Enjoying the Blessings of the Harvest of Summer!

      I'm thankful for this moment to sit down and write a post! I have been standing on my feet for what feels like two whole weeks! My feet were actually swollen last night when I went to bed! But I'm not complaining! I am so happy to have all this 'stuff'! Since I wrote last, I have picked more blackberries and froze them, picked three gallons of blueberries from a u-pick farm Purchased from a farm: a bushel of corn and froze it; a half-bushel of peas and had them shelled and froze them; a box of canning tomatoes I just finished canning as marinara sauce; a box of peaches that have been made into cobblers, now cooking, to put into the freezer. I made a second batch of sweet pickles with cucumbers from our garden; and yesterday I cut up onions and zucchini from our garden (not the onions) and made zucchini relish. It's delicious! I hope to get another bushel of corn next week and another box of peaches and tomatoes. I also need to cut up the squash from our garden and cook and freeze it. I hope I didn't leave anything out!

      We have also welcomed some new additions to the homestead! Sir Malcolm and Sir Henry, our new bucklings! They are adorable! I'm just having a problem with how the new Moms butt the other one's baby! Oh my! Talking about stressful! All this birthing and babies makes me want to run! I THOUGHT I wanted to milk the mommas, but not now! They won't let me get to them! One baby runs to me and the other runs away! Delilah had Sir Malcolm and another baby that didn't make it. It was a beautiful black doeling! So sad! But I guess that's what to expect with a freshener. Malcolm is really small but hopping around like normal. Daisey had Sir Henry and he's so big! He's  much bigger than Sir Malcolm, who was born a week earlier than him. Like I said, I just don't know what to think about all this birthing stuff! We are going to sell the bucklings and maybe even the parents! I'll keep you updated as to what we decide.

      The weather has been extremely hot and humid until a week ago. This week has been a nice, cooler week with less humidity, until last night. It's cloudy and raining lightly. The temps are lower, in the eighties instead of nineties, but the humidity, whew! At least the hens are laying again!

      Thanks for sitting down with me and reading for awhile! I enjoy the time I share with ya'll and hope to hear from you soon! Blessings from Bama!

I miss these girls too! The pool is now green, so no swimming for me!

Straining blackberry juice for jelly.

Blackberry juice and a few tomatoes from our garden.

I love the color of this daylily. It even has a fragrance!

Love this double-yellow!

Nice passion flower.

Yellow and green squash and zucchini. No one seems to pay attention to the sign in the back!

Cooking chicken breasts in the Sun Oven. It got cloudy so I had to finish them inside.

I wasn't able to capture this at it's prettiest.

Sir Malcolm and Delilah. He's so tiny here!

Fourteen jars of blackberry jelly!

A bushel of corn now in the freezer.

The box of tomatoes, peas, and peaches are now prepared!

Daisey and Sir Henry, freshly born!

Taking advantage of the Vitamix! It made the sauce quicker! I will be doing this again!

That box of tomatoes is now sauce!

Ten more jars of sweet pickles.

Henry and Malcolm.

Malcolm.

Henry.

Nine jars of marinara sauce.

Cobblers awaiting the oven.

Merry Christmas from Dixie!

      I finished my canning session number two, last week! I made twenty pints of chili beans! They turned out good, but some of the liquid cooked out of the jars in the bottom of the canner. I don't know why that happens. We've already used a jar in a recipe and they tasted very good. I won't have to can chili beans until 2015, probably. My next session will be pintos or red kidney beans, but that won't occur until February or March, as I still have some left.

      The time has really gotten away from me lately! I can't believe it's Christmas Eve! I actually wrote this post the day before, but since I left my camera at Randy's shop, I had to wait until today. You know I can't have a post with not pictures! Update: He went by the shop and got my camera on the way home the night before Christmas Eve, so I posted it then!

