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.

Fresh from the garden....

These are sitting in my kitchen...waiting for my attention. I am thinking some tomato juice will be made some time tomorrow. There is nothing better than home canned tomato juice.

They make me think of summer days and coming in with a load of stuff from the garden, and taking time to grab a tomato and a shaker of salt and sitting on the edge of the porch to eat till the juice would not drip all over the place. All winter long I have been waiting for them...we have been having them for a week or two now and I still am not tired of them. And I have not ventured beyond having them with salt or on a sandwich...but look plan to have some soaked in Italian dressing one of these days.

I also love to cut up other vegetables along with the tomateos and pour enough Italian dressing over it all and let it soak...my favorites are cucumbers, bell peppers, cauliflower, onions. I feel like I am forgetting something but can't think what....

Date with Lorelei = photo overload

All the following photos will enlarge if clicked.
For ages and ages we have wanted to take Lorelei to the creek to play...
this afternoon we met our daughter in Bainbridge, put the car seat in our Rav4 and transferred the things they brought...we think it was a big hit....she waded with her mommy and papaw
she threw rocks and splashed.....
she played with her buckets
and sprinkling can
and had the best time.
I bet we will be doing this again...but I hope we can go when it is cooler. There were places to get in the shade but if not in the shade it was just too hot for me.