This is what I had planned for my day

I was up at 7:30 (Okay so I'm a late sleeper). The 3 grands were arriving about 8:10. At 7:45 the phone rings, it's my favorite BIL (the one that's like my little brother). He says "What time does the retiree blacksmith get up to pick corn?" I  said "soon". So as soon as I hung up I woke hubby up and told him "time to pick the corn" (If only it was time to make the donuts I would have been happier.)

Grand kids came and I start frying bacon and making corn cakes for them. Just as it was time to eat, the blacksmith came home, they had picked 3 rows of corn. After his 2 bigger than bushel baskets were overflowing, they threw more in the back of his jeep.

After breakfast, this is what I really wanted to work on, 3/4 of a bushel of peaches to can, freeze and make peach salsa.

Or I wanted to show you the finished mattress pad, that I tied using my SIL quilt frame.

Or I wanted to talk about this quilt top

Instead this is what we did. We hired child labor.

Even the smallest of them was a big help. We shucked corn, lots of corn.

We ended up with 27 QUARTS of cut off corn.

We did take a break and went for a dip to cool off. After all it hit triple digits here today!

Here are half of the empty cobs.

After cooking the corn, you cool it down in ice water.

We took breaks for lunch, swimming, ice cream and blackberries, and lots of gatorade. The 3 grands went home about 5. The blacksmith and I continued to work up the corn until after 7:30.

And so once again tomorrow I hope to work up the peaches. Maybe even get my make up on and my hair washed!

It's been busy around here.

BT's mom has been in town from Texas for a whirl wind couple of days. All the kids have taken great advantage of her and used her to full extent.


Tuesday, some of us went antiquing and took her along. Here is daughter #2, Darlene is shopping in the antique mall. Can you believe they supply you with shopping carts? And believe me, she made full use of it!

Darlene found three little brown jugs in descending sizes. Had she not seen the smallest one before me, it would have been mine.






Here the MIL is resting. She had bought us lunch at the diner next door. After shopping this huge mall, she needed a rest.






I passed on these two horse heads. (Aren't you glad BT?) I collect this creamy white pottery that is trimmed in gold. You can usually recognize it by the hand painted initials on the bottom of each piece.







However I couldn't pass on these two handkerchiefs. I saw a butterfly quilt made from handkerchiefs and now I am on a mission to collect some.






Then this little crock caught my eye. Since our mailing address is Jefferson City (we really live in Osage Bluff), it just had to come home with me.

Those were my only finds of the day. We visited and shopped and took the MIL around town to look at the progress made since she had moved away. It was a fun day girls! Thanks for the invite.





Later in the evening, the guys cut up a utility pole at the lake. It was stinky work, and required some heavy lifting even after sawing it up.










Wednesday the kids came over while their Mom ran to town. They arrived at the same time as the MIL. Here is Elizabeth almost enjoying her walker at Grandma's house.





The fruits of her labor. Yes MIL came to bake pies for BT's work. His boss man Mike, loves her homemade pies. And who wouldn't?
Her pie crust are the best! I tried to take notes, but she never used a measuring device. She asked for a big spoon. I gave her a serving spoon. No, she said, a great big one. So I gave her a big cooking spoon. She took a couple big spoons of shortening, plopped it into a big bowl, and then took it to the sink and turned the faucet on it.

She then worked the water into the shortening with a little salt. Finally the flour canister came into the picture. Scoop after scoop of flour was added. Never did she use a fork or a pastry blender. She'd stir, add some more flour, stir a bit more. Finally she took a hunk of dough, floured the countertop and started working the dough by working in more flour by hand. So girls, as for the recipe, there it is. Never will I get my dough to turn out as good as hers.

Next were the fillings, two peach pies, two cherries and one apple. We used frozen cherries and frozen peaches. They were pretty simple, just add sugar and some corn starch. As for the apples, I peeled and sliced them. The MIL then took water, corn starch, butter and some cinnamon . It was cooked on the stove until it was thick. She then poured it over the apples in the bowl. We let it set until the crust was ready.

I sprinkled sanding sugar on the top of the pies and put them in a 400 deg. oven. About an hour later we had 5 beautiful pies.

BT arrived at home just before noon for a bowl of soup with his mother and me. He took the still warm pies with him back to work.






Here at HSG, Pat, BT's brother (who also works at the same place) is enjoying a cup of coffee while a co-worker cuts the pies. BT said they didn't last long! So delicious. Thanks Mom!





Wednesday evening, brother Pat called to tell us he had some corn for us. BT went and picked up almost 3 bushels of corn. It took us a couple of hours to shuck it all.


Here it's ready to be cut off the cob.






The master corn cutter-offer.











After it's cut off, you measure, add sugar and water and bring it to a boil. It then needs to be cooled in ice water.


We froze 24 quarts of corn! So if we have nothing else to eat this winter, we will have plenty of corn.


I finally was reacquainted with my pillow about 12:33 AM.