It’s Summer!

I wish we were doing more this year in terms of beekeeping and gardening, but this year we chose to take on less and enjoy what we have going on at the present time. It wasn’t exactly a strategic move on our part, it was part out of necessity and part by accident. Either way, while I really wish that I had something new to report… I’m liking that I actually have free moments to spend with the kids, the goats, and some good books rather than a shovel and a post hole digger. We’ll probably get a late season garden going at some point, but for now… it’s SUMMER! Let’s make merry and be happy with what there already is.

We went strawberry picking last week. We’ve put up some jam and worked on dehydrating a lot of them. Like… a lot. No, I don’t think you understand –  A LOT. We picked over 35 pounds of strawberries, and since we limit how much sugar we eat we don’t use that much jam any more. Ergo, most of it went into the dehydrator. All of them had to be hulled and washed before doing so, and it took some 10 hours in the dehydrator. They turned out so well that we’ve plowed through virtually all of them. All those hours of work for roughly 2.5 snack times with the kids. They were great, but I don’t know that we’ll be doing them again. I think that I’ll try it with blueberries after we pick in July, but not for snacking – they’ll be good for freezing and using in Muesli.

We have a grand total of 2 apples and 1 cherry growing on our 14 fruit trees. And I don’t think the cherry is there anymore, because I haven’t been able to find it lately. We’re only 2 years into the 2-7 years that it can take for the trees to bear fruit so…. yeah. Not exactly defeating, but not really encouraging to see all these fruit trees and not even have enough for a snack. Still, there WILL be a time when we aren’t picking somebody else’s fruit to dehydrate. With 14 trees I imagine that there will come a day where we’re calling over our family and all our neighbors to please, for the love all that is good, come pick us out. When I get on here to complain about not knowing what to do with 79 bushels of apples I will be sure to reference this post if you’re all still on here reading.

Lastly, the kids have had quite a week. This week included a trip to the zoo (where there’s a dinosaur theme this summer!) and Luke and Daniel had their respective ‘parent shows’ at the gymnastics center. While all three boys started in gymnastics a few years ago Gabe has since decided that he wants to venture into other sports, but Luke and Daniel both still enjoy it. Gabe had a good week on his own; he finished weaving a baby blanket for the upcoming addition.