Canning Time....

It's that time of year - the garden is producing more veggies than we can eat or give away (hint hint family and friends come over here and pick pick pick)

it all started with some strawberry jam at my mom's (can't take credit for all these jars - Linda and my mom did most of them.... they use the recipe here on the Sure Jell box

One day of picking from the garden - yikes so I called Christine and we got to work - had to go to my mom's as my power line was down in my driveway... (don't ask how I got out)

here's our finished products - all from the garden how beautiful (July 20th)

Cole and Lexi even stopped by to make some pickled banana peppers that they grew

 This weekend (July 28th) there were more veggies including some ripe red tomatoes

 So Bill picked and I canned

 Blackberry's in Chambord 

Tomato Jam from Food in Jars website 

Bread and Butter pickles from Ball Bread and Butter Pickle Packet 

 and some bread and butter banana and jalapeno peppers from the same Ball packet

 22 Beautiful Jars - all from the garden :-)

The Garden 2013

Hey Blog Readers, Bill and I decided to retire from flower gardening like we did at 10th street and instead plant a garden... its big enough to feed the neighborhood so if you need veggies just stop by.  We started most everything from seed in a little pop up greenhouse we bought and as you can see things continue to grow and grow...

 A turtle who stopped by just before planting to lay some eggs....

Yes that's me - taking a break from all the weeding - the garden is organic so there's a ton of weeds... 

Solar powered fence to keep out the deer 

me in the tomato patch - they are over my head now 

for those of you who have been here before - check it out you can see the meadow from the yard after much landscaping... 

Not the garden but some nice landscaping improvements at FLW

Ireland = Done

Hey Blog readers - as many of you know Ireland (and Fremont California) have been my homes away from home over the past 2 years.  For those of you who were wondering what I was doing flying around the country - here are some highlights.

This is a something my team and I have been working on since the end of 2010.  The project was to integrate a newly acquired company which included 3 manufacturing sites and over 1100 employees into our organization.  After hours of planning and more conference calls, meetings and post it notes than I can ever imagine we are finished and are manufacturing product in all 3 sites with Cork being the final phase that just completed.

This part of the company we acquired manufactures coils which are used for the treatment of brain aneurysms.

For those of you who think I'm just in the pub drinking Jameson - here's some proof of real work happening.

 Here's the employees in the brand new cork facility on their first day of work

The team getting ready to prep the cleanroom after the building was handed over

 Me in the cleanroom in Cork Ireland

 The team - deploying systems to get ready for day 1 after 2 years of planning for this moment

 day 1 - me at one of the command centers

Really happy to have this project completed - very proud of the team for what they accomplished and looking forward to staying off of a plane for awhile.

Mile Marker 0

 This winter I finally convinced Bill to go on a real vacation - he picked the Florida Keys so off we went to Cudjoe Key which is @ Mile Marker 22.  

The Keys have iguana's everywhere - this is a Key Deer - they are super small and they are not very shy as you can see.  

 We rented a house complete with pool and fishing right off the sea wall

Just a few of our many fish friends...

 Mallory square was great at night - during the days we fished right here were Blue is juggling fire on top of a huge unicycle - crazy... even crazier we met this guy at our house and talked with him.... 

 There are old bridges and roads everywhere that people fish from... the scenery is beautiful

 Tarpon were in season...

 For some odd reason there are chickens everywhere - this is a parking lot at a grocery store - no kidding...

It was an awesome time - can't wait to go back!

Winter @ FLW

Hey blog readers - I know once again I've been delinquent on keeping the blog up to date - let me try to catch you up... Our first winter at FLW was great

 This is big bird - a pileated woodpecker who decided to come live in our woods

In addition to big bird we also had many other visitors including a unidentified creature who we tried to capture on film all winter but were never able to.  Whatever it is Bill has never seen its tracks and it seems to be camera shy :-)

 Winter is the best view 

 Trinity/White dog is a fan of FLW - this photo isn't staged - I found her this way one day sleeping on the wreath

 The Griswolds finally got the tree up - after it falling down at least 10 times

 Of course there was fishing - sorry Bill I know the fish in that pic is small 

On March 4th we had a new addition to the family - Kim and Phil's son Oliver was born - since it is their 3rd son Kim didn't send any pictures so here's a picture of the mobile Jess and I made him (yes we tried to be crafty) Kim I need a picture of Oliver (I know I know check facebook)

Oliver Douglas Amsterburg

9.7lbs

22 inches long

12:28 a 3/4/13