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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.
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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.
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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.
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Tweetsie
Yesterday we went to Tweetsie Railroad with Dave, Jess, and the kids. We had a great time.
Cany you tell by Sam’s face?
It’s hard to get this boy to be still long enough for a picture.
The highlight of the day was meeting this guy. For those of you who don’t know him, this is Thomas the Train. We all rode Thomas. Every time during the day that we would hear his whistle blow, Sam would say “You hear that train, MawMaw?” This was his birthday gift from his mom and dad. His birthday was June 7th. He is now 2 yrs old. Amazing.
I think this picture says LOVE. When a man the size of David squeezes himself into a car the size of this one just so your little boy can drive, that has to say love.
I think they are conspiring a plan!
My cowgirl!
Can you tell we are tired? Well, everyone except …..
Miss Katie. Enjoy your day and God bless.
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Birthday and Cherries
Today we celebrated my Julie’s 14th birthday. My, my, how time has flown by. Seems like just the other day, my Lord was surprising me by giving her to me. God is SO good. We celebrated at Groundhog Mountain with hamburgers, hotdogs and chocolate cake. The Horn’s came with us and Dave, Jess and the kids met us on the Blue Ridge Parkway at Meadows of Dan. We had a wonderful day!!
Mrs. Vicki bringing trucks for the boys to play with. You will notice she has on a jacket. It was kinda chilly here this morning. 42 degrees when we got up. I think it is supposed to be about that chilly tonight too. It was a nice day though-definitely not too hot.
Daniel seems to be deep in thought.
Jess and Katie. Katie is staying warm in her blanket.
From the picnic area, we went on down the Parkway to Levering Orchard to pick cherries.
The trees were loaded with cherries.
Can you tell Sam loves cherries!
If you look closely in this picture, you will see a man in the top of the tree picking.
We all had so much fun. I can’t think of a better way to spend the day than with family and best friends. Enjoy your day and God bless.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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