Ants Vs. Grasshoppers

My brother planted grapes and while I was in Walcott the grapes ripened.  I offered to bring them home and turn them into jelly.  I am not sure what I was thinking other than I would hate for them to go to waste.  However while I was gone Greg had picked more cucumbers and they were waiting for me when I arrived.  I also had corn ready to harvest.  All I really wanted to do was to sit down and read a good book and ignore everything else.  It was in the triple digits outside and relaxing seemed like the smart thing to do.  I then remembered the story of the Ants and the Grasshoppers.  I figured that I could have a couple of days of being and ant and then I could be a grasshopper.  We got home on a Monday and that night, I made 14 pints of dill pickles.  Tuesday I took off because of appointments and the need to buy the appropriate supplies to make jelly.  On Wednesday morning Greg called me as I making breakfast and indicated that I needed to check the garden because it had been over a week since he had.  Well that resulted in enough cucumbers to make more pickles, though I decided not to because I had plenty, four tomatoes, and nearly three dozen ears of corn. (much more corn to come).  This is on top of the grapes I knew I needed to juice so I could make jelly.  The thought of being a lazy grasshopper quickly left my mind and I got to work.  The cucumbers will taste good just being eaten, and I was able to get six quarts of corn for the freezer that will taste wonderful this winter.  I got the grapes juiced and was able to get 38 half-pints of jelly out of them.

They do look good and I am sure will taste good as well.  It is always a nice feeling though when I am done being and ant and can sit down and be a grasshopper.  Although maybe I am still being a ant because they had fun after their work was done.

Week at Grandmas

This past week I took the kids to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Walcott.  We go for about a week every summer.  The kids really enjoy spending time with them as well as Uncle Eric and Aunt Bobbi.  They swim almost everyday, the exception is Sunday.  During this visit we went to the Putnam Museum.  They  had a great display of dinosaurs.  They were motion activated and they moved and made noises.  The kids really enjoyed the exhibit.  They learned about the dinosaurs, dug for bones and measured themselves against a dinosaur.

 This is part of a coral reef that is totally crocheted.  It was in a part of the museum that was mostly hands on.  The museum did a great job of having hands on things for younger kids as well as the look at the artifacts and learn from reading for the older kids and adults.  It was a great mix to be of interest to all sorts of people.

 This is a submarine that the kids enjoyed playing in.  Andrew enjoyed looking out the end of the sub.

While there we were able to celebrate Walcott days.  On Friday there was a very good fireworks show that was very loud and bright.  On Saturday there was a parade with lots of candy gathering. It was a rather hot morning and the kids got really tired of waiting for the parade to start.

 The parade started with a parade of fire trucks from all the surrounding communities.

They really enjoy the week they spend in Walcott.

Pickles

The canning season has officially began at our house.  I have frozen the peas I got out of the garden over the last week.  Today I started canning.  I had cucumbers and decided to make them into pickles.  In the past my slicing has been uneven and some pickles turned out fat and some thin.  Not to mention how time consuming it is.  This year I made very thin pickles by using my mandolin. They are nice and thin and uniform.  I was able to get fifteen pints of dill pickles.  I always enjoy how good freshly canned produce looks.

 They are going to taste great on sandwiches this fall and winter.

The Harvest Has Begun

I have finally been able to start harvesting the garden.  I have been able to get peas and cucumbers.  Today I was able to get my first tomato.  It is small but I am sure it will taste good.  So far I have harvested peas three times with today probably being the last time.  I have also harvested twelve cucumbers.  I guess it is time to start making pickles. This is the first set of peas.  There was enough to fill a smack sized ziplock bag.  They will taste good in stew or something this winter.

 Here is the second set of peas.  Again I only had enough to fill a snack sized bag.

 Today I was able to get enough to fill three snack sized bags.  They are all in the freezer waiting for the right recipe to use them.  I always feel really good when I am able to put up fresh vegetables to be used in the winter.

Chicago Day Three

On day three we once again rode the train into downtown.  This time we went further into downtown to museum campus.  Here we were able to take the kids and show them the lake.  There were lots of people out with their sailboats and the kids had fun seeing them out on the water.  We then went to the Field Museum.  Jonathan was so excited to get to see Sue the T-Rex because he had learned about her at school.  He had read a book about her.

 We did the underground adventure.  Here you get to experience the underground world as if you about a half an inch tall. It was interesting to see how big some of the bugs and things are when you are that small.  Even a penny is really big when you are that small.

Andrew really did not like the Field Museum.  He just isn't ready for a museum where you can only look at things and you have to read everything to understand about it.  There is however an area for children six and under so I took him there to explore.  He got to crawl through a log, dig for dinosaur bones and play with different puppets.  There was also a place to make music but he didn't want to go in there because there was a lot of kids in it.  He learned about life in a pueblo and grinding corn.  He just got to be a kid and have fun.

Everyone was really tired after two long days of being walking.  We were ready to head for home.

Chicago Day One and Two

This year for vacation we decided we would do two smaller trips instead of one big one.  For the first trip we went to Chicago.  On the first day we just traveled and went took the kids to see the temple.  We were going to walk around the temple grounds, but with temperatures over 100 we decided not to.  The second day we went to the Museum of Science and Industry.  We were staying in a hotel out in Tinley Park so we rode the train into downtown.  It was so nice to be able to relax and not worry about tolls and traffic.  The kids were really excited to ride a train and thought it was a great way to travel.  While at the museum we did the coal mine tour.  The kids thought it was pretty cool to see what a coal mine looked like.  They each enjoyed different things at the museum.  Andrew wanted to see the trains, Madison wanted to see Colleens castle and Jonathan really liked the submarine.  Of course there was plenty to see between these exhibits.  I think you could spend several days in that museum and still not see everything there is to see.

 Here are the happy faces as we leave on vacation.  We were lucky enough to have headphone jacks for the movies so Greg and I didn't have to listen to them the whole time.  The kids have lap trays and many toys to keep them happy on the long trip.