We received our new school books for next year. This is always an exciting time for us. We love looking at them to see what the next year will be about. Of course, about half way through them they will not be near as exciting. Oh well, enjoy the moment, right. Temperatures have been rather chilly here. 30 degrees this morning with scattered frost. Hopefully no damage done. We spent the weekend at Jessica’s. Saturday was her baby shower day. She received many nice things but of course I forgot my camera, so no pictures. Her mother-in-law got her a really nice bassinet. She is going to use this upstairs in the bedroom for a while. Then they will put up his crib. We also celebrated Hubby’s birthday while we were there. Hot dogs with all the fixin’s and birthday cake. We had a great time. As usual, though, it goes by too quick. When we came home last night, it was pretty chilly in the house. We hurried and built a fire. We still have one going today but I think it is going to warm up nicely. The sun is shining and it looks beautiful outside. Hubby and I are going to get another load of wood while the girls stay here and work on school. Dale-a friend from church- is bringing over his wood splitter this evening to let us borrow. Thank you Dale and thank you Lord for provided us with such good friends. We are truly blessed. Enjoy your day and God bless.
Grapevine
Our grapevine is looking very good this year. Last year we only had a few grapes, thanks to a late frost. Hopefully we will have much more this year. When we bought the vines I thought I was getting blue concord grapes. However these are green in color. They taste like concord grapes though and make great jelly-it’s just green instead of purple. They seem to be hardy and very productive and that’s what counts.
My mint is doing very well this year. I have to keep a close eye on it though as it loves to take over the garden. I think I will make mint tea today. I make mine by using 2 cups chopped mint leaves with 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil and remove from heat. Let sit for 15 min. Sweeten to taste and refrigerate. This will make 1 qt. of tea. Delicious served cold with ice.
This mint is called pineapple mint. Very colorful. It makes a beautiful border and very good tea as well. Sometimes I mix the two mints together. I love making fresh tea. Today is my friend Vicki’s birthday. We are going over to her house for a cook out and to help her celebrate. I think I will take some fresh tea for her to try. The girls have started the housework so I guess I best help. Take care, enjoy your day and God bless.
Irises
I think irises are very pretty. These were given to us by a friend at church last year. When we planted them, we were not sure they would live but I think they look pretty good. Today has been a beautiful day here in Floyd. Temperatures in the mid 70’s with a gentle breeze. A beautiful day to hang clothes out on the line. Today Hubby and I set up the wringer washing machine for us to use. We had it set up and ready last fall however the line froze and burst so Hubby had to do some repairs. We are ready now. The girls and I washed 3 loads of clothes on it today. It was hard to keep them focused on school because they wanted to help with the wash. I’m sure this thrill will wear off before summer is over but we’ll see. It is a little more work than the automatic machine but more fun to use. I am very thankful to have it. Yesterday, I made some strawberry-rhubarb jam. I used some of the strawberries we got Saturday in N. C. and the rhubarb came from our patch. This is the first thing we have canned for the year. I am looking forward to much more. I really enjoy canning our own food. It is a lot of hard work but I think it is worth it. At least I know what’s in the jar I’m opening for supper. Well, I have much to get done. Take care and God bless.
Our “New” Car
We have a new car. Well, new to us. It is a 1991 Ford Taurus and seems to be in excellent condition. It gets really good gas mileage. We took it down to Jessica’s yesterday and got about 27 mpg. This sounds great to us as “ol Red” only gets about 8 mpg. Please don’t get me wrong, we are very thankful for ol Red. It is just not exactly a family vehicle. The girls and I used ol Red as our vehicle to ride into town for piano and other things. We have had to use the van (Hubby’s work vehicle) for work and leisure. Not a lot of fun. We had to unload all the tools when we were going somewhere, then reload them back when we got home. Times have been hard. These are choices you make in order to make ends meet. But now by the grace of God we have another car. Paid for-no payments. Thank you, Lord. Tonight’s menu at church is Ham loaf, deviled eggs, corn, green beans, cole slaw and corn bread. I am bringing the green beans (home canned) and the corn bread. I use my grinder and grind corn to make the corn meal. It is baking in the oven now and smells soooooo good. I also cut up some fresh strawberries from yesterday. We are having pound cake with strawberries and ice cream for dessert. It all sound delicious! It has been very windy here today. I wanted to work on my bible study outside but it was just too windy. The girls say God is blow drying the earth when the wind blows like this. I guess that’s as good a description as any. Smells like my cornbread is done. I better get it out of the oven. Take care and God bless.
