Plum Canning Extravaganza

This past week my mom called me up and said she and my sister had acquired a "couple buckets" of plums. She asked if I had any idea what to do with them. My suggestion was to make plum jam. I was thinking a couple of small buckets would make 2 or 3 batches and to allocate four hours to do so.

Well, two buckets was approximately 500 plums...

My family motto: Never do anything small.

It was a lot of hard work but also a great time with my family. T Rex Dad was in charge of T Rex wrangling and making grocery store runs for more and more pectin and more and more sugar - yes, he did take T Rex with him (only one major melt down on the first grocery store run).

My mom's hands - she wore the peeler out!

The assembly line...

From right to left: my mom and brother-in-law peeling plums, and my sister chopping. I was in charge of all aspects of cooking (trust me, I was the lucky one). I had all 5 burners on the stove going for eight hours straight. Any guesses what my gas bill is going to be?

So after peeling and pitting 500 plums, 30 lbs of sugar, 56 jars, and 8 hours later we finished the 8th batch of jam!

Let's see that finished product again...

My mother-in-law is getting some huckleberries next trip up north so that's next on the canning project list.

What did you do this weekend?

A Few Random Thoughts (T Rex Pants, Pregnancy, & School)

Since we won't find out for another week or so what the gender of Baby 2.0 is, I'm trying to get pants made for T Rex to wear this fall. (Because if 2.0 is a girl I know I'll be sewing overtime to make "girly" outfits!)

Here are the pants I made. The blue ones with stars are my favorite - I like the red contrasting thread. He already has a couple pairs of the striped ones that he's nearly worn out. I replaced the elastic in the one pair twice. But they are our favorite so I had to make more.

(If you click on the photo you will get a better look at the prints.)

T Rex Dad and I were both a little tearful when we saw how large these pants seem. He's just growing up so fast!

I also started fall semester for school. Taking a pharmacotherapeutics class and nursing theory. I pretty much slept through my undergrad pharma class because it was at the end of the day after 48 hours of clinical rotations for the week. I cannot believe I still got an A in that class. I think the professor pitied me because she had me for two of those clinical days at the VA hospital - and that was quite the experience! But after working for a drug company for 3 years I grew to LOVE pharma and am really enjoying the class. We will learn how to prescribe drugs for our patients - very overwhelming to consider doing that. The theory class - well, I don't think there is any hope of that not being boring but I'm going to give it a whirl!

(Yes, more energy, less vomiting - but not entirely stopped, and I've actually gained a couple pounds. 20 week ultrasound next week - getting lots of kicks too. It's amazing to me how entirely different this pregnancy experience is from my first. Anyone else experience this?)

Wordful Wednesday - 4H Fun

This past weekend our equine daughter and her charming rider rode at the fair. They've been riding together for two years. The fair is the culmination of the year's 4H project. They worked extremely hard this year and won too many ribbons to even list in this posting.

Here are a few photos taken at the fair during their Western riding class. They took second in this particular class.

FYI - BlackBerry is twice the age of her rider! Not a bad "lope" for an old gal!

Here is BlackBerry at her new home. She will be staying with my sister-in-law for a while. Taking a break from giving lessons and stable life. Especially since I am out of commission from riding for a while.

Congratulations to BlackBerry's rider for all her efforts to end the year so successfully. And thank you for all you've done for our special equine daughter. I've never seen her look so good!

For more Wordful Wednesday fun visit:

Profile Pics

T Rex Mom...

18 weeks (smaller this time - so far only 1 lb weight gain)

T Rex

21 Months

What Does This Mean?

Do I talk on the phone too much???

(Very short video - about 13 seconds)

T Rex loves to call his Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, and "Nan" but as soon as they talk to him he gets star struck and won't talk back!

A Little Bit of Heaven...

We had T Rex's friend Joseph over for the afternoon/evening. The boys had so much fun together. I wish I had taken videos of their peek-a-boo session or bath together but they are so busy these days it's tough capture those moments on camera.

However, after they were bathed and clean from their adventures, we all snuggled up together to watch a "show" as T Rex says or "moo-vie" as Joseph says. Regardless, it was heaven being sandwiched between the two cutest little toddlers! If you've never had this experience, you need to give it a try - it truly is heaven on earth!

Seriously, heaven...

Wordful Wednesday - Humming Bird Friends...

The long awaited humming bird photos...

Our feeder has been Grand Central Station lately - or at least for the past month and a half. And since all the neighbors have feeders hanging off their back fences like us, it has become Hummingbird Lane!

Morning feeding...


Evening feeding...

For two weeks we had one male who dominated the feeder and only allowed 1 or 2 other females access. During this time the feeder went from needing to be filled every other day to a filling every 5 - 6 days. He would just camp out on the fence and attack anyone intruding on his feeder.

He would perch all day to ensure only those deemed "worthy" used the feeder.

Ariel "bird fighting" - experienced advice - don't get in the way!

In the past two days he has disappeared and a new hummer has taken over and is much more liberal with who she lets use the feeder. And we are back to filling every other day. I'm not sure what happened to him but he may have finally met his match or moved onto dominating another feeder.

Our new dominant hummer...

And last, but certainly not least, my favorite bird watching companion...

For more Wordful Wednesday fun, visit: