It’s that time of year, time to store away all those wonderful garden goodies to be used this winter. No matter if you freeze, dry, or can your food, it’s a great feeling to be able to go to the pantry or freezer and pull out your own stuff.

Although I’ve been canning and freezing right along, the past couple of weeks have been especially busy for me. I am up to my armpits in tomatoes! I’ve been canning pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, and salsa. My family especially likes the salsa. We like to eat it with so many things. This is how I do the salsa dance!

First, I wash and core a sink full of tomatoes.

While I am doing this, I have my large stockpot filled with water on the stove, bringing it to a boil. When the water has come to a rolling boil, I dump it on my cleaned and cored tomatoes in the sink to soak.

Don’t forget to have the stopper in the bottom of the sink, or you will be calling yourself all kinds of things because you now have to wait for more water to boil!! The boiling water splits the tomato skins and makes it very easy to pull the skins right off of the tomatoes.

While the tomatoes are soaking in the very HOT water, I do a little chopping. I chop up the onions and peppers that I am going to add to my salsa.

Chop as little or as much as you like for the amount of tomatoes you have. I should say here, that I am not much for following exact recipes for something like this. I very much make it according to taste. If you don’t like a lot of onions, then by all means, cut back on the onions!

Make it according to what you and your family like. My family does not like sweet sauce, so I never add sugar to my sauce when I make it. Don’t be afraid to change things up to suit you and your family. After all, you are the ones who will be eating it!

Now, back to the salsa! When I can see the skins have split and pulled back somewhat on the tomatoes, I take them from the HOT water and put them in very cold water. DO NOT use your hands to do this! Use tongs or a large slotted spoon. Be advised, the little buggers can be very slippery at this stage! Let them soak in the cold water for a few minutes. This cools them down so they can be handled safely. Now, carefully check to make sure they have cooled down. If they have, get your hands in there, and start removing skins. You will be surprised how easily they come off.

Now that you have all the skins removed, on to the next stage. It’s time to cut the tomatoes into chunks. Cut them as big or as little as you like. I make mine about 2 inches, and put them into my large stock pot on the stove at medium to medium-high heat. You don’t need to add any water; the tomatoes will cook down themselves.

Now you have some choices! Don’t you love choices? My family does not mind tomato seeds, so I do not take the seeds out of my salsa or sauces. If you would like to take them out, it isn’t difficult, but you will need a food mill to do this. Simply cook your tomato chunks till they become very mushy and watery. At that point you would put them through your food mill to remove the seeds. After the seeds are removed, put the tomatoes that will be like juice at this point, back into your stockpot and proceed. I skip this step, so I’m going with the chunks of cut up tomato on medium-high heat.

Now is the time to add all the good stuff. Add your onions, peppers, and any spices that you like. I add some vinegar, oregano, basil, salt, pepper, and any other spices I see in my spice cabinet that looks good to me. If you like your salsa with some kick, add hot peppers, or some hot sauce. Taste test as you go. I warn you, your house will smell like a pizzeria, and your family will be hungry when they come in and smell it! After everything is added, bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat a bit and simmer. If you want your salsa to be a little thicker, you can add some tomato paste at this point. I let mine simmer for about 10 minutes.

Now it is ready to put into containers to freeze, or into jars to be canned in a boiling water bath. I can mine, so I will go on with that.

Fill your clean jars with your salsa, leaving a half inch headspace at the top. Boil your flats to soften and sterilize the rubbers. Wipe the tops of your jars to clean off any drips. Put the hot flats on the jars, rubber side down, and turn on rings. Tighten them by hand so they are snug. Submerge the jars in water in your canner. Bring to a boil, and process, (just let them boil) for 35 minutes.

When they are finished, turn off your burner and be very careful taking the lid off of your canner. There will be lots of steam. Be VERY careful pulling your jars up out of the water. They are extremely hot! I usually let mine set and cool for a minute or two after I have pulled them up out of the water, but before removing from the wire rack in the canner. Now set them somewhere to cool and listen for that magical POPPING sound that indicates your jars have sealed. I love that sound!

Congratulations, you have finished a batch of salsa! Now reward yourself with a cup of coffee and some lovely chocolate chip cookies!

My husband and I received a call at about 7:00 AM on Sunday morning, August 31st. It was from my mom. She said that my aunt and uncle would like me to come to their house this morning, to take some pictures for them.

Imagine yourself snuggled into your bed sleeping soundly. The time is 2:00 AM. All of a sudden, you are startled awake by a thunderous crash! It’s dark outside, so you can’t see anything. This is precisely what happened to my aunt and uncle. The noise was so loud; it brought my aunt right out of bed! I can imagine how I would be at this point, trying to clear the fog in my head so I could think clearly.

My aunt turned on some lights, and they started looking around. She found a piece of molding lying on the floor in their bedroom. It was very obvious something was wrong.

