Blueberries

Just look at all these beautiful blueberries! I think I mentioned we planted 3 blueberriy bushes this year. Well, this is one of them. They all have lots of blueberries on them but I think this one has the most. They seem to be doing very well so far.

Monday, we worked around the house. The girls and I made a batch of cherry jam. It is very tasty! Yesterday, we worked in both gardens, hoeing and weeding. We then took down the greenhouse and put it away for next year, cleaned the fish tank, and did several odd chores that have been needed to get done for a while. The girls worked on history and science while I ran into little town to get chick feed. Supper last night was hamburgers, corn on the cob, and pineapple all fixed on the grill. I love cooking on the grill. Not near as much clean up involved and the kitchen doesn’t get heated up.

Well, today we will be cleaning out the chicken house and working on the nests. Definitely not my favorite job, but it is a little cooler this morning so hopefully that will make it a little easier. This morning I am making kefir and buttermilk. I have shared before how I make my buttermilk but maybe someone is reading this that hasn’t read it before, so I thought I would share it again. It tastes a lot like kefir. Heres what I do. First add 1/4 cup of whole milk buttermilk purchased from the store to a quart jar. I suppose you could use lowfat or fat free for this, we just prefer whole buttermilk. Finish filling up the jar with milk. I use raw milk but any milk will do. I leave the cream on but you can take it off. I then shake it up and sit it out on the counter for about 20 hrs. There is no set time for how long to leave it out. It all depends on the temperature of your house. This same rule applies to kefir. The warmer the temperature the quicker it will set. It is ready when you turn the jar over and it all leaves the side of the jar in one clump. Shake the jar for about 5 min and put in the fridge to chill. Now to making kefir, I use kefir grains when making my kefir. Jess bought the grains for me a little while back. Before that I used the powdered starter. The grains will continue to produce indefinitely. I store them in the fridge in a jar covered with milk. When I want to make kefir, which is usually every other day, I take them out, finish filling the jar 2/3 full with raw milk and leave it out on the counter for about 24 hrs. This time is also dependent upon the temperature in your home. Kefir is very good for us. You can read about the benefits of kefir online. It is full of good stuff. It tastes very good in smoothies. I think it is good to drink plain with just a little sweetener.

Well, I guess we better get busy with our day. God bless.

May 30, 2012 5

Fairystone Park

Yesterday we met Dave, Jess and kids at Fairystone Park for a picnic and a fun day out. We have lived here in Floyd for almost 13 years. This state park is just about 40 minutes from our house. I have no idea why we have never been to it before. We all had a great time. We had grilled chicken, mac and cheese, potato salad, pork and beans, and a green salad. Delicious!!

Can you guess what we had for dessert?

While Dave, Jess, Daniel, Sam, Julie, and Grace spent all day in the water, Pawpaw and MawMaw had the “hard” job of watching Katie. She sure is growing.

We all had a great time and definitely want to go again. Enjoy your day and God bless.

May 28, 2012 4

Saturday

Hello ladies, I hope everyone is having a great weekend so far. We worked today on putting a fence around the gardens.

The “ladies” were very glad. They had not been free all week as we had not had time to get the fences up. We knew the minute they were turned loose they would head straight to the gardens. To express their dislike of not being turned loose they cut back on their laying. We usually get 11 or 12 eggs every day. This week we got 7 or 8. I told them I expected full quota next week. No excuses.

We found this drift netting at the barn, rolled it out and cut it in two pieces. The posts are cut from old wood we got from the job site. Not bad-zero expense. I am hoping the plastic bags that you see will keep the birds away. So far it seems to be working. I replaced the 14 plants they had eaten and so far all is well. It took us 4 hrs to put this fence up. Hubby helped or it would have taken much longer.

The rose bush at the green swing is in full bloom. I think it is lovely this year.

Another picture of the rose bush.

I realized it had been a very long time since I put a picture of Jasper on here.

