I started a square foot garden this year.   My Dad had half the back yard as a garden when I was a kid.  All I remember is picking weeds.   Wish I knew all the garden information he had now.   But I planted a few tomatoes,  sweet and bell peppers, onions,  leaf lettuce and some squash.  
My main reason for this garden was to grow my own vegetables I needed to make my Aunt Martha's "Oscar Sauce."  
I searched and searched for years for this recipe online and never found anything.  Then one day while looking through a website that had old recipes I seen something very familiar.  I believe my Aunt Martha and my Grandmother must have adapted their recipe from it.    Here is the link to that recipe on my Pintrest page
  http://pinterest.com/pin/95560823313206960/ .    
The very next day after finding this recipe,  my Aunt Martha's son came to me and asked me if he bought the ingredients and gave me the recipe, if I would can some for him.   So there it was....  the hand written recipe from my Aunt Martha for her Oscar Sauce!   It was like gold to me.  
Whether you make the recipe from the news paper or my Aunt Martha's,  I bet you will enjoy both.

Oscar Sauce 

15 Tomatoes
2 Hot peppers
2 cups white vinegar
3 Large Onions
2 Tbls salt
6 Red or Green peppers (I use both, looks pretty)
3 cups sugar

Skin tomatoes by placing them in hot water for a min or so and then cold water.  Cut into quarters.  Grind peppers and onions then mix all ingredients together and cook until thick.  Skim foam off top if there is any. 
Fill qt. jars with hot relish and process 15 min. in canner.

We use this relish on hamburgers and minute steaks the most but it is also good on chicken.
I have also used it as an appitizer by putting a little cream cheese on a cracker and then a  little bit of relish.  

Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as our family has for generations.  

The weather is not the only crazy thing around NEPA this year... The animals are too!    This year we have a crazy squirrel that is determined to get into my neighbors house.   He jumps up every morning and hangs on her screen door!    
  
Today we have seen a,  I will call it a city pigeon.   We normally have plain brown pigeons but this one was the ones you see in the cities.   And along with him came a seagull!   Why is there a seagull in the mountains of PA?   They were beautiful anyway.  

I think this year I am going to work on winter sowing veggies.  

A vegetable garden is something I haven't done since I was 8 or 9 years old.    My father always had some kind of garden until he just couldn't find the time after working all day.    

I hope the lessons he taught me back then are still in the back of my mind somewhere.    I am sure they are there and I will remember when I need to.  

That is something that gives me comfort in raising my boys.   I find myself saying all the time,  why won't they listen to me?  But I am sure my father thought the same of me when he would tell me stories and try to teach me lessons in life.   I would roll my eyes and sigh.  But I guess I was listening because those words of wisdom he gave,  I hear when I need to.

Flowers For My Father: My life and Me

Flowers For My Father: My life and Me

Winter sowing is done. The day after I put the jugs out, it rained really hard. I was worried they would fill up and freeze before they had the jugs had a chance to drain! But they seem alright.

Trying winter sowing in zone 5

Christmas is over so time for the snow to go away. Guess I am rushing it just a bit, but I can't wait to start working in the flower gardens again.
I am going to try winter sowing this year. I bought a bunch of various seeds and sometime this week I am going to start planting them in milk jugs I have saved. Wish me luck.....

My life and Me

Notice I put My Life first. My life consists of taking care of my 3 boys, my husband, and my mom. I have finally figured out at the age of 40 that is what makes me happy. I do have some other things that make me happy. My friends, I have some great ones. My hobbies, gardening, genealogy, crafting, baking and cooking. If I can get friends and family to do those things with me I am really happy.
I must say I don't know if gardening is a hobby or an addiction. Everyone would probably say addiction. My father was the one who introduced me to gardening. Everyday, either before work or after he would say to me "Lets go take a walk about". That meant walking the yard and looking at all the flowers and trees. When I am working in the flower bed I feel closest to my father.
I guess he is also the one that inspired me to start genealogy. He always spoke of his family. He wondered what happened to his grandfather and where his grandmother came from, things like that. I wish he was here so I could tell him I found them. I know a little more about there life. I hope the information I leave behind will make it easier to find out about some of there ancestors.
Well time to go take care of some of that life now. I will post more on my family, Past and present.