Yes, I do call this a vacation!

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The last couple of weeks I have made little short trips to visit friends that have moved away.  I love it!  Little mini-vacations!  Its great to be able to see and do things I've never done before.  I'm pretty sure that most of my followers won't care a thing about these pictures but I wanted to share them with the people who know and love the friends I visited.

Margaret:

Last week I went with a friend (Linda) to see her sister (Margaret), my other friend in Alabama, who just moved there to live with her son.  

Margaret's new home, with her beloved porch and rocking chairs... she sits and watches the butterflies fly up and down the street.

While there we went to Cheha State Park...on top of a mountain with INCREDIBLE views!  Now that I see these pictures here, I promise they don't do it justice!  

 Views from inside the restaurant:

Sitting on the outside deck, waiting for the restaurant to open...

OK, leave there and move on to this week...

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Patty:

This week, (yesterday) a friend (Nancy G.) and I went to see Patty on her farm in Jasper, Ga.

 to help her get some applesauce made....at a real cannery that her county provides for people in the county!  I've never been to a cannery so it was so much fun to see one in action!

Last night we cut up and cored 2.5 bushels of apples, ... that is a LOT of apples! I hate that I didn't get a picture of that process!  We were up to our noses in apple cores and apple juice and jars (which all had to be washed and dried)!  It was a lot of work but it was fun because we were able to visit and shared work is always so much easier than doing it alone.

This morning we got up with the chickens (literally!) before daybreak so that we could be first in line at the cannery. 

Below, see the guy in the blue shirt, that's John.  He runs the whole place, running from one machine to another getting people's stuff done....Happy little guy even though he has a tough job working in a building with NO AC!!!

Our apples in the steamer:

 While the apples cooked we had to temper our jars by rolling them around in HOT water!

Ever smiling, John would come by and make sure we were ok and offer advise about how to do things "the right way" ... I think he had just told ANOTHER little white lie here! ....

Here is the apple juice draining while the apples cooked.  John would pour the juice back in with the apples during the process but once the apples were cooked we put the juice in jars to bring home.

Here they are cooked...not much difference in the first picture but they are cooked here...

the thing next to the cooker is what John puts the cooked apples into to make CREAMY applesauce....

Patty hamming it up for the camera while we waited for John to come start loading the applesauce machine

 John scooping the apples into the sauce maker:

  

Here ya go!  100% PURE CREAMY DELICIOUS APPLESAUCE!

Then the jar filling begins (we did that)

After the sauce and juice is in the jars John takes it to this big thing to boil for 30 minutes... it will help the applesauce stay good for at least 2 years!

While the jars are "cooking" we go to lunch and when we get back everything is ready to put in the truck and go home!

Now, a few other things that other people were canning while we were there: 

One lady was doing different kinds of beans....

Here John is sealing up cans of tomato juice for a man...

And then there was a family getting ready for winter by making and jarring vegetable soup!

  

I really wanted some of that soup!

This is just a table of equipment (ladles, strainers, spoons and such).  It really is an amazing set up!  Everything you need is there all you bring is the product .... and the jars.  They have the cans there.  

Would you believe that after all the work John did on our stuff we only had to pay 35cents for pints and 69cents for quarts?!  The only problem with the whole process is that you have to live in that county! So you and I can't go without Patty :-(

Some people go to DisneyWorld for a good time, not me, I go to a cannery!  It really did fascinate me ...  I guess I'm much more of a city girl than I ever knew!  

Can you imagine, eating food that you know EXACTLY what did and didn't go into it!?  Our applesauce and apple juice is 100% golden delicious apples, with ZERO anything else added!  Gotta love that!

INFO ADDED LATER:

I was thinking everyone needs access to a cannery! Then I thought, heck, if there is one down my street I wouldn't know about it because I wouldn't think to look.... so, I just googled "Local Cannery locations" and got this site:
http://www.pickyourown.org/canneries.htm
check it out!

OH!  and I may as well go ahead and add one more NON-Blog related photo while I'm at it!

My family all live in Louisiana.  This is in my brother's front yard in Baton Rouge.  It is a 12 foot cross with a 6 foot Jesus on it that he carved about 10 years ago.  (No, he isn't Catholic, it is just something he wanted to do.)  I got this picture from Terri, Lin's wife, after hurricane Issac hit.  Her caption was "Jesus hasn't been touched".... even though he is surrounded by huge fallen oak tree branches that covered the yard!

Cute ...

I just love listening to this lady talk...wish I could see her in person!

