I Think I Can

Terry was quite spoiled growing up... His mom canned like crazy. Now, I have to can like crazy! My mom did can while growing up but not quite like Terry's mom. So, since being married I've learned to can salsa, mandarin sauce, apple sauce, spaghetti sauce, tomato soup, Italian tomatoes, enchilada sauce, apple/peach pie filling, pickles, and it seems like every year we try something new. My family loved chili sauce growing up, but Terry thinks it's too sweet, so I normally just steal a few from my mom since I'm the only one that eats it. 

So far this year, we have canned apple/pear sauce, sliced apples, salsa, and Italian tomatoes.

Canning for the most part saves us a lot of money and it is the best way for us to build our food storage. It really only gets expensive if we can't get any fresh fruit, and a lot of the time we wait for Ridley's case lot sale and stock up on canned fruit there. It might not be as good, but we want canning to save us money, not cost us more.

My mom always steamed her jars, and luckily that's what Terry's mom does as well, because I have no idea how to water bath! 

While canning takes a lot of time and work, Terry and I find it to be well worth it. We love having food on hand, the fact that it is home made, saves us money, and we can grow almost everything needed in our garden (or bum off family since our garden only produced squash this year and nothing else.) 

Plus, we have plenty of room in our house to store it!

We have a cellar below our house with plenty of storage and it keeps everything cool. We just restock the pantry with all the food we keep stored down here. 

We are grateful that we have great teachers to help us become self efficient, and we love hearing about new foods we can bottle and store. If you have any good ones, let us know! 

A Little Visit

My sister had her sweet baby boy a few weeks ago, so Oliver and I went to visit. Oliver had fun meeting his new cousin but was sure happy to be home. He really doesn't travel well. 

Oliver loved Reese! He wanted to hold, kiss, and hug the baby all the time.
He did get a little jealous when I got my turn.

We had to go to the grocery store and Oliver was so lucky he got to ride in this sweet cart.
Unfortunately, he threw a major fit when it was time to leave the car behind.

Baby Reese in his Duck Dynasty attire.
"I'm only wearing this until my beard comes in, Jack!"

Oliver for some reason loved to squeeze himself between the car and the wall in the garage.
He would do this over and over again, but I was glad he was entertained!

We are so grateful Reese is here and that everyone is healthy and doing well. He is the third grandson and grandchild for my parents. Lots of trucks, tractors, and dirt on the way!

Little Gems

This is basically a post of all the things I take pictures of but don't really think they deserve to be blogged about individually, but all together makes it worth it! Be prepared lots of random pictures!

 

1. We had a porcupine in our corn field at the beginning of the year, Terry had to shoot it. 2. Oliver is the best helper! He just grabs the broom and sweeps for me. 3. Baby Reese was born! Okay, he definitely deserves a whole blog post to himself, but we'll put him here for now. We will go visit him next week! 4. Our neighbor was driving his chopper down the road, when all of a sudden his wheel PASSED him! These bad boys only have two wheels and they're huge. 5. For a Farm Bureau thing they had 5 combines in ONE field to take the city slicker, State Representatives for rides. That field got harvested quick! 6. These two cousins play so well, and are always doing the silliest of things, like sitting in a baby bouncer together. 

Walton Family Fun!

The month of July was a busy one! All of Terry's sisters came for a visit. That meant there were 14 cousins (and one adopted cousin, Dessa brought a friend) all ready to play, and Oliver LOVED being apart of it!

When Jenny and Anna got in, we went up to McCall.

We only stayed for one night, but the rest of them stayed for a couple of days.

 We had a Walton Reunion! We had Dian from Texas, Jenny and Anna from Arizona, Tonia from Vale, and Darcia also from Emmett. Grandma and Grandpa Thornock from Seattle came down and Grandma and Grandpa Walton came over to participate in the festivities.

 We had a bunch of fun activities like an obstacle course.....

 

Which turned into a water gun fight.

 

  

 Plenty of races, and we even had pinatas! 

  

 We made sure to take family pictures while everyone was here. 

  

 I'm lucky to be called a "Walton Sister!"

Dian stayed for awhile longer and Oliver got to be good friends with these two guys.

We love when the whole family gets together, there is always so much fun to be had. 

We look forward to the next visit! 

Livin' the Farm Life

Oliver is such a farm boy, I can hardly believe it! He only plays with tractors and has been making noises for them since he was only 10 months (we were told that is advanced for his age, but tractors are his thing). 

He has to go outside everyday, and not to play in the grass, nope, to go ride the 4 wheeler. As of lately, he also won't let anyone hold on to him while on the 4 wheeler. He's on an independence kick and will remove your hand from any part of his body that your touching: arm, leg, belly... Whatever it is, you're not to touch him. Luckily, he holds on real well! He loves to go ride the tractors with his dad, and the moment he thinks he's been left, he's in tears and throwing a complete fit. He's very opinionated and demanding. He has finally learned how to walk (at about 14 months and he is 15 today actually) so he is on the move even more so than before. Except when we are anywhere with dirt. Then he's down on all fours. Boys will be boys, so we always let him play in the dirt for a little bit. 

When we go irrigating with Terry, Oliver loves to have his feet in the ditch, so we'll dip his little toesies in there and he just giggles and giggles. And if you've heard his laugh, it's pretty contagious! I'm so glad we have the opportunity to farm and raise our children this way! Our kiddo sure is lucky! 

Update

I know a few posts ago I mendeleOliver set us up with a I  witter account, I forgot to mention that we now have an instagram account. Set up on purpose this time. I am more likely to post pictures there than any where else! I figured I could start posting them here, but not all the pictures would be from instagram.... Just a good majority. They have these fun apps where you can make you pictures into a collage so here we go! 

1. Oliver in the toy box 2. Oliver and Miranda cuddling on the 4th of July 3. We went on a tour of the dam 4. My rear view mirror fell off in the heat 5. Oliver found the infant swing 6. Oliver takes it easy while mowing the lawn.

You can follow us and get updates on instagram too!

waltonclan10

UPDATE***** I deleted this account. It was just another distraction, and who needs more of those???

My Two Guys

I love the summer evenings when Terry finishes up work early, then I get to hang out with both of my favorite boys! Oliver prefers to be outside so, of course, we tend to be out there frequently (and he has the bug bites to prove it). 

I'm so blessed to have these two guys!