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Two “home work” assignments completed today: 1. Help Mom freeze corn; 2. Bake bread.

Delicious sweet corn! Mom did the shucking and boiling, while I cut the kernels from the cobs. We froze it in four-quart zip-lock bags, ready to pull out next January for a little reminder of summertime.

Oh, the smell of homemade bread, just [...]

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It’s been awful dry up here for the last week or so. Mom had the sprinklers running all day Thursday, giving the thirsty vegetables and flowers a good soaking.

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Mmm… I’m thinking Sauerkraut!

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I moseyed around the yard after breakfast this morning and snapped a few photos of Mom’s beautiful flowers…

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Our strawberry plants are producing juicy sweet fruits by the bucketful! Just yesterday, we picked somewhere around six gallons. Washed, hulled, and frozen, they’ll sure come in handy this winter when we get a craving for a strawberry-banana smoothie or buttered toast with strawberry jam. For now, we’re relishing the luxury of fresh strawberries on [...]

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Nanking cherry blossoms
It’s amazing what two weeks of spring will bring! Things are growing like crazy now. Just this morning, Mom came in from the garden and announced that her beans were up. Oh, I can’t wait to be eating fresh fruits and vegetables from our own garden!

Tiny buds of lily-of-the-valley. Another few days should [...]

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Mom hung her baskets of young petunias (a Mother’s Day gift) outside today. It hasn’t taken those flowers long to become quite the local bird attraction…

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After allowing the honey several days to dry out (with the help of a portable electric heater), Dad decided it was time to begin the extraction process. Neither extraction nor bottling require a bee-tight jumpsuit, so the whole family is able to help out–not just Katelyn. Justin and Audra even came over and lent a [...]

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Now, tell me, who would be crazy enough to don a white jumpsuit, galoshes and veiled headgear, and mount an offensive campaign against tens of thousands of irate honey-bees — in the rain? Who but Dad and Katelyn, our intrepid amateur bee-keepers! My level of involvement consisted of documenting the battle on film — [...]

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