August 2014

We started the month of August in North Carolina, drove home, celebrated Desi's 5th birthday, the boys started 1st grade and Pre-K and the very next day I was in a canning accident.

When we got home from our trip the garden was bursting with fruits and veggies that needed to be processed. Sadly the squash bugs had eaten over 50 pumpkins and at least 10 watermelons and we were so sad but the peppers and okra and tomatoes were still rampant. I was spending the day canning salsa and spaghetti sauce and by 6 p.m. I had been at it for 9 hours straight was on my last batch of the day. I was using my grandma's pressure cooker and got impatient. I had turned off the fire but didn't wait long enough to remove the lid. I realized it was pretty stuck and left it alone but I had loosened the lid just enough that when I backed away the lid exploded with boiling water and the water landed all down my chest, arms and right side.

Thankfully Brad had taken the kids to feed the hens so no one else was burned. You can imagine how the kids had been at my feet for most of the day. Brad found me in the shower and my mom came to get the kids. He took me to the hospital where they gave 2 IV to pump me full of pain meds and it still took 3 hours for any relief. Brad used up every single bottle the hospital had of distilled water to pour on my burns. There was about 2 inches of water in our hospital room floor but as long as the water was being poured on me then I wasn't screaming at the top of my lungs. The split second between one bottle running out and the other one beginning to pour was excruciating.  I know other people have suffered far worse, but I truly believed I was going to die from the pain and I kept apologizing to Brad for leaving him alone to raise our 3 precious babies. After 3 hours, the magical drugs FINALLY started working, and I really never hurt again after that. We were transported by ambulance to the Burn Center in OKC for one night of more IV drugs and observation.

It was so traumatic and the emotions for several weeks, maybe months, after were very real and very raw. I learned so, so much about myself, my husband, my life because of this. My poor kids suffered from seeing me. But my friends, my husband, and my parents really came through. For over a week I didn't have to leave my bed. I missed the boys entire first week of school zoned out watching Freaks and Geeks and ate way too many cupcakes. It was quite the experience.

 

GG was shipped from Brad's work to friends but sometimes she just cuddled with me in bed. Here she is lying on my gauzey bandages.

 

Or she cuddled with me while watching TV...

 

Meanwhile, I missed my boys so much. My sweet, superheros...

It took a few days, but soon we were back in the tichin' playing away!

And after a couple of weeks, I was even up for celebrating our TWELVE year anniversary. Our favorite band, Hurray For The Riff Raff was playing a music festival in Fayetteville, AR. We left the kids and drove over Saturday morning. After a day of awesome blue grass music (though it was all inside, downtown Fayetteville, near U of A campus, beautiful place!) we rocked into the wee hours dancing to Alynda's soulful tunes. There was probably 1,000+ in the room and we were one of 12 dancers. I was certain my funky monkey was gonna end up on YouTube but I'm still safe. :) Lucinda Williams was next as the headliner and she was great too. We partied at the hotel bar with members of three different bands. Then we went to a tiny bar for some of the late night jams, and shared our popcorn with Kacey from the Riff Raff. Somehow this is the only pic I got of the week-end but it was a fantastic, FANTASTIC time. The music festival itself was mild, with mostly older hippie types, but we pretended to young and wild and free for the night. :)

 

Somehow we found time for more pond-fishing...

And once I felt a little better, GG and I started going on walks around the lake on the mornings I didn't teach yoga. She was really into it and LOVED going, but it only lasted a few weeks because she refused to ride in the stroller and it would take almost 45 minutes to walk 1 lap (.6 of a mile) and I got frustrated. I also got busy, distracted, and forgetful. :)

 

Here are two other random "going on a walk" pictures...

 

We joined our friends Baylen and Emery for one final trip to the splash pad one day after school before it closed.

This guy somehow managed to start a new semester, take on assistant division chair responsibilities, worry about his wife, and take care of 3 kids all by himself. He is a rock star.

