Garden prepping

We are so excited to start thinking about our garden for next year!  There's much work to be done as we have broken ground for a brand new garden space in a field.  Long ago (way before hubby's grandfather bought the property initially) this area used to be used for tomato farming.  Currently, it looks like a rock farm!  Grandpa (Eric's father) rototilled about a 100 x 100 foot space a few months ago, so the rocks were "ripe" and ready for picking!  We all got out there and picked up load after load and threw them in the little dump trailer.  Even Emma really enjoyed tossing rocks!

The best part, of course, was getting to ride in the Ranger to go dump each load!  Sometimes the big boys rode along, and other times they rode their dirt bikes along side.  

After we had picked up the majority of rocks, hubby rototilled again.

And then we ran around and picked up even more rocks!  Even Grandpa was out helping.  :)

When all was said and done, we stood back and enjoyed the view of our new garden space.  Dreams of row after row of scrumptious veggies danced in my head!  There's a lot of work to be done in the months ahead, but the reward will be worth it! 

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Serious Applesauce making!

After my first little dabble in applesauce making, I could barely wait to dive in deeper!   So off we went to a local farm.  While I would much prefer to buy totally organic, I settled this time for a farm that practices Integrated Pest Management.  They were referred to us by a local organic restaurant that trusts their practices.  Not my ideal, but I absolutely couldn't wait to try this!   While they didn't have the orchard open that day for picking from the trees, the kids still enjoyed picking out of the bins and filling up our boxes via their bags.  We ended up with four bushels of apples - three for us and one for my friend who was going to share in this experience.  :)

My father-in-law was kind enough to dig out the old galvanized tin buckets on stands from the barn for me.  I gave them a good washing and then filled them up with water and lots of apple cider vinegar for a nice bath for the apples.  The boys enjoyed agitating them.  They are good at agitating.  Lots of practice.  ;)

Next, we cut up the apples into about eighths and threw them into big pots.  The big boys helped with this step, too.

There's my bestie stirring up her brew.  :)

And then we ladled the soft apples into the mill to turn it into applesauce!  We tried two methods - the first was using an old food mill that my FIL got out for us.  It worked quite nicely - especially since one of the boys was the one cranking the handle!   The other option we used was an attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer - that certainly made things go quickly and I'm not sure I'd like to be without it for doing these large batches!

Here are the attachments I used:

   

We only made it through two bushels of apples.  I'm sure we'll get much better the more we do it!  :)

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Spur-of-the-moment Applesauce!

While looking through my fridge this morning I found a bag of pears that we had forgotten about.  They weren't bad, but they weren't pretty anymore - you know the type.  Basically, my kids were going to look at them and refuse to eat them as they were.  So, I thought I'd just cut them up and make a sauce of some sort out of them.  Well, my mother-in-law happened to be at our house that day and she offered to cut them up for me.  As she was cutting them up, I thought about the apples that were in the fridge and asked if she would mind doing some of those as well.  I got more and more excited about this, knowing that she had made applesauce before, and I decided to get a whole bag of apples out.  I used my apple peeler/corer/slicer and we ended up with a pot full of cut apples and pears.  :)

We added just about an inch of water to the pot and cooked them down for about 30 minutes.  When it was done, I put the apples into the VitaMix and blended them up.

Voila!  Easy peasy applesauce!  I am totally inspired to dive into this a little further!  I can't wait to go get some apples (in quantity!)!  What's funny is that I don't even like applesauce.  But my kids do, and I love knowing exactly what's going into it (as well as what's not!).  They loved it with some cinnamon sprinkled on top.   We use the Vietnamese Cinnamon from Frontier and love it - it's a great quality cinnamon!

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Homeschool at the beach!

I would be hard-pressed to declare my number one favorite reason to homeschool, but I can guarantee that right up at the top would have to be the ability to take our homeschooling anywhere!  How awesome is it to be able to hit the beach when the weather is still lovely, yet pay low-season rates because everyone else is back in school?!

That's what we did for a couple weeks in September this year (again).  And to make it even sweeter, we joined in with another homeschooling family (who we adore!) and had a grand old time!  It was so neat to see the kids jump right into their school work each morning to get it done so that they could have the day to themselves.  Sometimes they even got up before the grownups!

Beyond the normal curriculum, another thing that I love about homeschooling is the opportunities to learn things beyond textbooks.  Real life learning has proven to be so valuable for our children!  I am always amazed at the things that they retain and tell me about far beyond when we actually learned it.   Who knew that fishing could provide such a vast learning experience?

We had such a lot of fun on the fishing pier in Sandbridge.  The kids were so eager to learn so much, they were very good about talking to the "real" fishermen on the pier.  They asked them so many questions and learned so much about feeding habits, weather patterns, effects of hurricanes on the beach, fishing tips and techniques, fish species - the list goes on.  They even got to pet a shark that another fisherman had caught!  I had so many nice comments and compliments from tough looking fishermen!  ;)

Of course the kids got to enjoy all sorts of other beach/vacation fun, too.  Digging in the sand was a daily event - I've never seen such big holes in the beach!  Boogie boarding was another favorite.  But most of all, we all really enjoyed spending time with our friends.  Never mind that we had plenty of bedrooms to spread out a little, the kids loved piling in one room!  

Proudest mommy moment at the beach?  At family worship one night, the kids told us how they stayed up really late the night before (as if that were news to us! ha!) - it's what they were talking about all night that brought a tear to our eyes.  They were discussing heaven with each other - what it was going to be like and what their favorite things were going to be.  Those are the moments when you feel like maybe, just maybe, you're doing something right.  <3

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