Dill Pickles 

Green Beans

Sauerkraut

Hi There, yesterday Abi and I spent the day canning. I recently  purchased a pressure cooker for canning green beans, Wow I love that thing ! It is so much faster than a water bath. Now I know you can't use a water bath for green beans, but I used it for the pickles and I plan to use it for my other canning as well. I noticed that my kitchen did not get as hot as it would have if I would have used my water bath.
   So moving on I canned green beans and pickles, but the thing I'm most excited about is the sauerkraut! I found online a video on how to make it in a jar, I  followed what was said and I will let know how it turns out in ten days!
  I love canning the things that I have grown, it makes me feel like I'm putting the best that I can on the table for My family! I know how it was grown, I know what was used to prepare it , and to me that is so important! Food manufacturer's put so many chemicals in our food these day's and none of it natural it is not good for us and further more  they do it all in the name of money!  I believe that is directly why our country has such a problem with obesity. That's another topic, I do though put a great deal of importance on the food's we eat.
  The other thing we did was make zucchini Bread we love zucchini Bread I'm going to share my recipe with you and you have to try it . When I was still working we had a fill in nurse that would come and help out when one of us was on vacation, oh boy she could bake! A very nice Italian girl she gave me this recipe and I have treasured it !
   Zucchini Bread
3 lg eggs
3 cups sugar
3cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 cup salad oil
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3 cups zucchini
1 1/2 cups of nuts or coconut (optional)
 Bake at 350 for 45 min to an hour
 this is very moist and it will stick to the bottom of the pan so oil and flour pan well  and by all means please Enjoy!!
  Bruce and I took Abi to preschool open house last night, I have mixed feelings! I love the idea of her going and learning and being with other kids her age! But the idea make me panic a little inside! i don't want my baby to grow up ! I know that the moms out there know exactly what I'm trying to say!
 She starts in Sept and it's only three days a week for 2 1/2 hours , I can workout or whatever else I want to do with my time and she will be learning and having fun! it's a win win.

Summer

We have been on vacation for ten days and what adventures we had !
We went camping and white water rafting, so we did many kid friendly river runs and it was great ,lots of stops on very sandy beaches and swimming ! We spent several days just sitting water side with our toes in the water and soaking up the sun !! ( that was my favorite !) So we spent five days just the three of us ( Bruce Abigail and myself) , we met some super nice people whom also have kids the same age, they are rafters as well!
So the last five days my sister and one of her long time friends and one of mine and her niece met us and we had such a great time catching up and remembering we were young !
On my birthday before my sister got to camp we decided to do the lower stretch of the river which I have not been on for four years it has bigger rapids well we ended up being washed out of the boat by a big wave at the top of a class four rapid ! The most terrifying part for me was having my daughter with me ! It only lasted a few minutes , but I was so scared my little one would drink too much water! As it turns out she didn't , I held her up which put me under more and so I drank all the water ! Everyone got washed out of the boat except for our 6 month old German Shepard (Pippa) ! Craziness!
All in all it was a great vacation!! My sweet little girl had so much fun swimming and playing in the sand!

My sweet little angel

Daddy and Abi 

Kathy, Angie ,and Alice

Alice, Angie,and Dawn Rae

Roscoe and Abi 

Summer Time

 So Hi I finally am sitting down to write.
 I m so sorry it had taken me so long to do it! We have been very busy ,it started out with Ironman in Coeur D Alene, Idaho. My sister In-law did Ironman this year and last, It is a full weekend ! She did so much better tis year than last ,she really improved her time all across the board!
     The very next weekend we went camping for 7 days with my husbands dad's side of the family, and what a mess that was! I  think we camped two days with them before his aunt caused a fight with his uncle and before long the whole family was upset and leaving. Everyone yelling "not camping with family ever again"!  We headed to another camp spot and had a good 5 days alone!
 So than we had  a week off from camping. It was so hot here, very good for my garden and by the way it is doing great! The next time I blog I will add picture's.  In my garden I have harvested my garlic and it is drying , it will be ready to eat the end of august.  I will save some and replant it in October. I really do love my garden!
     So back to the rest of the story. So my Brother in-law called and wanted us to go rafting with him and his buddies in Riggins. Riggins has some fabulous white water and we go every year at least once! We have our own raft so we can spend as much or as little time on the water as we want.
   My brother in-law just bought his raft this year so that's all he thinks about. So we went. But before we could leave My husband took the camper to do somethings to prepare it for the trip someone rear end the camper and caused a lot of damage!  We ended up going anyway for the most part we had a good family trip. But of course par for our summer so far things could not go off without a hitch! My brother in-law
   drank way to much and showed out very badly!! My husbands feelings were hurt and he was mad! My brother  in-law is one of those people that should not drink! I hope he can get some help! So that brings us to now we have a trip , a 11 day trip planned for August and we don' have a camper!! It's been very frustrating to say the least. The other guys insurance company has said that they will rent us a camper for our trip, however the rental place will not allow dogs and we have them! I do think we have figured out,but we will see, will keep you posted.
    bottom line we are having a Murphy's Law summer!