Eighty-one degrees on the 29th of July?

      That may not be odd where you live but for here in the Heart of Dixie, that's extremely odd! It has been the nicest day since May! Cooler temps with low humidity makes for one happy girl! Tomorrow should bring more of the same! I hope to get in the garden tomorrow and put down manure and bags over the weeds around the winter squash plants and pumpkins. The weeds are taking over the pumpkins and butternut squash. Some of the leaves are turning yellow. They might need a little drink since it hasn't rained since last week. The days have been in the nineties until late yesterday. Then the weather just changed suddenly! It was so nice to be out in the evening gathering squash without sweat rolling in my eyes! I hope these cooler temps last the rest of the summer! Even the animals are happy and jumping around! The new babies, that is.

      We've really been enjoying the green beans harvested from our garden! The rattlesnake beans have produced phenomenally! And I didn't even plant them! They came up voluntarily from last year's seeds. That's really amazing! The Blue Lake green bean is just about done, although I did get a few yesterday. I will plant those again along with the rattlesnake and wax beans. The tomatoes haven't produced much. Something eats on them before I can bring them inside. I think there's a rabbit hiding out in the tomato garden. Something eats on the cucumbers as well. I bought another box of tomatoes to can and will get started on the sauce tomorrow. I also got a basket of peaches that are not ripe enough to eat yet. I don't think they will be as good as the Chilton County peaches. Those are the best peaches! But I have a peach pie recipe I am going to try with them. If it's not good, I can always make peach cobblers!

      With the rising cost of meat and other items, I've been trying to find ways to spend less on some things to cover the cost of other things. An example of this is switching to Magic Jack for the home phone and a Trac phone for my cell. Together, these will cost approximately $10 a month. A savings of $20 dollars a month by switching from Straight Talk. Of course this means I still won't get a Smart phone, but I've lived without one this long; it doesn't even phase me! I use the laptop for everything anyway since I'm always home. What little I'm away from the house, the Trac phone will suffice. Since I don't work to bring in money for the homestead, this is the least I can do. If I worked outside the home, things would be different. In about 3-4 months, these will pay for themselves. Plus, I want to invest in a good cordless phone. I will have to put the base upstairs, so it will have to have good range. I saw an At&t phone at Walmart for about $50 I'm going to save up for. Too bad we got rid of ours a few years ago! I don't talk on the phone much anyway so the only thing I'll miss is texting. Sometimes that's a good thing to have. Oh well, talking takes up less time, usually.

      I had two precious girls here this past weekend! Riley and Winterlynn! It was so good to see them after going several weeks without seeing them! I miss my two in Morocco! They should be home next week! Yay! We'll be celebrating a birthday as soon as they get back, Layla! She wants a princess party! That should be a fun party!

      I hope ya'll enjoyed this post! I love reading your comments and hope to see more of you leaving them. You keep me inspired! Let me know what's going on on your homestead in the comments. Have a great week! Blessings from Bama!

These are the six peach cobblers from last time. They were put in the freezer.

Another box of tomatoes.

Another bushel of corn. I like the size of this corn. It's not sweet but still tasty. I cut the corn off and after microwaving and cooling it, put it into bags for the freezer.

Squash from our garden. So yummy!

I got eight quarts from this sauce.

Winterlynn and Riley playing in the pool.

They play well together.

She has such a personality!

Riley loves to swing! Her left foot turns in pretty bad and causes her to fall a lot. She fell and hit her head on our table and it left her with a bruise on her eye. I felt so bad!

Randy has put another puzzle together! It is adorable! It took as long as the other, even though it has less pieces. There's a lot of dark pieces that were difficult to piece together.

I hope to put most of these tomatoes into the sauce pot tomorrow! Peaches will be ripe in a few more days.

The bucklings surprised me by getting on the dog houses already! They are so small!

They play sweetly together.

Such a nice day! I hope it lasts!

I finished the job!

      How good it does feel to finally have the two empty beds filled with dirt and ready to plant! I got it done just before the rain set in! I don't care for these dreary, cloudy, rainy days; and I appreciate the sun so much more after days like this! At least we're not under fifteen inches of snow! I don't know what I'd do if we were! Go out and make snow angels, for one! I love the snow and think it is so pretty, but after a long winter of it, I guess it does get old. At least I can be inside and get inside tasks accomplished. The girls are coming tomorrow, so I've got a day to get ready for them. I missed them last weekend, so I'm looking forward to them being here.

      I got some of my seeds started! That's another plus for being inside! I ran out of t-labels, so I didn't plant the rest. I will go to WM this weekend and pick up some while I'm there. I don't like to make special trips just for one or two things. I'm so excited to see the first seedlings appear, but it probably won't be for 7-14 days!

      The weather is affecting the hens laying! Today I only got one egg! So much for cream brulee! It takes four large egg yolks! It's that, or no eggs for breakfast in the morning. I like eggs for breakfast, so I may have to buy some eggs for the cream brulee. I'm surprised I have any eggs! Nine hens just don't add up to one egg! How are ya'lls hens doing?

