Summer is for Making Sauce!

      Hey ya'll! Hope ya'll are enjoying the hot August days! Yes, it's gotten hot here again! 90's and almost 100 yesterday! Whew! What a change since the last post I wrote! It's muggy too! We did welcome some much needed rain last night since we haven't seen any in a couple of weeks. Our garden is drying up and so are the raspberries! Hopefully it will perk up after the rain. More rain is predicted for the weekend and next week. I always welcome rain! The only time I hope it doesn't rain is Saturday for Lulu's birthday! They are back from Morocco and we will have her party here then. She turned 4! She and Yasmine will be going to the Muslim school in Birmingham starting Monday! Yasmine will start kindergarten and Layla will be in the pre-school class. They are growing up so quickly!

      I purchased more tomatoes last week. I also got a basket of peaches. The peaches were so wormy; plus I had to wait a week for them to ripen. They tasted good so I made a couple of cobblers. (No worms in my cobblers, however!) The tomatoes took that long to ripen as well so I made sauce this week. I'm really getting the hang of using the Vitamix to make the sauce and cooking it in the Nesco. So easy! Then I just waterbath can them. Using the Vitamix, there is no waste of the tomatoes. The whole tomato, sans the bad spots, is used. I like not having all the waste with the peels. The sauce cooks up nice and thick. The sauce I made this time separated. The sauce I made before didn't separate. I wonder why?

      I tried to milk the girls. FAIL!!! They did not want to be touched! I'm going to keep trying but I don't know how to be successful without a milkstand. Have ya'll got any advice to share about milking? I sure would appreciate it!

      After going some time without laying, the hens are laying again. I love gathering eggs from their nest! I don't love opening the door and seeing a snake devouring the eggs! I caught one in the action again yesterday! I get so mad when that happens! One day, I'm going to learn to shoot that gun!

      I'm anxiously awaiting the time when I can sow fall seeds! I'm giving the fall garden a shot this year. I think I'll use the raised beds for some of the planting. I will utilize the greenhouse for later plantings. I'm going to grow all kinds of greens and beets. I'll keep ya'll updated when I get started.


     I hope ya'll are staying cool! School has started here already, what about where you live? Poor little kids! Riding the bus in this heat! Oh yea, school started the first day of the longest yard sale! They said there were major traffic jams because of the school traffic, buses, and yard-sale goers! I'm so glad I didn't get in that mess! We may go to the sales Sunday since most of the traffic will be cleared out by then. Then again, maybe not. I've found that those sales are much higher priced than regular yard sales. So unfair, taking advantage of people that way! Oh well, if you like that kind of thing, go see what it's all about. It will be hot, so be prepared! Thanks for reading the blog! Leave a comment and let me know you were here! Blessings from Bama!

These tomatoes are from our garden.

I only made three jars of sauce this time cause there weren't enough tomatoes ripe enough to make more.

I love making pickles, and this bag of lime has the recipe on the back that I use. They turn out great every time! You can add hot peppers to make a sweet-hot pickle. I did that, and man are they good!

The guys went deep-sea fishing while we were at the beach. These are some of the red snapper they caught. Randy cooked them on the grill after he put way too much Duck Commander seasoning on them. They were spicy!

Homemade buttermilk in the making. One cup buttermilk to three cups regular milk; let sit on counter for 24 hours. Done!

Thirteen more pints of these delicious pickles! Made from our cucumbers!

Marinara sauce in the making! It gets better with each batch!

I always hate to open the door on this! I watched in amazement as it wrapped its head around the egg before running in to get the camera!

This was a much larger snake than before. Unless it just grew since then.

The rest of its body trailing down inside the hen house.

Peach cobblers: one for me and one for Randy!

My sauce separated this time.

Sir Henry sure has grown!

Sir Malcolm has grown too!

I'm still picking these rattlesnake beans, about a bag a week! Yummy!

Graduation, Garden, Girls, and a Snake!

      Well it's about time I let ya'll know what's been happening on the homestead! Skylar graduated from high school May 29th! I was so filled with emotions: joy, sadness, apprehension! I'm just glad it's over with now and our lives have taken on a new routine! With Skylar learning the a/c and heating business, it's full blown summer here and he and his Dad are working overtime! It is a very stressful season for them as there are too many calls and not enough hours in the day to get to all of them. I wished I could help them, but I have NO desire to learn that kind of work. So I just clean and cook and take care of things for them here. But I don't mow! Especially after hurting my ankle while mowing when I fell backwards over some boards! Mowing is just not my 'thing'! I tried at least. 

      We are celebrating birthdays this week! Yasmine turned 5 Tuesday and my Mom's birthday is today! It's so hard to believe Yasmine is five already! She is getting so tall! And she's so inquisitive about things! We will have her birthday party Sunday at the Falls. That's Noccalula Falls, for those of you who might read this and not know what that is. It's our area's tourist attraction. They have a nice playground and pavilions so the children can have birthday parties and play. Then, Yasmine, Layla, Amber, and Betif are taking off for Morocco! They will be gone all summer! I will miss those girls! Then they will start school when they return and I won't get to see them as much. So I'm visiting with them as much as possible now. Did I say I was going to miss them?

      The other day when I went to get the eggs, I opened the door and caught a snake in the process of swallowing an egg! It was a sight to see! I actually got a good photo! Skylar came out and shot it with his air rifle, so at least I won't have to deal with that snake again! The hens aren't laying as much lately and I can hardly blame them! I would like for them to get back to the amount they were laying before because I need them to cook for the girls! I may actually have to buy some eggs! Gag! The price of eggs has gone up close to two dollars a dozen here! I used to pay that for organic eggs, back in the day!

      The garden looks better than I've ever seen it! There are blooms on the squash, beans, and potatoes! Some tomatoes are finally blooming, too. It has been raining quite often, but not so much as to wash everything out. The nectarines and peaches are still looking good. Last year, there was so much rain the fruit rotted on the trees! Here's hoping that won't happen this year! Since rain is predicted this week on some days, we are experiencing quite muggy conditions! The heat or humidity, I should say, is almost unbearable at times. Yesterday I walked on our road while it was cloudy, and the humidity was high, I felt so tired afterward! The humidity really drains the body! I usually enjoy my walk, but now it's almost a drudgery. Even carrying hay and a bucket of water down the hill to the boys is a drain! Am I getting wimpy?

      And yet, I'm thankful to God for blessing us with this season! So much going on, and so little time to get it all done! Is it like that on your homestead? Have a nice day! Blessings from Bama!

Walking across the stage to get his diploma!

My handsome young graduate!

Skylar and Nanny.

My sweet family!

Oma, Skylar, and Poppa.

My Mom and Dad and Skylar.

April, Amber, and Skylar.

Snaggle-tooth and the gang.

Almost all my babies!

A new to me bread machine Amber gave me. I made roll dough with it.

Randy loves using his tiller/cultivator.

Squash blossoms.

Green bean blooms.

Baby cucumber.

After excitedly purchasing these muscadine vines....

I found these growing on our property, and they have baby grapes on them! Talk about really being excited!

Caught in the action! I'm so glad I got this shot!

Skylar shooting the snake.

Randy holding the dead snake.

Plants to be set out soon.

The day lilies are blooming.

Last year, these lilies got knocked down by Rubi.

A pretty Easter lily.

These day lilies grow wild around here.

They love playing in this pool!

Lulu's having fun!

They're all here, for now.