Annual Trip to the Pear Trees

This morning started out with a round of beautiful fall weather.  The temperature was perfect.  Of course, our Oklahoma fall wind was coming in strong, but it was at least not cold.  We decided to take a nature hike and head to the pear trees.  We had not checked on the pears this year and were wondering just what we would find.  

Last year the pear were abundant (here is the post). However, this year...there was not a single pear to be had.  Out of the 3 trees in the grove, there were no pears in sight.  Now, we have the quest to try and solve the mystery of why.  Could it be the extreme drought? Maybe it was just a "sleeper" year for the trees. I am leaning more toward the drought because there was so much vegetation that was destroyed.  Our area was really hit hard.  

Anyway, we still have some pears from last year in the freezer so we just have to wait until next year to see if the pears return.

Catch of the day!

With the cooler weather, the whole family is spending the evenings out doors catching up for all the times we were heat bound over the last few months.  This evening, the kids decided they wanted to head up to the half of the pond that is left (because of the drought) and go fishing.  Of course, the prospect of digging up worms right now is about impossible so they decided that they would try fishing with hot dogs.  We had a half package of cheesy hot dogs left that they decided to use (the kids did not like the cheesy dogs).  They headed to the pond with the rods, hot dogs, and a bucket of water for all the fish they would catch.  I have to admit...I was not expecting much!

About 20-30 minutes after they left, we hear them screaming, "Come here!  You have to see this."  They yelled and yelled until Jason arrived at the pond (I followed a few minutes later.).  Savannah was beaming with excitement because she caught a huge fish.  It is by far the biggest fish we have pulled out of the pond yet.  We had been told by one of the guys who lived here previously that there were some really big fish in the pond, but we were skeptical.  Not any more!

After the moment of fame, we did decide to allow the fish to continue to grow.  We figured if he made it this far, he deserved to continue his life.  Dad transported the fish back to the pond, and everyone watched him swim away.

The kids fished until dark with JJ catching a fish of his own.  It was too late to clean it for dinner so he decided he is getting up early to go catch some breakfast and lunch tomorrow.

Meet Jason!

The other day I realized that I had yet to introduce a very important person in my life.  For some reason, in the beginning of my blogging, I introduced my kids and the animals but never took the time to introduce my husband.  So here he is:

This is Jason!

Jason and I have been married for almost 15 years.  He is currently working as a full-time self-employed handyman here in Stillwater, Oklahoma.  You can read more about his work at his blog - Life As A Handyman.

Here is some loving family time with the kids:

Wrestling is one of those fun family bonding times that we all enjoy! 

I am very thankful that I have a great husband that is actively involved in the home.  He makes a point to try to spend quality time with his children whether it be wrestling, playing a game, or just going up in the field for a walk. He is thankful and appreciates when I cook a good meal for him.  He even helps out in the kitchen once in a while.  I think I will keep him!

Pumpkin Puree

Homemade pumpkin puree is a fairly inexpensive way to enjoy some very tasty goodies.  A few years back, I decided to make my own pumpkin puree for the first time.  I purchased 2 medium size and one large pumpkin for $5 from a local farmer who was selling them in a plaza parking lot.  I took them home, and began preparing them for pureeing.  Of course, we carved all 3 pumpkins before cutting them up for cooking!

2006 pumpkins....soon to be puree!

This year, I decided that I wanted to make my own puree again.  After all, it is not very hard, and the end result is excellent tasting free pumpkin puree.  I began researching how to puree pumpkin.  In 2006, I cut the pumpkin into strips, peeled it, and then cut it up before cooking.  I cooked the pumpkin in the oven on 350 until it was tender.

I decided to "google" how to puree pumpkin and see if there was another way I could puree it (and to help refresh my memory as to how I had previously pureed).  I found some really good illustrated directions at thepioneerwoman.com.  Here is the link to the directions.  She also had a lot of really beneficial ideas.  First, the use of freezer bags that can easily stack and take up less room in the freezer was a great idea for me.  Last time, I used the 16 ounce containers. It works as well, but it does take up more room.   Also, turning the opening of the bag out before putting pumpkin in it really helped cut down on mess when you try to seal the bag.  I did not have the mess around the rim of the bag from putting the spoons of pumpkin in.

