Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!  I don't know what the new year holds, but I do know who does.  :)  I put my trust in the Lord to guide me and take care of everything.  I just walk one day at a time and do what I know is right and good to do. 

We live in interesting times don't we?  I am looking forward to seeing what God has in store for us in the coming months.  The Bible tells me that all good things come from above.  (James 1:17) 

Today my family is starting back on the path of good nutrition.  Boy did we eat a lot of junk/sugar over the holidays!  We all feel so much better when we are eating foods that are as close to possible to the way God created them.

I thought I would share with you one way we use those canned vegetables we work so hard all Summer and Fall putting up. 

To start with we had roasted whole chicken for dinner night before last.  I saved the bones and left over meat to make soup.  I put this in a pot with enough water to cover the bones and meat.  Brought it to a boil, added some chopped onion and garlic.  Remove the bones from the broth and put any meat back into the pot.

This is what it looks like after deboning and adding the onions and garlic.





I chose a quart of green beans, a quart of carrots, a pint of corn and a pint of tomatoes from the pantry.  I opened these and added them to the pot, liquid and all.

Then I took a sweet potato I had in the fridge, a bunch of fresh parsley from the garden, and a bunch of kale from the garden.  These fresh vegetables boost the nutrition level of the soup.  Some nutrition is lost during the canning process, so I like to add what ever fresh ingredients I have to the soup.  Kale and parsley will grow all winter here in the Pacific Northwest.  Ed did have to cover the parsley with a sheet when the temperatures were down in the 20's awhile back.

I peeled and chopped the sweet potato and added it to the pot, then chopped the kale up and added it as well.  The parsley I just picked the leaves off the stems and toss them right in without chopping.  Next I tasted the broth, added a little sea salt, black pepper and a couple of shakes of Bragg's organic kelp seasoning (kind of like Mrs. Dash only better).  I also broke a few fetuccini noodles and put in.  Sometimes instead of the noodles I will put in  brown rice, or barley or even  soft white wheat. 
Soup's on!  This pot of soup will feed my family for two day's worth of lunches.  Thank you Lord for the bountiful harvest this last year. 

Merry Christmas everyone!

I want to wish everyone a blessed Christmas.  I pray the Lord blesses your family and keeps you safe in His care.  May you enjoy the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior.

 I am just going to share some pretty pictures with you I have collected over the years.  Consider it my Christmas card to you.


I am so thankful Jesus came to earth and lived and died for me, that I might have life eternal and spend it with Him.




Isn't this just a pretty scene?



I love snowmen!  And pretty birds created by God.

Audrey and Sally want to go caroling this year.  We will take them around to our neighbors and let them sing for them.

Simple times.  That is what we are doing this year.  Simple, thankful, and joyful time celebrating Jesus' birthday.  We have made our gifts and decorated with what we have.  Baking and listening to our Christmas songs.

What a cute snow family!

What a lovely time! Pretty clothes, elegant furnishings and a tree that might burst into flames at any moment!  LOL!  Seriously it all looks so lovely doesn't it?

Can you tell I really like snowmen/families?  : )

Another pretty Christmas scene.

What a festive mailbox!

Merry Christmas from the Swinson family.

Homemade Christmas gift idea

Here it is December already.  This year has just zipped by! The photo on the top of my blog is a shot I took looking off my front porch down the valley this morning.  It was 20 degrees when we got up.  A bit chilly, but the good thing is the sun shines during the day and it is beautiful and dry.

We are doing  homemade gifts for Christmas this year.  I made something today that is really inexpensive to make.  Made from recycled items we probably all have in our homes.  They are fire starters.  They make some nice gifts for those who have fireplaces or wood stoves, or for camp fires or putting in your emergency kit.

The things you need are:
Cardboard egg cartons
Old candles
Dryer lint



I saved my dryer lint for about a week. Depending on how much laundry you do and how much lint comes off each load determines how long you need to save it.

Take the lint and fill each hole of the egg carton. Isn't it amazing the different colors you get from each load?  LOL!

Take your old candles and chop them up a bit and put them in a double boiler over medium heat. The first ones I used were a purple color and then I added this old white pillar candle.  Make sure to remove the wicks from the candles before putting in the pan to melt down.

