The Jam Experience

I've been wanting to make strawberry jam for a couple of years now but I never was ambitious enough to try it. Partially because my Grandma Murdock makes AMAZING strawberry jam and I didn't think I'd be able to make it taste like she does...and I proved myself right! I followed the steps just right, measuring everything exactly, stirring it at all the right times and things were going well until it came time to stir in the sugar. I gradually stirred in the sugar into the fruit mixture just as the recipe stated. And I stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred.... something just wasn't right. I knew jam had quite a bit of sugar in it but this was ridiculous for the amount of fruit I was mixing with it.Well I continued to stir the stuff until my arm could no longer move and it wasn't making any difference. I had been reading and rereading the recipe over and over trying to figure out what went wrong and I had finally come to the conclusion that I just didn't have the "love" Grandma Murdock has to make the perfect strawberry jam:( Then I looked at the recipe one more time and suddenly realized I had been following the recipe for Strawberry-Rasberry jam instead of just Strawberry jam... and because of this I had only put in HALF the amount of strawberries that I needed to! So I quickly called my mom for advice hoping that not all was lost and we decided the only thing I could do was add the rest of the strawberries that needed to be in there. So after a frantic trip to Walmart for strawberries and more jars (since now I'd have way more jam than I was planning on!) I was able to finish the jam. No it doesn't look or taste like Grandma Murdock's and it didn't quite set up all the way but it's done and in the freezer and I'm chalking this one up as a learning experience! PS if anyone wants some runny jam please let me know... we have A LOT!! (it's really not that bad, especially if you don't have Grandma's jam to compare it to:) )



On another note: I discovered this nest in my hanging flower basket the other day and don't know what to do about it. I feel bad taking it out but it makes it rather difficult to water the flowers with it in there. (notice the water I poured in the nest before I realized it was there!) Anyways, would I be terribly cold hearted if I took out? Do you think the bird would be okay with me just watering around it? What should I do?!

And the Redneck award goes to...

JAKE!


Jake decided it would be fun to try out a new look...what do you think!?
Don't worry he shaved it off after I laughed hysterically and told him I wouldn't go out in public with him if he didn't! And the same day as the above picture I found him outside with the tiller rigged up to his four wheeler. You should have seen all the "double takes" people driving by were making. Our neighbor even came over and and told him that he wins the neighborhood redneck award!