The start of the hard work of storing up food for the winter has officially begun.  Well, we really started stocking the freezer for winter a couple of months ago.  When it comes to berries Royal is like a little squirrel, he’s constantly putting them in the freezer, and they always seem to be gone just when I’m looking for them to put on the kid’s plates.  We had big plans this year to go to a berry farm and pick a lot of our own berries, but with the driving time, the amount of hard it work it takes to pick the berries, and the young ages of our kiddos, we decided we’d put it off for another year and re-evaluate next May.  But corn is a whole ‘nother story!

Last year, we froze 6 dozen corn and we ran out way too early, so since you can get the corn 4 dozen in a box, we just decided to get 2 boxes this year.  We started out the morning, by going and picking up the corn right when the stand opened, because on the weekends they always seem to sell out really fast.  Then we headed North to Newton to go check out the peaches at Beck’s Farm and find out what kind of pears she’s going to get in this year.  We were hoping to can a couple batches of peaches in the next couple weekends before we left for our vacation to Washington, but it seems like the peaches just might not be ready yet, they are pretty hard still, and I just don’t have the time or room to buy a bunch of peaches and then have to lay them around the house waiting for them to ripen.  I’m pretty sure the kids would think they were new toys just for them, and I’d have peaches hidden everywhere!  So, if they don’t ripen in the next couple of weeks, hopefully they’ll wait for us to get back from Washington!

Anyway, back to the corn.  Like I mentioned, we got 8 dozen corn this year.  That would be 96 ears for all you out there who don’t like doing mental math.  :) That’s a lot of shucking!  So, I made up a new house rule.  When we got home I said to Royal, “Well, it turns out just like I don’t do dishes, I don’t shuck corn either”  Ha ha ha, I crack myself up!  So, Royal sat out in the garage for about 2 hours shucking every ear of corn.

He wasn’t alone though, he had Jayden (and Sam) out there with him keeping him entertained with a measuring tape.

But don’t worry, it’s not like I didn’t do anything.  I was in the house, cutting all the kernals off the cobs.

and then doing some more…

Royal and I got smart this year.  The last couple of times we’ve done this, we cooked the corn on the cob and then stuck them in an icebath to stop them from cooking, and then we’d cut the kernals off as fast as we could.  The cobs were usually still pretty hot because we’re both a bit impatient and we didn’t want to wait until they were completely cool, and so I always left the project with burned finger tips.  But after complaining to Royal’s mom about my sore fingers, she oh-so-wisely suggested that we cut the kernals off and then cook them.  Genius!!!  And it took so many fewer batches of water as well!  We’re getting smarter over here folks!

I just am always surprised that all the corn fits into so few bags.  96 ears of corn, and we have 20 bags of corn to stick in our freezer!

Summer is here!  Woo Hoo!!  And boy is it hot and humid!

Our strawberries are going crazy.  There are more ripe strawberries each day than we are able to eat!  Royal managed to pick these out of the garden today for us to stick in the freezer.  This is what was left after both the kids ate a ton first!

We also took the kids to Target today to pick out a new pool for the backyard, since both our pool and splash pad bit the dust earlier this year.  I know it’s going to come as a shock, but Jayden picked the dinosaur themed one.  It came with 2 blow-up dinosaurs, has a slide, and a waterfall.  The kids played in this for hours!

We found our first red strawberry of the season tonight!

Then we played a little baseball.  Jayden wanted to be the pitcher.

Royal was the batter.  Look how fierce Royal is in this picture.  I’m guessing it’s because when I was the batter I smacked one way over the fence into the neighbor’s yard, and well, Royal doesn’t like to get shown up by a girl (or really anyone for that matter…).  :)

Scooter even joined us in the yard this evening.  She’s kind of like a dog and follows us down the street if we take a walk, but she’s always about a house behind us, like she’s guarding us, making sure nothing sneaks up behind us or anything.  She also managed to catch a HUGE bird tonight.  But she decided to play with her food before she ate it and gave the bird a chance to get away before I got a picture.

There was a also a little hide and go seek.  But in the backyard there are not very many places to hide.  Under the slide was Jayden’s choice.

Jayden and I started planting some seeds for the garden tonight.  Last year, our garden didn’t fare too well.  Well, parts of it didn’t anyway.   We had basil and some other herbs growing out our ears, but our peas, beans, carrots, tomatos, and pepper plants all got eaten away by what I thought were bunnies, but turns out were probably field mice.  We got some advice from a neighbor, who just happens to be a dirt expert that seed companies seek out to try their stuff, to plant cloves of garlic around the edges of the garden and that will keep the mice out.  I also plan on letting Scooter loose in the yard every night, since she’s probably going to kill something anyways. :)  I’ve been thinking about doing a weekly post this summer, with pictures of course, of all the killings Scooter leaves for us.  Sometimes bodies, sometimes guts, sometimes there’s just a blood spot left, but the head, the head is always missing.  I guess that’s Scooter’s favorite part.  Mmmm, brain!  Let me know what you think!

So, anyways…tonight, Jayden and I planted seeds for parsley, chives, basil, oregano, and cilantro.  And I forgot to save room for our lavender seeds, so I’m gonna have to get another little start pod for them.  Oops!

