I can’t believe two weeks have gone by since I have had time to do any posting. Let’s see, way back Jessalyn had a good time going to the caves in the southern part of the county with youth from church. It was a spur of the moment thing and was over just as quick. It was a quick get away/over nighter.

When we went to drop her off, one of the family members took us back to a project he was working on. A water wheel that he built himself. He has it fed from one of his ponds. He says he would like to experiment and see how much electric he can get from it. Why? Just to see if he can. He is always trying new things. I have had times taking Tom to work over the last few weeks while he worked on the van and getting it inspected. Still waiting on the outcome of that. But when I take him to work, some mornings the view is just to beautiful to enjoy just that day so I have him slow down while I snap a few pictures. I love the view over the fields.

When taking him to work it usually means he doesn’t work as late. He got a chance to finish Dusty’s stall with the boards that Ken bought. It was so nice to have clean feet for Benny when he came to trim this time. Even though we have only three horses right now, Tom said he would like to do the last stall, if only by buying a board or two at a time. Another good thing is that it is done for summer.

Seems Jess will not be working at the horse camp. Conflict of information led to her decision to not spend the summer there. Tom also took time to replace the side porch. The rain had rotted the wood and it was just falling apart. So much yard work! I put in the tomato plants, cantaloupe, and an acorn plant. I also put in seeds for beans and peas. The peas are doing great! The beans are coming up sporadic, and it looks like the leaves are getting eaten by something. I lost most of the plants I put out. Not because of cold. They made it through the cold. It is the drought. It is so dry here that everything is baking. Everything but me! I really have cut back using the stove now that we replaced the microwave. It seems the small propane tank lasts about 7 days and we start to smell it and know we need a refill. I’ve been exchanging the kitchen for the outdoors. I have been mowing, weed whacking, weeding, and transplanting. I pulled hundreds of Rose of Sharon up on the west side and transplanted them. I also gave away a five gallon pail of them. Too many left! Again, it was doing well until the skies decided to dry up. I think it is encouraging some wild life to emerge too. I haven’t seen one of these around here in years!

This last weekend we took Hazel in to Tom’s work. Hopefully she has found a new home with a woman that runs the front office there. Poor Tiger mama. She cries and cries looking for her baby! No bites on the others yet. It is hard when you don’t want any old yahoo taking them. Jessalyn replaced the kitty with another pet. A pet rock ! Would you believe that as an assignment they had her write a short story on how to take care of a pet rock? Organized school. Great.



Tommy and I were out putting netting on the blueberry bushes when we had some surprise visitors. Mom and Dad stopped by on their way home from Florida. They brought a few southern tomato plants and Mom gave us the horse painting she made while she was down there. It wasn’t a long visit and they were off to settle back in up here.





Tom and I celebrated our 17^th anniversary on Sunday. Three of the kids surprised us with a card and gift card to a local restaurant. They usually don’t do anything for us so it was a real treat. I had planned on just taking Tom out for ice cream. I think he liked this a lot better! I still have so much on my “TO DO” list. Maybe after I close my eyes for just a minute….







The bike is back out. Tom’s car is ca-put. He can’t even trash it until the title comes. Stinks. He has been riding with his new girlfriend, but on good days he may take his bike. Good thing it wasn’t last night. What a gully washer into this morning! Mudroom leaks everywhere! I’m glad that Jess helped me mow this last weekend because I don’t know the next time when it will be dry enough to do it. She had a lot of fun at ATF this year. Over 4,000 in the stadium she said. Some adults enjoyed it too and want more older people to go next year and not just as chaperones. I have been busy in the kitchen making soup. Tommy brought home broccoli and cauliflower last week so I had made the broccoli soup and today I am making cheesy cauliflower soup. I also made banana pudding with rum flavor added and sprinkled graham cracker then thin vanilla icing, then more graham cracker on top. FATTENING! But oh, so good!
I’m making cheese again today too. This time I am heating it up first. I usually don’t because my milk is a few days old when I make it and I thought that the bacteria was good enough to help set it. I’ve been having problems though. Maybe I milk too clean! So I’m heating it first. Some of the cheese I tried a while back I followed all the directions but when it came time to set up with rennet it didn’t. So I set it out covered on the counter overnight like making cottage cheese or ricotta and in the morning did that procedure. I ended up with soft cottage cheese consistency and put it in the fridge. I used it later on in a tossed salad. Really tasty! That is where I am getting all the whey for the cream soups I’m making. I sometimes put it in the freezer to break out later. You can only have so much dairy! I have been car-less more often as the van needs inspected. I can use it as long as it doesn’t rain though. The tires are pretty smooth. It sure makes it easy to get a lot done around here. When I need the car I have to take Tom back and forth to work so it isn’t often. When Ken was going that way to work it was helpful.

