Hi Everyone!

About these Strawberry Pies... Let's just say that this project was a LOT of work!  We did haul in a lot of orders, though, and orders mean money for the adoption fund.  In the last two weeks, we've made over 60 pies.  (A few of those were re-do's though.)

Our little berry patch got us started the first week of Pie Season, but we also got our berries for FREE from a special lady (Sue Sahlstrom), in Galesville who let us have all we needed from her berry patch.  (I tried to pay her but she sent me my check back!) (Everyone, please go pick from her patch... she deserves all the business we can drum up for her..  "Aunt Susies" on Hwy 35.)  (She also makes and sells some yummy jam!)  A few ladies from church rolled out some crusts for us, and Mom Fisher and John's sister Cara have been over a few times helping during this "expedition." THANK YOU so much you guys!  It has been really amazing how God has been bringing in the money necessary for this child!  (We're getting soooo close, it is hard not to start getting excited!!!) 

Besides the pies, several people just gave us money toward the adoption fund this month. One even gave us a thousand dollars!  God has been so good to us, and kept us encouraged that this path is very much the way He wants us to go.  We never expected our adoption fund to be this "full" so soon.  We're hoping to be able to start things up even by the end of the summer!  We expected we'd have to wait another year for that!  Pretty neat! 

The next project is the 2nd Rummage Sale July 18th and 19th.  The "nursery," (spare bedroom), is already filling up again with donations for it.  Anyone who says adoptive mothers don't have labor pains is WRONG!  ;O)

Love you all!

John and Shelly

P.S. Just for fun, we thought we'd add a few pointers for "Strawberry Pie-making." Here are a few things we've learned:

 
  • Gophers are arch-enemies.  Gophers in the garden inspire husbands to flap their arms and run around the yard roaring like a monster.  This doesn't work.  Gophers are fearless creatures and will be back within the hour.  Plugging the gopher holes with sticks only breeds more holes...


  • No matter how many times you have rolled out pie crust, you have to learn all over again if you are going to put it into a flimsy aluminum pie tin.  There are a few dance-steps necessary while chasing the tin across the table as you try to put it into the pan.  One wrong step and the whole thing may fall off the edge.  This little two-step, I've found, is really good for the back.  Not.

    •  
  • Gravity + Pies = trouble.  (Sometimes, at least).  Slammed-on brakes during delivery cause pies in the backseat of your car to fly onto the floor.  Also, when dropping pies outright, be thankful when you drop them on the kitchen floor instead of the carpet in the livingroom.  Buckets of over-ripe berries, are also no friends to gravity.  They spill on white couches and make you spend hours with a carpet shampooer trying to get the stains out. 


  • When making large volumes of pies, you need refrigerator space.  Husbands can be wonderful "packers" and can get the stuff that is normally in your fridge all into the door and bottom drawers.  A carton of eggs can be balanced in the door of your refrigerator on top of your condiments.  Heads of lettuce also.


  • If the air conditioning goes out in the middle of making pie crusts, don't turn on a big fan and aim it toward the kitchen.  Billows of flour will hang in the air for the next several minutes, even after you turn the fan off.  Instead, put the dough in the fridge (next to the eggs in the door perhaps?), and take a break.  You probably need one anyway.