Defeated

I have given up on the canning for now, I guess my freezer will have to remain full of blueberries and I will start adding tomatoes until I run out of room : )

I went to Walmart this morning and bought a canning pot, jar rack, jars, and all the utensils I need. When I got home I read the instructions and found I couldn't use the pot on my glass top stove. But reading a canning website I found I discovered that propane stoves actually work better then kitchen stoves. I have a propane burner on our grill- the pot exceeds the weight limit!

We have 2 camp stoves. One is single burner that sits on top of the propane canister- I don't think that will work. The other is a dual burner and should work. However, there is no fuel for it, I can't find the directions for it, and I am not sure when the last time we used it was.

I am hoping the next time my in laws come my FIL can help me figure out a way to do this.

Off to peel and freeze tomatoes and sort and freeze the blueberries.

Blueberries

While my in laws were watching our house my mother in law picked and froze blueberries from our yard. When I moved in I had 6 gallon size freezer bags of blueberries in my freezer. The last few days the kids have gone out daily and picked about 1/2 a cup of blueberries a day. Yesterday morning I picked 8 cups of blueberries. Today I made 10 1/2 pints of blueberry preserves. I was looking up recipes for blueberry syrup when one of our new neighbors stopped by with a welcome gift- a gallon bag of fresh blueberries! I really do appreciate the effort that went into picking them but...



Tomorrow I am going to buy some canning supplies and make blueberry syrup. Pics of the new digs coming as soon as I dig far enough out from under the blueberries to finish organizing the house!

Another Long Overdue Update

We bought a house is Pensacola over spring break and closed the end of May. W and his dad went in after close and put in new floors and painted. W's parents have been staying at our house on and off since then maintaining the yard and making sure the house is occupied.



We (the kids and I) finally moved in last week, after finishing dance (G auditioned and was chosen for the company at a dance studio here), karate (E is a black belt now), and finishing out the baseball season. W will join us permanently at the end of Aug after he trains his replacement in Memphis.



Our new home is a 4 bedroom ranch, with a Florida room, on a one acre lot. Our lot backs to 500 acres of paper company land with a discharge stream running through it. We found out after close that the paper company is going to build an underground pipeline through there that will carry water waste out to the bay. Mostly though it is just unused forested land!



The man who lived here was an avid gardener. We have scuppernongs, blueberries, and figs plus before he moved he planted pole beans, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and squash. In addition there are magnolia trees, crape myrtle, tons of begonias, and a hibiscus and lots of stuff I can't identify. The only thing missing is a pool.