 

I can't remember what we were celebrating, but something spectacular happened and we went for ice cream after school. Maybe because it was Friday? :)

 

Ben grew some freckles!

 

We went for a long drive with GG's little friend Megan and her mom to see where they will be building a house soon. The girls in the back were so cute together!

 

I was a very crazy month but we got through it together and I found myself feeling even more in love with my kids and my husband and my life.

Wedding Memories: Preparations

Since they got engaged in February there has been excitement building. It's one thing to plan your own wedding, but to get to help with your baby sister's!?!? It's a whole other ball game.

We did get some things done while she was still in California (mainly just her) and then there was the whirlwind Spring Break where we knocked out the biggies (i.e. caterer, rentals, etc.)

But for the most part, everything was held off until she got "home" on July 6th. That gave us exactly one month to make, create, organize, rebuild, coordinate, and plan...and we did it!

It was SUCH a fun month. I loved getting to help her implement her gorgeous ideas and I think we did a pretty good job planning the most beautiful wedding I've ever been to!

Over the month of planning, I didn't take enough pictures, but the ones I did capture (or have stolen from others) I want to capture here in a series I'll aptly call, Wedding Memories.

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For favors, Laner had the brilliant idea of canning pear sauce and using the tagline "the perfect pear". We can pear sauce yearly at the farm using the old pear trees that our great-grandmother planted. However, the pears would not be ready to can by August 6th so the solution? Use last year's harvest of course!

I had a ton leftover in the deep freeze but didn't know exactly how many we would get. But once the jelly jars and stickers arrived there was no going back. We thawed, jarred, canned, loved listening for the POP! of the lids, affixed the cutest stickers ever, tied twine and after 5 hours we were thrilled with 105 jars!!!

I think they might just be about the cutest wedding favor I've ever seen!

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Alot of our month was spent laboring on the farm. Between completely painting two barns, hauling boulders of rock to make a ceremony aisle, chuckin' manure and feedsacks, painting fence, cleaning up debris, watering flower beds, repairing fence, cutting down and hauling off dead trees, and basically prettying up the farm we were working hard. Let's not forget that this was the hottest Okie summer on record with 50+ days over 100 and many of those being around 115 degrees it was hard work. We tried to get an early start and then spend our afternoons and evenings indoors doing the more crafty, detail things. Yes we sweat and yes we complained, but I loved every second of it. It was fun to make the farm look nice, it was fun having my sister home, and it was fun preparing for such a special party!

Here we are on the highest scaffolding painting the barn. I can't wait to show it to Genevieve! :)

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One of the first things Brad said after Lane&Jess got engaged was, "Do you think they would want me to make some beer for their wedding?"

Uh, YEAH!

So, naturally he went all out and it was so awesome. L+J decided to go with a lager and it was delicious. Brad made 3 batches which was about 150 beers and even ordered labels to make it more special...

The top says Phelps Farm.

It is called East Eighty lager because the water for the beer comes from the East 80 acres of the farm.

Then the bottom says Lane & Jess with the wedding date.

They turned out so cool and the three of us had a blast bottling and labeling the brew.

We knew it wouldn't be enough, but we were shocked that they were gone before the ceremony even started! They were set up on the favor table with the pear sauce near the house and as people gathered before the wedding, they grabbed a brew. It was just so tasty that they grabbed a roadie as well, and then it was all gone! :) Brewmaster Brad couldn't have been happier as we kept overhearing how delicious it was.

How to Make Beer at Your House

Brad Schatzel

Guest Blogger

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" -Benjamin Franklin

Step 1: Gather Your Supplies

All the supplies you will need to make beer at home are readily available at your local homebrew supply store or at various online vendors. It is common for supplies to be bundled into a starter kit. The Brew Shop OKC sold me such a kit at a very reasonable price.

