Strawberry Jam

My all time favorite jam is homemade Strawberry Jam. This weekend my grandpa bought a box full of Strawberry from a road side stand. We ate our fill of fresh Strawberries and I made Strawberry  Jam with the rest. I like to use Mrs. Wages Lite Fruit Pectin because I'm able to decide how much sugar I want to add. I use less sugar because then I'm to be able to taste the strawberries in my jam, not just sugar with a little strawberry flavor.

Less Sugar Strawberry Jam

5 cups Strawberries, washed, stemmed, and diced
1 1/2 cups Sugar
1 box Mrs. Wages Lite Fruit Pectin

1. Prepare home canning jars and lids according to manufacturer's instructions for sterilized jars. I put mine in the dishwasher. Make if you use the dishwasher, that the heat is on to dry. This will keep the jar warm.

2. Put measured fruit into a 6 or 8 quart saucepan.

3. Mash strawberries with a potato masher until they are very mashed and there is lots of juice. If your strawberries are too firm and don't release much juice add a 1/4 cup of water.

4. Stir in pectin and LET MIXTURE SIT 5-10 MINUTES. I set the timer for 10 mins. and got my sugar, lids and rings ready.

5. Then bring to a full boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Remember a full boil is when you stir the jam it stay at a full boil.

6. Add sugar. Return to a full boil and boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Don't overcook pectin as it may break down and prevent gelling.

7. Remove from heat (if using gas stove that means just turn off burner). Then skim off foam. Save foam for later to eat when cooled, Yum.

8. Quickly ladle into hot jars. Leave 1/4-inch head space. Use a clean damp cloth to wipe the top and threads of jars. Cover with hot lids and tighten rings firmly.

9. Set hot jars on rack in canner of boiling water. Water must cover jars by 1 or 2 inches. Cover canner and return to  boil. (200dF)  Boil for 5 mins. Begin time when water temp. reaches 200d.

10.Remove canner form heat,(again gas stove turn off burner) remove lid and let jars sit 5 minutes in canner. Remove jars from canner, set on a cutting board covered by a clean towel.

11. Listen for the POP as the jars seal. If a jar doesn't seal eat that one first.

What is your favorite homemade jam?

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Homesteaders reuse and re-purpose

If you are a homesteader or striving for self-reliance or just plain frugal you reuse and re-purpose. I'm not always good about reusing or re-purposing everything but here are a few from around my home.

Chest

This is an old blanket chest or hope chest. I wasn't using it in the house, so I re-purposed it as a planter for my Lovage, Parsley, and Chives.

Used Bricks

We have a bunch of used red brick around the house. Among other things I like to use it in the garden for bed borders. 

Damaged Water Bath Canners

I pick these up usually in the free piles at garage sales. The small ones work great for growing peppers and the big ones are great for tomatoes. In my area I have to grow pepper and most tomatoes in my little greenhouse.

Grass Clippings

My favorite mulch is grass chippings. I have used it for many years in my garden and between rows. It is easy to come by and works well at keeping weeds at bay. Not to mention it adds nutrients to the soil.

Tattler Lids

This is a reusable item. With all the canning I do each year I love using these reusable tattler lids. I have used them for several years and had very good luck with them.

What are your favorite things to reuse or re-purposed?

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Day 21

Rock Springs to Yellowstone
The drive through Bridger-Teton National Forest was beautiful. We stopped at Hoback Campground to check it out.

Bailey is tickling Hunter trying to make him smile, instead  she was laughing so hard.

We drove Hwy 191 through Grand Teton Nation Park. It was so beautiful I can't wait to come back to spend more time in the area.

Now were are in Yellowstone at Grant Village.

 At water fall on the road to Grant Village Campground.

Our camp site.

Not sure where our next stop will be. Most likely home.

