Pictures by Jackson

Jackson got a hold of the camera today.  He took some 100 pictures but a few of them came out more than a blurry blob.  I wonder if he was trying to take pictures or just playing with the camera? 

More of that Turkey

I know everyone saw the post where we canned the turkey soup, here is what went on beforehand.  Here is the turkey after it was cooked, yes, it was cooked in a cast iron skillet because I have no roasting pan.  (I DO have a birthday in 3 months, but no roasting pan. *cough, cough*.)

I also used some of the elftover turkey to make quesadillas one night for dinner, I just added some turkey, chopped some onion, green pepper, threw on some cheese and fried in some oil and they were SO good, better than turkey itself!  I was out of tomato or I would have added some.  These were a big hit with everybody, even Jackson.  While Jackson does like a lot of different foods, the hard part is getting him to taste them the first time.  When he saw the quesadilla at first he said ‘no, no, no’ and when I didn’t offer him anything new, he finally tried the tiniest little bite and realized how good it was and ate an entire portion.  I didn’t make turkey salad with this like I usually do, but that is also another way we use things up and avoid waste.  I’ll be back with some decluttering pictures soon.

Emily

Playing Catch Up

I haven’t been the best blogger lately.  I hope you all can forgive me, between a hospitalization, vacation and stomach bug, the blog has sadly taken a backseat to my actual life!  Here are some pictures of breakfast, the first is egg sandwiches and fruit salad (teh fruit salad was a manager’s special of pre-cut fruit, everything in obviously only had about a day left, so the whole bowl was $2.  The second pic is just your average aggs, bacon and biscuits breakfast.  I don’t make a full breakfast every morning, just on weekends.

Make Some Bread

 

Our first attempt, as well as out second, did not go well.  We paid 6 bucks for this bread maker and decided to geive it a try this weekend.  I tried 2 different recipes and both we un edible.  Emily like the first loaf but I thought it was horrible.  We will give it another try soon. 

 

 

While i was getting the vacuum Maggie decided she wanted to try cheese its that Jackson spilt.  She saw me coming and was shoveling them as fast as she could in her mouth.  She has been getting into everything she can the last few days.  Busy as a Bee i tell you.

 

 

Homesteading What?

We have not been doing anything around the Cobb household other than living and composting.  We are all living so I guess that means things are moving forward.  We had a busy few weeks with Maggie in the hospital and out trip to Gatlinburg, TN.

We had fun on the trip.  The drive there and back was as rough as it usually is when driving with the kids.  I loved this sign and im sure its true come winter.  I was amazing at how steep the roads got just a short distance off the main drag.  We actually left extremely early the last day because bad weather was suppose to be rolling in. You know he slept good before this picture.  The whole sleeping thing didn’t go well for him the 3 days we were down there.  I guess all the excitement and being out of the norm was just to much for him.  Heck, we couldn’t even get a good nap from him on the way home.

 

 

We went to the aquarium down there.  I know Jackson would like it but I had no idea Maggie would enjoy it so much.  She’s to the point now she like to be involved with everything.  My mother was hasn’t been feeling well and was in a wheel chair so she held Maggie most of the day.  The second picture is, if you couldn’t have guessed, fish.  The third pic is Jackson standing in one of those tub things.  He was a little scared at first but very quickly liked it. 

Wheel Horse tractors.  I love these things and would like to consider myself a collector.  Ive only got a few of them. I saw an add on Craiglist for 2 old wheel horse.  I sold these 2 to get the other 2.  The one on the left was my first and the other didn’t look like muck but was still a good tractor.

 

I didn’t really want to sell me first Wheel Horse or my best puller but the 2 tractors I bought were old.  The were almost the 1st two models Wheel Horse ever mad and are extremely hard to come buy in this area.  I always wanted a “round hood” but never say any for sale.  All I need now is to sell my spare engine and get one for the new tractor.  It would have been nice to have the money to keep what I had and buy these.  When times are tough any you would like to maintain a hobby you gotta do what you gotta do.  Hopefully things don’t get bad enough were I have to sell these tractors.  I’ve only got 3 now and would hate to part with them.  I would of course do it if need be.