Step 2 Making the Wort

For this batch I am using Cooper's Lager hopped malt concentrate which is a bit like using a Duncan Hines mix to bake a cake. You are making it yourself just not exactly from scratch.

The malt extract and malt concentrate are super sticky and must be heated to be removed from their cans.

The hopped malt concentrate (green label) and the malt extract (yellow label) are mixed with 5 gallons of water in the primary fermenter (a big plastic bucket).

I drove to Seminole to get high quality water from my in-laws' well. Chlorinated city water makes bad beer.

When the malt/water mixture is about 65*, yeast is added. The bucket is then sealed for one week.

Step 3 Racking the Beer

After seven days the beer is 'racked', which is beer dork terminology for moving the beer from one 5 gallon bucket to another 5 gallon bucket. This is easily done with a cane and hose which create a syphon to suck the beer from one bucket to the other.

I believe racking is necessary to separate the beer from a layer of funky yeast the settles to the bottom of the fermenter (remember, big plastic bucket).

Step 4 Bottling

After seven more days (we're on day 14) the beer is racked again. Then dextrose is added to the beer in order to stimulate carbonation. Immediately after this the beer can be bottled, which is the most labor intensive and fun part of the process.

Before being filled with beer, the bottles must be sanitized. This is very easy to do as most dishwashers have a 'sanitize' setting. Do not add soap, this will make your beer taste like soap.

Empty bottles can be purchased at any homebrew store, but bottles can also be purchased at liquor stores and gas stations FULL OF BEER. Twist-off bottles will not work, but all other bottles can be reused.

For bottling the cane and hose are fitted with a bottle filler which is a hard plastic tube with a spring loaded valve on the end.. Lauren is the primary bottle filler in our little operation. I am posing in the photos below because her hair "looks all weird".

This process can be intense. I needed to remove my sweatshirt.

Bottle caps must be purchased and are inexpensive. The caps we are using were included in my kit from The Brew Shop. The red machine is a bottle capper, it was included too. The capper is very fun to use.


The batch yielded forty-seven twelve ounce bottles of beer. This is a bit low and is likely due to some sloppiness on my part during the racking process.

While this beer looks ready to consume it is not. The beer must sit in the bottle to 'condition' for at least two weeks (we're up to four weeks now).

I was only able to wait twelve days before I popped one open. It tasted very, very good.

To sum up, it is easy to make beer at your house. Just follow the four simple steps outlined above.

"Lord 'beer me' strength" - Jim Halpert

Pear Mania.

Wednesday Ben and I spent the morning picking 100s of pears off my mom and dad's pear trees. These trees were planted by my great-grandmother when they first moved to the dairy farm long long ago. With the exception of eating a few here and there and feeding the ones that had fallen to the ground to the cows by the bucketful, we have never really made any use of them. 

Until now. 

Picking pears is quite the adventure. I would shake the limbs to make them fall to the ground and Ben and I came in with several bruises on our heads. Those things are heavy! And vicious! And aim right for the top of your head!

After gathering about 20-25 lbs. worth we quit to lick our wounds. After all, I still wasn't quite sure what I was going to attempt to do with them.

I really had my heart set on making applesauce this fall for the boys. Brad grew up on homemade applesauce and I thought it would be fun for Ben to get to pick his own. Well, that idea sputtered out when I couldn't find an apple orchard anywhere and I didn't really want to spend the money on that many organic apples. But you guessed it, I thought, what about PEAR sauce? And yes...even though I had never heard of such a thing, it is real...when recipes online and everything!

So, the next day my Gram came over and we spent hours peeling and coring and boiling and blending pears into the most delicious sauce you have ever tasted. Something that tastes like apple pie filling but healthy enough to use as baby food. So delicious. Why have we not been doing this for years?

The small amount we picked gave us about 12 tupperwares full of this goodiness. I still plan on making some of the sauce into apple butter and making my first attempt at canning. And there are SO many pears left. Now that I know they can be used...how will I sleep at night letting any of them go to waste?