Our Harvest was abundant this year.

We collected fresh pears, apples, raspberries and grapes from our garden.   Grape juice, wine, pumpkin puree, pickles and salsa in abundance.  50 meat chickens processed, 4 pigs still growing and meat lambs growing and getting ready.  It has been such a busy year this year.  My daughter has been busy in 4-H developing her animal training skills and sewing skills.  The summer was busy working the farm, harvesting, doing 4 H, karate camp, running track, homeschooling,  and being pregnant has not allowed me to devote any time to the blog.  I have a ton of great foods to share, DYI projects to share and some great homeschooling tidbits to write about as well.  But for now this is the new past a recap of the busy summer.  :P    We attended several festivals with the kids, taking them to different cultural experiences, Scottish fest, Indian Days, we went to a wolf preserve and my daughter was able to sit with a wolf pack and interact with them.  Camping, horse back riding.  What a great and busy summer.   Ready to slow down a bit and prepare the home to welcome our new baby.   More to come on that later!  Enjoy the pictures.

horseback riding and camping were on the to do list 

kids enjoying Scottish fest.  It's a Scottish thing. 

we finally caught the predator who killed over 50% of our chickens.  

B.  did such a great job this year running his first race. 

cross country races this summer, it was a family deal

Zabee's first cross country race.  Older sister running with him encouraging him to finish

Here are just a few pictures of some of the great times from our summer harvest and summer fun.

summer karate camp.  My kids are moving up in the art of TKD. and the younger ones are yearning to join the ranks. 

Nectar of the gods so they say.  Golden sweet honey goodness.  First harvest yielded about 7 pounds. 

making pumpkin puree.  Pumpkin shakes and pumpkin soup are among the favorites.  I will be posting how to make soon. 

Devine goodness.  Nothing like freshly grown watermelon right from the garden 

Our first honey harvest with my dad, the bee keeper.  This was his 22nd year. 

our 1st Organic grape harvest.  10 gallons of wine and several qt. of juice

4 H dog obedience.  What a great learning opportunity for DD.

DD. 1st sewing project.  She went to state fair.

our grapes turned out, but we had to fight rot due to the wet spring. More on that and how to do that organically later. 

our very first harvest. spinach. onion. strawberries

this was a homeschool lesson, identifying edible pl

Lemon

How do I love thee?  Let me count the ways!

1)  Just smells great
2) Anti-fungel
3) Add to vinegar and water for a better smelling all natural cleaner.
4) Up-lifting, invigorating, refreshing
5) Lemons = Vitamin C.  A great way to get antioxidents
6) Makes any water taste so much better
7) Love in my dishwasher, makes the dishwasher smell better AND removes the ugly hard water spots!

My families lemonade.  No this certainly wouldn't constitute as paleo, BUT, from time to time, if we are going to have a juice, I would most certainly rather make it from the juice of real fruit, then from a powdered concoction brew of artificial colors and flavors! :)  YUM!  I promise that under the paleo section, I will provide all kinds of great, tantalizing, mouthwatering, beggin' for more paleo munchies!  Since I am new to blogging, it will take me some time to fill this blog with the delectable dishes that our family is enjoying each and every day!

1 Cup organic raw sugar  (you can use other sweeteners, honey, maple syrup etc if you like)
1 Cup water
6-12 lemons  6 if big and 12 if small.

Method:  Make simple syrup by boiling sugar and water
Meanwhile, juice your lemons.  Add lemon juice to pitcher with ice and 5-10 drops of lemon essential oil.  Once the simple sugar is complete, pour into pitcher.  Add water until you get the taste that you want, weaker, stronger, it's up to you!
Variations:  Put frozen fruit (strawberries) halved into lemonade
                   Grade ginger and stir small amount into lemonade for a refreshing, detoxing concoction that is also good for your health!