MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

Yesterday we went with the Horn’s to Bottom Creek Gorge.  It was absolutely beautiful!  So many beautiful colors.

We stopped at an overlook and I took these pictures.

We had a great time.  We hiked and then came back on the Parkway to picnic.  Such a wonderful day.  I have so many beautiful pictures to show you all.   Enjoy your day and God bless.

I thought I would share a few pictures with you all of the picnic and baptism we had Sunday.  This is the pond where we do our baptizing.   Beautiful!  This pond is located on Route 8 here in Floyd close to the Bread Basket. 

This is a young man from our church.  He and his dad were baptized Sunday.  We somehow missed getting the dad’s picture.  I have been busy all last week and yesterday helping Hubby with a job.  He has been remodeling a bathroom.  Today, I picked blackberries, some more green beans and tomatoes while the girls worked on inside house chores.  We will be busy working on those today.  We also have some peaches to can but they may have to wait until tomorrow.

Here are a few random pictures I took this morning.  The blackberries are looking pretty good this year.

A tomato ripening on the vine. 

A view of the back side of the house.  Temperature here has cooled down a little.  Not as humid as last week.   Or maybe it just feels that way because I’m not underneath that house running pipe for plumbing. (lol)  Well, I better get busy.  I hear blackberries calling our names.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

The ducks and the geese were in the yard together this morning.  Look how much they have grown.  The mama duck has 5 babies that have survived.  One goose is missing.  We are hoping it is not mama or papa.  From what I can understand they mate for life.  If something has happened to one of them it would mean no more babies, which would be very sad.

Our VBS has been a lot of fun so far.  2 more nights to go.  Thursday night is family night.  We went with Hubby yesterday.  He had a little repair job at this house on Claytor Lake.  We worked on school while he did the job.  Then we went down to the lake for a picnic.  It was a nice day.  I, of course, forgot the camera so no beautiful lake pictures.

Today is a beautiful day here in Floyd.  Temperature is in the lower 70′s as of now.  The sun is shining and we have a slight breeze.  Very nice.  We are hoping for nice temperatures this weekend as Dave, Jess, and the boys are coming up.  We hope to go into town on Saturday night and watch the fireworks. 

I have clothes ready for the line so I better get busy.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Yesterday was our second annual horseshoe pitching picnic.  I thought I would share a few pictures with you all.  We had a great time with lots of good food (of course), good fellowship and good music.   I think that hammock is calling my name!

A few of the people sitting around enjoying themselves.

What do you think he might be looking at?

Deer, right across the river from where we were. 

The creek.

The Lord blessed us with a beautiful day. 

Our VBS starts tonight.  The girls will be playing the music all 5 nights.  Julie is in charge of the games tomorrow night.  When did my babies become workers instead of just participants?  Well, it does this mama’s heart good to see them serving the Lord. 

Enjoy your day and God bless.

Today I will be taking some of my homemade laundry soap to a store here in Floyd to see if it will sell.  This is what the package looks like.  What do you all think?  I got the recipe and the package idea from a blogger friend of mine.  You can read her blog at http://theblessedhearth.blogspot.com/.  I really like this soap and I am hoping others will too. 

 I also want to get out all my old schoolbooks.  Vicki is going to help me try to sell them on ebay.  Later today, we plan on doing a picnic with them at Smartsview Park.  FUN, FUN, FUN.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

We had a really nice weekend here in Floyd.  Dave, Jess and the boys came up to celebrate Hubby’s birthday.  Jess and I went to a yard sale in town.  Later that evening they took us all out to eat at a local Mexican restuarant.  We had a great time.   On Sunday we went on a picnic down the parkway.  This is a picture we took from one of the lookouts.

Today, we went down to watch the boys while Jess went to her doctors appointment.  All is going well with her and the baby.  Thank you, Lord.  She will find out next month if she is having a girl or a boy.   Daniel said they don’t want any “gwirls” there.    Jess told him “but what about Mommy.”  Daniel said “You’re not a “gwirl” , you’re Mommy.  We are just praying for a healthy baby-boy or girl. 