      Along with canning, I had the girls a couple of days last week. We had a family Christmas party on Saturday, so I've been doing a lot of cooking, as well. We will have lots of food going on Christmas day! Plus, we had the office party today, thus the reason my camera wasn't here. Imagine that! I forgot it! I made a delicious devil's food cake with whipped cream frosting and took it to the party. It was so good! I hope to have some left over for Christmas day, but we'll see. I really haven't done much cooking for Christmas, in the way of cookies and snacks. We have plenty to eat without it! I guess it would be nice if I had made the neighbors something, but I just haven't found the time!

      Thanks for reading the blog and commenting this year! The comments really make my day! It's so nice of you to take time out of your busy lives to speak to me! I pray that ya'll will have a safe and happy holiday season! Blessings from Bama!

Kassie, from the party today! She loved her horse and rider!

Allie, loved her ranch set-up! Hi Riley, in the background.

Baby sister, Riley!

Great-niece and great-nephews Randy's side.

The girls being pulled around by Randy's feet! Lulu, where's your shirt?

Mayonaise or mustard? Mayo!

I finished the last three beds, but there's still a LOT of weeding to be done around them!

Making of the mayonaise. It tasted way too sour for me! Guess I'll just have to stick with store-bought.

Canning of the chili beans.

Twenty pints!

      

I'm Climbing Back onto the Homestead Wagon!

      Since facing the discouraging summer of gardening, I felt like I had totally 'fallen off the homesteading wagon'! Well, I'm pleased to announce that I'm climbing back on again! I've been cleaning out the vegetable beds, now that the bugs and chiggers have gone. I am so glad to finally be able to access them! I had to hack my way through the weeds to get to them and I'm still hacking, but at least I'm making progress! It's a good feeling! I am so thankful to be able to do this! If I was working a job outside the home, I probably wouldn't have time to do all these things! Have you ever fallen off the homestead wagon? I'd rather be on that bumpy-riding wagon heading for the wild blue yonder, than sitting by the road, watching everybody else do what I love to do! Is it too early to start seeds indoors? Lol!

      I've been thinking about and praying for the people in the mid-west who were ravaged by devastating tornadoes! Who would have thought tornadoes would go through Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, all the way to New York! We were expecting strong storms here, not there! We didn't get them. They stayed up North. So sorry for those people! I hope none of you were touched by those awful storms!

      The weather has been so nice here today! Sunny, breezy and right below 70. It was somewhat rainy over the weekend and very humid! I guess living in the South, we'll always have humid weather all season long! That's O.K., I guess I'm used to it! 

      I raked leaves to go in the raised beds and got enough to go in the raspberry bed. It could probably use another bag, but my shoulder can only hold up to so much raking! I've used leaves that I raked and bagged last year to fill the beds, so far. I've got about three bags left, so I will have to rake more. With this mild weather, I don't mind. Would you like to come and help me rake leaves?

      We are having Thanksgiving here. I need to get the house cleaned and prepared. But I'd rather be outside! If all goes well, I should be able to do both. At least I can get the dining room table cleaned. It has canning jars that I'm wrapping with newspapers and putting upstairs until summer. And the kitchen island cleared of all the glitter and craft scraps. If I can get that done, then I've accomplished something! Someone want to volunteer to help?

      Ya'll know I'm just kidding, but sometimes a little help wouldn't hurt. Maybe my nieces can help this week. Have a great week! Until next time, Blessings from Bama!

Ground Boston butt I ground to make two different recipes. The one on the left is taco flavored, whereas the one on the right is Italian sausage.

I made a chili pie with the taco flavored one and as you can see, spaghetti sauce with the Italian sausage.

Three raised beds that have been cleaned out and mulched leaves put in.

These are what the beds look like before. These are two beds that I still have yet to clean. You can barely see that they are beds!

Two more beds that need cleaning. See the garlic? I hope it winters well.

This awful mess isn't a bed; just an area in the garden that needs cleaning!

You don't know how good it makes me feel to see these beds cleaned out! I finished the one on the back left today! It was a job!

The one on the left is done, the one on the right is the strawberry bed. Should I move them when I clean them out, or just leave them here? They've been here a couple of years.

I get so dirty doing this, but I love it!

Roasted butternut squash and acorn squash. The acorn squash has cinnamon sugar, and tasted pretty good. I probably won't make it again. The butternut squash is going in a soup.

