I thought I would share a few spring pictures with everyone.  I am not sure what these flowers are.  We made a trip to Rocky Mount today and they were on the side of the road.

Mayapple coming up.

Redbuds blooming.

Wild mustard.

Weeping cherry.

Pretty tree(in other words, I am not sure what kind of tree it is).

Bluebells.

More pretty flowers.  Rocky Mount is off the mountain from us.  They are warming than we are so their season is about 2 weeks ahead of us.And just because I know everyone wants to see more pictures of John Luke, here he is coming home yesterday evening.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Isn’t he beautiful!

Daddy doing the first diaper.

Our friend Bumblebee, who sat with us all day, all night and all day again just for this moment! Mommy, Daddy and John Luke.  God is good all the time and we praise Him for this brand new person in our family.

This is Vicki’s recipe for black bean burgers.

Baked Black Bean Veggie Burgers

1 (16oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 green bell pepper(I always leave this out)

1/2 onion(I use onion powder)

3 garlic cloves

1 egg

1 Tbsp chili powder

1 Tbsp cumin

1 tsp hot sauce

1 cup breadcrumbs

1. Pre-heat oven to 375º.

2. Dry off the beans as much as possible. In a bowl, mash beans with a fork until thick and pasty.

3. Finely chop bell pepper, onion, and garlic and stir into mashed black beans.

4. In a small bowl, stir together egg, spices, and hot sauce.

5. Stir egg mixture into beans. Mix in the bread crumbs until the mixture is sticky and holds together. Divide the mixture into four patties.

6. Place patties on lightly greased baking sheet. Bake about 10 minutes on each side.

Hello everyone!  Yesterday was a very nice day here in Floyd.  We spent the afternoon working outside.  We planted one of our beds in early spring seeds.  Peas, onions, spinach, chard, salad mix, cabbage, and lettuce.  My mouth waters just thinking about it all.

Things are starting to come alive here.  Our lilac bush has buds on it.  Just look how green the yard is looking!

The blueberry bushes are doing good.  I think one of them didn’t survive the winter so we will have to replace it but the other two look really good.  We all love blueberries.  The birds love them too so it is a race to see who gets to them first.  I think this year we may get some netting to cover them so that we can be sure to get some.Forsythia bush.  It looks so pretty when it blooms.

Rhubarb poking through the ground.  We transplanted this plant up to the garden this spring.  I am glad to see it is doing okay.  We are looking forward to rhubard pies and dumplings soon.  Jessica, Chuck and Irma like to just eat it dipping the stalk in a little salt or sugar.

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

Hello everyone!  We have been having some really nice weather here in Floyd.  Today it is snowing BUT we have had several warm days.  You all know what this old country girl likes to do on warm days.  Garden!  I love being outside working.  Yesterday, we worked on making an asparagus bed.  We have never raised asparagus before but last year a lady from our church gave us some she raised.  It was so good.   We knew we wanted to give it a try.  I looked it up online and this is how it recommended planting it.  First you dig a trench.

Then you must have an excellent helper like Ezzie.  Just kidding, we would have finished much earlier without her help but it would not have been near as much fun.

Then we filled the trenches with good rich dirt and laid out the rhizomes.  We had 20 so we put 10 in each trench.  We then covered them with more rich dirt.

Then  we covered it up good with hay.  The internet said to use straw but we have free hay so that’s what we used.  I think the hen is trying to figure out how to get inside the garden fence.

Both gardens are tilled, the raised beds are ready and the grass is getting green.  I love this time of year.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

I love seeds!  Just look at all these beautiful packages full of opportunities for good food.  I got all my seeds out this morning and organized them.  So much fun.  This year I ordered a lot of my seeds from companies that I get seed catalogs from.  I haven’t ordered seeds in years.  I have been just buying them locally but I decided to go a different route this year.  I will be trying some different  seeds this time.

Yesterday was a beautiful day here in Floyd.  We worked some in the garden in the afternoon.  Getting it ready to be tillered.  Also we am working on an asparagus bed.  We have never raised asparagus before.  Last year a friend of ours gave us some she had raised.  It was SO good.  So we decided to try our hand at raising it this year.  We should be receiving it this week or next so we thought we had better get everything ready.  Anyone who has experience with asparagus, I would appreciate any advice you have.

We also brought out the charcoal grill yesterday evening and grilled chicken for supper.  It tasted so good-like summer! It felt so good to be outside in the warm sunshine.  I am looking forward to getting out more.  I love working outside.   We are getting some rain here today but the temperature is still warm.  Maybe this evening we might be able to work some more in the garden area.  It always takes a while to get everything ready.

That’s about it.  I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

I thought I would show you all what is going on with our pond.  Remember last year, we had trouble with it overflowing, well, now it is draining.

We are pretty certain that a piece of ice somehow damaged the drain.  The water coming out of the pipe continuously flows into the pond from the spring up in the field.    Normally the water is up to the pipe, sometimes even covering the pipe.  Not today!

Always something exciting going on here.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Good morning everyone!  It is a beautiful morning here in Floyd.  The sun is shining and temperatures are warm-upper 50’s.  It was so nice to sit outside and drink our coffee this morning.

I thought I would share a few pictures of Ezzie.  She has tripled in size since we got her.  Fetch is one of her favorite games(she has many favorite games).  Here she is waiting for her donut to be thrown.  Notice her eyes are locked on the donut.

Here she is running to catch it.  If you look to the left of her, you can see the donut still in the air.

Now she is debating.  “Do I really want to give it back to you or do I want to keep it.  Okay, I’ll give it to you but you gotta throw it again!”  This game goes on and on.  I don’t think she would ever get tired of playing it.  Which is a good thing as she certainly does have a lot of energy.

Clouds are moving in and they are calling for 3-5 inches of snow for tomorrow.  Oh well, this is March.  Spring is just around the corner.  I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

Hello everyone!  I hope you are all having a good week so far.  Things are good here.  We are enjoying another snow.  We got about 5-6 in. here last night.   I know there are many people who do not enjoy snow but I am not one of them.  I can deal with snow any time over ice.  Now with that said, I am VERY much looking forward to spring, warm temperature, picnics with friends and gardening.

I tried a new snow cream recipe today and I do believe it is the best I have ever eaten.  I plan on posting the recipe in just a little bit.  We think making snow cream makes snow days much more fun.

Jess had a doctors appointment yesterday for her and John Luke.  All seems to be going well for both of them.  His arrival date is April 18th.  My birthday is the 17th and Dave’s is the 19th.  We think it would be amazing for him to be born between our birthdays.  Jess thinks it would be amazing if he decided to be born a little earlier than that.   Oh well, all in God’s time.

That’s about it for now.  Enjoy your day and God bless.