Counting down til September!

         But   I'm glad it's still August, and we are having fabulous weather! The temps out today are like Fall! It's hard for me to stay inside! Ran read where the Farmer's Almanac said we are supposed to have a very cold winter this year, so I guess Fall is closer than we thought! Sorry I didn't write a post last week, I had the girls for several days and was busy cooking and washing dishes. We also had a family reunion I prepared food for so that left no time for blogging!

      Layla went to the doctor today and he said that she was doing good and that she would grow out of the heart murmur! Yay! I really felt like that's what he would say! Thanks for your prayers for her!

      I've been working on  some more shirts for the girls. This time I had help from Randy! He's an artist, at least in my opinion, so he did the free hand on them. He drew the ears, mouth, and water drops. They turned out really cute! The picture doesn't really show the boo boos I made while appliqueing. That was my first time to applique. I learned a few things after reading a blog that I will apply next time. 
      
      I also have been spray painting some metal signs the hubs made for me out of sheet metal from the shop. I am transferring a photo now and will show the results in the next post. I picked some apples from my tree and am going to make an apple pie from them with a home-made crust! That will be my first home-made crust so I hope it turns out well! I would like to write another post this week, but we've got another camping trip coming up I've got to prepare for, so it may not get written! Ya'll have a nice week. Blessings from Bama!

I know I showed ya'll this in the last post, but I forgot to take a photo of it finished. We put the glitter glue inside the jar and let it dry. Then we added a tag with twine for the teacher. She loved it!

The butterflies are in abundance right now!

So are the Hummingbird moths.....

And the honey bees!

I love this picture of Yasmine! She waited all day to get in the pool! And boy was she happy!

Randy is teaching her how to swim.

Layla and Nanny eating leftover homemade ice cream!

Getting ready for night-night!

I had been sitting in the white chair when all of a sudden, the dogs came running and barking! I ran in to get the camera, and didn't notice until this photo that Yasmine was standing in the blue swing! Dangerous! But so was what they were barking at! And so close to where we were!

Another SNAKE! It looks like the same one we got out of the hen house!

I was so scared the snake was going to bite Jackie boo! But it got scared away again! I hope it goes into hibernation before I see it again! I just don't like killing snakes! I'll let Ran do that!

Yasmine was not happy cause she wanted that swing, not the other one just like it on the other end of the set!

Ruby got the top off of the dog water-er and made herself a halo! It was so funny watching her run around with this on her head!

These girls would swing all day then go swimming the rest of the day, if their bodies would hold up to it!

Sweet! Yasmine pushing Winterlynn!

Yasmine is so active! No wonder she's so skinny! You know Aunt FeFe gives her good food!

Riley is happy playing with Layla's birthday toy!

Story time! Winterlynn says,"Once a problem time!" LOL!

They ran and played up and down the driveway, all morning! And it's steep! No wonder they took over a two-hour nap!

We made a shirt for each of the three girls. They're initial will be in the middle of the elephant.

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!

Happy Anniversary Baby!

        Got you on my, mind! Remember that song? Today is hubby and my twenty-first anniversary! Wow! Doesn't even seem like that long ago! A lot sure has transpired over the last twenty-one years! But it's been mostly all good! It helps when the hubs has a good attitude about everything! I've learned so much from him when it comes to attitude! Of course, reading my Bible and listening to Joyce Meyer helps too! Lol! We will celebrate when we go out of town next week. I won't be in much to blog next week, but I'll try to keep ya'll updated on my Dad.


      It's really hard to talk about my Dad. I would rather talk about anything else, as if nothing was going on. But the reality of it is, he's not doing so good today. Yesterday, I couldn't believe it when I walked in and saw him sitting up in a chair! Wow! He's getting well quick, I thought! His blood pressure began to go down, so they administered some meds. to regulate it. He was in bed last night when I saw him, but was awake and talking some. This morning, they were giving him a little oxygen, and watching his heart rate. It was quite elevated. After lunch, I walked in and had to walk past a heart shock machine waiting to be hooked up to him, and him on a breathing machine! He was very swollen too, from the amount of fluids they are giving him. It brought back scary memories from when my Grandmother had open heart surgery. She didn't survive. That was twenty-one years ago as well. He didn't look good at all, to say the least! We were told by the doctor that this was not unusual, in fact, to expect it. We left the room for them to give him the strong meds. and administer the shock, so the heart could get back into rhythm. When we came back, the nurse told us that the medicine got the heart back into rhythm without the shock. I believe the Lord did that! We were sure glad to hear that! Now, we're just waiting to see how he's done this afternoon and hopefully, not had to receive one of those shocks. But if he does, he does. We're trusting God and the doctors. The third day after surgery is usually the toughest one, at least in this case! We were hoping he would be moved out of SICU by tomorrow, but that doesn't look like it will happen at this point. Thank you so much for reading and your concern for my Dad! 


