A Prickly Adventure

For years, I have looked at the lovely prickly pear fruits that come out on the cactus this time of year and thought, “Someday I need to learn to make jelly out of those…” So a few weeks ago, I decided that I’d just jump in and learn by experience!

I made myself an "expert" by reading about it on the internet. (Why it didn't occur to me to ask people that I knew make it, I'm not sure...) So after I picked up Dallin from school that Friday, we went out and picked a peck of prickly pears. We used heavy gloves and tongs of course – no prickles for us, thanks!

Then we took them home and burned all the prickles off with the gas stove. This took well over an hour, since we went a little crazy with the picking. Later, a friend of mine said that when they would make it, they’d use a weed burner before they picked them to burn off the pokies. Yeah, that would have made it easier…

Next, I put them all into my biggest pots and boiled them for about 15 minutes. Then you mash them like masked potatoes and strain the seeds and pulp and any possible stray prickles through cheesecloth. (Didn’t get any pics of the straining. Sorry…) After which I was left with about 18 cups of lovely prickly pear juice!

At this point, I had to take a break for about two weeks due to a round of Flu (we think it was probably the dreaded swine flu…) my son so lovingly brought home from school and shared with us…

But then it was time to make the jelly – and that was about the same as you would do to make any other jelly. Boil the juice with sugar and pectin, bottle it, and seal in a water bath. Voila! Lovely homemade prickly pear jelly! I hope this lovely story has inspired you to look in your own yards or areas and try some little crazy ideas yourselves!

Way to go, Parky!

My Uncle Parky (Orville Baird) is my dad's brother from his mother's first marriage. Her first husband died of heart failure when Parky was quite young. While he was out fishing one day he met a nice man named Herman and invited him home for dinner. Herman became my grandfather. Parky was about 10 when my dad was born. Dad remembers him as always being a "real AZ cowboy." A neat guy - an incredible artist, and a heck of a banjo player to boot. Sadly, with the real "cowboy" roughness came the smoking and drinking. When he'd finish one, he'd start another, and back again. This was his way of life until a year or so ago. Uncle Parky quit smoking - after 55+ years! And then last year, he quit drinking too. So imagine our delight when last Friday...


He recieved his endowments and he and his wife were sealed in the Snowflake Temple!


Don't ever give up on someone!! Dad knew that he always had a testimony. We always hoped and prayed - loving him just as he was all the while. Don't ever let someone tell you, "it's too late for me - you can't teach an old dog..." blah blah!! Uncle Parky will be 72 (!) on Sept 10th. I can assure you, if he can do it - anyone can!!


Parky in '05:




















Parky last Friday (next to Dad) with his wife, Sue, Uncle Myron and a Solomon cousin - with his wife:) - on the right













Just for fun - here's a video of Dad and Parky playing Tennessee Waltz in Oct '05 (some wind noise is in the background...)

Redecorating

So it was time to change the background again. I was tired of hearing from Randall and Dallin that they didn't like that our blog was pink. It still has flowers, but at I like them and I'm the one doing this blog, so there!:) Actually, I like that this one is a little easier on the eyes as well...:)

Summer Fun (ha ha)

So this year, I thought that summer would be a bit quieter than last since Randall wasn't going to be living part time in Safford, and we could stay here all summer long. That's what I get for thinking it out loud! It's been just as busy, and a little more so because of going down to Mesa with my dad every day. (For those of you reading this who are out of the know, Dad has prostate cancer and is having daily radiation treatments in Mesa. The prognosis is very good with the radiation, so it's more about the inconvenience of having to make the nearly two hour trip every day right now. We'll keep you posted on that account as well...) I haven't been taking him as often yet, but I hadn't realized how much I relied on my mom during summer months for being able to have time to do things like go to Curves to work out (especially with our new NO EXCEPTIONS no kid policy... grrr...), run to show an apartment, etc. Randall has also been having lots of truck issues - more on that in a different post soon - and I've had to help him with running to Phoenix to take it to the shops there, blah blah blah. Combine that with swimming lessons for both kids, and not much is working out like I thought. So needless to say, I haven't worked out properly for 6 weeks, the house is in an embarassing state, and we haven't had a home cooked meal more than twice a week since summer started! AWFUL! Is this how our mothers felt about summer when we were little?

Pioneer Pass Fire

So most of you know that there's been a fire burning on the Pinal Mtns in Pioneer Pass for the last 2 weeks or so. Last Monday, Randall and I took the kiddies out to Cutter Airport (the one across from the Casino) to see the Air Crane tankers they've been using to fight the fire. What a great time it turned out to be! We walked out along the fence just to look, and the guys invited us inside to come and tour the helicopters and all sorts of fun. Dallin got to sit in the cockpits of both copters (Sukorsky - sp?! - Air Cranes, former military choppers the 3rd largest in the world - HUGE), and the guys were great! We came home with stickers and pins and even a couple of hats! Thank you Firefighters!! (We also took out out new digital camcorder, but I haven't taken the time to learn how to pull the video off the camera yet, and most of it's on there. Maybe later... tee hee!)

I've been chastized...

By mostly myself, but also by Megan about how long my blog has gone neglected. (Thanks, Megan, I needed that!) Suffice it to say that the rest of the trip was just as fun and fantastic as the first three days, and it was great to come home!

In the meantime, we've had three birthdays, one spring break trip, one piano recital, three apartments come vacant, and plently of other stuff that I'll try to be better about catching up on. I'm back in the bloggosphere, hopefully to do a bit better than I have been!

Vacation Report: Day Three - Church & Sightseeing

Day Three started with getting ready for Church - almost as crazy as getting children ready for church is deciding how to coordinate four women sharing one bathroom. But we were ready in plenty of time, and attended a nice service. It was fast Sunday and many beautiful testimonies were born about Christ and His Church. There were a few interesting notes, however. The electricity went out in the middle of the service (apparently this is a frequent occurence on the island) so we opened the windows. I thought that actually made it a little cooler since the AC had been somewhat on the fritz. However, it did make for a somewhat distracting time. The branch is located on Church Hill, along with several other churches. Part way through Relief Society, a rather loud organ and band started playing. You could hear the preacher (think Black Preacher in long robes with the choir behind him...) shouting, "and Jesus said to them..." and the organ and band got louder. It was kinda fun. Tee Hee

After church and lunch we went for a little downtown sightseeing. We walked up the famous 99 steps of St. Thomas (built in 16 something) and counted 103. We saw Blackbeard's Castle (Pirates of the Caribbean happens in the Carribean... that didn't occur to me until we were there...) and other things. Then Kristin decided to take us out to a nice quiet spot to watch the sunset. We were in flip flops and sandals and the rocks were jagged at an angle. Made for sketchier climbing than we expected, but not too bad, just tricky. There was a lovely view of the ocean and sunset there. After that, home for a lovely home cooked dinner and then we looked at the pics we'd taken, plus several that Kristin had taken with her underwater camera. Very cool. Then bed, and up early again the next day. Stay tuned for a final Vacation Report : Days Three and Four - Pirates, Tents, Coral and Rays