      I'm curious to see what next week's weather brings. I have other jobs in the raised beds that need to be done. They won't be as extensive as removing and replacing dirt, although that is what I'd like to do. I'm just going to skim off the top layer and replace it with manure and leaves. Hopefully, that will break down into nice compost for future veggies. I would also like to plant some early spring veggies. I will think on that and let you know next week. Hope ya'll have a great weekend! Blessings from Bama!

This was a new dish I tried this week: cheese and bean stuffed burritos with taco seasoned meat sauce on top.

Filling the cells with seed starting mix.

The finished bed, yay!

Peppers planted.

I need to skim off the top and put in some good stuff.

This bed still has garlic and some beets. When I harvest them, I'll skim off the topsoil and replace it with manure and leaves. The bed above it has some turnips, so when I harvest them, I'll do the same.

Next day, I planted tomato seeds.

      

Pickling red onions!

      Yes, I pickled red onions last night! They are delicious! They remind me of my pickled eggs. I love pickles with cloves and these have cloves in them. I am previewing a Southern Living Christmas cookbook, so that is how I discovered the recipe. I don't plan on keeping the book because it would cost about $18, so I'm just trying recipes to see if I like them. I will copy the ones I like. Written or whatever. Aldi has their red onions on sale this week: .79 for two pounds! That's pretty good so I bought them and sliced them and made the pickles. They look pretty, too! All red, like Christmas! Guess that's why they are in the book!


      We thought we were going to be in the 'honey' last night! When they looked into the frames, they weren't capped off yet. It will probably be another 3-4 weeks before it's ready. But I think it's great that we will get honey our first year! Now I'll have to modify recipes using honey instead of sugar! But I like the idea of using something to sweeten that is natural, and that we 'grew' ourselves! Now mind you, I don't have a problem with sugar, I'm just excited about the honey! I'm sampling some honey the guy down the street 'grew' and it tastes wonderful! I know ours will too!


      I think I hear a rumble in the distance! I hope we get rain here today! It hasn't rained all week! Surely it would cool things down! I was blessed with more tomatoes from the neighbor's garden this morning! It will probably be into next week before they're ready to can, and that's fine since I'll have Amber, Jasmine, and Layla until Wednesday! We're having Layla's 2nd birthday party here tomorrow with lots of people! We're cooking burgers on the grill and making homemade ice cream! The children will swim in the little pool since the big one isn't ready yet! I may not get a chance to blog until after Wednesday of next week, so ya'll stay cool! Have a nice weekend! Blessings from Bama!

Opening the hive.

Checking the frame.

Look how calm hubby is with the bees, he's smiling!

Look at these beautiful red onions! It wasn't as bad as you might think peeling and slicing them!

Pickle brine.

A glimpse of the recipe. I halved the recipe and still got a lot!

See how pretty? Six pints, four half-pints.

Here's the book I mentioned.

The neighbor blessed us with more tomatoes!

My tomatoes are before the peaches. They don't taste very good! The peaches were given to us by another neighbor! Can't wait to try one!

Thank God for cooler temperatures!

      We received a nice rain last night, as well! The air is a lot more humid, but the temps. are not as high. Right now, it's 87 degrees. That feels cool compared to 105! It actually got hotter than that, I'm assuming 107-109. I didn't keep up with the weather man. I hope ya'll found a cool spot to hide over the weekend! My garden is showing signs of suffering from the heat. My zucchini plant swiveled up and died! I was watering, too! I guess they can't take that much sun and heat. I did harvest a few tomatoes though. The one that grew from chicken scratch tastes sweeter and more delicious than the one I grew like it from seed, last year! It's bigger, too! My hens are hardly laying, because of the heat. Amazing how weather affects animals and plants!


      My Dad is recovering so nicely! He has days where he's really weak, but then there are days like today, he's been walking up and down the street! Not without my Mom or his walker, though. I am so thankful that God is helping him through this! My niece went home from the hospital the other day, and is staying completely out of the heat. She can't get outside as long as things are so warm. Everyone is coming here for the fourth, and she will be able to, just as long as she stays inside. Her Mom's birthday is tomorrow, so we are meeting at a local restaurant for lunch. Wow! Two days of celebrating! Oh well, that's what holidays and families are for! I'm glad we all live local, so we can get together often! 


      I made twelve half pints of blackberry jelly over the weekend, and am about to use the last of the juice. I should get at least five jars out of it. The blackberries are burned up! I don't think there will be enough to do anything with after this. I'm kind of glad, cause I seem to find chiggers when I pick them! A little cow-itch too! My nectarine tree looks like it will split in two any second! It's loaded with almost ripe nectarines! We're waiting until they are a little more ripe before we pick them. I hope the jelly will taste good! I wasn't very pleased with the way the plum jelly tasted. It didn't taste "plumy" enough for me. I'm glad things are settling down so life can get back to "normal"! Ya'll have a great fourth and I'll talk to you later! Blessings from Bama!

Skylar's hands messing with the sugar!

Beautiful blackberry jelly in the making!

Sure, I used Sure Jell!

Baby Kassie sure has grown! She looks like she's trying to smile!

Look at those sweet hands!

Blackberry jelly!

That's in the shade!

Hubby is trying his best, in that heat, to level the ground under the pool wall! He used a shovel and pressure washer cause the ground is so hard!

My first tomatoes! It tasted delicious!