Strawberry Time

I love the South. So much green! I also love strawberry fields. They smell so good!

We learned the hard way that the end of the day isn't the best time to pick. Normally we go early-mid morning. The fields had already been mostly picked over. There were still a lot of great berries. It just took a lot longer to fill our baskets.

Strawberries have to be processed right away. Especially if you picked them under the hot southern sun. They retain heat and cook eachother in the basket. If you let them sit, you'll find a whole lot of mushy berries at the bottom.

So right away, as soon as we got home, I started hulling my berries and sorting them. The prettiest berries are going on the cookie sheet. I'll flash freeze them and then fill freezer bags. The not so pretty berries are going in the bowl to be made into jam.

Normally I just make easy freezer jam. This year I wanted to learn how to can preserves. I needed a few supplies. I picked up a canning pot and a utensil kit for around $27. These will come in handy when I tackle pickles and tomatoes this summer.

Confession: This is the first time I've canned preserves. My jam did not set and I had to recook them using these instructions: How to Fix (or Remake) Jam or Jelly. The process worked like a charm and my jam is nice and thick, albeit with less whole berries and a tad more sugar. Ah the joys of the learning process.

Mother's Day

Mostly I worked over Mother's Day weekend. Leon and the kids conspired to create this beautiful card for me and surprised me with it when I got home that morning.

Leon had the kids each make smaller more personal cards.

I just love all the detail, the personal messages from each of them. It means so much to me. It reminds me of another card they made for me a few years ago.

I'm about to "keep it real". This is what I look like when I get off from an 11 hour shift.

YIKES! Good thing Leon took the kids to church and kept them out of the house most of the day so I could get some MUCH needed sleep. In fact, I slept 10 hours straight.

HA! I bet Leon isn't expecting that I would actually post this picture.

Rain Barrels Part 1

Here in "Mayberry" the water is extremely expensive. You see "Mayberry" buys their water from the next town over and then sells it to us. Watering the garden has raised my water bill by about $30 a month in season.

The rain barrel was so easy to make. It took us all of about 20 minutes to clean it out and put it together.

Cast of Characters: 2 3/4" metal conduit adapters, 3/4" hose bib, 1" drill bit, mosquito netting, and rain barrel.

I found my barrels on Craig's List for about $15 each. The guy at the hardware store said he used a large outdoor trash can.

At the bottom of the barrel, we drilled a 1" hole and threaded the female half of the conduit from the inside (Leon had to crawl inside), then screwed the male piece over top on the outside. Then we attached the hose bib to the conduit.

We did the same for the top of the barrel for our overflow. You could stop here and just have one barrel. You would need to cut a small piece of mosquito netting and screw the male side of the conduit over top. I plan to use a second barrel for overflow, to collect as much water as I can.

The last step was to drill holes into the top of the lid and lay on some of the mosquito netting.

I still need to get some cinder blocks to prop my rain barrel up against the house, and I need a few other supplies to connect the two barrels.