Blueberries and Blue Birds

We’ve had a busy week and today we are heading to Wacissa Florida to pick Blueberries. It’s about 65 miles and is on our way to Tallahassee where we also have some errands. We’re getting the Blueberries from a U-pick place. You can pick a gallon of berries for $10.  Hopefully the prices haven’t gone up.  There are a couple places closer but these are the BEST Blueberries.  We eat all we can and then flash freeze them and them use my Vacuum Sealer to keep them.  That thing works great and the berries are good a year from now!  Blueberry pancakes for breakfast tomorrow!!

Yesterday we made 14 quarts of Jalapeno Mustard.  It’s sweet and just a little hot, although Al did make 3 quarts extremely hot!  We have a lot of people who look forward to getting some each year, so I made extra.  It’s good on sandwiches, hotdogs, as a dip, or just to have a bite!

Our other project was pickles.  Al had planted Dill and Cucumbers, but didn’t plant enough Cucumbers, so we had to head to the U-pick farm for them.  It’s $7 for a 5 gallon bucket.  We picked cucumbers, Jalapenos, green peppers, eggplant, and green beans.  We got two 5 gallon buckets of those, and also bought some fresh Vidalia onions and a wonderful cantaloupe.

We packed about 4 gallons of multi sized cucs in a 5 gallon bucket.  Layered in the fresh dill, garlic, pickling spices and cucumbers, then poured the vinegar mixture over the top.  You put a cloth on the top and in 2-3 weeks you can start eating the small pickles.  The larger ones take up to 5 weeks.  We actually sampled one small one and it was already getting a good flavor.  They have to be refrigerated afterwards, but I think I may try to “can” a few jars since I don’t have that much room in the frig.

Between all this, and of course trying to keep the grass all cut, we have been very busy.  I started the pasture again, which is about 5 acres.  It’s quite a job.

We have tons of new baby birds and nests.  Our 5 baby blue birds fledged and we are seeing them hanging around with the parents.  It’s quite amazing to see all 7 at one time.

There is a new nest starting where they hatched with one egg as of yesterday.  We have another nest box with 4 (I think) newly hatched Bluebirds and one most nest with 4 eggs.  We certainly have a lot of Bluebirds!

We have a nest on the front porch with 4 Carolina Wren eggs, and I have seen some newly fledged babies as well.  We call them “Nancy.”

We’re pretty sure Ike and Tina have a baby in a nest because we see them all over searching for food.  These are Brown Thrashers and they usually have 4 separate nests each season.  These are the birds that always nested in our arbor until a snake took up residence.  We haven’t found their new nest spot, but I feel sure they will use the same one all season unless something gets in it.

We have TONS of Cardinals, but we’re not sure where they nest, but probably in the woods.

We have a couple of foxes and the other day we heard what we thought may have been some youngsters playing.  It kind of sounded like a few puppies playing.

Spring and summer is busy here!

I have a lot of blooming flowers and I have taken some pictures.  Will post some later.