November Projects

I'm going to try and catch up on at least the main events from the past couple of months before the end of the year, which is tomorrow! 

In November I had finally decided to try and do something with the grapes on our vines. It started out with me just wanting to cut them off the vines and throw them in the garbage, but as I was doing it I kept thinking that I should try to do something with the grapes to use them. By the time I got around to it though, many of them weren't good anymore and I threw many grapes away. Then because I didn't have time right away, I bagged and froze what I had until I could get to juicing them. We bought a 5 qt juicer to try it out, but I decided that was too small just by looking at it. So, I sent it back and got a 9 qt juicer. Because these grapes are table grapes, not the concord ones that you normally would juice (I think), it didn't taste that great to me, but I canned 5 quarts anyway. This was my first time ever juicing grapes. Curtis has tried adding sugar and club soda to help make it taste better. I liked it best with the soda. Will I do it again next year? I'm not sure yet, but at least I have the juicer now, so I'm prepared.

As you can see, we have a mix of colors of grapes. I'm not sure if they were planted this way on purpose.

Another project we started in November was creating our own archway to help separate the living room from the dining room in a pleasing way. Curtis's job was to build, with Garrett's help. My job was to paint. The weather was actually perfect for painting. Even though it was a little cool, it wasn't too cold, and being in the garage helped. It was nice not to have a ton of bugs flying everywhere and getting in the paint also. We also added some wall panels to the dining room. We love it so much! Unfortunately, life got busy as it usually does around the holidays and we haven't quite finished yet, but we're close.

The ugly plain beam that will get covered. At this point Curtis already built the side posts and nailed on the panels to the dinning room wall. 

The cutting station.

Panel for the dining room wall.

The painting station.

The view from the dining room into the living room with just the side posts.

The building of the arch.

Curtis is holding up a decorative piece that will eventually get hung there.

We decided to add panel on this little wall as well, and I'm so glad we did. We love how it turned out!

We used trim boards wrapped around some 2x4's. Then we decided that we wanted to try filling in the gap that those arrows are pointing to, so that it feels smooth. It's not as easy as you think!

Filling holes and gaps on the top as well.

I did a lot of putty filling and sanding. This is pretty much how it looks right now still. I did not make it to my goal to have it done by Christmas, but I've learned it's not important to stress about it. It's going to be great when it is finished!

My niece, Ellie, has been creating some of her own recipes and posting them to her Instagram. I had actually just deleted Instagram since I never use it, but the only way to see her whole videos was to get back on Instagram. I was at the point that I wanted to find some new healthy recipes to try and here she was providing them! We have tried a handful of her recipes now and they have each been good! I even found a new favorite way to cook vegetables thanks to her! Baking them on a cookie sheet mixed with olive oil and garlic salt (plus I added some more of a mixture of garlic and parsley seasoning). We also like the mini potatoes that are seasoned the same way and baked at the same time. They are so good!

 

Crockpot BBQ ribs. Yum!

Sausage and Tortellini Soup

Veggie, Ham & Feta Quiche

Creamy Sausage and Ravioli Soup

Our new favorite way to cook veggies in a healthy way and love them! The veggies are a blend of cauliflower, carrots, broccoli, and zucchini. Then the mini potatoes came in a bag that has yellow and red potatoes in it. I cut them in half and laid them all flat. It gave them a nice crisp layer. Even Alice, our almost 9 yr old, ate the veggies! 

I also had fun making this fun little snack for activity days that the other leader had found online. They were super easy and fun to make, and tasty too!

"Pumpkin pie" cheese crackers. Made with cheddar cheese, whipped cream cheese, Pita crackers and Chicken in a Biskit crackers. I never knew that you could buy whipped cream cheese until now. And I'm so glad I had this little piping kit for frosting that I used for the cream cheese.

Our youth in our ward needed help with their leaf raking service project since many kids would not be able to come, so they asked any ward members to come help. The project was to help elderly people in our ward who needed yard clean up. Charlotte was super excited. She begged to go help the youth before it became a ward thing. She wanted to help rake leaves! We had a great turn out and our entire family was there to help. Even Milo tagged along but had to sit in the back of the truck. We had three different groups. Jack ended up in a different group than ours because he wanted to be with his friends.

Using tarps to dump the leaves into a trailer. The leaves were then taken to a composting pile at the cemetery.

The last project I'm going to post about is baking pumpkin seeds! We bought our pumpkins the night before Halloween. Since there wasn't time to carve them, I said we would use them as Thanksgiving/Fall decorations on the front porch. Then the Saturday after Thanksgiving we cut them up and dug out the seeds. We love baking them up and eating them! I was able to get about 8 cups!