Niagra Pictures...

I will add more commentary tomorrow, but wanted to get a few pictures up..

 

 

Vermont Pictures!

Most of the Vermont pictures were taken while going at least 45 miles an hour, and most by our 12-year-old.

Then we had to add a few views of craziness....

Barn Safari in Vermont....

Most of my barn safari pictures are of broken down barns...but we did take one barn picture while we were zooming through Vermont.

So it's been awhile....

I did really well at the beginning of July as far as posting went.  But then things went a bit crazy. Trying to get back to it now.

As I mentioned we had a big delivery for Man's business. It was over 650 miles away. We started out on Tuesday. It was a gorgeous day. We made it almost to the first state line, about 250 miles away and then the transmission went out on our van.  We pulled off in Ashtabula.  Everyone we met was so kind and helpful. The transmission shop tried everything to get us back on the road including calling around to the local u-haul guys to try to find us a pull vehicle for the trailer (they were a Penske truck rental place too).  Alas nothing could be found and essentially we were dead in the water.  We left our broken van and a trailer full of Man's months of toil, and got into a little rented Nissan Sentra with all the tools, coolers, and people and headed back for the farm. 

Once home, we went about looking for a replacement for our well loved but tired van.  We found just the perfect one!  It's just a bit sickening to be in debt again. I had just made the last car payment back in April. Four months of extra budget space and the new van payment is higher. But it needed to be done.  Worked diligently for a week and then tried it again the following Tuesday.  The new van is just what we needed for his business. We picked the trailer back up and headed onward to Vermont. 

We haven't taken a vacation as a family in about 7 years...and though we got to see new things this did not  as a vacation.  We drove to Vt and finally stopped for the night at about 10...was at our customer's home by 10 am... Worked until about 4.  Drove to Albany, NY and had a wonderful dinner at Olive Garden.  Then drove on. I was calling motels from out of the AAA book as we approached each new town on the turnpike...all booked!  The boys were already asleep in the seats behind so we drove on until about 1am where we stopped at one of the toll road travel plazas. After 10 years of working 3rd shift, I can sleep about anywhere. So, Man took the final bench seat in the van (it's huge I tell you!) and I curled up on the front seat and we slept until all the truckers started pulling out at 6.  After freshening up in the plaza and breakfast at the convient Tim Horton inside we headed off to the American side of Niagra Falls.  Oh, it was so pretty! And we were there early so it wasn't crowded.

After spending a few hours at the park, and even taking a business call while watching the falls, we packed up and headed back to get the now fixed old van in Ashtabula. I drove the old van behind the guys in the new van. This doing my part of the job :)

Now it's back to noe to he grindstone to pay for this new van!

Watch for more updates in the next few days as I work on catching up on fa happenings and also in the fiasco of the van breakdown, I missed my blogiversary and the giveaway so I will be doing that on Setember 6th. (Blogiversary plus a month!)

Blackberries

Remember this post, when I said we were going to have a bumper crop, God willing, of blackberries this year??

 

Yup!

I gave up picking after getting about 3 gallons into the freezer.

 

 

 

 

Purple Cabbage!

This is the first year that I have successfully grown cabbage!  WooHoo!

Both Green Cabbage and Purple Cabbage.

And boy is the purple cabbage....PURPLE

 

 

One of our new crockpot favorites is

 

Smokey Hobo Crockpot:

1 head of Cabbage

1 bag of mini carrots, or about 5 carrots cut into chunks

5 potatoes washed and cut into chunks

1 onion cut into chunks

1 ring of Kielbasa

1 cup water or stock

salt, pepper, spices to taste

 

Layer veggies, salting and peppering on every level.

Cut Kielbasa into 2 inch chunks and place on the top.

Add stock / water down one side of the crockpot.

 

Cook on low for 6 hours or high for about 3 hours.

(Or until the veggies are tender and the smell is making your family hungry!)

 

We eat it with a little ketchup on top after serving.

 

Serves about 6 (our our family twice!)

 

By the way, if you use purple cabbage...it will turn the broth and any potatoes that it is sitting against purple!!