GOD'S REMINDERS

 A leisurely Sunday morning felt good after the full workday yesterday. I was actually surprised that my back isn't sore like it felt it would be last night.   I got chores done this morning and then had breakfast before gathering lettuce and onions for our first wilted lettuce salad of the season. We are also having chipped beef in gravy , corn, green beans and biscuits, with iced tea to drink and a keylime pie for dessert.   Everyone made it to lunch except daughter's family who are on their way back from watching one of son-in-love's nieces graduate high school yesterday, congrats to Karley !!!   

 After we ate #2 son and d-in-love-Tif walked around the farm and checked the garden out.  Everyone left and hubbie and I relaxed in the covered patio .  IR called and asked to come over for a while so daughter brought had and CA over to play outside  to finish out the afternoon.  After they left I got chores done and then watered some in the garden.  I remembered to take late garden pics for June this evening. I usually do this on the first day of the month but here is our garden a week late.                         First is winter squash that haven't come up yet, then a row of different types of pole beans, then tomatoes start.

After the tomatoes are peppers of all types in two rows, followed by a row of new types of bush beans, then my bush beans for dilly beans, followed by a row of sparsely coming up cucumbers and squash , last row before the potatoes is a row of half runner pole beans.

A better view of the half runner pole beans that came up sparsely and were replanted last Monday then the huge potato vines . These potatoes are very tall, above my waist and I am about 5'5" tall.

After the potato patch is a row of onions, then another row of half runner beans that also came up sparsely and was replanted last Monday, then a row of okra that I planted last Monday, a row of  cucumbers and squash that was replanted last Monday right before the pea row.

After the sugar snap pea row is the broccoli and cabbage and some late tomatoes, last row is my brussel sprout plants and more late tomatoes. 

So far this year has been a challenging gardening year as proved by the sparsely coming up vegetables but I am going to continue to replant these until my seeds are gone hoping to get at least some canning done this year.     This is a new bed I made that contains some Candy roaster plants.

This is my leaf lettuce bed that has done fantastic with me watering it regularly.

This bed of asparagus didn't do well this year in the funky weather and bolted quickly.

I moved on to the surprising fruits around the farm. After the late cold temps I was afraid I had lost most of my fruit but nature is an amazing thing always and these blackberries look like they will have a bumper crop.

The most amazing thing is these grape vines. If you remember us covering these up and being so disappointed when we pulled the covers off finding this I marked these off my this years crops to harvest.

This was what these same vines looked like on April 23rd after an overnight freeze.

But just look at them now, we may not get a full harvest but there is a lot of grapes back on these recovered vines.                                                                                                                                        The blueberries we covered survived completely also making the extra work we went to covering them worth it.

And even this Kiefer pear tree is loaded with fruit , some of which has visible damage but will be good for jam.

Another amazing recovery had nothing to do with the weather but with large tree pieces being slammed down on it is these Hosta and daylillies that have recovered completely from being driven in the ground by the falling tree trunk pieces.

This is what these looked like about a month ago.

Nature proves it's resilience time and time again which shows the power of the hand of God in all His creations. The ability to bounce back from adversity comes natural to all things in nature and I strive to be more like this since God also created me and gave me the ability to deal with adversity just as He did all His creations.

Thankful for the blessings of this day and the reminders of His Love that are all around us.

God Bless and Good Night

WORKDAY SATURDAY

 Up to get a busy day started. I got chores done and had breakfast then headed outside to get all the chicken houses cleaned out and refreshed. It is hot and humid this morning. Hubbie is working in the garden getting tomatoes staked and straw around them.  I sweated gallons it seemed like between wearing a mask so I wouldn't breathe the chicken dust and the sun beating down on me as I carried buckets to the compost pile.  One by one I got all the houses cleaned and new shavings put in while alternating between the houses to wait on egg layers who don't appreciate company while they are on the nest.                            The big hen house where the older hens live.

The Silkie house.....

The lower house where this years pullets reside......

The new tractor that holds half the incubator chicks hatched this year.....

This is the combination of the three Silkie hens who hatched these chicks this year....They are doing fine put in here together. I ended up with 3 Silkie chicks and 6 layer hen chicks. 

Hubbie also got the three raspberry plants I bought back in April set out here at the end of the garden . 

Whew by the time I finished and came inside for a late lunch I was dripping with sweat and completely covered in dust from the chicken houses. Before I ate I had to take a shower and put on clean clothes.     Hubbie and I cleaned out the refrigerator's left over shelf for lunch today. I had a hotdog, an ear of corn and watermelon.  I spent the next hour inside catching up on some housework. I changed all the furniture covers for the month along with the placemats and some decor but decided to leave most of the spring decor up since it goes with the new covers also.   Back outside I cleaned out a couple of my raised beds and gave the chickens a treat of spent greens, radishes and lettuce. The vegetables in these beds are struggling like everything else with no rain. 

Hubbie and I rested out in the covered patio watching clouds roll in and the temperature drop to a comfortable mid 70's with a nice breeze.  We got evening chores done and then relaxed for the evening.

Thankful for the blessings of this day.

