It is a beautiful morning here in Floyd. I am getting an early start this morning as we have lots we want to accomplish today. Here are a few things we have been doing.

We canned peaches yesterday. We had 12 qts of peaches and 7 pts of peach jam. We are so happy to have these. I haven’t canned peaches in several years.

Corn is pulled and put up in the freezer.

Just look at this beautiful ear of corn.

My view as I shucked the corn. God is so good to allow us to live in this beautiful place.

I pulled out one of our old crocks to make some sauerkraut. These crocks belonged to my mom. I love using them.

We also canned some black beans. I bought the dried beans from Walmart.

A neighbor gave us a box of October beans. Grace had so much fun shelling them out. She worked on them while I made salsa. We had 10 qts of beans and I’m not sure how much salsa. We will be making more salsa today though.

Also big news! Grace and I got a “new” to us car. It is a 2005 Ford Five Hundred. It was a one owner with low mileage. Locally owned. We really like it so far.

So the other day we were going down what we call the back side of the gap and this beautiful creature flew right in front of us and landed in a tree. Thankfully, Grace hardly ever goes anywhere without her camera so she was able to get some awesome pictures of him. He looks like he is posing for her.

Speaking of posing, Grace took this picture of one of our cats. I love it.

I guess that’s all for today. God bless.

We are getting some much needed rain. Also much cooler temperatures! Highs in the mid 70’s. Pretty amazing for the end of July.

Just look at all that beautiful water.

We have been busy doing more canning.

We went to visit Tom and Sally on Friday of last week. We picked 2 and 1/2 bushels of beans. Grace and I have them all canned. We are set now for the winter. We have about 75 quarts we have canned this year and we carried a few jars over from last year. I love that. Green beans are a staple here.

Tom also gave us some jalapeno peppers. I used them to make hot pepper jelly. I plan on sharing these with Tom.

I also tried a new recipe this morning. It is called cowboy candy or candied jalapeno peppers. I only made 2 jars so we can give it a try. It looked really good. I was watching one of my favorite vlogs on you tube this morning, Living Traditions Homestead, and she mentioned it. I had never heard of it before. I love trying new things.

Just a few pictures of the pretty sky.

God bless.

Hello everyone. I thought I would share a few pictures of what else I’ve been doing other than the treehouse.

Canning green beans.

Blueberries,

Carrots,

And making a few pickles. I so enjoy putting up food for winter for my family to enjoy.

Today I tilled this part of the lower garden. It had green beans in it but they are done. We canned 15 qts from here plus ate several times from it. I hope to plant some fall crops here. Carrots, turnips, beets, mustard greens and a late row of beans. Yum!

Just a few of our sunflowers. They are so tall. At least 8 ft maybe 10. They all came up volunteer from last years flowers. I love them!

God bless.

YAY! The treehouse is finished. We are very happy with how it looks.

The steps and the rails are from trees we cut off Dave and Jess’s property. I really like how they turned out. Very strong.

I love this tree going right up through the treehouse.

The kids are loving it. We finished it yesterday evening. I am so happy I got to help with this project. It was hard work but so much fun!

God bless.

So it started with trees and some sawmill lumber. A project!

Then we put the scaffold up.

Ratcheting in the first bolt.

More leverage. And a close up of my finger.

Even more leverage! I think we put in 5 of these bolts!

All the kids had turns.

First board going up. We used sawmill lumber. The frame boards are 2 x 10 and weigh at least 100 lbs. each. We had a hard time lifting them up. The lowest point on the treehouse is 10 ft. The highest is about 12 ft.

Break time.

We started work on this treehouse on Saturday, June 30th. We worked every day until Thursday when Dave had to go back to work. It was 5 hot, humid days. Temperatures in the 90’s.

We made a lot of progress though.

We started again on Saturday morning.

The kids were so happy to finally be getting the floor down.

I just want to take a minute to say what a good man my son in law is. He has put a lot of hard work and money into this treehouse for the kids to enjoy. They have been out there with us every day. He has let them “help”. It takes a lot of love and patience but it is something there will always remember.

That’s me up there!

So we are making the rails out of trees we cut down from their property. This is the first one we cut. It was a little too big for the table saw so Dave had to use the chainsaw. It took a while but he got it done.

In the meantime, this sweet boy is whittling me a garden stake out of a scrap piece of wood.

I love it.

The first rail is up. That’s all until next weekend. The generator ran out of gas and we needed more screws. More updates to follow.

God bless.

This is a picture of my little resting place in the garden. It has become one of my favorite additions to the garden this year.

The garden is doing pretty good so far. We have been enjoying quite a bit of fresh veggies from it.

This is one of my favorites. We planted a few hills of beans in one of our raised beds. We took a chance planting these early because of danger of frost. But it worked out this year and we have BEANS! It’s not enough for canning just enough for eating.

I also dehydrated some zucchini this week. I seasoned it with salt, garlic powder and Italian seasoning. It was pretty good. Something different.

We had a foggy morning yesterday.

I thought the asparagus was beautiful with all the moisture from the fog.

We have some lilies that are blooming. So pretty!

Grace and I took a walk yesterday at Bisset park in Radford. It is such a pretty place.

The walkway reminds us of the trails on Jekyll Island.

As we walked along the trail, we could hear the river in the background.

It was a very nice walk.

Some of the colors reminded us of fall which is a favorite season around here.

Just a few rainbows. I walk downstairs almost every morning to this site. I think they are beautiful and they always brighten our day. Thanks Jess!

God bless.

Yesterday, Grace, Dave and I worked on extending Grace’s duck lot. They have so much more room now.

Don’t they look happy?

We also built a new bird feeder. The one we had been using was coming apart.

We built this one out of scrap pieces we had laying around.

Jess and the kids came over and brought supper. Grace and the kids took a walk on the tractor road. They played a few games and then we built a campfire and made smores. We got a lot done and had a lot of fun.

God bless.

3 Graham cracker crust

3-4 cups fresh fruit (strawberry, blueberry or combination)

1/2 cup lemon juice

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 block cream cheese

Large tub cool whip

All ingredients need to be room temperature. Mix together. Fold in blueberries. Put in pie crusts. Chill and enjoy or freeze for later.

Grace and I took the kiddos blueberry picking yesterday. The blueberries are just loaded on the bushes.

We pick at a farm about an hour from my house.

Road trip in Mawmaw’s car.

They always fall asleep. So cute!

It was hot already by the time we got there but still a lot of fun.

See how pretty the berries are. We plan on making some blueberry ice cream with some of them. Yum!

It can’t be all work and no play though. We stopped at this park on the way home for some fun time.

Then PIZZA time!

It was a good day! God bless.

https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/pat-in-pan-pastry/bd055bce-e405-4daa-b99f-57d54fcc66aa