Grapes

This picture of our grapevine was taken on April 12. This is what it looked like last week.

It seems to be growing every day and full of baby grapes!

This makes me very happy. I hope to make some jelly this year and lots and lots of grape juice! We so enjoy having our own juice to drink.

Our weekend was a busy one. I didn’t get to tell all about it on yesterdays post. It was late and I was tired. Anyway, on Friday, our church had a mother/daughter banquet. It was lots of fun with about 25 ladies attending. Then on Saturday, we had to go to Jessica’s to start working on some things her ins. agency said needed to be done. After we got there, Hubby realized we would need the scaffold, so we came back home Saturday evening. We went back down on Sunday and finished it up. Jess, the kids, myself, Julie and Grace went to the Farmers Market on Sunday. We had a great time just walking around looking at everything. Okay, so I have to tell you, we rode Jessica’s van to the market. 7 of us. We took the double stroller and the small stroller, plus, of course, all the other stuff you need for small kids. Needless to say, her van was packed. Then when we get there, the first thing Jess sees-2 HUGE hanging baskets, that would look just perfect on her front porch. Now if you would like to have seen something funny, you should have been there in the parking lot watching us try to get all that stuff back in the van. It really was hilarious!! We finally did it though and didn’t even damage her new hanging baskets. I guess we are just talented.

Our lunch break is over and so I must get back to school. Enjoy your day and God bless.

May 8, 2012 5

New Home

The little chicks new home is ready!! We worked on it all day today-running the fence and putting up the gate. Hubby helped or we would not have finished it. They have 150 feet of fenced in area to run in.

Check out their gate. It was an old baby crib spring.

They seem very happy to have more room. We are planning on leaving them in the building part tonight to give them time to adjust. Tomorrow we will open the door and see how they do in the fenced in lot. Needless to say, we are all tired but SO happy to get this big job done.

I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

May 7, 2012 6

Irises

Our irises are in full bloom! These were given to us several years ago by a friend from church. It has taken them a while to get going but I think they are looking pretty good this year.

We have been busy this week. Does any one think this is becoming the norm? Seems like spring is a busy time. Anyway, we went to the dentist on Tuesday. Both girls got a good report. Then on Wednesday, we went to Sam’s club and bought our bulk items. Yesterday, we went down to Jessica’s. Today is full as well. Our church is doing a Mother/Daughter banquet this evening. I am bringing rolls. I also have to take Hubby’s van in to Little Town to get 2 tires put on. I was hoping the girls and I could get the nests made today for the little chicks. Hubby also wants to work on the floor for the new boxed in part of the back porch when he gets in from the job site. We’ll see.

School has taken a back burner this week with all that has been going on. We only lack 15 more lessons in math and we’ll be finished with it for the summer. We are calling quits to language when math is finished. Then we plan on doing history and science during June and July and taking August and September off. These two months are so busy here with canning. It is much easier for us to take those months off.

I also hope to make strawberry jam today. Yesterday, while down at Jessica’s we got 2 gal. of strawberries. I put one gallon in the freezer yesterday evening and hope to make jam with the other gallon today. I think Jessica is planning on making jam tomorrow. I am going to try using the liquid certo this time. I just haven’t been having success with the powdered sure jell.

Well, that’s about it for now. I better get busy if I am going to get anything done. I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

May 4, 2012 5

Snow

Hello ladies! Just a quick post to let you all know we are getting snow. It has been snowing here all morning. Nothing has laid on but it sure is pretty to look at. Temperature is 32 degrees with lots of wind. Feels like winter not spring.

Well, I am off to help Hubby. He is already on the job site waiting for me. School is almost finished. The girls will do history after lunch. Enjoy your day and God bless.

April 23, 2012 8

Update on Job Site

Hello everyone! I know it has been several days since I made a post. First off, my blog was down for a few days. Thanks to David, I am now back up and running. Second, we have been pretty busy here. I thought I would share a few pictures of how the progress is coming on Hubby’s job.

We tore up the flooring in the livingroom. It was in pretty bad shape.

The floor joists were sitting down on the ground. Of course, there is only one way to fix that.

This was our progress as of Monday evening. Tuesday the girls and I had to go to C-burg so I didn’t get to help (too bad, right!) Hubby did finish moving the dirt out of this section. Next we will tear up the other side of the floor and do the same thing again. It is hard work but exciting. The house is really starting to take shape. Today, I helped him hang sheetrock on another job. Thank the Good Lord, work seems to be picking up some for us. We are SO thankful!

The girls working on school work. Homeschool is so much fun. We can take it with us wherever we go.

I thought I would show you all what damage termites can do.

