And We're Back!

Got back Saturday night and hit the ground running. While I ferried the girls (my daughter and her BFF) to the movies and back, my hubby started mowing the lawn which had grown to frightening heights. We ordered a pizza so we could get stuff done. Sunday saw him mowing the back yard before heading to work and me working feverishly on my parent's quilt. Yesterday, I finished the top and got it basted and ready to be quilted. Right after dinner last night, C (my daughter) and I were evacuated because of a gas leak on the town square. We live right off the square in the historic distric. A month or so ago, there was the same situation in a town near here and they DIDN'T evacuate and some houses blew up, killing a few people, so they tend to be overly cautious now. We headed over to C's friend's home and hung out with the parents for a while, then C was invited over to another friend's house. We adults ended up sitting out on the patio, drinking beer and eating party food. Best evacuation ever. Of course, I hadn't pinned the quilt at that point so when they finally let us back into the house at 10pm, I still had to clean up the kitchen from dinner and then work on the quilt.

Hit the hay, and up early (for me) and on to chores and then to the quilting of the quilt. After hubby gets home, we have to go start hauling firewood. The house where we were cutting and loading a week ago still has the rest of that tree left, plus they had 2 more cut down and it's stacked and waiting for us to come get it. I imagine it will be a couple of loads a week for the next few weeks. We'll make a trip tonight, and most likely I'll make another trip tomorrow after getting home with the chickens. It's their "spa" day.

Anyway, got 2 weeks worth of stuff to do and only 4 more days to do it in, so I gotta run. BUT, before I go, here's the view from our balcony when we were on vacation.
Peace,

deb

Woo! Pictures!

Prepare to be amazed! I really did go and buy batteries, and even though I'm neck deep in laundry and cleaning and dog bathing and all the other things I need to do today because we're going on vacation tomorrow, I do this for you. :)

Here are the chickens. They're the same ones that were in the tub a few weeks ago. They are 6 weeks old today and have 1 1/2 more weeks to go before they head to the "spa". They do not like the heat any more than I do.


Here is the veg garden. Green beans and okra in the front bed, you can see the corn over to the right in the next bed, tomatoes in the bed right behind and the one in the back has onions.

Daisies that I think are pretty.

My first tomato! :)

That's it for now. I have to go hang the first load of laundry. We're all wearing clothes that we wouldn't be caught out in public in so I can wash all the "good" stuff to pack.

Hope you like the pictures. I'll add some more when we get home.

Happy Father's Day

deb

Getting ahead of the game....for once

Because of the high winds and the storms we've had, a friend of a friend offered to let us come over and cut up a tree that fell over at their house. We said yes please, and made arrangements to go over today and start cutting and loading. Dear Hubby got called into work this morning for an emergency meeting. It's his day off, but he went in anyway. He got home around one, we had lunch, got directions and headed out about 2. About 20 minutes into the cutting we decided that cutting firewood in the middle of the afternoon in Texas in June was not the wisest thing to do. It was a little warm. Well, quite warm. 97 degrees warm. But we were there, spent money on gas to get there and made the best of a hot situation. We got almost a whole truck load cut before the chainsaw got too hot and we had to quit. But honestly, we were pretty glad about the whole thing. The deal when we get firewood is he cuts, I load. So, once he stops cutting, I can stop loading. We only got about a fifth of the tree cut, maybe not even that much. The trunk is massive. The owners told us that the other two trees that were in that particular stand will be coming down soon as well, so they hired someone to cut them down, but are giving us that wood too. It should be enough for the whole winter and then some. Never been this prepared before! We'll rent a splitter and get it all stacked and seasoned before the cold hits in December. Now that's a good feeling.

My sister in law asked if I'd gotten batteries for the camera yet. Uhhh, well, see...basically what happened was...OH, ALRIGHT! I'll spring for the batteries tomorrow and get some pictures of the chicks and the garden and other stuff up.

Big news for the day: I picked my first tomato this morning. It was even ready for me to pick it! Of course, I can't eat it yet because I have to take a picture...see above paragraph. I also ate the first green bean today. And I harvested some Passion Flower vine leaves to dry and make tea out of. It's has purported anti-anxiety powers, and I have lots of Passion Flower vines. And lots of anxieties. Rule of thumb is to only harvest one third of a plants leaves and then thank the mother plant for her kindness and generosity.

I harvested all my garlic the other day and it's in a basket on the front porch curing. Definitely enough for a year. Pulled, braided and hung some onions today. There's still a lot out there, but I wanted to get some done before we go on vacation.

I worked on my parent's 50th Anniversary quilt today. My sister printed all the photos for me and I got them back last night, so they're all cut down and ready to be pieced into the blocks. I'm running against the clock at this point, so I'll be busting my butt the week after vacation to get it done. It's to be presented at their party on the 28th...of this month. Yikes. I'll have 5 days after we get home to get it finished. No problem...I have a daughter to do my chores and really, they can feed themselves.....


