Playing Catch Up - Part 1

Since it has been 4 weeks since I updated my blog....I've decided to do this in sections! This is a very busy time of year for us, as berries come into season, gardens are growing, and kids are being weaned.
We finally butchered the pot bellied pig. He was small enough to turn into a whole BBQ, and as a matter of fact he's on the grill right now.I need to learn how to scrape the pigs rather than skinning...but we were anxious to get this one done so we could bring the big pigs back home. We put the pink pigs out at a friends' house for a few weeks to root up their garden...when we brought them home it was so warm we got them a swimming pool to keep cool.
We also got the corned beef finished. Some went into the freezer....And some went into the smoker to become pastrami...One thing I've learned over the years is that if you spend enough time outside watching nature, you will see almost anything. This was certainly true this spring when we got to watch a hive of bees swarm! These bees live in a tree behind mom's house, and one warm afternoon they all came out of the tree, swarmed for a while....and then went back into the tree. I know nothing about bees so I have no idea why they did it...but it was neat to watch! There were thousands and thousands of bees...and the swarm lasted about an hour. Look closely between the trees and you can get an idea of how many there were! And with the warming weather came a whole bunch of berries! Rebekah and I worked feverishly for 2 days on strawberries. Don't they look yummy??

We made and canned strawberry pie filling, strawberry bbq sauce, and we've had tons of strawberry shortcake!