We will be replacing these pieces of wood with blocks. Tuesday when we went to C-burg we stopped by the Horn’s for a visit. They had a great surprise.

Baby Ducks!!! Their mama duck had just hatched 16 baby ducks. It was very exciting. We had a nice visit and Vicki helped me (actually she did all the work) list some school books on Ebay to sell. Thanks again, Vicki.

Today has been wet and chilly here in Floyd. When we came home from hanging the sheetrock, I built a fire to take the chill out of the house. Wet weather seems to make the house feel colder. Well, I think that about catching up all we have been doing. I hope you all have a good evening and God bless.

April 18, 2012 8

Birds and Spring Cleaning

The other day when we went to work with Hubby, Grace got these pictures.

I think she did a really good job. Today was spring cleaning day at church. Every spring we set aside one Saturday to come and clean the church. Heavy duty cleaning. We had a great time and the church looks and smells really nice. We were hanging up the freshly washed curtains when I noticed how nice they smelled. I commented on it and was told they had been washed in the homemade lavender laundry soap that I made. How about that!

Here are a few random pictures taken today.

This picture is looking directly across the road from our church. See how green the trees are getting.

Grace cleaning the windows.

Steve cleaning the ramp.

Not sure what Ross is doing.

And they think we women talk a lot. Enjoy your day and God bless.

April 14, 2012 4

Grapevine

Our grapevine is coming along nicely. Remember last year we cut it back too much and didn’t get not one single grape from it. We are hoping for lots and lots of grapes this year.

We have been busy this week with school and other miscellaneous things. Nothing too big. We went to help Hubby yesterday. The room he is working on needs lots of work on the floor. It is sagging very badly. He has to take the floor up and get under the house to jack it up. It had little linoleum squares on it that had been put on with some kind of heavy duty glue. We had to take the heat gun to each individual square and then use a shovel to get them up. It took most of the day.

We are having a little cold spell here. We call it dogwood winter as the dogwoods are in full bloom. We have been in the upper 20’s at night with frost. Yesterday’s high was low 40’s with lots of wind. Chilly but today has been nice. Sun and temperatures in the low 60’s. I like that much better.

Well, that’s about all that is happening here. I hope you all have a wonderful evening and God bless.

April 12, 2012 4

Miss Katie

I wanted to share with you all this picture of Miss Katie. She is all dressed up on her way to her cousin’s birthday party. Ain’t she cute?

The girls and I will be going with Hubby today so this will be a very short post. I have lots and lots to get done in a short amount of time when we go with him. Enjoy your day and God bless.

April 2, 2012 5

Fruit Trees

Yesterday evening the girls and I planted 6 fruit trees. Grace dug every hole. She was very excited about getting fruit trees. As you can see, she has good helpers- the cats and the chickens.

And, of course, our ever faithful Shadow.

We planted an asian pear, bartlett pear, plum tree, golden delicious apple tree, golden transparent apple tree, and a nectarine tree. We hope to get 2 cherry trees in April. While we were working on the trees, Hubby was busy trimming the blackberries.

It was a nice, productive evening. After we finished planting, we went to get the clothes off the line and a huge flock of geese flew directly over our heads to land in the field. Of course, we had already put the camera up so I couldn’t get a picture. It would have made a beautiful picture though.

Today will be school as usual. Hopefully, with more outside work afterward. Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 29, 2012 4

Daniel, Sam and Katie

We went down to Jessica’s today and I finally got a few pictures to show you all-thanks to Grace.

Sam was saying “cheese”.

Miss Katie. Hasn’t she grown? She had a well visit check up today and she weighed 15 lb.

We went to work with Hubby yesterday. I will try to get some pictures of his progress next time we go. Tomorrow after school, we will be going to get Grace’s new glasses. I am so glad. For those of you who do not know, Grace has worn glasses since before she was a year old. Last year, when she got a new prescription, I noticed she was wearing them down quite far on her nose. I questioned her and she said they hurt her eyes if she wore them up farther. I should have taken her back but to be honest I guess I thought she had just got in the habit of wearing them down on her nose. WRONG! They had put her bifocal up way too high in the glasses. So I know she will be so glad to get her new ones.

We had a tremendous amount of rain over the weekend. Lots of areas close by had large amounts of hail-3 to 6 in. I’m very thankful we didn’t have any. Temperatures dropped considerably after the hail. This morning it was 28 degrees with a heavy frost. I think I will have to build a fire this evening. It is fairly chilly inside the house.

I’m not sure if this worked or not. I was hoping to show you all a picture of the hail at the shooting range nearby. This is where Hubby and others from church go to shoot clays.

I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

March 27, 2012 4