On 5/20/2015 1:05 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
songbird wrote:
Terry Coombs wrote:

We just finished the first (of several , we hope) batch of
strawberry jam from our garden , and it's so good it'll make you
slap your Mama .

it is wonderful stuff for sure, especially in the
late winter and early spring.


The stinkin' rain here has things so wet that any berry that
touches the ground gets waterlogged and ruined if I let it ripen
completely . There's a learning curve on when to pick , hopefully I
have it down now . We probably lost a quart or two of berries
because I waited for them to be dead ripe .

they are edible quite early, i've picked and eaten them
from early stage when they are just going from green to
white. obviously they are not as good as fully ripened,
but they're still edible.

we had a frost warning for last night, but i think it was
warm and windy enough. good thing as i wasn't able to get
out and cover the berries.

today is blue, sunny and perfect, i started the gardening
chores watering the sprouts, the garlic and the strawberries as
we've not had much rain at all (an inch in the past several
weeks). on the radar there's a big storm out there heading our
ways, but that doesn't mean we'll get a drop from it. i don't
believe it until i see it hit the ground...

been doing "projects" the past few days. while Ma is away.
one has been needing to be done for several years now, so i'm
glad that is done and the sink and faucet look much nicer and
don't leak. hope Ma likes it. white is not a common finish
these days at the hardware stores or big box places. when she
was leaving she was trying to get me to do some other projects
and i told her i'd put them on the list but that i had other
plans. she was kinda peeved, but now she'll get it. i hope.

the clothes rack i'll finish up in a few hours when i can
do the second coat of varnish. the handrail project will
have to wait until tomorrow or ...

right now is a good time for a short nap.


songbird

Here's a link to my current project . Gotta get it finished so I can mow
some areas to plant my bee-friendly seeds .
http://s991.photobucket.com/user/Sna...?sort=3&page=1

Dang! Did you salvage that or just wear it out? We could be good
friends, I repair, repaint, do what I can to keep equipment working
until it is absolutely no good for anything. I've got "stuff" around
here that's still working that I bought or scavenged fifty years ago.
Cleaned up an old fishing reel the other day and made it work again that
I bought in 1962, still flings a lure and rewinds nicely.

I pulled out my great grandfather's homemade galvanized steel tool box
the other day and sharpened bits, oiled or greased everything in there
and put them back in the box until I need them. He was a blacksmith so
much of the tools he made by hand. He was also a sawyer, ran his own
sawmill, logged the old growth trees on his homestead, homesteaded in
1866 in Central Louisiana, made cross ties by hand for the railroad.
Whatever it took to keep a very large family going.

I hit a few flea markets or farm sales when I can. Several years ago I
hit a church sale and bought over 200 fruit jars for a nickel a piece.
Still using some of them.

Waste not, want not was the family motto.

Good going Terry.