Holy smokes, this may have been one of the most exhausting weekends ever! I thought it was going to start off well because Royal got home before 5 o’clock on Friday! But then we had dinner and Jayden thew up his entire dinner onto his plate. He wasn’t sick, he just didn’t want to eat the rest of his food, but he did want dessert, and to get dessert he had to have a few more bites. Well, he kept making himself gag because he’d put too big of a bite of food in his mouth trying to get it done fast, and eventually it all came back up. I started gagging (because I can’t stand puke, as anybody whose followed my blog for any amount of time will know), so I left to go start a bath for him. Royal, who has a stomach of steel, sat there and helped Jayden through it, while Willow cracked up in her seat. Sadly, even after that he still didn’t get dessert because I wanted to make sure he really wasn’t sick…and thankfully he wasn’t!

Saturday morning, we got up to go do a 5K race with my StrollerFit group. I pretty much kicked it’s tail. My knees felt real good and I managed to run 9 min/miles while pushing both kids in the stroller. Royal kept up real good for not having run outside of playing basketball. I like to think the only reason he could keep up with me is because I was pushing 60 pounds in a stroller, otherwise I would of smoked him! Although he does keep pointing out that he crossed the finish line first, but I like to tell him he’s just really lucky I like him and decided to not clip his ankles with the front wheel of the stroller.

Then we got home and I canned some peaches. We have this really great peach farm really close by, so I decided I would try to can them, because who doesn’t love peaches in the middle of winter? Not to mention I have all these empty jars from all the canned goods we’ve taken my Royal’s mom over the years, can’t just let those sit around and collect dust. This was the first time I’ve canned anything and I’ve got high standards to live up to as my mom and Royal’s mom are both big canners. But I’m hoping these turn out delish, but I guess if they don’t, well, at least I have some pretty jars in my pantry, right???

Then, I had to make some bread for sandwiches for the week.

Then, I decided to harvest the jungle of basil that I managed to grow in my garden this year. After I got it all cleaned up, it took me over an hour with Royal’s help, to pick all the leaves off. The smell of basil was so strong, it was making my eyes burn and water like an onion, so I took to being very picky about what leaves I tore off so it would go faster. ;) Check out the huge basil and this wasn’t even all of it, there was another little patch nearby.

After this, I was just too tired to do anything else….until today that is.
We got up this morning and went to church. And then after we went to go get a paper, came home, fixed lunch, and then made some basil pesto to stick in the freezer. Don’t worry, I didn’t use all of the basil. I’m going to attempt to dry some in my oven and then since I will still have a bunch left over, I’m going to give it to some of our neighbors on our street.

Then, we packed up the kids and went to a Piggies and Paws party. And then went to our small group. And now I am back at home, kids are asleep, and I’m finishing up getting ready to start doing some preschool stuff with Jayden tomorrow, and of course fillin’ ya in what we’ve been doing (sorry not many pictures of the kids, hope it didn’t make you too hungry). All of these activities were of course on top of everything I already would have done anyway on the weekend, kids, lunches, dinners, 5 loads of laundry, cleaning, etc… at least Royal was here to help! But, I’m tired.

Jayden and I spotted this cute big bunny in our yard during lunch today.

At first, I felt sorry for it because I figured Scooter had gotten a hold of it and it was probably dead or maimed or something. And to tell you the truth, I was going to be mad at Scooter. Fine, go off and kill things, it saves me money having to buy you food all the time, but why oh why must you leave all the carnage around where I (by I, I really mean Royal) have to clean it up??? Why else would the bunny just be sitting in our yard, if it wasn’t dead or hurt. It wasn’t moving around at all. All the other bunnies we’ve had in our yard all hop around from place to place, and as soon as we go outside on the porch they scamper under the fence and back out to the field. But today, we managed to get outside on the porch to get a better look and the thing didn’t even blink an eye. I was getting prepared to have to explain to Jayden again that Scooter had killed something and the poor bunny was dead, but then I saw it’s ears go back, so I figured it was probably just hurt or something. So, I thought I’d try and scare it. I threw one of Jayden’s plastic baseballs that were up on the deck at it. It didn’t even budge. Oh great, I thought, it’s bleeding out into my grass. Awesome. So, because I was preparing to write a post about all the animals Scooter has been off slaughtering lately - she’s really come into her prime here! - me and the kids snuck down the stairs so I could try and get a better picture, maybe one with some guts or something in it to really keep you guys entertained, and the bunny still didn’t move. I was within probably 3 feet of the thing and it didn’t move. So, I raise my camera and the thing bolts, before I could even get a picture, darn it! And being that I was having to try and take a picture with just one hand, since I was carrying Willow, I couldn’t get catch the fast sucker as it bolted under our fence into our neighbor’s yard. Guess the bunny was fine.

We go back inside and finish our lunch and Jayden checks the window every few minutes to see if its come back, I think nothing of it. Then, I look out my bedroom window where I have a great view of my garden and I think, ‘hmmm, things don’t look as full or big from up here.’ Then I get mad. That bunny has been in here eating my vegetables before they’ve even hardly had a chance to grow! My sugar snap peas have been going to town and there were lots of them growing because gardening with Jayden means dumping all the seeds real close together. They were going to have to be thinned at some point. Not anymore. Now, they are a sad looking bunch. Most of them chewed down to the nubs. Bad bunny!

Leaves all chewed on with bite marks taken out of them.

Cucumber vines missing all their leaves.

Time to go to the nursery and find something to protect my plants from the bunnies. And time to put my hunter out in the yard. Go get ‘em Scooter! Just please leave the headless bodies somewhere else - the heads seem to be Scooter’s favorite because the trophies she leaves up on the deck for me to find never have heads on them. It’s pretty awesome.