Something new to me.

When going to garage sales a couple weeks ago, we found this old chalkboard for free. It is in very good shape, there are no scratches on the writing surface. I thought about taking it to school, but was inspired by Mr. Kunnari. So, it is now hanging in my kitchen. I think it looks quite lovely there.

Summer Beauties

I have a flower bed in our front yard. It was put there by the previous owner, and I had now idea what anything in there was. It was so overgrown and needed some serious work. Since then I have been amazed at the various flowers growing out of there. This deep orange lily is one of the best surprises. It stands about 4' tall and has about 7 blooms on it.

The sunflowers I planted along our garage in the strawberry patch. I was really excited about these. They have taken a couple rough hits from the hard rain because our garage doesn't have a gutter and it is like a big waterfall. But I have rigged up a system to hold them up. I think they are doing fine. Next year they will go in a different spot... and there will be many many more.

They do work!

This little egg is the first from our hens! Not sure which one it came from, but we are sure happy they finally laid. We were beginning to think we had 11 pet chickens instead of 11 working chickens. God is good!

Batters up!

My nephew turned 8 this year, and I was asked to make him some cookies! I love every chance I get to make these sugar cookies, so of course I said yes. My sister wanted a baseball theme, so I made baseballs and bats. The bats turned out to look more like chicken legs (and I was teased the whole night after the cookies came out) but that was ok because I didn't have a cookie cutter for that, I had to improvise. But I think the balls turned out great!

Also for the 4th, we had some family over for a picnic. I made some salads and we grilled burgers. For dessert I planned rootbeer floats. I also made some plain star sugar cookies to go with. When I was making the cookies, I tried to do something like this.... (again from bake@350)



but they wouldn't stay on the cups like I wanted. So, we just had plain star cookies, and I think everyone enjoyed them.

Garden Goodness

Here is the first ever broccoli and cauliflower I have grown! We ate it fresh with dip. So good! Also, some peas that we have been eating. I have a ton in the fridge that I am going to freeze very soon!

Organized

It is fun having a husband who is willing to build you things. I think he did a pretty nice job too! This is the closet in our back entry way. It serves as major storage, laundry storage, and a pantry. I wanted Rob to build shelves to hold all of the jars of beautiful produce from our garden. We are going to need a lot of space! I am planning to can up a storm.

Snow Peas

Yum....

Yum!

Our massive black raspberries are producing well. We originally thought that the ripening of the raspberries was going to be a slow process. We ate them as fast as they turned sweet. But after leaving them alone for most of the weekend, I went to harvest what was there and was pleasantly surprised to get a cup full! Now I just need about three more cups to make black raspberry jam. It shouldn't take long.

This is very cool.

www.dearphotograph.com

Twinkle, twinkle...

I noticed that the fireflies have come for summer. I had to climb onto the gate in our backyard so I could see over the grass that comes up to my shoulders, but I saw our pasture is full! It was such a beautiful sight. Hundreds of little green lights sending flashing telegrams to one another.

If you want to witness this amazing yet simple display of summer, you are more than welcome anytime. Rob might even break out the guitar to add to the ambiance like he did tonight.

Reuse

I am going to let you in on a little secret. For Christmas I received a book called The Complete Tightwad Gazette. No I was not gifted the book because I am cheap (even though I am), but because I asked for it. I like to be thrifty. Anyways, this 4in thick manual of thriftiness is FULL of great ideas on how to save money, reuse common objects for other purposes, and to enjoy the things you do have. I have to admit I wouldn't do everything in the book, but there are a lot of things I have changed since reading parts of the book.

Here is a great tip:

You know when you buy a bag of fruit from the grocery store, they come in those mesh bags. They look like this:

Well, what do you do with the mesh bag when the fruit is all gone? You can save it to put other things in it OR you can use it to do a little scrubbing. YES! I have been using one of the mesh bags we had for doing dishes. It is such a wonderful tool. Really! It scrubs so well and it is gentle. So, don't throw that bag away... clean something instead.