      I'm having a hard time posting my blog! It won't let me preview or post. Since I've been waiting, I talked to Mom and she said they took the shock cart out of Dad's room and his pressure and heart rate is regulating more. That's good news! He ate a few bites, then had to get back on the breathing machine. I hope I can publish this tonight! The comments have been very encouraging! I hope to get back into my regular routine, but that might be awhile as we already had a trip planned for next week. I will try to keep you updated so as not to worry! Ya'll are such a blessing to me! Wish you were here! Blessings from Bama!

Son trying to get the snake.

Now it's on this side!

OK Dad, your turn!

Here it comes!

Off with its head! The chickens fought over its head! He should have thrown the rest of the body in there with them!

Clanton Al. peaches. Delicious!

The tomato plants and basil are growing nicely! Lots of tomatoes there you can't see.

The tomato plants are getting so tall!

The nectarine tree is so full, the hubs thought it needed a prop so it won't split and fall to the ground.

Blackberries in with a beauty berry bush.

Roo Mama decided to lay her egg here.

This tree is loaded with nectarines!

The zucchini plant is producing more zucchini than I can eat!

Raspberry plants. Wonder what happened to the raspberries?

You should hear the buzz they're making trying to cool the hive!

We may get some honey in a few weeks!

My Dad's in the hospital!

      My Dad went in for a heart cath. today, thinking they might have to do a stint. There were no blockages! He didn't need a stint! But the Aorta valve is almost closed! He could have passed out while driving! That's scary to think about! It was a shock to find this out, as that is like open heart surgery! He's having the Aorta valve replaced in the morning at 7:30, so I would appreciate ya'lls prayers! His name is Wayne Milam! He gets out of breath and weak when he walks for a little bit, and that is the reason. The blood couldn't get pumped out quick enough. Without this replacement, he would have about two years. The surgery should extend his life for much longer. Thank you so much for your prayers and concern!


      I haven't seen any signs of the snake, and all of the eggs and chickens have been accounted for lately. Hubs said that I probably scared the snake so bad that it will never come back! I hope he's right, cause I won't be here much for the rest of the week! I hope to get back to blogging soon! I'll keep ya'll in touch! Blessings from Bama!

Watering the garden and plums....

      Hello! I hope everyone had a safe and happy Memorial weekend! The weather is still hot and humid here. And there's been no rain! Everything is getting so dry! I have the hose going in the garden as I write. The only good thing is, the grass won't need to be mowed. It's turning brown! There is some chance of rain today, but I don't think it will, by the looks of the sky.


      We had a house full Sunday and we cooked hamburger, brats, and beans on the Primo. Everything turned out so nice! We even made homemade ice cream! My brother was here from Mobile and hopefully he'll be moved to this area, soon! My great-nieces surprised us, too! We weren't expecting them until next weekend when Yasmine turns three. It's hard to believe how quickly children go from being infants, to little girls and boys! Speaking of infants, we visited baby Kassie's family yesterday, and although she's still so small, I saw changes in her from a week ago! It's going to be fun watching her grow up like her big sister. They all seemed to have adjusted well to the changes and Mom is doing real good! I forgot my camera, so there are no photos of them, sorry!


      I finally got to the plums! Really, this was the right time because any earlier, and they would not have been ripe enough. It was amazing to see the color go from a cream-like color, to a beautiful red! I have some juice straining now, and hope to get at least five and a half cups of juice. That was from almost two bags full. Did I tell you the man brought us two more bags? Yes!!!! I will cook that juice later today or tomorrow. I'm just doing one at a time to see how it turns out. Once I get the juice strained, I can put it in the refrigerator until I'm ready to make the jelly. Have you ever made plum jelly? This will be my first time but I'm following the instructions on the Sure-Jell package. Stay cool! Hope to talk to ya later this week! Blessings from Bama!

Barbecue chicken pizza with leftover chicken and veggies from the grill. Like my hand tossed crust?

Hubs cooking on the Primo.

Winterlynn was so pretty in her dress!

My brother.

She loved playing in the sprinkler!

I

Close up of a rat snake. Glad it's not a chicken snake! The dog got right up at it and the snake lunged at the dog! That was before I got my camera. It is laying in the flower bed next to the front porch.

She discovered my rollers. Do you like the See Rock City birdhouse? Almost everywhere you go on the interstate toward Chattanooga, you'll see a sign like this.

I could barely wait to get to the house and photo these and wash them so I could eat them! I usually don't wait that long but I wanted ya'll to see the first blackberries.

The butterfly bush has gotten so big!

This one isn't quite as big. The snake was to the left of it.

I like to photo these a lot because they won't bloom forever!

The bees are doing so well multiplying and all that we got to add the super. Our honey will be harvested from this.

A closer view. Either the hive is leaning or I was when taking the photo!

I think the sunflower will hit the ground. I had one to do this last year.

Plums before.

Plums after. I did get my five and a half cups! You can see the reflection of the camera in this!