Eggs

Just look at all our little pullet eggs. Ain’t they cute? Notice the ameraucana one. We were so happy to see it in the nest. We have been busy here for the the last few days. Thursday afternoon we went over the our pastors house to pick peaches. I, of course, forgot my camera so no pictures of his beautiful trees. They are all full of fruit. Friday and today was spent working up the peaches we got. We ended up with 15 qts canned, 3 qts frozen, and 10 1/2 gals of peach juice. YEAH! Such a blessing.

We have been HOT here. Not as hot as some of you all but hot for us. Upper 90’s for the actual temperature. I’m not sure what it is with the humidity, feels like, at least, 110 degrees (to me).

Well, that’s about it for now. I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

July 7, 2012 7

July 4th

I hope you all had a great 4th of July. This MawMaw was very happy! For the first time, EVER, all our grandkids were here at the same time. Chuck and his crew arrived first.

They managed to find a few ripe blackberries.

We did hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill and sit in the shade most of the day.

My oldest granddaughter, Alexius.

My youngest, Miss Katie.

Everyone was very impressed by the little frogs that are in the “little pond”.

Sam, just being Sam.

The swings got lots of use.

I think the hammock was the most loved though. They spent lots and lots of time making the hammock into a big swing. After we ate, we all took a ride down the Parkway to Mabry Mill. I, of course, forgot my camera but Dave took a picture of everyone there at the mill. He is going to email it to me so if I can figure out how to transfer it over I will post it. I so badly wanted to get a group picture but the day just sped by and it slipped my mind. Then on up to a little place called Meadows of Dan. We ate pizza in a little gazebo there. Thanks Dave! The little boys had tons of fun playing with rocks that were there. We then came home and Dave and Chuck set off some fireworks Dave had brought with him. The first boom sent 3 or 4 deer running out of the cornfield. I guess they thought it was hunting season starting early. After that it was off to “little town” to see the big fireworks display. We all had a great day. From about 10:30 in the morning till about 9:30 that night, my entire immediate family was together. God is good. Now, I wonder when we could do it again!!

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

July 5, 2012 7

Eggs

We got our first egg from the chicks we bought this spring!! Isn’t it cute? I thought I would show you the difference in sizes. The one on left is the pullet egg, the middle one is our regular size and the one on the right is our extra large. We have a few white hens that were gave to us last year. They are the ones who lay the extra large white ones. Anyway, I guess it doesn’t take a lot to get us excited.

Here’s a picture of Chuck and Hubby working on the car Sunday. They replaced several things. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if that fixed it or not. The girls and I have been busy this morning doing laundry and some house cleaning. Our Pastor brought us a 5 gal. bucket of peaches Sunday night. We are going to work those up after lunch.

Not much else going on that I can think of. I hope you all have a great 4th of July and God bless.

July 3, 2012 4

Friday

Hello everyone! Well, as we knew would happen, our wonderful, cooler weather is gone. Today, as I type this, we are at 94 degrees. HOT! Oh well, this makes us appreciate cooler weather more. Days like today I really wish we had air conditioning!

My car has been giving me trouble lately. Hubby is not exactly sure what is going on with it. Chuck is coming Sunday to help Hubby (hopefully) fix it. They are trying several things to see if that works but Hubby says it could be the fuel pump. We hope not but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Our VBS is over. This is kinda good and kinda sad. It is a lot of fun but also a lot of work. We leave home around 6:00 P.M. and don’t get back until around 10:00. It takes us 30 min to drive to church and 30 min. back home so a lot of our time is spent on the road.

Well, I think my crew is getting hungry so I guess I best get started cooking. Supper tonight is fried chicken, corn, gravy, homemade biscuits and some homemade blackberry jam to go with the biscuits. I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

June 29, 2012 4

Around the Pond

The other day we all decided to take a walk around the pond. It has been absolutely beautiful here in Floyd this week. Our morning temperatures have been mid 40’s. Amazing!! Wonderful sleeping weather. The days have only gotten into the mid 70’s. I love it. For my part, the Good Lord could just let it be this way all summer and I would be happy.

The girls had lots of fun. They came in the house and got their wading shoes and spent lots of time wading in the pond. Jasper even joined them for a while. He doesn’t care much for water. I suppose after his accident the first winter, he thinks water isn’t much fun.

Lots of cool bugs were flying around the pond.

I have no idea what they are but if you look closely you can see the tiny blue bugs that were hovering around the blade of grass.

We have so many of these birds. I couldn’t tell for sure from the picture if they were barn swallows or tree swallows. Both birds are abundant here. They will fly down to the pond and touch the water. It is amazing to watch. Sometimes as many as 50 or more just skipping above the water. I’m not sure if they are getting a drink or catching bugs but it is one of our favorite evening passtimes to watch them.