My uncle went out and turned on the outside lights to look around. He could see through a window that there was siding from their house lying on the ground. He went outside to get a better look. He could see more damage, and sent my aunt for a flashlight. Upon shining the light up onto the house, they could finally see the cause of the noise and damage.

There, sticking into their roof above their bedroom was a set of dual wheels off of the back of a truck! Apparently, the dual wheels from one side of the truck had come off while it was going past their house. Still rolling, they entered my aunt and uncle’s driveway, ramped up over the back of my aunt’s car, and landed in their roof!

At this point, they called the police. The police came and made a report, and then went to try and find where these wheels came from. They came back after finding that a milk truck driver had reported loosing a set of dual wheels off of the back one side of his truck. He did not know they came off when they did, and did not know exactly where they were. The police showed the owner of the truck where his wheels were!

My aunt and uncle were very fortunate. Later that afternoon, a wrecker came and removed the wheels from their roof. They are now in the process of having things fixed. My aunt’s car was damaged beyond repair. They are thankful though, that the car was sitting where it was. If it hadn’t been, the wheels would have come directly into their bedroom, and the outcome might have been very different. As it is, everything is fixable or replaceable, and they have an amazing story to tell!

After reading the wonderful blog written by Debbie about her Illinois birds, she inspired me to write a similar blog about the birds here in Pennsylvania. [Note: For photo captions, mouse over (hold your cursor over) the photos. – Editor]

My husband and I have enjoyed feeding and watching birds for many years. We love to watch their behavior and take note of which birds like a particular kind of seed, or how some birds might like to eat from a feeder, while others prefer to forage off of the ground. It is also very exciting for us when we see a new visitor that we have never seen before. If I can manage to get a photo of those visitors, I am in photographer heaven!

Birds are one of my favorite subjects to shoot (with the camera). They can be a real challenge sometimes, and I have found a few ways to try and stack the deck in my favor. When watching a nest, I have found that if I park our truck close to the nest and stay in the truck with my window down, the birds will come into the nest without to much worry. They don’t seem to mind the truck. If I get out of the truck however, they are far less likely to come back to the nest. This works great with bluebird boxes, or birdhouses that I can get close to with the truck.

Those nests that are in the middle of a large flowerbed, or in the woods, or just not accessible by vehicle take a different kind of trickery. I have a camouflage blind, the kind used to hunt out of, that I use for these more out of the way places. I set the blind up close enough to get good shots, but with the window section unzipped just enough to get the camera through. This way, the birds only see my camera, (which they don’t seem to mind), but not me.

Then there are those brave little birds like chickadees (my favorite) and chipping sparrows that don’t seem to mind if I get close, and will come in to get seeds, or to their nest even with me standing close by.

Chickadees are my all time favorite birds! They are adorable little things to watch, and I love their curiosity. I have fed them sunflower seeds right from my hand. Some will light on my hand very tentatively, grab a seed and be off. I had one little chickadee I fed from my hand this past year that would land on my palm and just sit there trying to shove as many seeds as possible in it’s little mouth. It would manage to get three, but could never get the fourth seed to stay without dropping it.

At our feeding stations we try to put out a variety of bird food to drawl many different kinds of birds. We usually offer sunflower seed, thistle or niger, mixed seed, corn, suet, and sometimes peanuts. My husband had a great idea to make a natural suet feeding station. We lovingly call it the “woodpecker pole,” or the “pecker pole” for short! We had some jack pine on our property that we cut down. My husband took an eight foot section of one of those pine logs, and set it upright into a hole we drilled with our post-hole digger. He then took his drill and put lots of 1 ½-inch holes in this log. We then push suet into those holes, and it acts as a natural way for the woodpeckers to feed. We did this with woodpeckers in mind, however, every bird that comes to our feeders with the exception of the mourning doves, has eaten from the pecker pole!

It is a huge hit with the birds. You will see a few shots that I’m posting with this entry, with the woodpeckers on this pole.

I have a very simple recipe for suet that we have come up with, that the birds love. The recipe is:

1 Cup Lard or Shortening
1/2 Cup Peanut Butter
Oatmeal

Mix lard and Peanut butter.
Add oatmeal till you can form a ball that will stay together. Push into holes of suet feeder.

I usually double or triple this because we go through it so fast! This recipe seems so simple, but the birds absolutely go bonkers for it. We have offered our own homemade suet along side those suet cakes that you can buy at the store. Our own is always the suet of choice, with the other kind not even getting touched till what we made is all gone. Now we fill all our suet feeders with our own recipe.

This past year I tried another way to get close up pictures of the birds. I spread seed right on our concrete porch, up close to our front window.

The birds come in for the seed, giving me an opportunity with the camera. Our kitty also loves this! She has some great entertainment.

My husband and I will always be bird lovers, watching and feeding them.

To us, this is the nature channel in HD!