Who? What? Where? and Why?

So I have been meaning to write this for a while and just finally made myself do it.  Why am I blogging, and why am I sharing my stories, skills, mistakes, and successes with everyone?  Allot of bloggers YouTubers do it for the money that is not what I am in it for so you will not always see perfect grammar or perfect video editing.  I am doing it because I want to be a better person I want to share and I believe this will hold me accountable to reach my goals.

I know most people have a one track mind when they blog or YouTube but I will be honest mine will range from cooking, cleaning, organization, building, repair, gardening, prepping, and I am sure anything else I dream up.

So who am I?  I am a 31 year old husband with two children a son who is 7 and a daughter who is 3.  We live just out side of Pittsburgh in an old railroad town that is just fine for me for right now.  I was chosen in high school to be the next Bill Gates but I have not made any strides towards that but I am happy right where I am.  I always struggled though school and knew college probably was not for me.  I have always found solving problems is what I do best whether it was fixing machines, houses, or even computers.

At 16 a owner of a small company went out on a limb and hired me into their IT department, not a year later I was managing that department and working to be a certified network engineer.  I worked at this job for about 2 years and got board.  Sitting in a cubical was just not for me!  I have to admit I have spent almost my whole life job jumping and there are days I regret it but boy have I learned allot.  Through this I have learned to be a carpenter, electrician, plumber, heavy machine operator, mechanic, Realtor, manager, inspector, and so many more thing I also achieved a Michigan builders licence, Michigan real estate licence, certified pool operator, novel network engineer and many other things I am not remembering right now.

People are probably asking why haven't you stuck to one thing? Well I cant! I am not sure what it is but I need to be moving shaking hustling and creating every minute.  I will say I always tend to come back to building and construction that is where my heart lays.

So my mission now is to clean up my house and yard and show my family how you live with what you got and bring back family values.  I hope to over the next year live a healthier life style, spend more time with family, and spend less money.  Is this all possible I guess we wait and find out.

Hard Tack Candy Making

Here it is Hard tack cany making on youtube!

Hard Tack Candy Family Traditions

Growing up I always remember the hard tack candy in my grandmothers candy dishes at Christmas time.  Although I can not remember how it got to those candy dishes I do have some family members who have told me about the great times they had making it and how it was a great family tradition. So last year with so many other things I started doing I decided it was time to go into the candy making business.  We made batch after batch of hard tack gave it to coworker, friends, and family and boy was it a hit!  One of my nieces asked uncle Denis how did you make this candy?  So with that one little question I decided it was time to get the family tradition going again and teach this next generation how to make some candy.  Tomorrow we will be gathering and hopefully start a tradition that will last for years.  Tonight I did a trial batch to make sure I did not forget anything from last year and it turned out just right.  I thought I would share my recipe and maybe in a few days a video on how we do this.  Get out there and spend quality time with your family make some new traditions.

 
Hard Tack Candy
Ingredients
1 cup water
1 cup light corn syrup (I use Bob White Crystal White)
2 cups sugar
1 small jar flavoring (3.7ml)
Food coloring
Powder sugar (for dusting)
Butter (for cooling dish/pan)

Butter cookie sheet and lightly and coat with powder sugar, set aside. Combine water, corn syrup, and sugar in pot over medium heat.  Slowly stir mixture dissolving contents.  Mixture will come to a rapid boil watch candy thermometer closely and to prevent burning.  When mixture reaches 300 degrees or "Hard Crack" remove from heat, add flavoring, and coloring.  Mix well and poor onto prepared cookie sheet.  As this is cooling use scissors to cut into small pieces and toss with more powder sugar if needed.