The making of Kind bars. Randy calibrated my oven and they were overcooked. He needs to fix it back.

Jim Lahey's whole wheat bread. I wanted to try the whole wheat, but I'm just not a fan of whole wheat. I like the unbleached, unbrommated flour best.

The Weather has turned cool this Week!

      We've been using the heat at night and today it came on some until lunch. The sun really warms things up! I am glad to experience cooler temps so I can get my soup recipes out! Our favorite is Black Bean Soup. I copied a recipe for it from simplyscratch.com. Laurie is a wonderful recipe developer and almost all of her recipes are things I like! I also like callmepmc.com. She is witty and shares lots of good recipes. I just copied her no fail pie crust recipe and apple turnovers. Give these ladies a visit when you get the chance. Also, Jacky, at dickybirdsnest.blogpot.com just posted a recipe for low-fat apple cake. It looks incredible! Can you tell I'm in a cooking mood? If my kitchen was clean right now, I'd be baking or cooking something. I also found a recipe for Muffin Tin Pot pies that sound like something me and the girls would like. It's copied from tasteandtellblog.com. She got it from the Rachel Ray show. How about some caramel popcorn? I could just go on and on about recipes, but you may have ideas of your own. One day I hope to revamp this blog and be able to share recipes with a print button. One day!

      The girls went home Monday night, so I've been trying to catch up on so many things! I'm not there yet! Does one ever get there? I'm also trying to help April come up with ideas, lesson plans, and crafts to do with Winterlynn. April wants to turn the baby's room, which doesn't get used much, into a school room. I am so loving this cause I used to be a reading coach for 4-year-olds! I'm getting to use my 'stuff' again! That was my favorite of all jobs, but when the economy bottomed out a few years back, my job was cut since I wasn't tenured. Now my teaching certificate has expired, but I don't really want to go back unless I could work with 4-year-olds. If God wants me to, He can work that out. It's all in His hands! So at least I can work with my great-nieces, and that makes me happy!

      If this weather stays cool, we will soon have a fire in the fireplace! I am excited to do that in one way, and in another, way, not so much! The cons are the smell and the rest of the house gets cold! The smell stays in here until the ashes are removed. I think I have an allergy to the smoke and ashes cause they make me cough. I guess everybody is that way. Well, Ran isn't. It doesn't seem to bother him, cause he always wants a fire in cold weather. He doesn't even mind chopping the wood! Go figure! 

      Whatever you do, stay safe and warm! Hope you all have a nice weekend! See ya'll next time! Blessings from Bama!

What ya hiding behind you Winterlynn?

Surprising how well she stays in the lines! Good job, Win!

Riley does that a lot! I think she's praising the Lord!

I love baking my bread in the Dutch oven! It tastes so good!

Riley loves to look out at the dogs!

Pumpkin cheesecake in the making!

It had one more layer to go on. And I didn't take a photo of the finished project! It turned out good, but not good enough to make again. I used a recipe by King Arthur Flour.

Win sure enjoyed licking the bowl.

The child fell a lot while she was here. I heard a bang and grabbed my camera and found her like this. She wasn't hurt though. I couldn't  help but laugh!

She got outside without washing her face!

Always has a baby under that arm!

Everybody LOVES riding the golf-cart except for Layla!

They love going fast down the driveway! I love how the photo turned out well in motion!

Found a recipe for oven fries that are so delicious! I just spiced them a little too much!

Such a sweetie! Look at those eyes!

Amber brought pumpkins for the girls to paink. That's what they say instead of paint.

Amber painting Riley's pumpkin.

They were really into painking.

I guess they like blue pumpkins!

Win trying to keep her pancakes away from Riley!

Riley managed to get some anyway!

She hasn't learned how to swing without me pushing.

Roll Tide!

Four little monkeys swinging in the swings!

Riley about to cook some letters. 

Win eating her snack of grapes while she watches Arthur.

April's reunion with her girls. 

They missed their Mommy!

Win playing a sorting game.

One last time before they go home!

Cinnamon apples cooked in the crockpot.