Baby Geese
Here’s a picture of the baby geese. We have 6 of them. Ain’t they cute! I have been hoping to get a better picture of them but so far this is as good as it gets. We have been really busy around here. I had to take Grace to the doctor Thursday. She fell and we thought she might have broken a bone in her foot. Thank the Lord, it was not broken just a sprain. She is feeling much better today. We went down to Jessica’s today for a short visit. We fixed hamburgers on the grill for lunch. There is just something special about sharing food fixed on the grill with family. I love eating outside and today was a beautiful day for it. We also went down to a pick your own strawberry patch that is close to her house. We got 4 gal. for us and 2 gal. for our friend Vicki. We ate 1 of our gal. on the way home. They were delicious! When we got home, we went up on the hill above our house and starting cutting wood for this winter. We got 1 truck load cut, brought it down and unloaded it. Many, many more loads to go but it is a start. We will split it later. So of course, all of me is tired. Hubby is mowing and I am ready for a shower. Take care and God bless.
Grundy
Here are a few pictures Grace took on our Grundy trip. This picture was taken from Granny’s yard looking down on the road.
Looking down the “holler” from the yard.
Granny’s azalea bush in full bloom.
Snowball bush. We had a great visit. It is a very different type of terrain there than it is here. Lots of mountains and lots of trees. Almost everything is built on a hill. I enjoy going back to visit but I prefer living here. Take care and God bless.
Growing Up
This boy has definitely grown. I’m not sure based on the past year if he’ll ever grown up but he has certainly grown. He is a very playful pup and has brought lots of love into our house. (Lots of other things too-but we won’t go into that.) Things have been busy around here for the last couple of days. Saturday I went grocery shopping while Hubby worked on clearing out some stuff from his wood working building. Sunday was church. Then early Monday morning we decided to make a trip to Grundy to see George’s Mom and Dad. We didn’t get back home until a little after 10:00 that night. Long day. Yesterday was piano and I attempted to move that mountain of laundry that had built up. We had to dry everything inside. It was very overcast, chilly and windy. Today promises to be better. The sun is shining already. Hopefully we can use the clothesline today. We have 5 baby geese on the pond. Big excitement. I hope to get a picture of them today so you all can see them. Our rhubarb is ready. I think I will make some strawberry-rhubarb jam. It’s one of our favorites. Well, I think my crew is hungry. I better get some breakfast going. Take care and God bless.
More Spring blooms
I was hoping with this shot to show all the trees colors together. The yellow of the forsythia, the white of the dogwood, and the purple of the lilac. This area is extremely fragant this time of year. When I’m hanging clothes on the line it smells so wonderful. Temperatures have been a little chilly here but today promises to warm up nicely. We are doing school as usual.Today will be our last spelling list. Yeah! I love doing school with my girls but we are all ready for summer break. I have made out my list of books for next year. We useABEKA.They offer free shipping in the month of April, so I want to order them before themonth is over.New books are always exciting around here.This evening I think we will be going into “little town” to get a few groceries, our seed potatoes and a few cabbage plants. I solook forward to enjoying fresh vegetables. Lunch break is over so I better get busy. God bless.
Garden
First step in getting the garden ready.
Then Billy plowed them with the tractor. Sorry I forgot to get a picture of him plowing.
Hubby finished tillering them yesterday evening. We now have peas, onions, and lettuce planted. I hope to get the potatoes and cabbage in the ground this week. I also planted a few cosmos flower seeds yesterday evening. Today will be school as usual. Julie is feeling some better. Hopefully we are getting over all this. We have sunshine at this moment but it is supposed to rain this afternoon. Believe it or not, we actually need rain. The garden was extremely dry. I would have thought with all the snow we had it would not have been. Time for school. Take care and God bless.
Friday Ladies Bible Study Group
This is our Friday Ladies Group. Okay so two are looking down but it is the best we could do. The sun was shining directly in our eyes. The study as I have said before is really good. We have 3 more lessons to go. Then we are going to do I Corinthians using John MacArthur’s study book. Today has been busy. I made a loaf of bread, then made a batch of laundry detergent. We are doing school and in my spare time I have hung out 4 extra large loads of laundry on the line. Rain is supposed to come tomorrow so I wanted to get as much dried outside as I could. We had frost this morning with temperatures about 28. The house is just now started to warm up. I didn’t want to build a fire because then the clothes I put on the line smell like wood smoke. Not a bad smell-just not that fresh spring smell I wanted. Tonights supper menu will be baked chicken, broccoli and cheese, and mashed potatoes. And of course the bread I made today. Dessert will be rhubard dumplings. Sounds pretty good. I guess I better get started on all this food. Hubby has just come in and seems to be VERY hungry. Take care and God bless.