Ladies and Gentleman

The yellow hen is Henny Penny (Buff Orpington). The black and white chicken behind her is Tatanka (Silver Hamburg), he is a rooster. He is pretty bossy, cocka-doodling when it is time to go to bed, when it is time to wake up, and if we let the hens out to run around. The other photo is Ribbons (Barred Rock) and Elenor (Black Astralorp). They love to be outside, and love to eat spaghetti squash.

Fruit and Berries

When we bought our place, we knew there were a bunch of different fruit trees. Possibly some other kinds of berries or fruit, but weren't quite sure. It was wonderful to see everything coming to life this spring... or not. We had quite a few fruit trees that didn't make it. They were in pretty bad shape (not being taken care of over the past few years), so Rob had to take them out. We did replace some trees. We now have a new combination apple, patten pear, peach, and cherry. Here are some pictures of the plants that are producing well so far. Grapes, black raspberries, strawberries, and apples. I can't wait to taste them all!

Edible Flowers

One of my friends was having a bake sale for her niece. I decided it had been a while since I made some sugar cookies. So since the bake sale was the first of June, I made some pretty flower cookies. Here is how they turned out. I had a bunch left over.... so we got to taste them. They were pretty good.

Homegrown Chicken

Here is our first taste of the chickens we raised. Rob took charge of the cooking. It was pretty tasty. We cooked them on Memorial Day so that we could share with some family.

Butchering Chickens

Rob and I raised 23 broilers this spring. We had some dog kennels already set up in the big shed, so we put them in there. It was crazy to see how fast they grew. A couple weeks ago we took them out to Marlin's farm to butcher with the help of Rob's mom, aunt, and two uncles. We only did about half of them the first time because a bunch weren't ready yet. That was ok. We would have been at it all day! We did the rest a couple weeks later. Here is a picture of the group making the game plan. I decided not to share any of the actual butchering pictures, I thought some people wouldn't care to see those.

Flowers in Bloom

Some iris, daisies, and little purple flowers that I am not sure of. Anyone know what they are?

Tulip Time

Last fall I planted these. I was excited to see them pop out of the ground. I was a little wary that they wouldn't. But here they are. And most of them have two or three blooms! Lovely.

Mama Robin

When we moved to our house, there was a nest on our porch. There weren't any birds in it at the time, but we decided that it wasn't bothering any one there. This spring a mother robing decided it would be the perfect place to lay her four bright blue eggs. She sits on the nest most of the time. Whenever we go outside she flies away screaming and sits in the tree close by warning us not to go near her precious soon to be babies. I took a few peeks, just to count the eggs. One day there was two, the next three, and finally four. I haven't checked since, so there may be more. I think they can lay up to five eggs. The nest is right outside our kitchen window. Wherever we wash the dishes it is like we can have small conversations with the mama robin. It is really fun to see.

Perennial Swap

At our church, Rob and I are a part of a group called Creation Tenders. We meet once a month to talk about our responsibility towards God's creation. One of the things we planned was a perennial swap. The awesome thing about this is, our place has a lot of open space to plant beautiful things. So we snagged some day lilies, cedum, cannas, potatoes, ferns, asters, and maybe a few things I don't quite remember right now. It was great to be able to talk to the people who brought the plants, discussing how/where they should be plants, and what they look like when they bloom. I love the fact that whenever
I look at those plants I will remember the people who so generously shared them.

Sorry for the neglect...

I haven't posted anything in a while. Life has been extremely busy, but full of some really wonderful things. I will have to find some undated pictures to share and explain what we have been up to lately. Stay tuned...

Super Cute!

Does anyone need an idea for some super-cute spring cupcakes? Here is the perfect idea! I love these...



They are from an amazing blog called Bake at 350. If you make them... please let me know!

Thanks Rob!

Now I have to make something!

Birthdays are fun at school.

Fun little gifts I made for the great kids I work with everyday. For the girls, little hair clips in fun colors. For the boys, crayons made from a bucket full of old crayons I used growing up. (They enjoyed the unique little gifts.) And a huge thank you to the wonderful mom's that came in to help celebrate an already blessed day.