I guess that's it for today. It's been a full day, but a good day.

Be well,

deb

Take a break.

Yeah, so I'm taking a break. Well, really I'm just lazy. And I don't like humidity. Or heat. And it's summer in Texas. And I'm a WHINER.

But, this morning, I found my very first okra in the garden. I'm growing burgundy okra this year, so it's....um...burgundy. It's actually quite pretty, too. It's sitting on my kitchen table wondering what will happen to it now. Me to. I mean, what am I going to do with one okra? Sunday I pulled up a big batch of beets and pickled them. Starting on the pantry. I doubt that 5 pints of pickled beets will be a year's supply for my girl and I, but it's a start. Hubby doesn't like them. At all. The end. So we know he won't sneak into the kitchen in the middle of the night with a hankerin' for pickled beets. That's a relief. I also pulled some onions and braided them and hung them from the pot rack. They're so pretty! I need to get the rest of them harvested and hung, along with all the garlic. But there's that issue of the garlic and onions being outside with the heat. Hm. I need to get some floodlights so I can work at night when it's 'cool'.

Still haven't got batteries for the camera, so you have to take my word on all of this.

Been working on a quilt for my parent's 50th anniversary. A scrappy gold double wedding ring with photos in the center of each block. It's going to be pretty cool. We're planning a party for the folks, dad's in on it, mom's not. But the quilt will be a surprise to both. My brother and his wife and family will be there. Haven't seen them in 5 or 6 years.

Well, I'm feeling a nap coming on. I guess I better take a break from taking a break and give in to the nap. It's rough being me. This will end soon, I'm filling out applications for a real job. Ugh. Hubby bought me a car, now I need to pay for it and I'm not selling enough eggs to fill the bill.

I'll let you know how the job hunt goes.

deb

Meat the babies!

I went out to take photos of my HUGE chickens and my camera's batteries are dead. :( I'll pick up some more this weekend when I'm out and about. But I can tell you what I've been up to.

I foolishly decided that I would do the Farmer's Market in our local town of McKinney. The market is located in the old historic village part of the historic downtown. You know, old houses and schoolhouse, a general store, herb gardens, etc. It's a very cool venue. I'm not selling produce or eggs, but crafts. I made these WAY cool fabric grocery bags out of some recycled sheets and was really looking forward to selling them all. My first lesson was a harsh one. People who shop at farmer's markets already have tote bags and fabric grocery bags. I made a whopping $5 for the whole 4 hours. Didn't even pay my gas to get there! LOL! So now, being hard-headed and all that, I'm determined to beat the farmer's market. I WILL persevere. I came home and cut out some aprons. Made 2 yesterday and have 4 more cut out. I also went through my quilt tops. I found two that are done and even have backing with them. Just need some batting and thread and can whip those suckers out with an all over stipple. Luckily for me, one of the local quilt shops is going out of business and everything is 50% off this week. I'll swing over tomorrow and pick up some stuff.

Oh, did I mention....my dear sweet hubby BOUGHT ME A CAR! Woo! I've been out here in the boonies for 2 years with no vehicle, and now we've each got one. It's a sweet deal! We were spending so much putting gas in the truck, that we decided we could buy a small car with way better gas mileage and absorb the cost of the payments in the gas savings. The rule of thumb these days is whoever is driving the farthest gets to drive the new one. I got a light metallic blue 2008 Kia Rio. She's a sweet little thang. I named her Nesbit. She gets 35 mpg as opposed to Trucky (original name, huh) who only gets 13 mpg. Since hubby was transferred to another store that's 35 miles from home, we thought it prudent.

The garden is coming along. Built 3 more beds, but don't have dirt in them yet. That will be this weekend. Running them along the back and side fence so I can trellis tomatoes, cucs, watermelon and the "jelly melon". Then one along the stick fence that will have sweet potatoes. They're all ready to be put in the ground, just need some ground to put them in. :)

As soon as that's all done, my focus will be on setting up the flower beds and "patio" area under the pecan tree. It's always been a jungle on that side of the yard, I thought I would tame it this year and next and make it a usable portion of the yard. It's always shady over there and would make a good outdoor room. I'd like to put in a fire pit the first year or two, then build in a wood burning oven.

Well, that's it for today. Gonna have lunch with a friend that I haven't seen in forever today, and then work on those aprons. Hubby is working both jobs today, thankfully only a 12 hour work day as opposed to the evil Saturday schedule which is a 16 hour day (full shifts at both jobs). Poor guy. But that means we can have breakfast for dinner tonight, since he won't be here.

OH! I fixed omelets the other day and everything in them was from the yard (or mini-farm if you prefer). Eggs, onions, beet greens, garlic scapes and cilantro. Good stuff man!

Talk to you soon. Hopefully I'll have some pictures this weekend.

Be well,

Deb