Mommy Come Quick!

While in the garden I heard Elizabeth call me; Mommy Come Quick, Hurry! She had spotted a very large and very fat worm on one of the tomato plants.

Elizabeth thought it looked a little bit like a puppy since it has a small tail and short stubby legs.

The worm made a very nice treat for one of our hens.

Back To Work As Usual

Last night, around the time I was looking forward to going to bed early, Pat asked me if I wanted to set up a divider in the chicken yard so we could move the baby chickens from the portable pen into the bigger pen. I wanted to say "NO, I'M TIRED"! But I didn't, instead I helped until after dark setting up a divider and then clipping wings on 100 baby chickens.

This morning as I was watching the baby chickens enjoying their new space I sure was glad we moved them and got it over with.

Good Bye Austin, Hello Home

Our trip was fun but oh am I tired! While in Austin we visited The Natural Gardener again; This place has the best ideas for a home garden.

I saw several plants protected from the sun with a thin net;

I like how this netting combined with PVC was used to cover small areas; but I am not sure this type of set up would work in my area during strong winds.

I love how grapes are used to shade this walk way; I hope to make one of these sometime in the future.

On our way back home we stopped in Abilene to visit some friends.

When we arrived home everyone pitched in to gather the beans, tomatoes and cucumbers.

I will be back in the kitchen bright and early tomorrow morning canning green beans once again.

A Quick Sewing Project

Just before the kids and I were ready to hit the road I had a customer who needed a pioneer dress "ASAP"! Thankfully my sister has a sewing set up and I was able to make the dress in between swimming and visiting.

On The Road Again

The kids and I hit the road today for a quick get away; we were up and loading the car at 5 A.M.Our destination...Austin; we plan to spend most of our time in the water to keep cool.
Hopefully Pat will remember to water the garden and gather the eggs while we're gone!

Fall Garden Progess

Each month we receive a magazine from our electric company. The August issue had a great write up about fall gardens in Texas.

It is from this article that I learned our garden would need a shade. It is amazing how well our shade set up has worked!

All the plant have now emerged, including the carrots! We love fresh carrots; the flavor is amazing.

A True Country Meal

One of our young hens somehow hurt her leg and couldn't walk anymore; she was pretty small but we decided to butcher her anyway. I love the color of fresh meat compared to store meat. Because the hen was so small all the pieces fit into one frying pan.

Our country meal consisted of garden fresh cucumbers, garden fresh green beans, store purchased red potatoes and farm fresh chicken.

I am looking forward to a freezer full of roosters in the near future.

Roaring Spring

Recently the kids and I went to visit family in Roaring Spring.
While there we went to the country club to swim; the pool is kept full by a running spring.
The spring is small but very charming as it gently flows down hill;

Forming a waterfall right before reaching the pool.

All around the pool grows beautiful trees and plants. This Elephant ear was my favorite.

The pool water is 65-degrees and so refreshing on a hot summer day!

A Walk Through My Garden

As we enter the garden you will see one of my green bean plants; it seems when I planted my green beans I ended up with not only bush beans but pole beans too. So, with the left over small pieces of fence from the orchard project I have been making trellises.Here is one of my many new cucumber plants; after my first plants almost died I planted more since we love eating cucumbers.

This is one of the pole beans attaching itself to one of the tomato stakes.

Our shade cover looks like a success; today I found newly emerging lettuce and radishes.

And I recently discovered a potato coming up in the garden; apparently I overlooked a potato when I was harvesting my corp.

This is popcorn I decided to plant at the last minute; I am hoping some ears will make before we get our first freeze.

And here is the largest ear of corn I have seen so far in my corn patch.

We have lots and lots of watermelon growing in the garden.

And lots and lots of pumpkins;

Many of the pumpkins are already orange.

Here you can see how the pumpkin and watermelon are taking over the garden.

One of the pumpkin vines began growing across the top of the corn and produced a pumpkin that was hanging in mid air; it has been slowly sagging to the ground as the pumpkin gets heavier.The tomato plants are really getting full of tomatoes.

I found wax beans marked 10-cents a package and decided to plant them in hopes they will produce before the first frost; they have been growing very quickly.

And here is some dill; I tried to plant this in the garden but it wouldn't come up so I started some in doors and it is doing great.

I am hoping to make pickles with fresh dill before the garden season is over.

The Orchard Fence pt. 4

Hip Hip Hurray, Hip Hip Hurray!!!! The orchard fence is 95-percent finished!!!!!! We now have the pathway open so the chickens can make their way into the orchard;

But, the silly chickens seem only interested in the pathway! Beginning tomorrow morning I will scatter their daily grains out in the orchard so they can get used to going out there.

What's for Lunch?

Back to school for college is quickly approaching. Jonathan usually brings a lunch each day so coming up with creative and different ideas, that are cheap, can be a challenge. However, thanks to my mom, Jonathan will now be eating homemade fried rice instead of the high priced rice we had been buying from our local Sam's Club.This rice was so good that I even liked it! We made it using left over rotisserie chicken and frozen veggies; it was so easy and very cheap to make!

Fall Garden Prep pt. 2

Today I planted the seed for my fall garden. The shade covering is 15-feet long and wide enough for 3 rows of carrots, 1 row of spinach, 1 row of lettuce, 1 row of radishes and broccoli on the ends.

After looking at the first shade cover we decided it would let in too much sun so we doubled the fabric and now the shade looks perfect. I like how the soaker hose is working and will be using this technique for next years garden.

I am so very pleased with my garden and all that I have been learning.

First Tomato

Yesterday I picked out first tomato; it was enjoyed by myself and the kids.

Hopefully we will be getting more soon, all the plants are loaded with green tomatoes.

Typical Monday....NOT

This morning, bright and early, I picked green beans from the garden, did a little hoeing, set up a make shift trellis and re-staked tomato plants that were getting so big the old stakes were bending over. During one of my many trips out to the garden I almost stepped on this. He was resting under a young pine tree and I didn't notice him there until I was right on top of him. While Elizabeth ran to get the camera for me the snake decided to hide under some black fabric. Thankfully he was only a Bull Snake and not a rattle snake.

Next, as I was in the middle of canning......

I saw a funny looking green bean sticking out of a jar. Upon closer inspection this is what I found...A worm! Apparently he didn't crawl out of the green bean quickly enough and got cooked.

This makes me wonder how many worms I have feasted on without knowing it!