The Reed Family Blog

We headed to Gainesville to camp t Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park. Once we set up we went to the Marjory K. Rawlings Estate. We toured the grounds and enjoyed fresh citrus right off the trees in the old orchard! I learned that I actually really love oranges. This was called a pineapple orange! Back at the campground we hiked around, found a yellow rat snake, hung out with a fried and enjoyed [...]

Back to Gainesville again for the weekend. We camped at Paynes Prairie Preserve! We took a lunchtime drive out tot he Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings estate. She wrote the Yearling. The estate was wonderful. It really felt like old Florida. We walked the orange groves and were able to sample fresh kumquats and pineapple oranges! So yummy!  At the campground we took a few long walks and tried to ID all the plants and trees [...]

We took Grandma Susie to Starkey Farm to pick blueberries.We were all impressed by how everything operated. It was extremely well organized. We washed up and headed out into the massive fields for picking.  The berries were HUGE! We quickly filled two buckets. Mom was really impressed with the amount of fresh berries. They were so easy to pick and you didn't have to search far to find handfuls of nice plump berries. Look [...]

The old printer finally died and B and I got to dissect it! We grabbed all he tools and set to work. We worked for over 3 hours on disassembling! We worked so nicely together on the project. We managed to get every single screw, nut, bolt, rod and belt taken apart! We even cleaned up! We sorted through and saved some pieces for enjoying later.

A month or so ago I entered a 4-H contest for 4th graders. You had to make your own cornbread recipe. I worked hard, with Dad's help. It is called Brown Butter, Bleu Cheese and Honey Cornbread. Well, today int he mail I got an envelope with a letter saying I was a finalist! The contest is held in South Pittsburg, TN. So we are busy making plans to head up for the contest. I [...]

Grandma Susie came along on our blueberry picking outing. We found  new place called Starkey Farms up in New Port Richey. It wasn't too far away. The place was HUGE. They had acres and acres of plants! We were all shocked it was tucked in the back of a neighborhood! The blueberries were gigantic and yummy. We picked and picked! Some were bigger than my eye! What a fun experience. [...]

Back to the Gainesville area for another tournament for 4-H. This is the final state match of the year! We camped at Oleno Springs again. We had a great time in their little nature center looking at the giant collection of randomness. The tournament was PACKED! There were over 150 kids this year! I love that archery is growing. I ended up in 3rd place for intermediates. I was happy again to have people to [...]

This weekend was the 4-H County events. I worked really hard on my demonstration "Florida Friendly Butterfly Gardens and Lepidoptera Collecting". I dressed really handsomely. I got a blue ribbon and advanced to District events in May. I am hoping to do well at Districts and maybe get a scholarship to camp this summer. When we got home we started out Easter Weekend celebrations. We had a Harry Potter themed weekend and watched all [...]