Life With A Teen Boy??

First thing: this was posted with permission given from Ryder.

 

What happens when you have a

 

Teenaged boy and add in

 

A treadmill on high speed and

 

An 8lb weight

 

!

 

!

 

!

 

!

 

!

 

!

 

 

 Ryder truly thought that the weight would just roll down the treadmill.  Well, THAT didn't happen!  HaHa!  Everyone is safe and no harm was done except to the window.

 

 

 

 

 

Strawberries and Peaches

  
Our neighbors went to the lovely state of GA last week for their oldest granddaughter's high school graduation. They would be gone for a week and needed us to take care of their beef cattle and to feed the cats while they were away.  We are happy to help them out so they can travel see their children and grandchildren. 
 

   They always bring back a thoughtful thank you gift and this time they brought a gallon of strawberries and a peck of peaches.  They were so flavorful, fresh and brightly colored. 

   After eating some fresh; we decided that it was just going to be too much to eat before they would go bad so I made 9 pints of strawberry jam and froze several quarts of peaches.  The peaches will be a wonderful addition to a smoothie.

 

 

 Ryder eats toast with butter and jam every morning.  I have even had some on toast...yeah the "bad gluten kind" too!  I didn't get sick and it is so delicious!  Madi made some parfaits with vanilla yogurt, granola and fresh peaches!  They were delicious also.  Ryder ate two, maybe three, that evening.  There is just something about fresh fruit that is awesome!

 

   I had to put more pictures in here to show how bright  the colors are! I love it!

 

 

The jam is a brighter red color than these photos show. It is bright red like the strawberries but for some reason my camera didn't feel like making them red! 

 

 

    Not really a big deal though as the taste is what is more important than the picture. 

   I used the recipe in the Ball canning book.  It is a very simple, easy recipe.  I did choose to use the pectin recipe.  After having these strawberries Jeremiah decided that he wanted to plant some more strawberry plants.  Our plants died out several years back and we just never got around to planting more.  I ran to the local greenhouse and bought 14 plants.  Jeremiah was happy that they still had some and they were marked down to $.75 a plant!  They are rather large plants with blossoms and two of them have strawberries starting!

 

That's a wrap from the Pine Tree Forest!  I think I may need to eat something with jam this morning!  I need something with my tea! 

Have a blessed day, y'all!

   

Honey Spring 2017

   Our bees made it through the winter.  Happy Dance!!!  Our winter wasn't as harsh as it has been in past years so that was a help. However, my dad has done more research on beekeeping and decided that we needed to make bee candy and feed them through the winter.  I am guessing that it was a huge help as all the hives thrived this time. 

   Dad and Ryder went up to check on the hives two weeks ago and Dad decided that one hive in particular was just too full! Yep! Too full!  They filled a tote with frames and brought them down.  Madi and I scrapped them and then I started to filter the liquid gold! It is so sweet and a beautiful color.  We haven't ever had the opportunity to harvest honey in the spring so this was a real treat! 

   In the picture above you can see my little pint jar on the left.  I put honey in my tea every morning.  Actually, whenever I make hot tea I put honey and vanilla creamer in it.  I am addicted to it.  I am all about the honey and vanilla!  I have made my own vanilla creamer in the past but it is a bit more work than I really want to do right now.  I just use Coffee-Mate's Natural Bliss creamer.  It's made without GMO's.  It sounds so good that I think I need to tear myself away from the computer and make a cup of happiness!  Have a blessed day! 

From My Front Porch

   I am a bit behind on posting pictures for this month. I have been busy harvesting honey, making jelly and freezing some fruit. I will post more on those thing later.  Even though I didn't have the time to post them, I did take them. These photos were taken on June 2 or June 3.

   We had a good rain storm earlier this month and it wreaked some havoc on the rhododendron bushes.  The blossoms didn't make it through the storm.

   Madi planted some flowers and decided that the front porch would be the best place for them.  They give the tomato plant some company!

   Our hanging baskets are looking great! They have really grown in size.  The colors are lovely!  I'm still really happy with them.  I give them at least a quart of water each everyday!

 

   Everything has turned green again!  I'm so excited to have this beautiful weather.  Its kinda crazy though as we have had to have the heat on a couple times because it gets a bit too cold at night!  It's June!!!

   This rhododendron didn't loose as many blossoms as the other one during the storm.  They are such happy colors!