I've Got Skillz. (With a "Z")

I want to raise chickens. really really badly. The problem is... I live in the city. (In case you haven't guessed from BexInTheCity.) I want to raise chickens so badly though that it's become an obsession. I'm reading everything I can get my hands on (Tractor Supply catalog, websites, magazines, etc.) about raising chickens... and living vicariously. Really, it's bad. I picked up a copy of Backyard Poultry from Barnes and noble the other day for pete's sake. Another magazine I bought was called mother earth news. (http://www.motherearthnews.com/) which promises 150 ideas for self sustainable living... which I'm also all about.

anyway.... long story short...

one of their "country skills" articles was on canning.

*dusts shoulder*

I happen to be a pro on canning. Or something like that. I helped can last week anyway. A whole heaping bunch of green beans... that I also helped pick.

You start with a group of people willing to help snap all the green beans. That's my coffee cup in front of me. can you tell I'd just woken up? They get you up early on the farm!!



this was just SOME of the green beans



While you're snapping, you separate the ends from the rest of the bean...



...and then snap it into little pieces.



we each had our own little bucket going on. The more people that help, the faster this part will go. Is that... like... a duh?



next, you find a cute little girl that loves to be a dork on camera, and snap several pictures of her.



After all the beans have been snapped, you toss 'em all into the sink and give 'em a nice soak. just to get them clean.



Cute little boys watching get bonus points.



Then you put all that you can fit, into a big pot on the stove to boil.



(p.s. You'll notice that the oven is on at 350. This has nothing to do with canning green beans, and more to do with the blackberry pie that was baking while we canned. YUM!)

While you're in the middle of helping, you get word that a calf has literally JUST been born. You drop everything you are doing and run outside with your camera to capture the blessed event.



Oh wait... that's just me. You can skip that part.

back to the green beans...

Right. so where were we? oh yeah... our beans were boiling.

Ok... so after you've let them boil for a while it's time to get them in the jars.





Try to ignore the blackberry pie fresh out of the oven behind me... it's not time for that yet.



Lastly, after you've got all your beans in jars and you've poured hot water over and added salt, then you stick them in the pressure cooker to seal the deal. haha. get it? SEAL. I crack me up.



and while they're pressure cookin' for about an hour or so...

... you can eat this... (don't forget the vanilla ice cream!)



heaven's to Betsy. Help me Rhonda.

it's ok... we went swimming later and worked it all off. pictures of that coming later.

*sidenote: we ended up canning 37 jars of green beans!!*

The Quiet Song

Do you have young kids?
Do they drive you nuts singing silly songs endlessly and to the top of their lungs anytime you are in your car?
You too could teach your kids the "quiet song" !!!

It works much like the quiet game.

Today after listening to the kids go on and on loudly, I couldn't listen to one more rendition of twinkle twinkle little star, so I told them I had a new song to teach them called the quiet song and it went like this... [enter dead quiet here]

They picked up on it immediately and loved taking turns "singing" the Quiet Song.

I got fifteen whole minutes of quiet bliss for the whole rest of the way to the farm!

The Quiet Song... it could very well save your sanity!