I decided to give the Pioneer Woman's method a shot.  Here is what I did this time:
Step-by-step Pumpkin Puree 

1. Choose your pumpkin.  I chose a larger pumpkin that was on sale at my local supermarket for $3.33 each.  
2. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
3. Use a butcher knife to cut out the vine topper.  
4. Let your kiddos remove the "slim" and the seeds from inside.  Save the seeds for making toasted pumpkin seeds!  
5. Cut the pumpkin in half from the stem to the bottom and around.  Use a metal spoon to lightly scrape all the goo from the inside.  
6. Cut each pumpkin half into strips and lay the strips on cookie sheets for baking.  
7. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour until your pumpkin is tender.  
8. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for some time in order to be able to handle it easily.  
9. Remove the outer skin by peeling it away.  
10. Cut the cooked pumpkin into pieces and put it in a blender.  
11. Puree until smooth.
12. Put 1 cup of pumpkin in each quart freezer bag.  I used a scale to weigh 8 ounces in each bag.
13. Flatten the bag to remove most of the air and seal the bag.  Lay flat to store in the freezer.

Here is what we ended up with:

16 - 8 ounce bags of pumpkin puree

Seeds for drying

Toasted Seeds - take about 2 Tbsp. melted butter
 and top with salt.  Bake for 15-25 minutes (depending on your oven)  until golden brown

 Tips:

• While the above method is good and worked just fine, I have to say that I think the other way was maybe a little easier in the long run.  When I peeled the pumpkin and already had it cut into chunks, it seemed to cook faster and more evenly.   
• I added about 1 Tbsp. of water to a full blender of pumpkin to help it along in the pureeing process.  It just seemed to blend smoother.  
• 1 full blender of pumpkin chunks for my blender yielded about three 8 ounce servings.
• I tried to use a food processor (small one), and it did not work very well.  The small food processor was taking too long.  I decided switch to my blender so that it did not take forever to finish.  It also seemed to give a more even consistency.
• I froze the pumpkin in the 8 ounce portions because that is the amount of half of a small can of pumpkin that you buy at the store.  When I make a recipe, I usually only need 1/2 of the can.  This way I have just what most of my recipes call for.  
• I placed my completed bags in stacks in my refrigerator freezer in a 9X13 pan to do the initial freezing so that they would freeze flat.
• The 16 ounce sour cream or butter containers work well for storing the pumpkin in the freezer as well.  They hold the same amount as a small can of pumpkin.
• I had no idea that cooked pumpkin actually tastes pretty good (sort of like a cross between a squash and a sweet potato) when it is baked.

That is about it.  I look forward to sharing some of the things that we use our pumpkin for in the near future.

As far as cost, here is the break down.  We paid $3.33 for the pumpkin (about 12.5 pounds) and $1.00 for the freezer bags (40 bags for $2.50).  Of course, we did have the propane for our stove, but I have no way of figuring that in. I know that it was not much though.  So...for the extras in gas, we will round up and say that we made 16 - 8 ounce servings of pumpkin puree for roughly $.38 each.  That would result in a can of pumpkin costing about $.76, and  homemade is healthier without all the additives and preservatives.  Plus...the kids had a great time getting slimy!

Then, there is my least favorite part...the clean up!  I would never win the award for "the clean cook."  I like to have a clean kitchen when I start, but I sure seem to get it messy when I am cooking!


1 Small Can Libby's Pumpkin = 15 ounces or 2 of my frozen baggies.  If you typically use a whole can of pumpkin, you can either a freeze a full 15 ounces in one bag to save on bags, or you can fill a sour cream bowl (the kind you reuse from the store when they are empty).  The sour cream/small butter bowl filled almost to the top will equal a small can of Libby's pumpkin (don't fill to the top because you have to have room for freezing and expanding). 

Some of you may remember a post that I had back in June (here's the link) about our crawdad getting out of its tank and actually biting our daughter while she was camped out on the bedroom floor.  Well, I wanted to just give a quick update on "Sebastian" (the crawdad).

Sebastian came to us early last summer.  He was the "pet" that my son decided to keep.  He was scouting around in our back watering hole in the field and found the little guy...and I mean little at the time - about 1 1/2 inches.  JJ kept him in an old dish pan with water, rocks, and a couple of other smaller crawdads.  Unfortunately, the other crawdads disappeared (I think they became lunch for Sebastian!).

We eventually bought an aquarium at a garage sale (around May 1st) so that Sebastian could have a more permanent home. At the time, we really did not think the crawdad would survive.  We bought some meal worms for his dinner.  Since then, we have also discovered that her prefers bologna, but he will also eat the meal worms.  (It is really interesting to watch him eat.) He has shed his exoskeleton several times, and he eats the skeleton when he is done.  We have placed snails in the tank and a couple of more baby crawdads...he eats those, too!

So...after all that food, he has grown quite big.  His body is probably about 4 to 4 1/2 inches long (I do not plan on picking him up to measure!), and his pincher's are about the size  he was when we first found him.