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

June 27, 2012 4

Apples

Yesterday we walked up on the hill to check out the apple tree that is along the fence line. It is loaded with apples!!!! We are so glad. These apples are very good. We don’t know what kind they are. The tree was already here when we moved in.

This picture of the pond was taken from up on the hill at the apple tree.

This is a view of the house from the hill. I will have to make this a short post. Our VBS starts tonight and it is time for us to leave. I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

June 24, 2012 4

Saturday

Hello ladies!! I know it has been a while since I made a post but I have been having technical difficulties with my blog. My thanks to Dave for getting me back up and running. I’m still having trouble with my pictures so no picture today.(Picture Added – Dave) Well, we have been busy here this week. Monday, I helped Hubby at the farmhouse. He started on the plumbing this week. Under the bathroom, the crawl space is about 18 inches. As you can imagine, not my favorite place to work but someone has to do it. Then on Tuesday, the girls and I went down to Jessica’s. They all have been sick, even little Miss Katie. Hopefully, though, they are finally on the mend. Wednesday, I helped Hubby again. Difficulties with the plumbing caused us to decide to finish it up Monday. (Didn’t hurt my feelings any). I’m sorry, I guess I am complaining a little but of all the jobs I help him with, plumbing is my least favorite. Thursday and Friday, the girls and I stayed home and worked on things here.

Well, that’s about all for our week. I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

June 23, 2012 3

Garden

I thought I would share with you all a picture of the lower garden. It is doing pretty good. The upper garden is having a little more of a difficult time. We are having trouble keeping the calves out of it. They seem to find new ways to get out every day and seem to enjoy the corn in the upper garden very much. Shadow is getting too old to chase them and Jasper is just learning. He is on the accelerated learning program right now as I want him to learn quickly. He actually is getting much better. He “sometimes” listens and obeys commands. Sometimes he is just so happy that the calves are running from him, he doesn’t care where they are running. Oh well, that’s life on a farm.

I helped Hubby today at the farmhouse job. We thought we would start on running the pipes for the plumbing. However, the walls in the bathroom were in terrible shape, so we started tearing out the sheetrock in there. We will be running the pipes up and over the ceiling as there is not enough crawl space underneath. These older homes were built right down on the ground. The bathroom has a rock type flooring on it and the owners are wanting to keep it. This suits me just fine as I was not looking forward to trying to crawl under that floor. The girls worked on history and science while I was helping Hubby. We had brought our portable grill with us and did a picnic for lunch. We had hot dogs, potato chips and oreo’s. The lunch of champions. It was fun. We set up under a huge walnut tree and were entertained by a very friendly squirrel while we ate. I brought the girls home after lunch. They did the house chores while I went back to help Hubby. It was a full day.

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

June 15, 2012 4

Wednesday

Hello everyone! Yesterday the girls and I made another trip down the Parkway to get cherries. This time we were getting the culls. They sell them for $10.00 for a 5 gal. bucket. We brought them home and used the steam juicer to make juice. We got enough to make 2 gal of juice. We had some this morning and it was VERY good. We had not had any homemade juice in about 3 months. I’m hoping this year to can more juice than we did last year. After having the real thing, store bought tastes very bland.

This is one of the most popular spots along our section of the Parkway. It is called Mabry Mill. Lots and lots of people visit this spot. They have demonstrations of how things were made during the time this mill was in operation. Yesterday, we noticed as we drove by they were demonstrating basket weaving.

On our way home yesterday, we decided to take a different route than the Parkway. This house was David’s Grandmother’s home. We thought Dave might enjoy seeing a picture of it.

And this is our home. The rock lillies are blooming so pretty this year. I almost forgot to tell you all, we made some homemade cherry ice cream yesterday that was so good. I got the recipe from here: http://homejoys.blogspot.com/2012/06/homemade-strawberry-ice-cream.html I just used cherries instead of strawberries. I want to try it with honey sometime but did not have enough honey yesterday so I used sugar instead. It was very good. I think the best fresh fruit ice cream I have ever made. It is definitely a keeper.

Today we will be doing school and working on the garden. I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

June 13, 2012 4

What’s Blooming

I thought I would show you ladies a few pictures of what is in bloom around our home. First, these lilies are huge this year.

I wish I could tell you the name of these, but I have forgotten what it is.

I love yellow and purple together.

I know the name of these-strawberries!!! We just planted these this year but they are doing very good.

Our raspberries are looking good this year. We love raspberries. They are just now starting to ripen. YUM!!

Today is a beautiful day here in Floyd. Our temperature is in the mid 70’s with a good breeze. Nice day for sitting in the shade and relaxing. We are having chicken and veggies on the grill for lupper and homemade ice cream is churning as I type. I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless.

June 10, 2012 6