Our Week in Pictures

Its been a busy week again here on our little urban homestead. I'm too tired to write much but wanted to share some pictures from our week. 

The girls enjoyed the remnants of a friends' garden. If you are pulling up the plants from your garden this weekend, find your local homesteader and surprise them with some free animal fodder. 

Our outing to the orchard on Wednesday provided enough apples for a pie...

and some applesauce...

and some apple snacks.

I took the peels from the apples that I used in the pie, sprinkled them with cinnamon and sugar and dried them in the oven (2 hours at 200 degrees).  The kids loved them!

2.5 quarts of applesauce isn't much, but I only had about 5 pounds of apples and it was my first time canning applesauce.  It was super easy to make though so I'm excited to try it again. 

I found this woolly worm on Friday.   Last year I found one that was all brown & sure enough we had a very mild winter.  So if the wives tale holds true, it will be a cold start and finish but mild through the middle. 

I'm still getting tomatoes and peppers, but not enough to do a batch of salsa or sauce, which is fine because I have plenty of both.  I got thinking today, why can't I make my own version of Rotel? I usually use a can of Rotel in chili and some Mexican dishes so it would be handy to have some in the pantry.  I found a few recipes online and took what I liked from each and got 6 pints & a jelly jar of my version of Rotel canned tomatoes with banana peppers (didn't have any green chilies but plan to for next year). 

When I took Chloe's hair out today, we discovered it was just long enough to put in a ponytail. Tonight I told her to go get in the shower, and then wondered why I didn't hear the water running yet.  I walked into the bathroom to find this...

I didn't even have to ask what she'd been doing.

I mean, how cool is this?  I had to take a picture b/c I could never get my hair to do this!

A friend gave Matt 2 tickets for tonight's UK/SC football game.  Essie got to go with Dad to this late game (I shutter to think what she will be like tomorrow).  It's now 10pm and they just called to say they were leaving the game. 

*Update:  Essie thoroughly enjoyed herself at the UK game and did great yesterday, but all the fun caught up with her this morning, trying to get ready for school.  I think early bedtime will be in order again tonight.