So here is Tommy the other day  with an entire day off.  He helped me arrange and reposition the walkway stones out front, and clean up and fix the side porch.  He was headed in to Little Town when BAM!  His car went ca-put.  He made arrangements for it to be towed to Tom's work so that maybe it can be looked at, or parted out.   Which ever was the decision.   So we are waiting for the outcome of that.

Ken worked a day near home, then was off for a three day weekend.  NOT  They called him in to work two more days this week.  That is o.k.  he definitely does not mind.  In fact,  he took some cash from his pay and decided to decorate himself.
I used the nice weather to be continually working outside.  I had begun up front by the road weeding and cleaning out the ivy trying to coax it downward to the ditch so that I can eliminate mowing there.  Then moved out all the extra branches and tree limbs that were left behind when Ken cut down the fallen tree a few months ago.  Working my way forward,  I weeded all the flower beds, put a few Rose of Sharon in along the area Tommy and I did along the walkway by the mudroom.   Raked up all around that door where the wood was split all winter long.  I see grass starting to come back and wanted it to dry up.   I had gardens around  some of the maples to do and also a bed along the old dilapidated barn.   I was brave and went out early one morning while it was still cool and pulled weeds and raked old leaves around the base of the pool.  Although it will be yet another year to go unused,  at least it will look o.k.  
It was terribly hot yesterday but I managed to go over and pull most of the weeds out of the new garden area.   I am almost tempted to start putting the plants in.  They are getting to big for the house.

We also got our chicks in.  Tom isn't ready to move the layers over just yet, but it turned out o.k.












Jess is traveling south with the church youth and go to Acquire The Fire again this year.  It is like a modern day Billy Graham for the young kids.

While everyone is gone today Tom and I dug holes and transplanted the blueberry bushes. 

So it has been a warm few days.    Tom got himself all gussied up for Titanic Night at the home.   They treated the elders to dinner and some interesting facts about the famous Titanic.   Each participant had a biography to follow.   Tom was the shipmaker.   Although we couldn't find exact clothing from 1912,  he did dress formally and give a small autobiography of the architect.  I told him he looked nice,  but he needed to really feel the experience of his great boat sinking!

The summer is coming!   I spotted another hummingbird outside my kitchen window at the feeder.  Yeah!

It was confirmed that Becky will not be going back to college in the fall.   She said she has all but credit from two classes.   Theater, and of course, algebra.  She has been working at the retirement home for over a year now as a caretaker.  She has decided that she will start taking CNA  classes begining next month.   At least this is something she can take with her wherever she may go.  It may take her on to something beyond if she likes it.

Tom started working on remodeling the chicken's "summer" house.   It is the old goat house we used for the ladies.   We are expecting our meat birds any day now and since we are getting a few more this year, we need more room.  We decided to use this house for they layers and take the partition out of the old one to make it bigger.

Keeping the berried covered has paid off.  The blooms are plentiful!   I suspect we will be picking in the next few weeks if the sun stays out!

After church on Sunday,  Jake came out for spaghetti and meatballs and brought along his skeet stuff.  Tom took them to the back of the pasture and shot a few skeet before the kids had to go to work.

I’ve been on the computer copying and listening to some of the praise songs we are going to be doing over the next few weeks. They don’t seem as hard to sign. I still have apprehension about “Indescribable, Uncontainable” to be signed in a beat or two.
Dreary day means time inside spent straightening up the house. I finally said enough is enough with covering my grandma’s recliner. I only had so much fabric, and did the best I could. Much better than seeing the split seams.
I am tired of making cheese for a while, so I made 1 ½ dozen fudge pops. Today I made chocolate pudding cups in my small Tupperware cups and used almond flavor. Too good!

I was glad Tommy didn’t work yesterday. I was ready to put dinner in the oven when I realized we didn’t have propane. It had only been 6 days! Thankfully I had the money Tom gave me the middle of last week and some spare change. I ask Tommy if he could go fill the small tank. Tom had taken my car so I couldn’t go. I didn’t want to take the van. He brought it back and we waited for Tom to hook it up. Maybe the last time I did it I didn’t get it sealed tight enough. That was too quick.

