what are you doing today?

Well, we worked until 10am today, then couldn't do anymore. The rest of the potatoes are too green to dig..we have to wait until Monday..so I have a few days off. It was freezing out there today. It's 54 here, but the wind makes it so much worse and to be up on the harvester out in the open in the wind makes it worse. Brr. I had to break in my house today. My mom has been meaning to get copies of my housekey made so when she comes to let my dog out while I am working she will have her own key. I have been leaving my key here in the garage for her, but it isn't really safe to leave it there. So I get home from the field today and the key isn't there....I had to take one of my window screens off and luckily I didn't have the porch window locked (that's the only window I can reach to climb in) I climbed in my window. You wanna talk about hilarious..Here I am this big walrus trying to get my leg inside the window first..my big fat ass gets caught up on the window sill just as someone is driving by. They didn't call the cops though, I dont' know if that's good or bad because I would hope someone would call the cops if they saw someone breaking in. Anyway, I finally get in and about 10 minutes ago my mom drove in, she had been to town getting key copies made and thats why the key was gone. She couldn't belive I made it in the window lol
Anyway, what about all of you?

Well, we just have finished making bunk beds for Zoe and Quinn, so today I"m going to the fabric store in the next town over to see if there's anything nice for making a tent on the top bunk. Scott doesn't trust them not to try to climb over the railing so we'll have a tent up on top for a few years.

I baked a chocolate fudge cake and went through my coupons.

I'm avoiding the heat...Southern California is having a heat wave. the high was 104 yesterday here at the house and I think its suppose to be worse today. AC was turned on a 9am...hopefully it keeps things cool.

Sam and I ran some errends after we dropped Devon off at school. We have parent teacher night tonight which should prove interesting. So far I really like Devon's teacher, but Sam's hasn't exactly done anything to impress me yet. In fact he's in kindergarden and she's never said a word to me!

watching it rain.... again.

DH and I have been putting new siding on the garage all week, Hardy Plank siding, and it is a PITA. We are doing all 4 sides, but only the front and one side this week. ...he goes back to work Monday....TG

Drove down to visit my dad and grandma and do grandma's banking. Dad was sick so I blew off grandma and took a road trip to the cemetary where my mom and grandpa are buried. It added another 5 hours driving to my day, but we are not going to see many more gorgeous days like this around here.

Kelly, the potatoes have been harvested here in the thumb and 50 lb bags for $5 were everywhere - on roadsides, at fruitmarkets, etc. Not in grocery stores! Pumpkins look great this year, too. Michigan Sugar Company has signs up for seasonal workers so the sugar beets must have been good, too.

HOLY CRAP! 50 lbs for $5? I pay that for a 5 lbs bag!

Dang! I could almost pay for the gas on a trip to Michigan on the savings I'd get from buying potatos.

lol..the farmer I am working for is a relative of mine..so I get mine free..any time I want some I can just run over to the potato house and grab them.

He only planted about 290 acres, which is not really a lot. There are a lot of small farmers around here and they have contracts with McCains. There are a few bigger farmers here who plant from 1000 to 1500 acres, but those are the ones who dig right up until snowfall. We just have to wait until Monday for the tops to die...they are still somewhat green and tend to clog up the harvester and cause all kinds of havoc...when the tops are dead they are light enough to be sucked out and spit out by the airhead on the harvester. I don't know how long it will take for us to get done, we do about 15 acres on a good day...less if we get done early for some reason. We are probably looking at about 20 days of work, but it's never continous days because it rains in between.. Then when it gets colder and we get really good frost in the morning we start a little later in the morning when it warms up a little. If you dig potatoes when the frost is on the ground they bruise easy and rot. During the harvests that I have worked, I can't even think of having potatoes for dinner..I am so sick of looking at them all day and can see them bouncing around on the lags when I close my eyes..I don't eat a single potato until after harvest is done.

I fell your pain, Kelly.

Unfortunately my potatoes didn't do squat this year. I'll need to buy some when I see 'em on sale. No way I'm paying $4 for a five-pound bag of questionable quality! Too bad I can't find one of those $5 for 50 pound deals around here.

