San Francisco with my new lens!!!

Tomatoes!

Peg's Recipe:

Boil for about 2 minutes, then strain them out into ice water.  Skin will begin to peel off.

Peet and quarter and push into clean jars filled with:
1 t salt
2 t sugar
2 t lemon juice

Fill to 1/4 inch from top with tomatoes in their own juices.  Wipe top of lid and put band on snuggly.


Boil in water bath for 45 minutes.  Doesn't need to be a rolling boil!

Talbot... Our Guard Dog!!

Sometimes you just can't help grabbing the camera and filming what you are seeing!

Summer Help!

Our Garden... Actually Growing!

Remember gardening as a kid?  Well, it seems like it was a lot more fun back then... probably because we didn't feel any responsibility for the fruits and vegetables actually growing.  They just did!  Miraculously we would harvest and eat!

Well, after last year, we were pretty discouraged.  To put it as positively as possible... we grew gourmet tomatoes!  That is, we grew two $50 tomatoes. They were good, but TWO!  That makes for some very expensive spaghetti sauce!  So, a very kind and generous man in our neighborhood got wind of our, well, not so successful garden, and he took pity on us.  We became his "project."  I've never been so grateful to be someone's "project!"  Now look at what has happened!  Thanks Jim!!!

One Bucket List Item Down... Many More to Go!! ISRAEL/JORDAN/EGYPT

Well, this year I actually fulfilled one of the biggest dreams I've had... we went to Israel!  It was, well, in one word life-altering.. ok, so that might be two words, but still you get the point! Here are just a few highlight scrapbook pages...

Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice (In August!!)

Is this heaven?  One of my favorite memories growing up in the San Joaquin Valley of California is the great big Orange along the highway.  Yes!  A great big orange shaped building.  Like a road stand, only  a bit more permanent.  Even in the winter, we would stop by on our way to northern California and get a huge glass of fresh squeezed orange juice in crushed ice.  It was "to die for!"

  

Now Daxton and Brecken have "got the bug."  We are the grateful recipients of fresh squeezed orange juice as often as I can get to Sams Club and buy a giant bag of oranges.  As soon as I get them home, they are, no sooner on the cabinet, than they are juiced and in a large milk container and in the refrigerator.  I have mine with the best ice.. the Taco Time ice... which is a whole other story!