Day 19 and 20

Day 19

Texas to Colorado

It was still pretty warm when we got up a 6:30 this morning. We were only a few miles from the Oklahoma boarder. We decided to take Hwy 177 which paralleled I-35, we did this so we wouldn’t have to go through Oklahoma City. We made the right choice. Oklahoma country side is beautiful and we see saw some really neat old towns. Then we crossed over into Kansas and everything went to hell. First off, it was soooo hot, 109, it felt like we were in hell. Second Kansas is miles and miles on nothing special.  Third we drove into a MASSIVE storm. The radio was giving storm updates saying flash floods and ping pong size hail. We could see LOTS of lightning and really black clouds. Then the radio said between Colby and Goodland, which was where we were headed, there was flash flooding and 60 mile hour winds. We decided to pull off in Colby have dinner and wait out the storm. We waited about an hour and it looked like the direction we were headed was clear of dark clouds and lightning. The storm was still raging beside us as we drove. I had never seen lightning that was nonstop flashing with no thunder. We thought we were doing good driving toward bright nonthreating clouds. Then….. our road turned and we drove straight into the storm! There were lightning bolts striking all around us, rain coming down so hard our wipers could hardly keep up, and wind blowing so hard cars were pulling off the road everywhere. We even saw a big construction sign that have the lit arrow flipped upside down. When it got really bad we pulled over near an overpass for a few minutes.  Then we continued on, once we drove out of the storm, we decided we had enough of Kansas. We drove until we came to the first truck stop in Burlington, Colorado.  I have no desire to ever go back to Kansas! Next stop Rock Springs, Wy.

 

Day 20

Colorado to Wyoming

Today was just a day of driving. No major events, just lots and lots of rocks, grass, cows, and trains. We were all so happy to have weather in the 80's. It even cooled down this evening to 60 something. It felt really good. We stayed at a KOA in Rock Springs, Wy. Not a very good place and their internet wouldn't work most of the time.

 

Next stop Yellowstone.

Day 17 and 18

Day 17
Sebring, FL to Fontainebleau State Park, Louisiana.
Wow Florida is a long state. It took us for ever to get out of it. I was so happy when we crossed over into Alabama that I yelled "we're in Alabama!" which started Hunter awake, oops :) The neat part about driving through Alabama was going under Mobile. Yes I said under, we drove in a tunnel that goes under part of Mobile. I also saw an alligator swimming in Mobile Bay. It didn't take us long to get through Alabama and Mississippi. We saw a sign in Mississippi that said it was 100 degrees, it was 6:45 at night! We stayed at Fontainebleau State Park in Louisiana. The park is on Lake Pontchartrain and across the way we could see New Orleans.

Fontainebleau State Park 

Lake Pontchartrain 

New Orleans in the distance.

Day 18
Louisiana to Eisenhower State Park, TX
At 6:00 this morning it was already 80 degrees. I wouldn't mind coming back to Louisiana but I think winter would be a better time to go. Louisiana and the Northeast part of Texas is pretty not what I expected. Especially Texas it was green with many trees. Oh it was hot! We stayed at Eisenhower State Park. The main road to the park was closed because it was washed out during thee floods a few months ago. So we had to take Lil Old Road, which was a little old road. The park was huge ,190 site, but there was probably only a dozen people there. I think it was because of the flooding the boat launch, fishing area, and yacht club were all closed. We found a nice site with power, air conditioning was a must.

This is the turtle we saw crossing Lil Old Road.

Next stop Goodland, Kansas.



Day 15 and 16

Day15 and 2nd day in the Florida Keys.
We stayed at Curry Hammock State Park on Marathon.

 

 

We stopped along the road a bought each of the kids a coconut for 50 cents. Here is Bailey working on hers.

Curry Hammock was our favorite place to snorkel because there were no people, lots of fish and other things to see.

Beautiful sandy beach.

 

 These baby shrimp are all waiting for the tide to come back up and take them back out into the water.

 Some of the interesting creatures we saw.

 

These little thing made mazes in the rock.

 

Day 16

We got up around 7am and headed north for Grandma's house. We will send the night with her and then get up early tomorrow and head to Louisiana. 

 

Day 14

We made it to the Keys!
Our campground is on Key Largo at John Pennekamp State Park and it is beautiful.

 

The drive down was pretty good until we got almost to the Keys and then it was stop and go until Key Largo. We were able to check in early to our campsite. It was after noon so we ate some lunch, then change into our swim suits, grab our snorkeling gear and we were off. The first place we went snorkeling it took us a little while to find the fish. Hunter and Bailey did great swimming. It took Bailey a little while to get use to breathing through her mouth only but she figured it out. We snorkeled for an hour or so then went back to camp to look at the map to find the other swimming/snorkeling area. Then we were off again for several more hours. We all had a great time. The park closes to the general public around 8:30 pm so we decided to go for a walk and take pictures. It was so peaceful and quiet. Wow what a great day.

 

This is one of the places we snorkeled at, it had the most fish. The fish weren't as colorful as Hawaii or St. Thomas but they were still neat to see and watch. There were huge jelly fish you had to watch out for, if you disturbed them in any way they would release something in the water, which made your skin itch and burn.    
 

 On our walk we found a playground, I guess the kids aren't too old to play.

 

 

The Florida Keys is beautiful day and night. Tomorrow we move to Curry Hammock State Park on the island of Marathon.