8:45 a.m. Daughter Elizabeth, 16, and I start gathering laundry to wash. The other girls wash dishes and start the weekly cleaning. Joe and the boys are cleaning out the barn and the horse-stalls. Joe needs to get our one-horse manure spreader fixed so he can spread the manure in the gardens and fields.
12:30 p.m. We finally have the laundry all done. Elizabeth hung it all outside while I washed it. It is windy and some of the clothes don’t want to stay on the line. It is cold on the hands to hang up. I am sure one of these days it will be cold enough that we will have to start drying the clothes in the basement. In the meantime, we will appreciate all the nice days we have left. Uncle Joe and Aunt Betty drove in just as we were finishing with the laundry. They visited us awhile and then left to go visit with sister Emma and Jacob and sisters Verena and Susan. I told them to come back tonight for supper.
1:30 p.m. I fix a late lunch of homemade vegetable soup and barbecued beef sandwiches.
2:15 p.m. Elizabeth and I start getting in the laundry to fold and put away. The other girls finish the weekly cleaning. Joe and the boys are finishing up in the barn. Earlier while Joe and Betty were here we had some anxious moments when the horses got out through an open gate in the barn. The three horses and our pony found their way out and started down the road to our hay field. They were busy eating in the hayfield and didn’t want to go into the fenced in pasture. I guess they thought the grass looked greener on the other side of the fence.
4:30 p.m. Joe and Betty are back. They got to visit with Jacob and Emma but Verena and Susan were not home. I mixed together a meatloaf and made scalloped potatoes. The girls start helping the younger ones get cleaned up.
5:15 p.m. The meatloaf and the scalloped potatoes are in the oven. The rest of us get cleaned up.
6:30 p.m. Elizabeth’s friend Tim joins us for supper too. We have meatloaf, scalloped potatoes, corn, cheese, and peaches. I didn’t get time to get anything baked because we were just too busy. I don’t like to do laundry on a Saturday but Joe, Elizabeth and I decided to go have lunch with the children at school yesterday so we couldn‘t do it then. We picked up sister Emma, daugher Elizabeth and son Steven along the way. Joe didn’t have any work and will be off all of next week too.
8 p.m. Joe and Betty left and we are all ready to call it a day. Elizabeth and Tim leave to join the other youth at the local community center. God’s blessings to all.
Try this recipe to use up some of your end-of-the-season pumpkin!
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread
3 cups sugar
3-1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
2 /3 cup water
4 eggs
1 cup oil
1-1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups fresh pumpkin
2 cups miniature chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, mix all ingredients together until smooth in consistency. Pour into three 9 X 5 inch loaf pans that have been greased and floured. Bake for 1 hour or until done (a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean)