Here he is:

Sebastian the Crawdad

Sebastian eating his old skin
The picture is a little blurry!

A little closer

Success! Sweet Pears!

Well, we made our trip back to the pears Saturday (in the truck) in hopes of finding completely ripe, better tasting, sweeter pears, and we were not disappointed.  Success!  The pears had just reached their perfect ripeness.  We took the tuck so we could use the ladder since it seemed the larger pears were all really high up in the tree this time.

You have heard the saying "The grass always looks greener on the other side."  In this case, it was "the pears looked bigger on the other side."  There are 2 more pear trees about 20 feet from our pear tree across a barbed wire fence.  Those pears definitely looked bigger, so I sent the kids on over to check.  And,  They were bigger (quite a bit actually).  We all crossed over the barbed wire fence after pulling the larger pears from our tree.   Those pears were low enough that we did not even need a ladder.

We came home with 5 Wal-Mart sack full of pears.  Now, the fun part...pealing, coring, slicing, freezing.  Of course, I will use my "apple peeler, corer, slicer," but I found (after using it with the first batch) that it does not work as well on pears as with apples.  We have to cut away more of the core after using the machine, but it at least does most of the work.

Country Life!

On the rarest of rare occasions, I think to myself...man, I wish we lived in town. Sometimes it would be nice to just take a walk down the sidewalk or ride a bike on a smooth surface and not have to eat  the dust from the gravel road....or maybe be able to run down the street to the grocery store instead of having to plan ahead and make a list for the next "trip to town."  But as I said, those "wanting to live in town moments" are very rare moments indeed.

Today was a reminder of why we love the country so much.  It is quiet and peaceful in the cool evenings sitting outside by our campfire.  We can let the kids take off to play in the field or run up the hill to go fishing in the pond.  We can even fish with them without having to worry about buying a license.    Also, we can buy the kids BB guns, and they have tons of space to shoot them in!

With the cooler weather recently, Jason got the BB gun out and took the kids for some target shooting.  JJ is finally old enough and big enough now that he can balance the gun on his shoulder without a problem.  Well, having to share 1 BB gun amongst 3-4 people calls for a lot of wait time.  So, Jason decided that JJ needed to get his own gun, and while we were there, he decided that Savannah would want one, too.

Surprise!  Red Ryder BB Guns!

JJ opened his first.

Then, it was Savannah's turn. We, of course, had to put them in different boxes so that they would not think they were getting the same things.

 I wasn't sure about her being too excited with the gun, but boy was I wrong.  She opened her package and her eyes lit up with the biggest "WOW!" expression.  We even gave her the option of returning her gun and getting something else if she wanted too, but she said, "No."

 Fully equipted with safety glasses!

We really had a fun day!  Glad to be in the country!

Fall Fun Day!

These last couple of days have been really busy around the Holman House.  We try to set aside a day each year to just have fun and do some sort of fall activities. This year, October 1st marked the "beginning of fall" for our family.  Of course, I know that fall really began in September (still too hot for us then!), but we celebrated on the 1st.  The temperatures are really starting to cool off, especially in the evenings and are much more like fall/sweatshirt wearing weather.  

We started our fun activities by creating a splatter/finger painting poster for the kids bedrooms.  We recently began redecorating their bedroom, and I decided it would be fun to let them create their own art work for their room.

JJ painting his hand for the picture

JJ's artwork

Savannah's Hand Painting

Lot of fun making a mess

Savannah's Art Work

Next, we moved on to the popcorn ball making fun.

Stirring the popcorn ball syrup...great little cook and helper!

Followed by more painting!  I have an aloe vera plant that is busting out of its current planter.  They painted a couple of pots for me to split my plant and spread it around my kitchen.

We ended our day with a campfire and a night of tent camping.  I have to confess...I slept in the house.  I knew it would be too cold for me, and that seemed like a good excuse because I really don't like sleeping on the ground unless I have too!.  We are dropping into the upper 40's and low 50's at night, and that is just too cold for me!

Hamburgers and French Fries

JJ waiting for his special dinner

JJ's special dinner on the right

Ready!  

This is some of the fish that we caught in the pond on the land surround our house.  One of JJ's favorite foods is fish.  We went fishing and caught several.  He wanted to try to roast them at our campfire.  We put some butter, salt, and pepper on them and let them slow cook over the fire.  They were actually pretty good.  He really enjoyed having his own fish!

Savannah dipping out hot spiced apple cider

Lucy even got to enjoy her own special dinner

Mmm...good!

We really enjoyed our fall fun day!