P I N W H E E L S !!!!

Have you ever found a sale so good that you thought you were going to bust. Well that just happened to me, yesterday. The phone rang and it was my twin sister on the other end, telling me in a calm voice that a local retail store had pinwheels on sale for ten cent each. What!! I could not believe it, they are usually a dollar a piece, if you are lucky you can sometimes find them for half price, but not real often. I told her she had to buy me some (and that's a order) that I would pay her back. Again in a calm voice she said "I got you ten". Well that"s nice and everything but I needed her to understand that I would like to get my hands on as many as I could get. At ten cents each this was just to good a sale to pass up. Ninty-percent savings. Like she needed to go guard them with her life until my husband could get there to buy them.
Yes, there is more to the story for you to totally understand the reason behind wanting so many pinwheels. Having a party? No! I am often ask that when purchasing pinwheels in large quanities. Pinwheels are seasonal, and after the summer months they can be very hard to find, and you can forget a discounted price. We can become very panicked if we see that our supply of pinwheels are getting low, and we check the store and cannot find any, Yikes!
For me they simply bring joy to my son, everyday. He literally plays with pinwheels everyday of his life, they sometimes last a few days to one week before he totally destroys them. But what joy they do bring him. You've heard the saying "Dont leave home without them" for us that is pinwheels, we literally carry them with us everywhere. We have them in our car, they go to school with him, we even have one attached to a small chair with a electric fan blowing on it for those times when he does not feel like holding one, he can still enjoy seeing it spin.
My son is fifteen years old and he has multible disabilities, he fuctions at a two year old level. He is about the size of a ten year old, small for his age. The one thing he has loved his whole life is his pinwheels, I don't thick he will ever out grow that need. The brite colors, the sparkle and movement truely bring him the greatest joy. He can hold a pinwheel and spin it for hours without ever tiring from playing with it.
We ended up getting one-hundred-eighty pinwheels, for eighteen bucks, now that is truely a bargin. I have never found pinwheels this cheap in the past. Truely feel blessed that I was able to get so many. Many days filled with happness for a special boy. Hope you remember this story the next time you see a pinwheel, and the special joy that they bring to a "Very Special Child". Pinwheels rock!!!!! So do sisters that call you when they find great sales. As well as my husband who stopped everything he was doing to go buy them.

My very special son, little pinwheel man

Lots of happiness, big smile makers

              Watermelon Rind Pickles

Making watermelon rind pickles today. I love this recipe, it comes from my Ball Blue Book guide to preserving, so it's my go to recipe for these pickles. I love that you can make use of something that you would other wise throw away. Most everyone that tries theses pickles, likes them. 

                    Watermelon Rind Pickles
4 quarts 1-inch cubed watermelon rind (white portion only)
1 cup Ball pickling salt
2 gallons water, divided
3 cinnamon sticks
1 tablespoons whole cloves
1 tablespoon whole allspice
1/4 teaspoon mustard seed
7 cups sugar
1/2 cup thinly sliced lemon (about 1 medium)
2 cups vinegar

Cover watermelon rind with pickling salt and one gallon of water, stirring until salt is dissolved. Let stand over night. Drain; rinse, set aside. Place spices in a spice bag or cheese cloth. Place spice bag, sugar, lemon slices, and vinegar in a large non-metal pot. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes or so. Add the watermelon rind to liquid mixture, simmer until the rind becomes transparent in appearance. Remove the spice bag. Pack hot rind pickles with liquid into hot jars, leaving 1/2-inch head space. Adjust the two-piece jar caps. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. This recipe is slightly adapted for the original.

Give them a try

   Making Homemade Pickles

I have an abundance of cucumbers coming in so I thought I would make some homemade pickles. Today I'm making Lime Pickles, about a two day process, but so worth it. I had theses pickles growing up as a child, and they where like candy to me. The taste of these pickles are as fresh in my mind as if I had them just yesterday. One of my fondest childhood memories, I still remember what they looked like. Beautiful chunks of cucumber somewhat transparent with a emerald green color. Like little gems. The green color comes from adding food coloring to the recipe. I opted not to add the food coloring because I may enter some of these pickles into the local fair next year and they do not allow food coloring. But the food coloring does make them pretty.

                            Lime Pickles
8 lbs. pickling cucumbers, washed and sliced into thick chunks
2 cups hydrated pickling lime (I used Mrs. Wages)
2 gallons water
Syrup:
2 1/2 cups white vinegar
5 1/2 pounds sugar
1 tablespoon pickling salt (I used Mrs. Wages)
1 tablespoon celery seed
2 cinnamon sticks, broken into 2 -inch pieces
1 teaspoon whole cloves

Soak the cucumber chunks in lime and water mixture, in a non-metal container for 24 hours, in the refrigerator. Stir several times during the 24 hour period. After 24 hour, rinse cucumber chunks 3 times. Drain and place in a non-metal container. 

For Syrup: Place vinegar, sugar and pickling salt, into a large non-metal saucepan. Place spices into cheesecloth and tie, place spice bundle into vinegar mixture. Bring to a boil; stirring until all sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Pour mixture over cucumber chunks, allow to set for 24 hours, covered and refrigerated. After 24 hours pour cucumbers and liquid into non-metal pot, bring to a boil, boil for one hour. Pack into 10 to 12 prepared pint jars, leaving 1/2-inch head space. Place seals and rings on each jar, process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.