He is our farm dog in training. Shadow has been teaching him all the tricks. (Most times, Shadow just tolerates him). Well, that’s about it for today. Supper was hotdogs and beans. Simple because Mom was tired. I hope you all have a great Memorial Day Weekend and God bless.

May 26, 2012 4

Wild Roses

Wild roses are blooming everywhere here. We took this picture over at the job site.

Also, blackberries are in bloom. If the amount of bloom is any indication of how many berries we will have, there should be an abundance of them this year. I helped Hubby again today at the job site. We pulled wire all day for the electrical. I think I have always taken for granted the amount of wire that is run in a house to make everything work. I will be helping him again tomorrow. Hopefully, tomorrow will finish up most of the electrical.

I wanted you all to check out the size of this toad frog. He was huge!! He had wondered up in the back yard. The girls carried him back down to the pond. We thought he would be much happier there.

Another picture of the goslings. I hope you all don’t get tired of seeing them. It seems every time they come up into the yard they have gotten bigger. Well, that’s about all for today. I put a beef roast in the crock pot before we left this morning. Green beans and biscuits sound good to have with it for supper. I try to keep supper easy when I work with Hubby. Enjoy your evening and God bless.

May 24, 2012 5

Rainbow

Hello everyone! Sorry that I haven’t posted as much as usual. Things just seem busy here right now. Anyway, yesterday evening the Lord gave us this beautiful rainbow. If you look close you can see it was a double rainbow but the one on the left is fading. This picture was taken at the top of our driveway.

Yesterday, we went to help Hubby on the job site. It is coming along nicely. After school, the girls were entertained by this guy. He and a few of his buddies were very busy in the walnut tree.

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We did get some much needed rain yesterday evening. The garden is all in, however, the birds have already discovered it and destroyed about 1/3 of the tomato plants. They love the tender young leaves so all that is left is the stem. Has anyone else experienced this problem? Any solutions?

Hubby has been working all week on my car. He has replaced the rotors on the front and today we picked up rotors for the back. I am so thankful he knows how to do all this. His knowledge saves us lots of money. Well, I will leave you ladies with a picture of the purple flowers that are blooming everywhere here. I don’t know the name of them but we think they are beautiful.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

May 22, 2012 8

Dollywood

Wednesday, we had a GREAT time!! We went with the Horn’s to Dollywood. They had bought season tickets and got free one day passes to take a friend. We were their friends. Thanks again, guys. We left Floyd at 7:00 that morning and got back home around midnight. It was a long day but filled with fun. Everyone was tired but happy. Please be in prayer for Vicki and Quentin. Quentin’s grandfather passed away yesterday morning.

Yesterday was a dry day here in Floyd so I jumped in and started working on the garden.

I tillered both gardens and got them ready for planting. It was a full day. This morning I started getting the plants in the ground. So far, I have planted the potatoes, corn, onions, broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower. After lunch, beans and tomatoes. The girls will be helping me with them. They have been inside doing the housework this morning while I worked outside.

These are the seeds the girls and I planted in the greenhouse. They have done really well. Maybe all we needed all along was a greenhouse. They certainly look the best of any seeds we have started before. Hopefully, they will do good when transferred into the garden.

The squash and cucumbers have really grown. Speaking of growing, look how big the goslings are.

They were up in the field watching me while I worked. Well, I think that’s about it. I better get back into the garden. Enjoy your day and God bless.

May 18, 2012 5

Birthday, Recital, and Bramwell Trip

We certainly have had a lot of fun things going on here. Thursday we went down to Jessica’s. We got 2 more gallon of fresh strawberries. We put 1 gal. into the freezer and just enjoyed the other gallon. Friday was Hubby’s birthday and the girls piano recital. We celebrated Hubby’s birthday with burgers and cake. Then got ready for the recital. Saturday, the ladies from our church made a trip to Bramwell WV. It is a town where the extremely rich coal barons lived. Very fancy and extravagant houses. The above picture shows the town from one of the houses.

Our group-such fine looking ladies!

Most of the houses had amazing lawns-huge. The kind you know had to have several gardeners just to keep them looking nice.

