Have you seen my mother?

      I have several 'mothers'! Do you have any mothers? They are quite easy to come by! Oh, did you think I meant my Mom? No, I was talking about a mother of vinegar! They are really easy to make! All you need is some organic acv, or apple cider vinegar with the mother. I got mine at Whole foods, but you can probably find it at health food stores and some grocery stores. Measure  a half cup of acv and a half cup of red or white wine. Any wine will do actually, use what you've got. I wanted some red wine vinegar so I used red wine. It took a couple of weeks to get the 'mother' growing, but she finally got started and man did she ever grow! I now have several mothers from only two batches! I poured the vinegar into a vinegar jar and left the rest to keep the 'mother' company. While making the vinegar, put a coffee filter on the jar with a rubber band around it so the mother can breathe. Of course, I found the instructions while surfing the web.

      There's not really been a lot going on around here other than keeping Winterlynn a couple of days, and grocery shopping. I haven't felt so great for a couple of days, so that puts a limit on what I can do. I don't have any canning escapades planned for the neat future. However, I am on a mission to find some wheat berries so I can grind them into flour. I've read that it makes the best bread ever! You know me, got to give it a try. I will have to get the dry grinding attachment for the Vitamix if I do this. 

      We got a nice rain today, so the temps have been much lower than days before. The sun is out now, so they will climb. I'm just thankful for rain in August! Hopefully, we'll continue to get rain until the rainy season sets in. I am thinking about making some eggplant Parmesan for dinner tonight with the eggplants I harvested from our garden this morning. I'll keep you posted on that. It seems I'm not the only one who isn't posting much these days. I haven't gotten any comments in about a week, and that's very unusual! Guess everybody's getting ready for school, or taking a late vacation! Someone has been reading, at least, since I have about 9-15 page-views a day. Hope your garden is doing well! Have a great weekend! Blessings from Bama!

Meet 'mother'!

Can you see the layers? There are several 'mothers' in there.

Like my vinegar jar? I got it a long time ago before Linens and Things closed. That's been a long time ago! I knew they would come in handy one day!

Guess what? Apple butter! I received another bag of apples! It made four delicious pints.

I finally bought some more cucumbers at the grocery store, so I made some chopped salad cubes. I used the recipe for sweet pickle relish and omitted the onions. Recipe found on pick your own .org.

My sassy little 'sweet-heart'! Can you see how dirty she is?

She loves the rocking horse! The porch is a lot cooler than the yard!

Jack doesn't seem to be afraid of snakes!

He gets a little too close for comfort for me!

This chicken showed up at a neighbors barn. No one has claimed, it so he brought it to us. It looks like the kind that rides on chicken trucks. There is a processing plant a few miles from here, but I don't know how one of those chickens could make it from the highway to here!

Win likes the chicken too!

She didn't want to leave the slide!

Sometimes......

      No matter what you do to live a healthy life, you still get sick. That's because satan is a thief and tries to rob us of our health. I didn't post yesterday because I felt too bad. I am much better today; however, I am not up to par. I guess it is the flu or a cold, I don't know I just want to be completely over it. I am believing God's Word and I know that's why I'm experiencing a comeback right now. Exodus 23:25 says: "You shall serve the Lord your God; He shall bless your bread and water, and I will take sickness from your midst. And 1 Peter 2:24 says: "He personally bore our sins in His [own] body on the tree [as on an altar and offered Himself on it], that we might die (cease to exist) to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. Sounds like we should obey God, and live a righteous life unto Him. Lord, forgive me of any sins hidden or open that I have not confessed to You. Reveal to me my hidden sins and make known to me my hidden paths, so that I may be forgiven and healed. Sin is deceptive and sometimes we have sin in our lives and don't even realize it! It may be such a small thing that God has dealt with us about until we are no longer sensitive to Him about it. Remember, it's the little foxes that spoil the vine.
      Since I'm not feeling well today I thought it would be a good idea to boil a chicken and later if I feel like it, make chicken and dumplings. I'm flavoring the broth with onions, celery and carrots, and letting it simmer all day.