Bees and Sauce!

Hi everyone! Life is always throwing a curve ball. Ever since we moved into this house we have noticed a TON of bees. Probably part of living in a more rural area. All the fruit orchards don't help either, I'm sure. We have sprayed and fogged and they just keep coming. We think one of the nests under the siding has caused bees to get into the house, somewhere in the basement. So, now we are waiting for a visit from the pest control people. They said this area, this time of year and this year in particular have been bad for bees. They said the treatment will take care of all critters so I look forward to that.
In the meantime, I have no friends and not much going on so I am spending a lot of time in the kitchen. Zucchini bread, banana bread, cookies, and more. We were given a large pile of tomatoes last week, way more than we could eat so I set out to find a recipe for homemade tomato sauce using fresh tomatoes. It was harder than I thought as most recipes use canned products. I found this one in case you want to try it yourself. I figured I might as well make home made meatballs while I was at it. First time for that as well. I cooked the meatballs and some hot Italian sausage right in the sauce. WOW!! That made for fork tender meat and seasoned the sauce beautifully! I honestly wasn't holding out hope that it would be that good so imagine my delight when it turned out fantastic! Well, that was that. Now I needed to make more, lots more. I headed out to a road side market and found large baskets of tomato seconds for 1.00. I have frozen 20 qts total now and may have to make more still. My mother would be so proud! Even though I think I can hold my own in the kitchen, there are many things I have yet to try. Canning is one of those areas. I stick to freezer jam. But I may have to try something new. Peaches are in season and I am on a search for a good jam recipe. Send me one if you have one, okay? Otherwise I will search the net and give it a shot. It keeps me busy and out of trouble.

Tomorrow morning we leave to go camping with all the Harp family! Thom and family, mom and dad as well as Jon and Gail are meeting at Camp Chatauqua for the long weekend. We haven't seen the brothers since Christmas! Greg will have to drive home for church on Sunday but it should be a nice relaxing time. It is the last breath of vacation before the boys start school on Wednesday.
We hope you have an enjoyable weekend! I hope to post some pictures next week.

Random Ransomville Thoughts...

** Who knew R-ville had such wonky weather?? One minute it is gusting, the next minute the air is dead. One minute the skies are clear, the next minute it's pouring rain, sometimes with a good thunderstorm thrown in. I miss my overhanging roof line! Whenever it rains it is a game to see how fast we can shut all the windows because it rains right in. You can not leave the house with the windows open because a freak downpour may happen while you are out.
**Who knew cupboards could be so nasty?!!!!!!!! My kitchen cupboards are original to the house (1960) so imagine 47 years of grease and grim, ewwww!! Seriously people, the handles were so bad your fingers could become permanently attached to them when you reached for a snack. We had to buy new handles, there was no way around it. My kitchen may be small but there was room for 38 handles!!!! Josh helped me to take all the old ones off today and then I used up an entire jumbo box of Magic Erasers trying to scrub the aforementioned grim off the doors and drawers. Then I used a wood cleaner and after that a wood conditioner. Then we put the new handles on. Now I can tell they look way better but some of you would demand a kitchen remodel before you'd ever consider moving in here. I tried to demand a remodel but got no where fast! If any of you come upon a large, unexpected windfall of money could you remember my plight? I was just short of cursing my tiny kitchen today or at least cursing the people who never cleaned it!! It's just stuff, just a kitchen I tried to tell myself but I realized I struggle with it so much because the kitchen is where so much of my ministry takes place. It's the place I cook for guests, the place I bake breads to give away, the place where tomorrow I will be giving a 9 year old girl from church a cooking lesson. I think I shall begin praying today for a solution.
**Who knew how much I would miss my dishwasher? Actually, I did, LOL!! In a small kitchen you can't let dishes pile up so I am constantly washing dishes. If I had my nails manicured my lady would be pulling her hair out!! The boys memory is about 10 seconds when it comes to remembering which cup they used last!! Mind you they mostly use it to get water from the tap but heaven forbid they don't use their cup!! It demands a new one every time. As soon as I find my label maker they are getting personalized cups pronto!!
**Who knew my husband would love the country so much? He cracked me up when he thought 2 days to the "city" in one week was overload for his system, LOL!!! A man and his land...how sweet it is.
**Who knew I could have noisier neighbors than the last ones?? Our last neighbors had a Weimaraner and it had a loud, deep bark. It was especially annoying at 6am. Our new neighbors have chickens (no roosters) that make quite a racket. When the chickens are napping, the dog is barking like crazy and when the dog finally wears himself out the squawking indoor bird fills in the void. If only they had told us the Ransomville Zoo was next door! I'll be talking to my realtor about that.
**Who knew time could fly by so fast? For being in a new place where we don't know anyone, have no social life to speak of, and a relatively blank calendar of appointments, time is just whizzing by. Maybe it's all the fumes from the cleaning supplies I am using everyday, it's putting me in a strange state of mind. No, wait, that is normal for me, LOL!