God Bless and Good Night

PLAYDAY FRIDAY

 Up to greet all three grand girls today. I got chores done then we all had breakfast .  After we finished eating I delivered a cake order and came home to let the girls play outside until lunchtime.

G-son came up and we all ate lunch together. After we ate g-son was tired so he went home and we loaded up the strollers, some snacks and drinks and the girls and headed over to the walking trail. The girls have so much fun doing this and they get to observe so much along the trail.  

We came home to wait for their mom's to pick them up.  Meow Meow is the receiver of lots of affection around here these days and he seems to love it.

After the girls all went home hubbie and I grilled some hotdogs for our supper and then got chores done. I moved all the chicks who have been with the 3 mama Silkies into a large box together tonight and put their mamas back in with the flock. One of the mamas has laid several eggs so that is a sure sign that they need to return to the flock. The chicks are all over a month old and are fully feathered.

Too dark tonight for a pic so I will take one tomorrow once the chicks settle down.

After chores  we sat out in the covered patio and watched another cloudy sunset.

Thankful for the blessings of this day.

God Bless and Good Night

THANKFUL FOR A LITTLE RAIN

 Up to get a busy day started. All three grand girls are here again today while RL's other g-ma is still feeling under the weather. I got chores done and then grabbed a breakfast bar and coffee before getting the truck loaded up with cake and egg orders to add to our weekly errand trip today. Our first stop was the Curb Market to meet an egg customer and a cake customer .  I am very grateful for orders these days as business is still very slow to non existent at market .  I talked to a market member who has been going to market regularly and he said customers are few and very few vendors are braving coming back yet.   We left market and made stops at Sav Mor grocery, the dump/recycle center and the PO before heading home . The girls were all troopers and CA napped.  They weren't hungry when we got home so hubbie and I ate out lunch while CA napped and IR and RL played under the dining room table with castles and dolls.          After we ate they decided they were ready for lunch so they ate mac and cheese and spaghetti .   After they ate I took them outside so CA could continue her nap.  It is cloudy and looks like rain any minute today and there is a breeze that makes it feel chilly. RL started not feeling well and was laying in my lap when her mom came to pick her up early after getting her bus drivers license.  She took RL home for a nap to hopefully feel better by gymnastics time. Daughter picked up IR and CA . Hubbie and I watched the news while it came a nice rain shower that dropped about 1/3rd inch in the gauge.  Thankfully RL was feeling better after a nap and went to gymnastics with IR and wore their matching outfits.

After the rain things look so much brighter and this Kousa Dogwood really perked up as all the blooms had the limbs really bent down. From the looks of all these blooms there will be plenty of berries for the birds winter diet this year.

After I finished chores I sat out in the covered patio and watched the sun set behind the clouds as a heavy mist settles over the mountains.

We are hoping for more rain overnight but we are very thankful for what we got.   I spent the evening icing the cakes I baked last night.

Thankful for the blessings of this day.

God Bless and Good Night

CLOUDY COOL WEDNESDAY

 Up to greet all 3 grand girls this morning. I got chores done and had breakfast then daughter came to pick up IR and CA to take them to get their 4 year  and 2 year physical exams. Since their birthdays are so close it is convenient to take both together.  They were both perfectly healthy thankfully. 

She brought them back here and went back to work after their exams.   I picked up an Aldi curbside order grocery order this morning and everyone helped get things put away.  It is cloudy today so the girls spent the morning playing in the yard .

After we all ate lunch, hubbie fixed spaghetti and g-son came up and had lunch with us also.  After we ate g-son went home and the rest of us loaded in the Honda and went to Fletcher Feed to pick up chicken feed. Seems these trips get more and more often especially this time of year with the addition of my meat roosters.   CA slept the entire trip and after we got home and unloaded the feed we put her on the couch and I stayed inside while hubbie took the older girls outside so CA could sleep in peace as she is not feeling great with cutting her 2 year molars.  

After the moms picked up the girls hubbie and I watched the news then got chores done.  The clouds are thickening and we are hoping for rain overnight.  We came inside and I iced 2 chocolate cakes and baked 6 more cakes.  I also spent time in my office tonight figuring weekly paperwork and paying bills.

Thankful for the blessings of this day.

God Bless and Good Night

PARK PLAY DAY

 Up to greet all three of the grand girls today. Tuesday is usually RL's day with her other g-ma but Deb isn't feeling well today so she is here with IR and CA.  I got chores done and then had breakfast with the girls.  They asked to go to the park so we loaded up with some snacks and went to see if there was a none crowded park we could play at. Dana park that we went to last week was very crowded today so we went over to the Edneyville community center park and there was no one there so they played awhile there.

I'm not really a fan of this playground as there are no swings and all these climbing things that scare me but the girls love it and they played hard until they all got hungry for lunch and we headed home. Good thing about this park is it is only 5 minutes from home.

We fed the girls when we got home and they all ate a good lunch after the active morning. We went outside to play the afternoon away until the clouds covered the sky and wind kicked up making it pretty cool so we came inside for snacks and TV time.

After the girls left hubbie went outside to change the oil in his truck and I watched the news then went out to get chores done.

Thankful for the blessings of this day.

God Bless and Good Night