Grapevine

Our grapevine. You can see another smaller “brash” pile in the second garden. We are hoping to have lots and lots of grapes this year. Now that we have our steamer juicer, we are looking forward to making lots of grape juice . We certainly did enjoy the apple juice we made last year. I want to experiment with other types of fruit to make juice.

Today is another beautiful day here in Floyd. Very windy though, as usual. Temperature is already in the 50’s. Forecast is for rain over the weekend. I was hoping for sunshine and warm temperatures but I know we did rain too. The ladies will be coming in a little bit. We are planning on doing some more outside work after our study is finished. The girls work on school while the ladies and I are doing our bible study. We are working on a surprise outside which I will show you all when we get it finished.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 18, 2011 7

Jerky

Monday we made jerky. Jerky is one of our favorite things to dehydrate. As some of you may remember, we were blessed last year to have a beef given to us. As it was an old bull , we made hamburger out of most of it. Above is a picture of our dehydrator, our jerky shooter and the type of jerky mix we use. All this came from Wal-Mart. There a lots of jerky mixes out there, this is just the one we use.

This is what it looks like after it has dried. The rack is not necessary. I just put it on it to take the picture. I thought it would show the jerky better.

When finished, it all fits neatly back into this basket and off the the attic it goes to be stored until next time. We have dehydrated apples and peppers too, a few bananas and grapes. We used to dry our green beans on a string in the attic when we lived in Grundy. I wonder how green beans would be dried in a dehydrator. Anyone out there ever tried this? I think I will try it this summer and see how it turns out. We just called them fodder beans but I have heard them referred to as leather britches. I know they are good no matter what you call them.

We did get a storm last night but it was only rain. YEAH! Temperatures are very nice today. Mid 40’s already. Lots of sunshine. I have clothes outside on the line. The wind is supposed to pick up after lunch, about 30 mph with gusts in the 50 mph range. Typical wind for Floyd. It helps the clothes dry and makes them soft as long as you can keep them on the line.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

February 2, 2011 5

An Unplanned Visit

Yesterday was a fun day. At the spur of the moment, we decided to travel down to Grundy and visit Hubby’s parents. We took food for lunch. We took canned beef, green beans, corn, and peaches. We also dug some potatoes, gathered some tomatoes, cabbage and grapes. This was a special treat for them as they are no longer able to raise a garden. While we were there, she gave me some more empy canning jars. This way hopefully we won’t have to buy any to finish up the canning.

She does have, though, growing on her hill a huge cushaw vine. This is one of the hidden treasures it contains. I really like cushaw, probably more than pumpkin. I think it makes a better pie than pumpkin. We really had a good visit. We took the scenic route home. I’ll post some of those pictures hopefully tomorrow.

Today will be spent catching up and enjoying the day. We will be starting school next Monday, so this is kinda our vacation week. Take care and God bless.

August 31, 2010 2

Newest Helper

My newest helper. It is a steam juicer. I only found out about these this summer. I think it will be very helpful for making juice. I also can steam veggies in it. Our grapes are almost ready so I am excited to try it out. Hopefully it will be a wise investment.

We had a very busy weekend. Hubby went to a shooting range with some people from church and the girls and I went to do some shopping. I’ve been having trouble with my blood pressure being high and I am taking Hibiscus capsules for it. Our health food store does not carry it so we have to go to another town to get it. We also had to go to Lowes and purchase new stove eyes. All the eyes on my stove had stopped working but one. We got those put on but still had to go back Sunday and get two new receptables. I think we are in good working order now. It felt like I was cooking on a new stove this morning, with all the eyes working.

A couple at our church celebrated their 50th anniversary this past week. The church and her family gave them a surprise party. Yes we did manage to keep it a secret. Pretty amazing! We had lots of good food and fellowship. We are so blessed to have such good examples for our young people to follow.

The decorations were very nice. One little boy asked me if the cake was real or was it just to look at. It was very pretty. It was real by the way.

Well, we have lots to do today so I better get busy. Enjoy your day and God bless.

August 16, 2010 1

Pastor’s House

I think you can learn a lot about a man by his hands. These hands say I work hard. I am married. I love to work the land. I’m sure if I were a good writer I could write a story just from this picture. This man loves the Lord. Not only in word but in action. We are very blessed to have him as our pastor. Thank you Lord!

A picture of his grapes. He has several different types of grapevines growing. I forget what he told me the name of these were but they were very sweet and delicious.

The girls and I have been busy with beans. We canned 11 quarts yesterday. One of them broke in the canner so we only had 10 to add to the canning list. I picked a gallon of blackberries this morning and we’ll can those later today. We love to make blackberry dumplings and cobblers. I also want to make salsa today. I think we have enough tomatoes. They are mostly yellow tomatoes so it will look a little different but hopefully taste just as good. Maybe even better. I know we have enough peppers.

Sunday morning is our Sunday School breakfast. Every year we have a big breakfast at Smartview Park-a small picnic area on the Blueridge Parkway. After breakfast we do Sunday school. Tom will proably have a message as well. We love all our little get-togethers we have. Our church is really big on fellowship and I am glad. I think it is an important part of being a church family. If I remember the camera I will try to take some pictures to show you all.

I guess I better get busy. Take care and God bless.

July 30, 2010 1