So very Tired

Absolutely nothing going on other than Maggie’s hospital visit.  This picture was taken yesterday and she seems to be feeling better.  I took her off the oxygen last night to get her cleaned up.  Her oxygen level was great so i figured a few minutes off the O2 wouldn’t hurt anything.  I got her all cleaned up and tested her again.  Still good.  from the way I understood Emily’s text this morning they never put her back on the oxygen.  That’s a good thing.  here is still a chance she will come home today.  Im exhaust, as is Emily im sure, and im ready to get life back the way it needs to be.  We are supposed to be going to Gatlinburg the end of this week for a family mini trip vacation.  Im not for sure if we are still doing it or not.  I guess we will make a decision in the next few days.  It all depends on how she’s doing.  Id hate to get down there and have her take a turn for the worse.  They say she will get worse before she gets better.  Time will only tell that one.  Jackson seems to be doing good but he misses the way things should be.

Poor Poor Maggie

She was admitted into the hospital this morning for RSV.  She’s sick and look weird with the wires monitoring her heart(she got a couple holes).  She had a mild seizure this morning as well but was expected due to her medicine being late. 

So Sad	Looks like she in Jail
Wires everywhere	At least she is mobile
Im working on 2 hours sleep last night	At least someone is happy
She actually likes this	So much so she does push-ups after

 

She’s got ups and downs.  You can tell when she’s ready for another repertory treatment.  A few minutes after she’s happy as can be.  Sounds like Saturday at the latest before she gets to come home.

Our First Time Canning

This was the first time we have ever canned.  Ive seen my mother do it several times and it looked easy online.  When cleaning out the deep freeze we found a turkey we had forgotten about. Emily cooked it and we had it for dinner one night – for some reason it didn’t cook well and turned out dry.  I pulled all the meat and set it aside.  The next day Emily made some turkey stock from the carcase.  She added the meat and some veggies.  For noodles she made some egg noodles(she will give the receipt later).  Pay no attention to the grill cheese we were making dinner at the same time we were canning.

I feel fluffy in the picture! Watch out its HOT!	5 Jars of finished soup	Guess Who?

I’m not 100% sure how to use this canner but it wasn’t holding 11psi.  Don’t know it the thingy was broken or if I was suppose to twist it to maintain the pressure.  I placed this fork here and it maintained between 11-14psi for 70 minutes with only 1 minor adjustment.  Notice Jackson helping.  He has started making this face whenever he sees someone taking his photo.

Not alot going on

 

Almost all of us haven’t been feeling well the last few days.  Maggie has a slight cough.  Jackson is fighting an ear infection (i think he won). Ive been stuffy with sinus crap.  I think we are all ready to be better.  This Picture is a few days old but you can see how serious Jackson looks when he’s doing stuff.  Pure concentration – I can see it in his eyes.  We were messing with them when we went to the park.

Maggie had been wanting to eat a little I think.  I don’t so much think its the food as much as it is the excitement of something new.

She went after her brothers sweet potatoes tonight.   We decided to eat in the TV room tonight and she nibbles on a  roll on the way to the TV room from the kitchen.  I had her and 2 plate in my hands so I couldn’t do anything.  She got mad when I took it away.  Potatoes and rice are fine.  I don’t think wheat is a good choice at this point.

The picture is blurry but you get the idea.  The kids got stripped down to nothing but diapers due to a sweet potato situation(just notice ive got some on my socks).  We were sitting watching TV getting ready for bed time.

Meal Plan Monday

So the first full week of the new year has begun!  We grocery shopped this weekend (all 4 of us, what a nightmare!) And I have my meal plan ready to go for next week:

Monday – Turkey, baked sweet potatoes, green beans

Tuesday – Turkey noodle soup (with celery and carrots)

Wednesday – Keilbasa with rice and carrots (haven’t fully decided on what kind of rice)

Thursday – Leftovers (and turkey salad)

Friday – Hot wings and fries

Saturday – Grilled cheese, chips and fruit salad

Sunday – undecided (possible even out if I can find a good coupon!)

Lunches this week with be leftovers and turkey salad sandwiches, we also have some roast beef and one lone frozen pizza (the 99 cent kind) that need to be used up.  Breakfasts, made hardboiled eggs on sunday,so those and sausage and fruit or yogurt.

That’s the plan for this week!  I’m still using up and sorting through my freezers, the turkey and keilbasa are from the freezer.  I am really going to try harder to start posting pictures with my posts, really, I am, I promise…..sort of.

Emily