18
Aug
Noby did FANTASTIC on his first “walk alone” hike!! We’ve taken Noby hiking before but he always rode in the hiking pack. Today Noby walked all by himself… well kind of, haha! We hiked to Sabbaday Falls, the entire round trip totaled about .7 miles. It was the perfect first hike for Noby.
17
Aug
Bright and early this morning, and I mean early, (I wasn’t even fully dressed) the Bagster guy showed up to pick up all the trash in our front yard!! I am sooo excited to have these bags gone, as I’m sure the neighbors were too! I wanted to take pictures but I thought the guy would think I was crazy, so I snapped a few pictures from inside.
Bag 1:
The dude checking to make sure the first bag is in there:
Bag number 2:
Hip Hip Hooray, they are GONE!
16
Aug
Today Brenda invited us over to hang out by the pool. The weather was HOT so it was the perfect day for it!! Noby of course had a great time swimming. He will now even jump right in!
Brenda made the BEST dinner ever!! I LOVED IT!!! I didn’t think about taking pictures to blog it till after, actually after I ate half of mine! She promised to email me the recipe and I will share it with you all!
14
Aug
I was undecided on how to start this blog post. Either….
You know you’re old when…. when you and your husband stay home on a Friday night and can.
OR
10 lbs of fresh green bean = $25
23 qt pressure canner = $85
You and your husband staying in on a Friday night to can = LAME!
——————————————
YES I said CAN!! To fully understand how Ichiro and I ended up on a Friday night at 11pm waiting for the pressure canner to lose pressure we need to go back a few weeks. It all started the weekend I travel to Chicago with my family. Second thought, we need to go back a little more, let say to my childhood.
So my mom use to can, I remember her canning tomatoes, bread n’ butter pickles and most importantly DILLY BEANS!!! I don’t know when she stopped making these magical beans but at some point my mom put away her canning supplies and that was the end of the Dilly Beans.
Now fast forward to last month, when I traveled to Chicago for my aunt and uncle’s 65 birthday party. The party was over and we were hanging out at my aunt and uncle’s house, the after party, if you will. As I passed through the kitchen, I happened to glance down at the counter and I stopped right in my tracks. I saw the most beautiful thing ever, 1 qt size jar filled with DILLY BEANS!! I was practically shaking!! I screamed with excitement! Who knew she never stopped making them! Anyway she sent me back to Boston with the recipe and 1 jar of the yummy beans!!! I thought about hiding them from Ichiro, (come on, we all know how he gets at night!) but I was a good wife and said he could eat them with me!!
So we knew we had to get making them fast. This one jar was NOT going to last very long and it take a couple of months for them to ferment. We attempted to do it last weekend but Ichiro didn’t want me to kill anyone so he made me order a pressure canner.
Tonight after putting Noby to bed, Ichiro and I started working on the beans. What an exciting Friday night, canning Dilly Beans! haha Now they look nothing like my aunts. I was a little disappointed. But you never know, maybe they will taste right when we open them. I think this is going to be a trial and error type of things. I obviously didn’t fill the jars with enough beans. Who knows if I added enough dill in them. We are just going to have to wait and see!
Cut and cleaning 10 lbs of beans…
fresh garlic…
fresh dill…
cleaning the jars…
each jar got some dill, garlic and a slice of jalapeno…
Next the jars were filled with beans…
next we poured in a boiling mixture of water, vinegar and salt…
the top was placed on top…
next the jars are put in the pressure canner…
the cover is added and we wait and wait till the pressure reaches the right temperature…
Then we let the canner cool, when all the pressure is released we can open the canner and take out the EXTREMELY hot jars…
Now we just wait 2 months to see how they taste…tick tock, tick tock…
13
Aug
I managed to kill my Mother In Law’s Tongue! This plant has been in my kitchen for years and years. It was left by Kerry when she moved to Arizona. I often left guilty because I would forget to water it, but the plant never really seemed to care. Last weekend Ichiro and I were out shopping and I bought some glass balls that automatically water your house plants. Ichiro’s mom has them in all her plants and every time we go to her house I think about how we need these. So when we got home I filled the glass balls and put them in my only two house plants. Well it turns out the Mother In Law’s Tongue doesn’t really like to be well watered. haha In less than a week, I’ve managed to kill my (ok Kerry’s) beautiful houseplant. Before today I didn’t even know the name of the plant, Kerry had to fill me in. She sent me to its Wikipedia page and the page clearly states, “It is popular as a houseplant as it is tolerant of low light levels and irregular watering; during winter it needs only one watering every couple of months. It will rot easily if over watered.” OOPS!!!
Becky, in the kitchen with the….
Poor, poor plant…
12
Aug
11
Aug
Today was another perfect day at the beach. Only a few clouds in the sky and we all got a little red because of it. So, Noby has no fear of the water! None at all! Today was so hot, and waves were not that big, so I actually took him all the way in the water. He LOVED it. Laughed and laughed. At one point during the day I was sitting in my beach chair and Noby came up behind me. He gave me a little push, meaning “get up Mom, take me in the water!” How could I say no to that!
Here are a few pictures from yesterday…
Trying to get cool by standing in his bucket…
Loving the water…
And today…
Playing in his big hole…
Making our first castle…
Way out in the water… (don’t worry I was kneeling)
Lunch on the beach…
Surfing anyone??
10
Aug
Today after our playgroup, Noby and I headed to RI for a little fun in the sun. My mom has been vacationing at Kathy’s condo in Westerly for the past week, so we decided to come down for a couple of day. More pictures to follow but here’s one from this afternoon…
Great weather, great friends… great fun!
9
Aug
8
Aug
After spending the morning at the park with Noby, Ichiro and I made the most of nap time! If you remember a few months ago we started working on the backyard. I really, REALLY want some type of USEABLE backyard. We got a Bagster bag and filled it up with scrap wood, the bag filled quickly and we finished that day with the backyard looking like this…
better but not finished!
Well today we decided work on it a little more. We still had a ton of wood in the back corner so we decided to get one more Bagster bag. (I knew we wouldn’t have any problems filling it.) Well after a few hours the yard now looks like this…
For next years garden…
I’m so excited how much we got done!! Ichiro sprayed to kill all the weeds and soon we will try turning the soil. We hope to get some grass back there soon!!!
So we now have two Bagsters in the front yard! lol Now that they are both filled we’ll call on Monday to set up a pick up time!!!
Can you say GHETTO…
