Goslings

They sure have grown! Every time I see them they look so much bigger. We discovered this morning that we have a female mallard duck nesting on the island now. We are so excited! We have wanted ducks to nest there since we moved here. We’ve not sure why the ducks and the geese have decided that the island is now nest worthy but we sure are glad. There is a big difference between the ducks and the geese. The ducks are more secretive and the male is less aggressive. Papa Goose is always on patrol, keeping away all others.

I know it has been a long time since I made a post. I have been busy this week helping Hubby with a job he had building a fence. The girls took their school books and did school in the van while I helped him. Last night the girls had their piano recital. It all went very well. They did a good job on their songs. We have been busy this morning getting the yard mowed and other things that needed doing around the house.

On Tuesday, I attempted to make homemade cottage cheese. It DID NOT turn out. I’m not sure what I did wrong. I followed the directions I got from the internet. I think I need a different recipe. Have any of you all ever made cottage cheese? I sure would appreciate all info I can get.

The girls found new kittens today in one of the old buildings. It is always so exciting for them when they find new kittens. These belong to one of our wild cats so we have no idea if she will leave them where they are or not. Only time will tell. We have much to do so I better get busy. Enjoy your day and God bless.

May 7, 2011 2

Our Greenhouse Plants

Our plants are growing. YEAH! Today makes 2 weeks since we planted the seeds. I think they are doing really well.

The tomatoes and peppers seem to be the slower growing. The cucumbers and squash are the fastest. The broccoli and okra are growing pretty fast too.

Today is overcast and windy. The temperature is 60 degrees though so that is very nice. I have clothes on the line outside. We worked on school yesterday and then went into the library and piano practice. I found a book at the library. It is written by Ree Drummond. She has a blog www.thepioneerwoman.com If you have never been to her blog I am sure you would enjoy it. She has some excellent recipes and many interesting stories. The book I got at the library is about her and her husbands courtship and marriage. I think it will be very good.

Time for school. I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless.

May 3, 2011 4

Grundy Visit

This weekend we went down to Grundy to move my in laws into their new house. It was a long hard weekend but well worth it. I have a few house pictures but for some reason they did not load correctly. I will try again later but here are a few pictures that did load. This is looking out her kitchen window.

A view from the back yard. The new house was built in the exact location of the old house just laid out differently.

View from the side yard.

Her azelea bush. We bought her this bush several years ago as a mothers day gift.

One of her snowball bushes. She definitely has a green thumb. We had a good visit and got lots of their stuff moved into the new house. We were hoping to get them in completely but time ran out. Hopefully they will spend their first night in the new house tonight.

I did finally get the other pictures loaded. This is their kitchen. She has never had built in cabinets. Very exciting for her.

Their floors. I’m not sure what is going on with the 3 pieces that do not match. They ran out of the other and used those. Hubby was appalled. Of course, the contractor in him found all sorts of flaws. This one though is very obvious.

Their bathroom. They are so excited to have a bathroom. This new house is set up handicap ready as my father in law has to use a walker. I know this will make their life so much easier.

Well, enough for now. It is past time for school to start. I just wanted to show everyone a little of what we’ve been doing over the weekend. Enjoy your day and God bless.

May 2, 2011 2

A Big Surprise

We had a wonderful surprise yesterday. We went to the N.C. Zoo. On Wednesday about lunch time, Jess called and said David had tickets for us all to go to the zoo but we had to go on Thursday as this was the only day he could get off. We were sooooo excited. We got up about 5:30 yesterday morning and got home around 8:30 last night. It was an absolutely great day. We all had so much fun. Thanks Dave for thinking of us. Grace took lots of pictures.

Of course, by the end of the day we were all getting a little tired.

Well, maybe not the one who rode in the stroller all day.

We hope to go back again as there was much we didn’t get to see.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

April 29, 2011 6

Tomato Plant

Yesterday, while in town, we visited our local greenhouse. We bought some cabbage plants and this tomato. See the bloom at the top. Hopefully, we will get tomatoes early from it. I put it in a bucket (dry wall ) and as of now it is on the front porch. I plan on moving it out on the front deck, then moving it back in a night. For today it will probably stay on the porch-too windy outside. I tried to leave it out some yesterday but the wind kept blowing it over.

