Strawberries!

Every single year I vow to go pick strawberries. I'm not a big jam maker, but I love eating them and using them in smoothies. However, it seems like every year I get so busy that I miss the season.

FINALLY! This year I managed not only to go once but twice in the same week. And man, was it worth it! These were the best strawberries I have ever eaten in my entire life. Seriously. So sweet. So good.

I brought along my trusty side-kicks - aka Mr. T and my youngest. My youngest son was a huge help the first day and the second day as well. While he needs to work on his technique, he worked diligently both times we went. However, this was his very first time every picking strawberries.

Mr. T was a big help too - we would take turns handing him strawberries and he would place them in the flat for us. He did excellent and stayed right with us, in the sun, for the 30 minutes it took us to fill two flats of strawberries. I ended up with about 14 pounds that first day. And for his first time, I must say that my youngest did great and picked six pounds all by himself!

I went again a few days later and met up with my sister. I had noticed that they were also selling peas and you could pick your own so I was excited for fresh peas. We started in the pea field this time. They were a lot fewer and farther between this go round and we had extra "help" as well.

My niece and "Mr. T"

Showing off the peas they picked. 

Actually our biggest challenge today was keeping two 2-year-olds from running all over the pea field while we picked. We worked for about 30 minutes and I only managed to get six pounds. I split that between myself and Mr. T's mom. 

After shelling what I kept, I ended up with enough peas for two meals. Hmmm...may have to rethink this in terms of "what I get for the amount of time I put in." Or plant my own garden next year. 

We then headed to the strawberry field and each picked a flat of berries. My niece loves berries and my sister had a hard time getting her to not pick since she would pick anything and eat anything that remotely looked like a strawberry. 

I did manage to snag a couple photos of them both looking cute. 

I tried to get Mr. T to eat one, but he wasn't all that sure about it.

I lost count how many she ate. 

Thankfully I had washed and hulled the original 14 pounds of berries (after giving two quarts to Mr. T's mom) and they were already in the freezer. 

The second day we went to pick I processed all the peas (shelled and ate/stuck in the fridge what wasn't cooked), all the strawberries (washed, hulled, and frozen whole), and the 15 ears of corn I had bought earlier in the week (shucked, blanched, and frozen). Our local grocery store was selling corn for five ears for $1. We ate some and I processed the rest. I'll probably wait until the farm where we picked the berries at has some later in the season though before I do any more.

All in all a good start to summer! And I may just go back for some more berries this week!

18th Birthday

The year was 1990 & I was blessed with not one, not two, but three nieces that year. Thanks everyone. It makes it so easy to keep track of their ages! One was born in April, one was born in June, & the last was born in December.

Today, the 15th, was a very busy day for me. I left my home at 10am & never got home until 8:30pm that night. I started out by heading to my hubby's grandmother's house where I cleaned. I do this every week & try to do it on the weekend. But I didn't have any babies today & I knew it would be a busy weekend with getting the new truck, getting a tree & doing all the decorating, that I decided to do it this morning instead.

I had to run home after this as I had forgotten to grab my insulin. Going all day without that isn't a good idea.

From there we headed over to Kingfield where we had a homeschooling meeting. We passed out a couple newsletters as we had cancelled a previous meeting. I had made up Christmas craft kits for the kids that had a container of homemade play dough scented like gingerbread, some red & white pipe cleaners to make candy canes with, a few coffee filters to cut in to snowflakes, and lastly some coloring pages and puzzle pages.

After that I went over to my Mom's. I should say that all this running around wasn't to locations close to each other. Hubby's grandmother lives 10-15 minutes away from our house & that was the closest location. The meeting in Kingfield is a half hour in the opposite direction. Finally, my mom is at least an hour from my house so it took me about 1-1/2 hours to get to her house from the meeting - a bit longer actually as I had to stop a couple of times.

When we finally arrived at my parents, dinner was being served & a birthday party was on for my niece.

She received some really nice gifts and tolerated my camera very well. ;-)

Modeling one of her new hats.

She is doing a CNA program at the local tech high school this year so she received some nice scrubs and a "nurses bag." I think she liked them.

She loves this pink & brown John Deere blanket.

Her mom & mom's boyfriend gave her this really nice snowmobile jacket. This was her big gift and she loved it.

Eventing

My niece is 17 years old (for a few more months at least). When she was six my mom offered her the choice between piano lessons or horseback riding lessons. My mom thought Dyanne would be scared of the horses. Nothing could have been further from the truth. She immediately chose horseback riding lessons & has never looked back.

She competes at levels I just don't understand, but my Mom just told me the other day that she has enough points at her level to be first in the state this year. We all, of course, think she's a fantastic rider.

Just recently my mom sent through a bunch of photos taken at her latest competition. Dyanne participates in Eventing. I know that she does 2-phase & 3-phases & that there is a stadium jumping & cross-country portions. Knowing that I wanted to explain it better than that, I turned to Wikipedia. ::grin::

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Eventing is an equestrian event which comprises dressage, cross-country and show-jumping. This event has its roots as a comprehensive cavalry test requiring mastery of several types of riding. It has three main formats, the one day event (ODE), two day event and the three day event (3DE). It can also be called Militaire, Horse Trials, and Combined Training.

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Now I understand why some of her competitions are called "horse trials." The above links will also take you to each phase & explain it in more detail.

E-mail comment from my mom on the jump above (stone wall):

this jump, even though she seems to be smiling is not a good one. notice the stone wall with no ground pole on top of it. if the horse hits it he could go lame and the rider could be hurt. she did it anyway as she would. even at this level of eventing she does she still makes my heart race when these kinds of jumps come up. enjoy

I actually went with my mom & niece to New Hampshire one summer for a weekend. She was doing a class at UNH. Dyanne participates in Pony Club and she earns points through her competitions & moves up to different levels. At certain levels she can teach & charge so much for lessons. I know there is more to it than this, but that is my remedial understanding. Many times when my mom or niece are telling me about different horse-related things I just have to act like I have a clue. It's a whole different language. ;-)

While watching Dyanne do the stadium jumping class I really did have to close my eyes. OH MY! I don't typically get to watch her compete for real since the majority of competitions are on Sundays. A really unfortunate thing as I would love to see more of her competitions.