{ Trying to grasp this temporary routine }

It is 55 degrees outside, the birds are chirping, my windows are open and the house is quiet. If I bottle up a perfect Fall/Autumn morning, it would be this one.

I'm still trying to get used to this new routine, and knowing me, I will master it the day before it ends.  Hahaha

We still have another 2 and a half weeks of driving school, but my girl is doing so well, she has her permit now and she is getting ready to start doing her actual driving hours.  She is excited and albeit a bit anxious still, but that is normal.  I've been driving forever and I still get a bit anxious especially on the highway.  

But, the routine is just insane.  I feel so tired, like I haven't really been able to relax or get much downtime, so I'm trying to cram everything I want to do get done in my day, into every single spare moment.

I am so determined to get a grip on my days, that I've pulled out my planner and have actually been using it.  If you're a huge planner person, you're probably laughing at me, and that's quite alright.  But I'm the girl who loves the concept of planners, and buys them, and then never touches them.  I don't know why.

But I pulled it out, and have been using it to keep me on track, or try to at least.

In the middle of this craziness, driving back and forth and all that, Fall is well under way, which means we have a ton of work to do around the property.  So we are also trying to get things done, as we can, and cramming most of it into the weekends.  It's great, but also kind of counter productive in a way, because I'm so busy during the week, and Curt is so busy with work and college classes too, that we don't get to rest or relax on the weekend either.

It's just our life at the moment and we're both getting through it without complaining, because really there is no sense in wasting time doing that when it changes nothing, right?

It is temporary.  That's all!

Some of the things I've been doing, is preparing for the cold weather.  If you've followed me for a while, you know that every year, around October, I make my Winter Concoction for the fridge.  If you want to make it for yourself, there is a recipe, or step by step rather, already on the blog.  

Preparing for Winter

This year I also made a new mixture that is amazing for the winter crud, let's put it that way.  It brings out all the phlegm, it helps with colds and flus and is just brilliant for your immune system.  I will share it on the food blog, just haven't had time to sit and do it, but hopefully today.

Our pecan trees are about ready to be harvested.  We actually have some of the most beautiful pecans growing this year and we are so excited for the harvest.  They don't produce every year, I think I've mentioned it before, but it's something we had to learn after moving to this house.  I had no clue about pecan trees, or any trees of any kind. 

Our Pecan trees produce every two years.  

We have 6 on our property and a few baby ones growing too.  It's wonderful that God has blessed us with some many producing trees, but the harvest usually yields far more pecans than we can handle.  We gift them to family and friends, and then I use as much as I can.

We still have two buckets from 2 years ago, that I am trying to shell and process as fast as I can, before the new ones come in.  So, will be making pecan milk, pecan pie filling for canning, and also canning  roasted pecans.  A lot to do and I'm not sure how or when I'll be able to get it all done, but I'll do it.

I know my posting has been a bit sporadic, since I was working so hard on getting back on track here on the blog, but our plans are never really our plans.  God's plans supersede everything, and so we just go with the flow.  

 

This whole driving school thing came out of nowhere because of Jasmine's job, so we got thrown into this routine, literally from one day to the other.  Life is like that though, isn't it?

On my to do list for today, I have to iron a few work shirts for Curt and a few other things, I am also going to be taking Jasmine to school later, and to pop into her work real quick at 1pm.  

In between all this, I need to get this post up, hopefully get some of the food blog recipes up too, and I also want to get some Pumpkin Spice Apple Butter going in one crockpot, so that I can process it all later tonight, as well as getting dinner going in a second crockpot.

Oh goodness.

But, what I'm going to actually do, is instead of dropping her off, coming back home and returning to pick her up, I'm going to stay there.  It's two hours, but I'll take my laptop, and use that time to get all the recipes up on the food blog, edit photos and if I still have time, maybe watching something on Youtube.  Who knows.

Again, it's all about organizing and planning.

I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday.  I am going to get up, make my bed, get dressed and start on some of these tasks.

{ Harvesting Pecans }

Typically, we like to get the Pecans harvested as soon as they're ready, which for us could mean middle of October, but usually very beginning of November.

However, with all the craziness happening around here, it is not something we had a chance to do, until yesterday.

We've been blessed with 6 Pecan trees on the property.

When we first moved into this house, I had no clue we had so many, and the first year we didn't even realize there were pecans to harvest.  The second year we had quite a bit to harvest and we got as many as we could.