The other day when my brother in law came, he brought us over some morel mushrooms. It was a very nice treat. These grow in the wild and are only available in early spring. Some people call them dry land fish. Anyway, after eating the ones he brought us we decided to go looking for some here. Hubby thinks it is still a little too early for here but we had a lot of fun looking. It was so nice to get out in the woods and walk around.

Time for school. Enjoy your day and God bless.

April 27, 2011 3

Baby Emily

This is Baby Emily, David’s neice. She is a very hardy eater and seemed very content in Daddy’s arms.

Daniel and his cousin Zack riding bikes. Zack is Emily’s older brother.

And baby Sam held prisoner in his walker. We all had a lot of fun with lots of good fun. Jess had ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls and banana pudding. YUM!

Yesterday we went to get the inspection sticker on my car and found out the tie rods ends were bad. We had to make a run to C-burg to get new ones. Hubby and his brother put them on yesterday evening. We went back in this morning and got the inspection sticker. Hubby still does not have his window fixed on the van. This has given him much trouble. He of course is trying to fix the old one instead of buying a new one. For some reason, the wire is not winding up on the spool correctly.

We are getting rain today. Temperatures are warm though so it will be very good for everything. The girls and I checked our seeds out yesterday underneath our greenhouse. We have a few tomatoes coming up, cucumbers and broccoli. Very exciting. Well, our lunch break is over. Time for school to start. Enjoy your day and God bless.

April 26, 2011 3

Spring Blooms

Our dogwood tree in bloom. This one is located just outside the dining room window.

Our lilac bush. I love just walking around the house and smelling the sweet smell. They make the entire yard smell so good.

Coming around the house from the kitchen door, looking at the bushes. The smaller bush is our gooseberry bush.

Care to rest, anyone? This is a beautiful sitting spot. We will be going to Jessica’s to celebrate Easter with them. I pray you all have a wonderfully, blessed Easter filled with the presence of our Lord.

God bless.

April 23, 2011 3

Pickled Eggs

Every year at Easter and Christmas, I make pickled eggs as a special treat for my Hubby. He and David both like them so I will be taking them down with me for our Easter dinner. Don’t they look so colorful in the jar?

Yesterday we had some pretty hard wind. Our plastic is still on our greenhouse, YEAH. I had clothes on the line drying and looked out our dining room window and a pair of Hubby’s jeans had blown off the line and into the dogwood tree. I should have taken a picture of them hanging from the limb but I didn’t think of it in time. Anyway, the wind is not as bad today. Our clothes are all still on the line. Hubby and his brother are working on the van window. Hopefully, they will be able to fix it. It has been more difficult than he first thought it would be.

Well, time for us to start back on school. Enjoy your day and God bless.

April 21, 2011 3

Our Greenhouse

Yesterday the girls and I decided to try our hand at making a greenhouse. We found these old metal things in the field behind the house. They were used as a round bale holder but had been broken years ago.

Then we planted our seed and put the metal “thingie” over it.

Then we covered them with plastic. All of this is recycled material. The only cost to us was the seeds. We have never tried anything like this before. I have attempted to start seeds indoors many different times but always with no success. They grow too fast and then just die out so we just buy plants already started and use them. I got this idea from my blogger friend at http://holcombhappenings.wordpress.com/. Thanks, Cheryl. We have about 30 days before danger of frost is over for us. We are hoping our seeds will produce and we will be able to transplant them. If this does well, I want to start our seeds earlier next year. Anyway, it was a very nice day yesterday and we had a lot of fun making our greenhouse and planting our seeds.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

April 20, 2011 5

Wild Mustard

I thought I would share these pictures of a field of wild mustard. This field is on our way into town.

I think it is absolutely beautiful!

So of course I took several pictures from several different views.

Last one. As I was taking these pictures another man was up in another driveway taking pictures too. He of course had a very fancy camera with a tripod. Obviously, I am not the only one who thinks it is beautiful.

We are overcast still today but it is supposed to be fairly warm. I am getting ready to take clothes to the line to dry. We still have some wind but not too bad. We are hoping the wind dies down soon. We have not burned the brush pile off the lower garden yet. We need to get it burned as Hubby will soon need to tiller it. School today as usual. Yesterday we only did half school as we had to go to piano practice in the afternoon. We stopped by the library and Julie found plenty of books she was interested in reading. Grace found a few but not as many as Julie did. Sometimes it is difficult to find books we want to read. The librarian told me it probably meant we had already read all the good ones. We do enjoy reading. Enjoy your day and God bless.

April 19, 2011 5