Year in Review

I can't believe it's New Year's Eve already. 2015 has flown by so fast. I guess it's true that time really does pass by faster the older you get.

After having a record warm November and December (and a green Christmas), we finally got our snow the Monday after Christmas. We had an early snowstorm in November, but it quickly melted, and it was warm enough the weekend before Christmas that the boys and grandkids were outside playing football in short sleeves. Glad it's finally starting to act like winter.

Looking back over 2015 and our garden and my canning, I didn't get near enough done this year. It was a wet spring, so while we did get an early garden planted, not much grew this spring. I think this is the first year since Kevin and I have been married (23 years) that I didn't have any of our own tomatoes to can, and I had to buy green beans so I could can those. Thankfully one of Kevin's co-workers had some extra tomatoes, so I was able to put up some salsa. On the other hand, our apple and peach trees went berserk, so I was able to do a bunch of applesauce, pie fillings and jams to put on the shelves. All this means is that next summer we will have a huge garden, and I'll be canning up a storm to replace everything we'll eat this winter. The shelves should be pretty bare by then. Thank goodness I did extra last summer :)

I was also able to try several new canning recipes this year. With the boatload of apples, I tried a new apple pie filling, Caramel Apple Pie Filling, which is a new favorite in our house. I also finally got to try canning pickled mushrooms, and this is a recipe I'll be making a lot in the future.

This year we raised chickens, and while we lost a few along the way, we now have a full freezer, for which I'm very thankful. The guys were also successful fishing for catfish this summer, so there's plenty of that in the freezer as well. No venison this year, as they just didn't have any luck, but between the chicken, the catfish and the couple of huge turtles they caught, we aren't short of meat this year.

All in all, 2015 was a pretty good year. My family is healthy and happy. There's food on the shelves and in the freezer. Life is good. Happy New Year everyone!