Becky brought Jake by to sight in his gun for turkey season. Tom had just got home (late) and didn’t’ stop for eating. He grabbed his guns and went out shooting with them for about an hour or so. I think this picture is a keeper that may come in handy someday…

Chance of rain today, so I am outside looking what can be done in a short period of time. I put tape on the fence that Tom strung so the horses have a little treat for a short time. They will only get to mow it for us a few hours at a time. The goats liked being out too.

Tom had his date last night with people from work. They all went bowling and I think a bite afterwards. I didn’t even hear him come in. He said he got back about 11:00. I’m glad he could get around the dogs. I don’t like it when they bark and won’t stop when we tell them. It must be that Ken stayed working even though the doctor down there said he was on restrictive duty. I saw pictures on his face book of the nice job they were doing putting up highway curb. Tom has his scheduled Friday off tomorrow, so I want to get all the big things done today. Guess that is where I am headed.

I see that they have changed my site.  It took me yet another day to figure out how to post here.   I am not good at change.  Why do they do this?

So many things have gone on since the last time I was on I'm sure I won't remember to tell all about them.   The weather had been so great that a lot of yard work has been done.   I got the garden up and looking good,  and finally got around to planting the peas and beans. Green, yellow, and Lima ones.  The plants indoors have been weeded out to the strong that survived, but they are growing so big that even repotting them is not helping.  They had forcasted rain and changing temperatures so I took Jessalyn and we headed over to the Grandparents to mow their lawn.   I thought for sure it would be bad since we have mowed ours more than 2x now.   You can see it really wasn't!  It made it a lot easier.   While Jess mowed the front,  I picked up the sticks and raked out front, then went out back where the grass really didn't grow much at all and piled up the big limbs that fell over the winter.  

Another thing we did before the rain was completely mow and weed whack one day, then the next Tommy and I moved the winter manure and put it around all the trees up front.  Some of the new garden areas too.  It looks a lot better and I hope it will keep the weeds away far enough it will be easier to mow.  I'm not sure where to put the rest but it has to be moved before the new birds arrive in two weeks.

Jess is going to be working at a Christian horse camp this summer.  She was put to the test last weekend when she and a few other girls had to escort 28 horses around on rides for a billion little girl scouts.  Jess said she had quite a all horse that had a mind of it's own.  She thought for sure it was planned that way!   The woman at camp talked with us while we were waiting to pick Jess up.  She said she was very happy with the way Jessalyn handled the horses.  She said there are a lot of helpers that say they know horses, but Jess said very little but did much!  I'm proud of her!

While she was away those few days,  Tom and I had a chance for double dating with a couple from church.  We went putt-putting and then out for a bite to eat at a burger joint. I don't think I have ever been where they had a sand trap!   It has been a long time since I have been on a double date!  The suggestion was made that the next time go to the zoo!

  

Little kitties are growing fast.  Names have been given.  Boober, Hazel, Murphy, and Bernie.  I still call Mama Tiger,  but others call her by a different name.   Tom says there will be good homes found for them......

If it wasn't for going to Bible study today I wouldn't have done anything.   The clouds rolled in and snow was in the air.  I went out and made sure the covers didn't blow off the strawberries and the feed bags off the blueberries and two fruit trees.   We are keeping clear, but they are still calling for a few inches.  I hope it stays east of us.

Sunday was the first day without a pastor.  We will have a guest pastor for a few weeks while others are evaluated.  I had the opportunity to sign for Dorothy.  Not just the songs, but the sermon too.  I hope she could understand what I was saying.  I had a few rough patches, but I felt more confident than the last time I attempted to sign for her a year or so ago when she was sitting alone and we had a movie on the screen.   Maybe because I know her much better now than then.  I am thankful for the young woman at church on praise team that emails me the songs to practice too.  She has helped me with some of the synonyms for the old hymns.

We thought Ken was headed back to work last week. 

 He did 3 1/2 days when he decided he would cut some metal rods with a torch.  He ended up lighting his pant leg on fire and getting 2nd degree burns on the back of his leg.  Ouch!   He was to come home for the weekend anyway.  

Tom, Jess, and I were at the local Wally Mart to get a new microwave when we spotted him.  He told us he just got the call that he wasn't going down to work because of the "snow storm"  that was headed into the state.  So now he has a chance for his leg to heal a little more before he actually goes back to work.