Cucumbers

This is not my list, I just got it in an email from a friend and I don't want to forget it. 1. Cucumbers contain most of the vitamins you need every day, just one cucumber contains Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3, Vitamin B5, Vitamin B6, Folic Acid, Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium and Zinc. 2. Feeling tired in the afternoon, put down the caffeinated soda and pick up a cucumber. Cucumbers are a good source of B Vitamins and Carbohydrates that can provide that quick pick-me-up that can last for hours. 3. Tired of your bathroom mirror fogging up after a shower? Try rubbing a cucumber slice along the mirror, it will eliminate the fog and provide a soothing, spa-like fragrance. 4. Are grubs and slugs ruining your planting beds? Place a few slices in a small pie tin and your garden will be free of pests all season long. The chemicals in the cucumber react with the aluminum to give off a scent undetectable to humans but drive garden pests crazy and make them flee the area. 5 Looking for a fast and easy way to remove cellulite before going out or to the pool? Try rubbing a slice or two of cucumbers along your problem area for a few minutes, the phytochemicals in the cucumber cause the collagen in your skin to tighten, firming up the outer layer and reducing the visibility of cellulite. Works great on wrinkles too!!! 6. Want to avoid a hangover or terrible headache? Eat a few cucumber slices before going to bed and wake up refreshed and headache free. Cucumbers contain enough sugar, B vitamins and electrolytes to replenish essential nutrients the body lost, keeping everything in equilibrium, avoiding both a hangover and headache!! 7. Looking to fight off that afternoon or evening snacking binge? Cucumbers have been used for centuries and often used by European trappers, traders and explores for quick meals to thwart off starvation. 8. Have an important meeting or job interview and you realize that you don't have enough time to polish your shoes? Rub a freshly cut cucumber over the shoe, its chemicals will provide a quick and durable shine that not only looks great but also repels water. 9. Out of WD 40 and need to fix a squeaky hinge? Take a cucumber slice and rub it along the problematic hinge, and voila, the squeak is gone! 10. Stressed out and don't have time for massage, facial or visit to the spa? Cut up an entire cucumber and place it in a boiling pot of water, the chemicals and nutrients from the cucumber with react with the boiling water and be released in the steam, creating a soothing, relaxing aroma that has been shown the reduce stress in new mothers and college students during final exams. 11. Just finish a business lunch and realize you don't have gum or mints? Take a slice of cucumber and press it to the roof of your mouth with your tongue for 30 seconds to eliminate bad breath, the phytochemcials will kill the bacteria in your mouth responsible for causing bad breath. 12. Looking for a 'green' way to clean your faucets, sinks or stainless steel? Take a slice of cucumber and rub it on the surface you want to clean, not only will it remove years of tarnish and bring back the shine, but is won't leave streaks and won't harm you fingers or fingernails while you clean. 13. Using a pen and made a mistake? Take the outside of the cucumber and slowly use it to erase the pen writing, also works great on crayons and markers that the kids have used to decorate the walls!!

IT WORKS!!!

I spend HOURS a day looking at Pinterest, and the blogs that link from there!  I LOVE IT!  But I will say this, I tend to question some of the home remedies folks offer up sometimes.  Not sure why I doubt, but I always want a 2nd or 3rd opinion.... Like the one where you can swish Peroxide in your mouth like mouthwash and it will whiten your teeth in just a few days....Hummmmm....not too anxious to try that one.


There is one that I decided it wouldn't hurt to give a try .... Cleaning silver with salt/water and baking soda..... seems easy, and cheap enough to give it a go.  I don't have any silver to clean but a friend has TONS of it all over her house...all tarnished and in much need of some loving attention.  Yesterday she called and asked me to come over and help her start the process of cleaning it all.  Well, let me just say here, there is a reason I don't have any!!!  I DO NOT LOVE cleaning silver!!!!  Standing by a sink for hours on end rubbing that nasty silver paste until you finally get to see a bit of a spark... UGH! UGH! UGH!  So, I decided that if I was going to help I was going to try something easier!


From Pinterest:
(you can click on the link to see pictures I only had my cell)


Line your sink with aluminum foil.
Run HOT water into the sink and add
1/2 cup baking soda
1/2 cup salt


Put your silver into the water and let it soak for about 30 minutes.


LOOK!!!! AMAZING!!!  LOVE! LOVE! LOVE!

Sorry the picture isn't any better, I had to use my cell phone and I never know what it will really look like until its too late to do anything about it.... But, I think you can see the difference in the candelabras!


Do you remember Tarnex?  It was so STINKY stuff that you dip silver into and it instantly cleans it!  But, it was pretty expensive....and STINKY!  Well, this worked almost as quickly as Tarnex so I didn't leave thing in as long as 30 minutes, I took them out as soon as I saw it had worked.


We finished everything in just 2 hours!  YES!