under our crab apple tree around 1pm this afternoon.

She got up, took a stretch.

Reached up and ate some leaves off of the tree.

Ate something over by the peonies, walked around a bit then settled herself back down in the shade of the crab apple tree.

Canning Beets and Beans

Canning season is here.  I really do not like canning but I sure like the rewards.  Working over the sink washing, cutting, and doing all the necessary preparations to get your product ready for the bottles is very tiring on my feet and back.......and then, there's putting it in the bottles....etc, etc, etc.  But, but, but.............look at how I am rewarded when finished.  Nothing prettier than looking at the dark, deep purple of a bottle of pickled beets.  Canning gives me such a sense of pride and accomplishment when I'm all finished, stand back and look at all my bottles of produce, lined up neatly in a row.
This year, we (my husband was a big help) steam cooked our beets in potato baskets in a big metal gargae can.  Doing the process this way took very little time for our beets to cook.

When our beets were done cooking, all we needed to do was pull out the potato baskets, spray down the beets with cold water from the garden hose and start slipping of the skins.

In the past, I've always sliced my beets by hand but this year I used a Mandolin slicer which cut down my time considerably!

And, just let me tell you how handy this little gadget is.  Instead of trying to get my lids out of the hot water with a fork or whatever else seemed handy, I purchased this green, plastic handle with a magnet on the bottom that easily pulled the lids out for me.

 

Here my beets are......ready to do the water bath thingy, except, I don't water bath mine....I use a steamer process.  There is a shallow metal container on the bottom that you put water in, put on a flat top that is filled with holes, put on a dome cover, let the beets come up to heat and start steaming.  

I told you.  Look how pretty my beets are in all that dark, purple juice.  They almost look royal, standing there all straight, lined up in rows.

 

This year, my husband wanted to try canning in the pressure cooker, something we have never done before.  While I was putting the beets in bottles and canning them, he was outside, snapping beans.  After the beans were ready, he got out the books and started reading on how to use the pressure cooker for canning.  When all was said and done, it wasn't nearly as hard as I was expecting it to be.  Here are our beans as we were getting the lids and rings on in preparation for the pressure cooker.

This next picture says it all!



Where My Life Needs To Be

Yesterday, Evan and I left home at 7am so we could make the 9am session at the Idaho Falls Temple.  We try to make it to the Temple at least once a month.  There is such a calming peace within you when you attend the temple that I wished we didn't live so far away and could attend on a more regular basis.  But, with work and LIFE, it just doesn't seem to happen that way.  I guess being on a spiritual high at least once a month helps me to keep my life where it needs to be. 

Pile of Rocks Inspiration

I drove up the mine hill today after church just to look at a Pile of Rocks.  A pile of rocks, that truly inspire me.

Along the way, I just happened to see this.........to some, it's just a sage brush in the middle of nowhere but to me....................well!

I stopped off down at the bottom of the mine hill to look at the river.  I love to look at flowing water.  I would love to have a small fountain in my yard somewhere that I could just sit by and listen to the magic and maybe read a good book. 

I went to take another picture after this last one but my battery pack ran out.  I always have another spare with me but when I went to get it, panic...............NO BATTERY PACK....what was I thinking?  I decided to drive home with my eyes closed so I wouldn't be tempted to take any more pictures and miss that "picture of a life time" that I knew would be there just because I couldn't use my camera.  Well, I just half-closed my eyes stared straight ahead.  Made it home with no mishaps!