We have been getting lots of rain here.  We have had a little sun this evening but mostly overcast.  We still do not have our plants in the garden yet.  It has just been too wet.  We don’t have the brush pile burned or the lower garden tilled.  I still have lots of flower seeds to get in the ground too.   Oh well, all in God’s time. 

Enjoy your evening and God bless.

We have a very small snowball bush that was given to us last year by a friend from church.  I was not sure it would survive the winter but it did and now has one beautiful bloom on it.  It also has several new starts coming up from the root.  Next year we are hoping for lots of bloom.

Yesterday the girls and I went to big town.  We needed chicken feed and a few other things.  We went to Books-A-Million, which is a big treat for us.  We used to have one in Christiansburg but they moved to Blacksburg.  The girls had some money they had been saving.  They each bought a new book with their money.  I found this documentary in the bargain DVD basket.   I am thinking of using it some for next year’s history course.

We have had several days of fog and rain.  Today, though, the sun is peeking through the fog.  Hopefully the weekend will be nice.  Dave, Jess, and the boys are supposed to come up for the weekend.  Our church is having a clay shoot tomorrow.  Dave is going with Hubby to shoot and the rest of us are going to a big yard and craft sale here in Floyd.  We hope to picnic Sunday and celebrate Hubby’s birthday.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

Yesterday we decided to take the day off from school.   Hubby had to run a few errands in Blacksburg.  This little pond is close to B-burg so we thought it would be a nice to have a picnic and hike around the pond.  We had a really fun day.

This is one of the side trails you can walk on.  We stayed on the main trail that goes around the pond.

We saw lots of ducks and geese.  Also turtles.  I will show the turtle pictures and some more of the scenery tomorrow.   Temperature is so nice here this morning.  The birds are singing beautifully.  I have bread rising and a pork tenderloin roast ready to put in the oven for supper.  I think it is going to be a good day. 

Enjoy your day and God bless.

We did not get to have our breakfast picnic yesterday morning at the park.   Weather was too bad.  VERY foggy here.   Most people would not have been able to find the park .  Everything is wet, wet, wet.   We did move it to the church, however, so we still had breakfast.  Just not outside like originally planned.  Lots of good food though.  The pastors sermon was on the Lord’s Prayer.  It was a very good message.

I have been told this strange looking flower is called a Naked Lady.  The name suits it.  There are no leaves on it what so ever.  Just a tall stem and then the flower.  They have filled out more since I took this picture however I could not get a new picture.  It is too foggy and dreary today.  The girls and I will be busy making more salsa.  I did not like the recipe in the Ball canning book as much as I like my old recipe.  It was given to me by a Mennonite friend, Judy.  So today we are making her recipe.  Much better.  Temperatures have been cooler here.  Low’s in the upper 50′s, high’s in the low to mid 60′s.  Wet, foggy.  Nice days for doing work inside or just curling up with a good book.  I think I’ll try to work both of these activities in today.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Fall must be quickly approaching Floyd.  The geese are back.  Lots of geese.  We counted at least 40 this morning on our pond.  They are very interesting to watch however they are quite loud.  I haven’t posted anything in a day or so as we have been really busy.  We went back to Jess on Monday and worked more on her bathroom.  It is started to look more like a bathroom now.    We were planning on going back tomorrow but they all have a cold so I think we will just stay here.  We went on a picnic today with good friends of ours at a little park here on the parkway.  We took the puppy so all the kids had a great time playing together(especially the puppy)

I wanted to show you this strange cucumber(yes it is a cucumber)  I raised it on the back porch in a large pot.  The plant did fairly well but this one is pretty strange.  I put some tomatoes and cucumbers in pots this year.  They did okay but required me to remember to water and I am not really good at this.  All in all though it was a good experiment.  Night has fallen here on the farm.  Katydids and crickets are making a joyful noise unto the Lord.  I think I will go out on my swing and enjoy.