Thursday, July 28, 2011

Early training....

This is my little nephew, Jackson, just a bit over 1 1/2 yrs old. He is reading Field & Stream...we believe in training our children early...he already loves going for rides on the 4-wheeler with his papaw. He will ride with him as long as his papaw will take him. It won't be long until he is fishing and hunting.

I have to tell this cause I thought it was so cute. First I will tell you a little history. Jackson loves Santa Claus. He got all excited over the holidays if he saw him on television...if someone was on television with a white beard, he thought they were Santa Claus. And he would go around all day hollering for Santa Claus. His mom and dad had him out one morn a while back, as they were leaving some place, this guy with a beard got out of his car and went in a restaurant...Jackson looked and said "Santa." Well, here just the other day, he was playing with his little phone, pretending to talk on it, then handed it to his Mamaw and so she ask him who it was, and he said "Santa."
***********This is my juice I made today...I will probably put that pint in the fridge and drink it since it needed just a bit more in it. I didn't notice that when I canned it, but I was sort of hoping to have a reason to sample it.

You might wonder how tomatoes ties in with early training...well, I helped my mom can and freeze stuff as long as I can remember. And she taught me to love putting up food for the family. I think she enjoyed canning and putting stuff in the freezer as much as she enjoyed anything. That is some of my fondest memories from home...

Also, one year my older daughter bought a bunch of sweet corn, and she called me to see if I wanted to help. I forget how many dozen ears she got, but we had a regular assembly line going to get it blanched, cut off the cob, and frozen. I know we stopped sometime during doing it to have big bowls of tomatoes cut up....I cannot remember if we had them salted or with Italian dressing.
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When we took Lo to the creek the other day, it was like going down memory lane for Roger and me. We started taking the girls to the creek when they were young. Not quite as young as Lorelei....but still they were not real old. We would fish while they played...and sometimes they might fish a little bit...but most of the time they looked for crawdads, snakes, or anything else that moved...

I watched Lorelei and I just know she is going to love it every bit as much as they did. I am so glad to have been a part of introducing it to her.

12 comments:

  1. Jackson and the Field & Stream cracked me up. The juice looks yummy...I'm like that too about having a reason to sample things. I made some refrigerator pickles yesterday and can't wait to try them.

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  2. wonderful, wonderful story!!! family time is best.....

    that sure is a lot if tomato juice!! do you ever make homemade gravey/sauce??

    you better run.....santa's calling!!!

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  3. love the early training shot. :) and i used to help my mom can and freeze vegetables and make tomato sauce and apple sauce and rhubarb sauce... simpler days spent with my mom...

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  4. I enjoyed this post so very much. Lovely memories!

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  5. What a cutie pie! And, that tomato juice looks delish!

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  6. I am sure Lorelei will love to go fishing with you as I bet they would enjoy being with you just about anywhere.

    Gotta love a kid who's into reading Field & Stream at such a young age.

    The tomato juice looks delicious. Mmmm. How lucky you get to sample it. :))

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  7. OOPS! I meant I bet SHE (not they) would love being with you just about anywhere.

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  8. The tomato juice looks so good! Very interesting account of your early "canning" days and of taking Lorelei to the stream. I enjoy your nostalgic reminisces.

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  9. Great post! Your juice looks very inviting.

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  10. Man, I would love to taste that juice...fresh tomato juice, yum!!!! Our granddaughter used to think that Santa was Noah! Because all the drawings of Noah show him with a white beard!! Isn't it great to introduce our grandchildren to things we love??

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  11. You're an awesome influence. I also wish you were here to help me with the corn. I need to get that done soon - very soon. But it's just me and it's a lot of hot work.

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  12. Cute story and photo! I'm sure Lorelei will be a lot like you given the chance. Looks like you did well with the canning. Mom would can stuff all summer, but our help was in the form of picking, shucking, snapping, shelling, etc. I never had the urge to learn to do the canning. I have made pickles once or twice from her recipe, but not something I would want to do often....or again.

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