Meanwhile I'm about to dive into a project that may be more than I counted on. I usually do baking in batches, then freeze the stuff for use later. But I ate the very last buttermilk biscuit out of the freezer this week and when I went to buy buttermilk for another baking session, I had to get a half-gallon instead of a quart. Now I've got to figure out a bunch of other baked items I can do to use up the extra buttermilk! Things that can easily be frozen in small amounts (sliced, cut in squares, or the like). I'm thinking buttermilk raisin bread and maybe a buttermilk pound cake with orange flavoring plus several double-batches of biscuits.

Then the problem is finding room in my freezer for the stuff. Dunno how I'm gonna manage that since I had stocked up on some frozen chicken and fish last week. Problems, problems!

So I'll be up to my elbows in flour and buttermilk for the weekend...or longer! Good thing the temperature dropped from the high 80s yesterday down to a rainy low 70s today.

You should share your recipe, Nyssa. It sounds so yummy.

What about just freezing the buttermilk until your next baking session? I've never tried to freeze buttermilk but regular milk freezes well.

Nyssa, if you're interested I have a knockoff recipe for iHop Pancakes. Those should freeze quite well, and the recipe uses 1 1/4 cups buttermilk.

Karen, I thought about freezing some of the buttermilk, but then I've got the same problem as I'm facing with the baking spree: not enough room in the freezer section for it. Better I just bake a bunch of stuff and either eat it, freeze it, or give some away.

Thanks for the offer, Lori. I've got a buttermilk pancake recipe in one of my Pillsbury cookbooks. I tried freezing some once, but the result was less than stellar. Plus the above problem with lack of freezer space. If I end up with left over buttermilk after the biscuits, bread, and pound cake, I might do a batch of pancakes for myself as a reward though.

I've done one double-batch of biscuits so far and froze 1 1/2 dozen of 'em (ate 2 1/2 for a late lunch). I'll probably do the raisin bread tomorrow. Dunno where I'm gonna put it since the biscuits were a tight squeeze. Neighbors will probably get a loaf.

I wish I had a way to store potatoes! There are some awesome deals right now!

I had TWO great days. Yesterday, did a little cleaning, a little laundry and a little shopping, not much else. Today I did the same things.. except that I also took advantage of that Sally Hansen deal at Walgreens.. bought 120 bottles of nail polish! $300 worth for about $17!!!! Plan to make all the nieces and some others nice nail care baskets for Christmas.. Figure I knocked out about eight gifts CHEAP!

I got a bunch for Saige and a couple mail art pens for her stocking but no where near 300. How many trips did you make in?

I went to three stores.. The first trip was yesterday for just 3 polishes. I went back today because I figured I may as well use up that $5 RR I had NO idea it was going to roll.. Once I found out, I bought a ton at that first store, went to the second store, the cashier was a pain but I still got through it, went to the third store and the cashier was AMAZING and actually kept encouraging me to go back for more.. I finally ran out of quarters and had to come home.. hehe

I just got back from Walgreens doing the same thing. I didn't go all out, though. I got 21 polishes, but that was pretty much one of every color and the girls don't wear that much. When we had at least one of each color that Caly liked we gave our last register reward to the cosmetics counter girl. She'd been so supportive and didn't try to accuse us of cheating or stealing or coupon fraud. And I could tell that she was jealous that she couldn't do it. Well, she could... but not while working and I know she figured they'd be all gone by then. So I just gave her that last coupon and I left at least one of each color on the shelf. 21 is enough to last us for a year or more!

Just got back from a Geocache Bash here in town. We got a late start because DH had to take out docks (not ours, we don't have a dock, but family and friends of family) this morning. We had a riot!

We worked yesterday, a full day, it started raining just about the time we were done. I'ts been raining all night, so we won't we working today. I might have a chance to get some stuff done here today..

Gonna take Timmy to his bus stop, then come home and crawl back into bed. I am not feeling well today...

I will be cleaning, laundry, and scrubbing the never ending floor, then a nap!

hoping the ain comes back. I want to cancel soccer practice tonight, I feel like crap.