Several houses had cooper sinks in the kitchen. When the wealthy were living there, they all had servants to do the work.

I think every house had stained glass windows. This one was in a bathroom.

A cozy little nook in one of the houses.

One of the houses-notice the brick road.

Another house. Altogether we toured 9 houses. It took over 3 hrs to walk through them all. On the third floor of one of the houses, there was a ballroom. We did not get to see it though.

Every house had tables set with old dishes, Mrs. Faye. You would have loved them.

The old furniture in these houses was amazing. The wood floors, cabinets, everything. I have so many pictures it was hard to choose which ones to show you first. We had a great day!

I hope each and every one of you had a great Mother’s Day. God bless.

May 14, 2012 6

Grapes

This picture of our grapevine was taken on April 12. This is what it looked like last week.

It seems to be growing every day and full of baby grapes!

This makes me very happy. I hope to make some jelly this year and lots and lots of grape juice! We so enjoy having our own juice to drink.

Our weekend was a busy one. I didn’t get to tell all about it on yesterdays post. It was late and I was tired. Anyway, on Friday, our church had a mother/daughter banquet. It was lots of fun with about 25 ladies attending. Then on Saturday, we had to go to Jessica’s to start working on some things her ins. agency said needed to be done. After we got there, Hubby realized we would need the scaffold, so we came back home Saturday evening. We went back down on Sunday and finished it up. Jess, the kids, myself, Julie and Grace went to the Farmers Market on Sunday. We had a great time just walking around looking at everything. Okay, so I have to tell you, we rode Jessica’s van to the market. 7 of us. We took the double stroller and the small stroller, plus, of course, all the other stuff you need for small kids. Needless to say, her van was packed. Then when we get there, the first thing Jess sees-2 HUGE hanging baskets, that would look just perfect on her front porch. Now if you would like to have seen something funny, you should have been there in the parking lot watching us try to get all that stuff back in the van. It really was hilarious!! We finally did it though and didn’t even damage her new hanging baskets. I guess we are just talented.

Our lunch break is over and so I must get back to school. Enjoy your day and God bless.

May 8, 2012 5

New Home

The little chicks new home is ready!! We worked on it all day today-running the fence and putting up the gate. Hubby helped or we would not have finished it. They have 150 feet of fenced in area to run in.

Check out their gate. It was an old baby crib spring.

They seem very happy to have more room. We are planning on leaving them in the building part tonight to give them time to adjust. Tomorrow we will open the door and see how they do in the fenced in lot. Needless to say, we are all tired but SO happy to get this big job done.

I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

May 7, 2012 6

Irises

Our irises are in full bloom! These were given to us several years ago by a friend from church. It has taken them a while to get going but I think they are looking pretty good this year.

We have been busy this week. Does any one think this is becoming the norm? Seems like spring is a busy time. Anyway, we went to the dentist on Tuesday. Both girls got a good report. Then on Wednesday, we went to Sam’s club and bought our bulk items. Yesterday, we went down to Jessica’s. Today is full as well. Our church is doing a Mother/Daughter banquet this evening. I am bringing rolls. I also have to take Hubby’s van in to Little Town to get 2 tires put on. I was hoping the girls and I could get the nests made today for the little chicks. Hubby also wants to work on the floor for the new boxed in part of the back porch when he gets in from the job site. We’ll see.

School has taken a back burner this week with all that has been going on. We only lack 15 more lessons in math and we’ll be finished with it for the summer. We are calling quits to language when math is finished. Then we plan on doing history and science during June and July and taking August and September off. These two months are so busy here with canning. It is much easier for us to take those months off.

I also hope to make strawberry jam today. Yesterday, while down at Jessica’s we got 2 gal. of strawberries. I put one gallon in the freezer yesterday evening and hope to make jam with the other gallon today. I think Jessica is planning on making jam tomorrow. I am going to try using the liquid certo this time. I just haven’t been having success with the powdered sure jell.

Well, that’s about it for now. I better get busy if I am going to get anything done. I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

May 4, 2012 5