Snake

We have lived here on the farm for 7 years. This is the first snake we have ever seen. There have been a few water snakes at the pond but never one close to the house. Now I know this is a black snake and many people think they are good to have around. I am not one of those people. The only good snake I have ever seen is a dead one. This snake was at the door to the canning building when Grace went to put the applesauce up. She came running down and Dad went to the rescue. Thanks Babe! I think this is probably the biggest snake I have ever seen. Now Shadow (our old dog) was resting in the shade when all this took place. I guess he knew Hubby could handle it.

The girls and I had fun at town today. No great deals to write about though. I saw a few dresses at Goodwill but nothing really caught our eyes. The girls used their chore money to purchase a new game for the Nintendo DS. They are really good about saving up their money to purchase things they want. We think it is better for them to work for things like that, then they appreciate them more. It teaches them how to manage their money, set goals and attain them. Good life lessons.

Enjoy your evening and God bless.

June 23, 2010 2

He’s Here

Samuel Lucas Bates arrived today at 10:53 A.M. He weighed 7 lb even and is 20″ long. He, of course, is a beautiful boy. I do have pictures, however, I do not know how to load them on David’s computer. I will post pictures as soon as I go home. Thanks to all of you for your prayers. It was a fast and relatively easy delivery. Both him and his mother are doing very well. Daniel, the girls and I are having a good time together, however he misses his mom and dad terribly. Hopefully, they will be back home tomorrow. I just wanted to let everyone know he is here and well. Thanks again for your prayers. Take care and God bless.

June 7, 2010 2

Garden

Here are just a few shots of our garden. We hope to soon enjoy squash as you can see the bloom on it. This one tomato plant will be an early one. The others are not near as big. Yesterday was a beautiful day here in Floyd. Hubby and I finished getting the garden out. We planted a few more tomatoes and beans and corn.

Later in the evening we got a good rain. I guess God knew our seeds needed a drink. The girls and I are working on cleaning the house today and washing clothes. My house is a little behind as we have been doing up the beef. Our total is 80 quarts of canned beef and 88 bags of hamburger. Pretty good I think. Tomorrow is bible study day. We are studying I Corinthians. Little Samuel will be here in 4 more days. Unless he decides to come before then. We all can hardly wait to see him and hold him. God is good! Also hopefully David will have my computer back in operation soon. I really miss it. It’s sometimes hard for me and Hubby to coordinate on one computer. His free time is usually my free time too. Well, my time is up. The wringer is calling my name. Take care and God bless.

June 3, 2010 3

Wood

An almost empty wood pile. Remember how this looked last fall. I would show you the picture but all my old pictures are still sleeping on my computer, which is “resting” for a while. Anyway, last fall this shed had 7 rows deep of wood and 2 rows on each side. All gone. We used almost all of the wood last winter. Saturday, we all worked on the wood pile. George and I used the splitter and the girls stacked it up.

This is what the pile looked like. We have about 1/3 of it split and stacked in the building-three rows deep. We want to have more wood this winter than we had last winter. Just in case, it is another hard winter. It is better to be prepared. I want to take a moment to complement my girls. They worked very hard Saturday and did an excellent job stacking the wood. Thank you, Julie and Grace.

Another picture I know Jess will love. The girls found this lunar moth on the building the other day. Very pretty. They enjoy finding pictures for me to use. Rather chilly here today. Upper 40’s for the temperature. Lots of rain. We had a really hard rain last night while we were at church. We do our Sunday night study in the basement. Water started coming in through the basement door. We had to stop our study and get busy-quick. The outside drain could not handle all the water. Thanks to mops, a shop vac, and a sump pump we finally got it all dried out. I’m just glad it happened while we were there. It would not have been fun to discover all that water on Wednesday night. Imagine what damage it could have done. God is good. Of course, after all that hard work, the food tasted extra good. Time for piano lessons. Take care and God bless.

May 17, 2010 5

Growing Up

Look how much the baby geese have grown.

Learning how to follow in a line.

They have grown so much. I guess I didn’t realize how fast they would grow. They wonder all around in the fields and even sometimes in the yard. Very cute.

We also have other new babies. The girls found these yesterday in one of our outbuildings. I’m not sure who their momma is but they are very cute.

Fog came in this morning. If you look very closely you can see the geese on the pond. Now you can’t even see the pond. Very foggy. Very dreary but good for the plants I put in the garden yesterday. Yesterday was a very busy day. When I was young, my mom would use the term “wash day”. I understand this term better now. On a wringer washer, doing lots of laundry literally is a full day of work. I filled up all my clotheslines twice. LOTS of laundry. Included in this full day, I also put all the vegetable plants we had purchased in the garden. Hopefully we are done with frost. Last night was Team Kids at church. Next Wednesday is party night as this will be the last week until fall. Tomorrow we will finish up our Esther study by Beth Moore. This has been a very good study. I highly recommend it. Our Ladies Friday Study will be doing I Corinthians by John MacArthur next. After that, I want to do Beth Moore’s study on Revelation. Is anyone familiar with it? I have looked at it at Lifeway but I would like to get feedback from someone who has done it. Our Corinthians study is 12 weeks so I have a while to decide. Better get busy. Take care and God bless.

May 13, 2010 2

New School Books

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.

May 10, 2010 5

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.

May 6, 2010 0

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.

May 5, 2010 1

Dandelions

I think life is much about choices. How we look at things determine how we react to them. For example we can choose to see this as just ugly weeds we wish did not grow in our yard or

we can view them as bright, beautiful, yellow flowers. Years ago, when my daughters were little, they taught me to love dandelions. Dandelions are usually the first flowers little hands gather and deliver with much love to their mamas. How special that makes them. Perhaps that is why God created them. Anyway my girls and I love them.

This is a flower almost everyone loves. My lilac bush is starting to bloom! I can hardly wait. The bush is outside our laundry room window and it smells wonderful when in bloom.

The girls and I worked very hard last week getting the garden ready to burn off. Somehow the pile seemed so much bigger last week. Anyway we worked every day after school except one. It rained that day. It is now ready to burn. Hopefully if it is not too windy Hubby will do it this evening. Then it will be ready for him to till. He has to do some work on our tiller first but anyway we are gettting closer. I hope to have it tilled and ready to start planting by the end of the month. I love it! David is gone on a business trip, so Jess and Daniel are coming up to stay with us. I am looking forward to a great visit. Everyone take care and may God bless your day.

April 12, 2010 3

Spirea Bush

Another sign of spring. The spirea bush is in full bloom. It has beautiful, small white flowers on it. I think Friday when the ladies come I will make a bouquet of spirea and forsythia blooms. Very cheerful! School today as usual. It is getting so hard to do school as usual. We so want to be outside playing and doing outside chores. The girls playing-me doing outside chores. Well, we must persevere. I know it will be worth it. Temperature is very nice here today. About 80 degrees. I have clothes drying on the line, blowing in the breeze. I love hanging clothes outside. They smell so wonderful. Tonight’s menu will be homemade pizza. Last summer, we made several jars of pizza sauce from our tomatoes. We have almost used them all so I guess we will need to make more this summer than we did last summer. I think it is important for my girls to know how to raise a garden, to harvest the produce and then how to preserve it for later use. I think in todays fast paced America this is becoming a lost art. I was blessed to acquire this knowledge from my mother and I want to pass it down.

It tastes as good as it looks. Enjoy your day and God bless.

April 7, 2010 1