What we also didn't realize is that Pecan trees don't produce a huge crop, every single year.  So last year we were all set on harvesting and were quite disappointed not to see many at all.

This year however, we have an abundance.  Two of our trees put out a huge crop, enough that last week, my husband went out back to check on the trees and came back after an hour, with a full box.

Yesterday we decided that we needed to take some time and get out there, so we could gather as many as we could before they went bad, and before the squirrels went through them.

As it is, one of the trees was depleted and all that was left were a bunch of shells scattered at it's feet, with half eaten pecans.  Those silly squirrels!

However, there were still plenty to harvest.  We spent, maybe two hours and came back in with boxes full.  I have never seen so many pecans in my life.

The job is far from over, I now need to cure all these pecans.  If you don't cure them, you run the risk of mold growing and the nuts being inedible.

Now that we've harvested them, they will need to be placed in a single layer, on a surface that allows for good ventilation.  They will have to sit like this for about 2 weeks, and then we will shell them, freeze some, make pies, make pecan milk and all sorts of goodies.

These are the kind of chores that some people will turn their noses at, wonder why bother with all this work, just go to the store and buy them.  Absolutely, if you're willing to pay over 6 dollars for a small bag of pecans.  I don't know how much they are where you live, but I've always found pecans to be incredibly expensive, it's almost heartbreaking paying that much for a small bag of crushed pecans.

When you have an abundance that the Lord has blessed you with, you use it.  You make the effort, you harvest and cure and then enjoy the rewards.

For us, it's just part of living in the country, of homesteading so to speak.

It's not easy work, and after harvesting for just a few hours yesterday, my lower back was killing me, but it's work that I do with a smile on my face. 

If we are blessed to stay in this house, Curt and I have so many plans for the property, and I can not wait to take you along.

{ Pecans everywhere }

I've sat so many times, stared out the window, and counted my blessings. 

To be living in the country, which was always a dream of Curt's and I, is amazing in and of itself, but to be surrounded by beautiful land, and then to top that with an abundance of Pecan Trees, seems almost too good to be true.

I have loved Pecans from as far back as I remember.  When living in South Africa, one of my favorite desserts was the Pecan Nut Pie, or the Pecan Pie as it's known here in the States.  My dad loved it just as much as I did, and I even recall one certain day, in my teens, attempting to make a Pecan Pie using Golden Syrup.  Needless to say, it really didn't turn out quite well, more like a mushy watery mess, but it tasted amazing.

I have made many Pecan pies since then, or PEE-CUN nut pies as we pronounced in South Africa :)

October seems to be our harvest month, every year our Pecan trees dump an enormous amount of bounty on the ground.  The first year the crop was not very good, the pecans were mostly bad, the few that weren't tasted quite bitter and I was a bit disappointed thinking that, here we were, surrounded by Pecan trees and not able to enjoy them.

This past weekend was our Pecan harvest, we spent a few hours under the watchful eyes of these guys across the street.  We gathered as much as we could off the grass, and shook as many branches as we could, but there are quite a few still left on the upper branches that we either couldn't reach, or they weren't ready yet.

This weekend, we will be back out there, going from tree to tree, with bucket in hand gathering as many as we can.

This week, I've spent my time cracking pecans and working on the bucket we already have in hand.  The weather has cooled down, I'm not outside as much as I am during the summer, so it's been the perfect thing to do, well, aside from the usual house chores.

I sit at my dining table with pecans in hand, pop a show on my laptop, and spend an hour or so just cracking and shelling.  It often reminds me of my great grandmother Ema, she would sit around the holidays time, with a bowl of varied nuts before her, and just crack away, popping them into her mouth, happily munching.

Back in her day, she would have sat at the table with a bucket of green beans, working on those, or peeling potatoes. 

Different chores, but very alike in a way and I'm so proud to follow in her footsteps when it comes to homemaking. 

I'm nowhere near finished, it seems that it takes hours just to shell a handful of pecans, so I gather I'll be at this for quite a few days. 

I'm kind of pushing myself to get it all done this week because I want to get them stored, frozen etc. as soon as I can, certainly don't want them to go bad.

It's a truly blessing to have God's bounty bestowed upon us.  For many years, I shied away from buying Pecans because of how expensive they are, so I really am thankful for what I now have. :)

With that said, I best get on with my work.  Have a wonderful day :)