Here you can see I have a pan inside of another pan.  I put water in the lower pan to keep the wax from getting too hot.  Be very careful while doing this!  DO NOT WALK AWAY WHILE THE WAX IS MELTING!!   It is flammable and will catch on fire easily.  So use extreme caution while working with the melting wax.  As soon as it has melted, turn off the heat.

Next pour the melted wax over your lint, filling each cup.  I used a small measuring cup to dip the wax out of the larger pot.  Be very careful not to spill it on yourself.  I put the carton in the freezer for about 15 minutes to set the wax. You can just let it sit out at room temperature and it will harden in time.

After they are hardened up, take some shears and cut apart the cups.  To use them put them on the bottom of your fireplace/wood stove and put your kindling on top just like you would build your fire using other fire starters or paper.  I am putting these in tins for gifts.  Simple, frugal and useful! 

Sewing again!

I finally got to spend some time in my sewing room.  I made this valance for the dining room window. I am making another to match in the kitchen window hopefully before Thanksgiving.  Thanks for the idea from my friend Lisa who showed me a photo of one in a different color that she likes.  I got the idea from it.  Thanks again Lisa for the green check fabric, it worked so well with my green toile print.  : )



Close up



Cranberry Season

It is cranberry season again on the Southern Oregon coast.  So we went to visit our friends Marci and Dave down near Bandon.  Remember last years post about the cranberry bog?  We love visiting with Marci and Dave.  We took some of our garden produce and apples and traded for buckets of cranberries.  This is such a blessing to us to have fresh cranberries!  We feel so spoiled.  : )

The girls each got to dip cranberries out of the bog into a bucket with a rake.  They thought that was pretty cool.

We also learned something new about cranberries.  Last year we got to pick some cranberries from Marci and Dave's baby bog.  That is where they grow the plants for making a new bog.  This year they planted a new bog.  I had envisioned them hand planting every little vine.  Well Marci told me that Dave mows the dry baby bog.  Then they take the clippings and scatter them on the prepared bog area and then they get tilled in.  The amazing thing is those clippings take root and start new plants.  How cool is that? 

So we came home with three buckets of cranberries.  They need to be cleaned because they have cranberry leaves and other little twigs and grass and such in them.  Anyone ever picked wild huckleberries?  Then you will have an idea of what I am talking about cleaning the berries.

Ed, on the way home comes up with an ingenious plan of how to clean them fast.  I am so blessed to have a husband that God has gifted in figuring out ways to do things easier!  Take a look at the process in the photos below.







Bucket of uncleaned cranberries. See all the leaves and grass?





Ed took half inch square wire and made a ramp.




Then we used the hose to wash the leaves and other debris off the berries.




We slowly let them roll down the wire ramp and picked out any big stuff.




Then they went into a clean tote!

  We only lost about a quart of small berries that fell through the holes.  They didn't go to waste as the chickens loved them!


Here are some of the cleaned berries in the jelly kettle.





Here they have been made into whole cranberry sauce.  Ready for any meal.

 I will post another time about making juice and fruit leather from some of the other berries.

Just popping in to say hi!

I have had computer problems and so have not been able to blog.  I miss it!  I am going to try and update everything.  Lots has been happening here.  We have new kittens, the gardens are all planted again for another year, we have been eating mandarin oranges off our citrus trees, we have a new pool, we are building another pantry, we are back in the upholstery business.  Yep!  Lots happening around here.  I promise to get some posting done and put up the dozens of photos I have been taking to share with all of you.  Thanks for your patience. 

Farewell to our dear Hercules

Here is Hercules at age 15.  He was attacked by a stray dog and wasn't strong enough to survive surgery.  So we had to put him to sleep.  That was a sad day for us all.  He was a really good cat.  Never got into trouble about anything.  He was always so loving and patient.  We will miss him.

Hercules was born in our home in Alaska.  Our oldest son Jeremy brought home a female stray cat in the middle of winter.  She was pregnant and had 4 kittens.  Jared wanted to keep a kitten and Hercules was the one he chose to keep.  (I had wanted to name him Pierre.)  He had many adventures in Alaska and then made the trip down here to Oregon when we moved in 2004.  He enjoyed another 7 years here.

After taking him to the vet to be put down, we had a funeral and buried him next to our dear Toby.  The vet said he was the equivalent of 112 human years.

Good bye Herc, we will miss you.