On another note, Dad came out Thursday and helped Greg install one of the new garage door openers and a new outside light over the garage. Today Greg was able to install the other opener as well as the key less entry. He also tapped the water line in the basement so I can have my ice maker running again. It was a good day of projects. On our way to deliver some homemade spaghetti sauce to Pastor Bill & family we noticed a snow blower for sale on the side of the road. It was a Craftsman 2 stage something, something. Anyway, the sellers are moving and were only asking 50.00 for it. Guess who the proud new owner of a snow blower is?? The theory goes that if you buy a snow blower it won't snow enough to use it. That sounds like a great use of 50.00 to me!

Are you still with me?? Bless your heart! That's all my tired fingers can muster tonight. All that scrubbing did me in. Thanks for checking in with us!

Vacation Time!!

We rented a cottage on Cayuga Lake last year with Chris, Melissa and Ethan. It was such a wonderful and relaxing time that we pledged to do it again. When our lives became uncertain this past spring, Chris and Melissa went ahead and rented the cottage with the hopes that we would be able to join them. We scheduled the closings of both houses on the 26/27th of July and the cottage was rented for the 28th. I prayed that the closings would go as planned and I made phone calls every week to keep people on task. We did indeed close as scheduled on both houses. We had many people from Pearce help us load up our U-Haul trucks (2 26' trucks to be exact!) and Ransomville folks helped to unload them on the other end. It was almost a complete dump and run. We put up beds and unloaded a bit of the kitchen before locking up our new house to go on vacation. Now...I don't necessarily recommend this but ya gotta do what ya gotta do!!
We had awesome weather with only a wee thunder shower one night. Here are some pictures of our time.
Here are Josh, Kaleb and Ethan taking a paddle boat ride. There was no shortage of boats, we had a paddle boat, a fishing boat, a ski boat, a kayak and an inflatable raft. We used them all too!

This is no fish tale! The week was filled with lots of fishing and catching! Greg fishes but says he never catches anything so I need to clarify there was catching of fish all week. Here is Kaleb with a small one he caught off the dock.


Then there is the medium sized fish that Josh caught, I think it was a lake trout. This was caught on an early morning outing with Chris on his fishing boat. It was so early in fact, Josh went in his PJ"s. I think the fish came in around 8.5 lbs.

Then there's the BIG ONE! Chris is amazing when it comes to all things fishing and hunting. His head is chock full of information and the boys, Josh especially, just eat it up. Chris thought it would be a fun time to hook a carp. He threw out some canned corn to attract them as they are apparently a shy fish. Josh saw one come close to the dock and threw in his line. That fish emptied his entire line and they had to get in the boat to chase it down. One broken rod later, they had a 24 lb. carp!! They threw it back in since it was only for the fun of the catch on that one.
We had many visits by ducks throughout the week. I think word got out that we were easy and whole families stopped by daily. This one got quite brave and took bread right from Ethan's hand. His nakedness apparently had no effect on him. (Ethan was potty training and spent the better part of the week in his birthday suite!)









I took lots of pictures and in the end realized I have no good ones of Greg or myself. Here is one of Kaleb and I on a kayak trip. we never did get the hang of paddling in tandem but we made it back safely anyway.










Here is Josh tubing. He did try to get up on waterskis several times and made it up once for about 30 seconds. In the end he decided tubing was more his speed.











Kaleb amazes me! He tried last year to get up on skis and made it once for a short bit. This year, the first try, he got up and stayed up for an entire loop around. It took convincing that there were no human-eating fish in the waters and that the seaweed would not swallow him up either, but after that he was a mad skiing machine. It was such a huge accomplishment for him and he skied like a pro.

Greg slept most nights out on the dock and got his fill of naps and resting. He also got to play some volleyball for Chris' team one night. Just what he needed before he hit the ground running at the new church.

I am so grateful for our time there. Hope you enjoyed our photos!
Reminder, you can click on any photo for a larger view.

New Church Home

Hi everyone!! We are finally in the house and getting settled. So much has happened that I want to share so I think I will post several times this week to get caught up.

Today is Sunday and we had our second service at church. Last week was Greg's first Sunday and he preached for Pastor Bill who was speaking out at LCC. He is leading worship each week and so far so good.

Here is a photo of the Ransomville church.

This was the sign on the front lawn as we drove in on our first Sunday.

Isn't that great?!!! In a small town this makes news. After the service they had a brunch in the fellowship hall. They presented us with a welcome basket full of food and household items. It had tourist information, where to go for different groceries. Pastor Bill's wife, Linda, is a bargain hunter so she listed off a bunch of places to shop. The two of us are going to get along just fine!! It was a warm welcome and a wonderful way to start in a new place. We have been overwhelmed by peoples love, kindness, thoughtfulness and practical care in our first week here.

Chris, Melissa and Ethan came for a few days and we got a chance to drive around the area and discover some new treasures. I will share more about that another day. Here is a picture of the family taken at the Power Vista overlooking the Niagara River. Power Vista is a place to learn all about the power generated from the river, how it came to be, how it works, ect. They have an overlook that sits 300' above the river bed and offers a fantastic view.

I look forward to sharing with you more about the last month. Things have been a whirlwind of activity. We thank you for your cards, prayers and words of encouragement!!