This and That

I wanted to show you the onions after they were dehydrated and run through the food processor. This is 9 onions. I put a coffee cup in the picture to help you judge the size of the jar.

Here is Patsy (Josh & Britt's kitten). She is destroying my flowers and I can't keep her out of them. I hope they come home soon.

I actually caught a picture with a bee on my flowers. :)

I forget what these are called, but they are very pretty.

I am always amazed when I look at these orange lilies. They are not my favorite at all, but they have so much detail and they are all alike. What an awesome Creator we serve.

We got some rain and the garden is growing like crazy. The weeds are growing the fastest... of course!!!

The green beans are starting up the wires.

I had planted a row of sunflowers on one side of this raised bed. They got tilled up by accident, so I planted a row on the other side, because it would not get tilled. Now the other side IS coming up and I am trying to figure out how I will pick the lettuce in the middle. :)

Here is our yellow squash plant. It is doing well.

We tried using white plastic, that we already had here, to be a weed barrier. Instead it acted more like a greenhouse type effect. We had to take it up. Now we need to clear out between rows.

The lettuce looks pretty healthy so far. I have a row cover to put over these, once we weed between them.

Michael's corn is doing well. There are 3 rows this side of the corn you see. He planted it later, but it is coming up well too!!

How does your garden grow?

Sheep of a Different Color

It is amazing to watch the color of the lambs change. If you don't keep up with them, it can be hard to tell who is who. Here is a picture I took back in April. It shows the five lambs.

Here is a picture of Rachael later in April.

I took this picture of Rachael yesterday.

This is Abigail later in April.

This is Abigail yesterday.

This is Jeremiah on the left in late April.

Here is Jeremiah yesterday.

Here is Josiah in late April.

Here he is yesterday. He is the one in front. He is almost blonde.

Hereis Kyle in late April.

Here he is yesterday. I like his little light colored top knot on his forehead. :)

Here are a couple of pictures of the sheep from yesterday.

Blooms and Blessings

There are many advantages to having a blog. First of all, I am able to share stories, daily happenings and pictures with family and friends.

Secondly, it is a searchable data base. The Wonderful Neighbor girl (see picture below) asked me when I usually find my first "George" of the season. I was able to put George into the search box on my blog and come up with the date last year. It has helped me to see when we got our first snow or frost. It tells about days when it was unusually cool or hot. If some big thing happens around here, the day it happens is recorded.

Thirdly, I have been able to help some people with "how-to's" that included pictures or even a short video clip.

It is also a place I can share what God is teaching me and to be a Titus 2 woman in a small way.

There are also disadvantages to having a blog. You hang your heart, thoughts and feelings out for everyone to see. The Wonderful Neighbor woman said she is going to buy me a shirt she saw that said something about putting all my personal life and thoughts on the internet. :) I can't remember exactly what it said. I run into people quite often that tell me that they read my blog.

However, at this point I will continue to blog. I enjoy it and get lots of good feedback about it.

Here are four of the Wonderful Neighbor children. The youngest was not present here. Click on the picture to make it larger so you can read their shirts. :)

My Echinacea has bloomed. Here are a couple of pictures.

I believe this is a Shasta Daisy. They are blooming as well.

After the 6 eggs disappeared without a trace, the nest has been empty awhile. I checked again and there were 3 eggs and checked again last night and there were 4 eggs.

The Black-eyed Susans are starting to bloom on the roadsides. These were out on the edge of our property. My dear sweet Michael stopped and picked them for me.

Jesus Is Everything - Paul Washer

Is Jesus truly everything in your life? This cut me to the quick.....

Count Your Blessings Monday!!

Here is an opportunity for all of us to give thanks unto the Lord for a blessing in our lives. If you would like to take part great. If not that is OK too. If you would like to share your blessing, just leave it in the comments. If you want to use the picture above and list a blessing on your own site, then leave a URL to your site in the comments. There is no pressure here. I just know that I am incredibly blessed and I would like to share that and give thanks to Him who all blessing come from. This is a way that we can encourage one another. I know that I am often encouraged when someone shares a blessing with me. I think that many times we forget that it is a blessing to be able to breath, to get out of bed, to hold a baby... Share your blessings with us. We can share so many other things.... special gifts, recipes, let's take the time to share how God has blessed us!!

Today, I am thankful for a good neighbor around the corner. He has agreed to cut our hay on shares and he allowed us to take Molasses to his farm and put in with his bull for over 3 weeks to get bred.

Getting the hay cut can be very expensive if you pay someone to do it. Buying and maintaining your own equipment can be expensive. So, finding someone who will do it for part of the hay is a real blessing.

With Molasses we have had her AI'd (artificially inseminated) twice and it did not take. She was not in milk, so if we found someone with a bull we could take her somewhere. We do not like to bring a bull here because we use one electric wire to keep our cows in. If he got loose, there is a lot of harm he could do.

More Milking Adventures

We had friends come over tonight to help with milking. They brought a whole gang. :) Here is big sister letting younger sister have a try.

Here is the oldest sister with a younger sister watching.

Two of the little girls helped out by feeding the calves.

Mom even got in there and gave it a try!!!

See, we were having fun. I am not sure who they are laughing at right here.

The youngest came to supervise.

Calves are all done with their bottles!!

I am not sure what the show was out the door, but everyone seems to be enjoying it.

We are petsitting Josh & Britt's kitten. This little friend of mine was loving on her. Actually she was trying to love on her, but the kitten was not cooperating.

They worked really hard and just before they were done, the cow decided she needed to relieve herself and it splashed in the milk. :( We felt very badly for them. We did have a bit of milk, kombucha and jalapeno cheese we sent them home with.

I have tears in my ears...

My uncle used to sing a song that said, "I've got tears in my ears from lying on my back in my bed, crying over you." Well, I have tears in my eyes not my ears, and not for those reasons. I am dehydrating onions today. We got some Vidalia onions for a good price at the store. I have yet to grow a good crop of onions. We like to dehydrate them and then chop them into pieces and use them all winter. They are like candy. I have had people who do not even like onions like the dehydrated Vidalias. The trays on my dehydrator are a pretty good size. I can get one onion on each tray. I currently have 9 trays drying. I have more onions, but will wait to do them. I also took out some oregano just before I put the onions in.

It is also dairy day again. Here is my milk heating for cheese.

Here is my butter in process in my DLX. It is actually out there draining right now. As soon as I get the cheese draining, I will work the butter.

Well, I just took a quick break to check on the news and weather. I decided to go ahead and make a post. :)

Oh, I also had a bird come down the chimney, so I set up my bird trap and caught the bird and let it outside. :)