a quiet sunday

What is it about the solitude of country living? No hussle and bussle of the big cities, or crowded apartments and subdivisions. No hearing everything your neighbors talk about or having cars parked along the street and blocking your driveway...No I don't miss that at all.
 Another benefit is shooting whenever you want to, we have been working on our little range, made some additions and improvements and its all coming along nicely...I am thankful that we no longer have to find a public range to shoot at and can come and go as much as we want on ours...
 This being the last day of our spring break the boys were up early, with BB guns in hand, wanting to get some target practice in. As long as they don't put an eye out they can shoot BBs whenever they like. But, when it comes to their .22s or something of mom and dads...we need to be there with them.
 I made a cup of coffee and sat on the porch watching, and thinking about how carefree they are. Wishing desperately that they did not know of some of the things that are corrupting our world, or the meaning of words that I would have never thought of as a child.

I look at them being so free and smile, but inside I am sad that soon Senior and I will have to turn them loose in this big old world, and I hope we are preparing them well for that day.( sniff sniff..mom gets weepy eyed)

Another good thing about country living and having property?...is getting to have a monster garden. Ours is 99% planted. Only thing left is the okra for Senior and boys. ( ick...i know!...lol )
Jack was being naughty in the house, and so we collectively decided to let him have the great outdoors where I think he is much happier. Today he was helping us out in the garden . He likes coming down there to purr and nuzzle us with his nose. When we pull the hose out, he cracks us up trying to attack it thinking its a big black snake.
Having an out door cat has been an adventure, we look forward to his daily presents he leaves on the porch. Mostly its moles. But Friday he managed a bird. And No, we were not happy because it was a robin.

The day is growing short,  I have noticed several of my favorite bloggers have done posts, so I am off of mine to go check theirs out and say a quick hello. Then its on to answer the demands of the household....you know that dinner thing!  lol

-JUGM

things round here #6

 With the fact that spring has sprung, I have been trying to work on the chicken hatching thing..  I pick up a broody hen, throw her in for some loving with the rooster, then a couple of days later put her in the maternity ward,  so she can lay her eggs, and nothing...  The entire science of it all baffles me that I am not considering either  buying chicks, or getting the eggs once they lay them and incubating them. ..   Will keep you all posted..  : )

Planting season has also begun, Senior has been non stop getting the garden  plowed and the rows neat and spaced decently. I picked up a pound of Silver king corn seed last week, and over the weekend we got it in the ground..

 

We wore out the hired help, and much to their happiness we are finally investing in a seeder plow...

But, 15 rows later...so pretty!!!    I still have a quarter of the bag left, and I suppose Senior will do some more rows this weekend..

 I have the best niece ever, she does metal stamping and charms and made me this necklace for the boys baseball. I love it!!!

We just celebrated Easter, and for you all I hope it was truly blessed.  It was our first year coloring fresh eggs straight from the chickens, and I got to tell you the natural colors from the hens, made for some vibrant colors.... They also made for some great deviled eggs, that were so good the boys cleaned them out....

-JUGM

Another Birthday and Friday Stuff....

I looked and saw it was almost a month ago since my past post.  I have no idea where the time goes, but we are all still here and doing fine. Senior and I have been busy with stuff around the estate, boys out of school, and have had other stuff to deal with and hope with all our hearts for an answer to our prayers.

ND turned 9 today. Can't believe my baby is getting so big. And since he is getting big, he wanted big boy presents...and just like his big brother he as well wanted his own Hennessy Hammock.  After the presents, Senior took both boys outside, and taught ND how to set his up. The three of them gave a new meaning to the term "Tent City" Seniors is the brown one in the middle. I guess that leaves me who needs to get one now....

And in some other news, all the corn has been cleared out of the garden, its been plowed and planted with our fall garden crops. We have one row of Mustard greens, green beans, and collards coming up. ND wanted a pumpkin patch, so he threw in some seeds down in the lower part, not sure how big they will get since we did it kind of late though.. 

In other news, My brother married that person he has been living with..uggggg, and I or anyone else in my family have not spoken to him since his hate filled emails a few weeks ago.

Watched the Fox debate last night, and the two who impressed me were Cruz and Kasich. However, I do like that Trump is not a politician but I need to research where he stands on the issues other then immigration yet and I would like to know what he thinks of  "Common Core", so my jury is still out on him...

I hope you are all doing well, I am making my way around the blogisphere to read and get updated on you all.

-JUGM

corn pickin time

The corn is ready...  We are literally up to our ears in it!  the first 75-100 ears we boiled for 7-8 minutes then soaked in ice water before sealing them with the foodsaver. the bad ones we gave to the chickens.

 

Next couple of batches, I think we will can. Either way, this family is going to be eating a lot of corn throughout the winter months...  lol   

 

 

 

And in other news, the major heat wave we had over the past few weeks broke down, and the rains have returned. Yesterday was a nice cooling downpour:

our family is celebrating our little man NW turing 10 today. I remember when I had him my sister told me to enjoy those moments, because once they start school the years start flying by, and sad to say she was right. I have no idea where the time went....(sniff, sniff) 

Our garden is producing....

We got some beautiful cantaloupes and watermelons coming in on the vines.
This really excites us because along with the corn, these are a first for us:

I noticed our zucchini has sprouted.. We love us some fried zucchini:

The tomatoes were growing by leaps and bounds, so instead of the cheapie ones from the store. We bought some green PVC coated garden fence and Senior made his own. We got the yellow tent stakes to keep them in place:

Well folks some heavy storms are moving into the area and that means much needed rain (we hope) for the garden...
Have a good night
-JUGM

turnips and chicks...

Yep!  the seeds that spilt out of the bag two weeks ago have sprouted..It will be fun sorting through this mess.

We put the rest of the baby chicks in the coop. Took a day or two but everyone is getting along well . This little beauty is " Stella":

This is one out of the five roosters:

He is a little banty as a baby his head was all white and reminded us of a bald eagle so, we named him "Patriot" he is a mamas boy, when I go in the coop he always comes right up to me and follows us all around. 

Lots going on...

I know Senior and I both have been MIA. We just ask for our followers not to give up on us. We are still here. Just please excuse us if we don't post or respond to any comments.. We have just had a lot on our plates this past month.
Seniors dad is still in the VA Hospital out of state. He has been spending a part of the week up there, then coming back home for the rest of the week.
It is getting to be a lot on all of us. The good news is, his dad finally had the long awaited orthopaedic surgery on his hip. Poor man was in there almost a month waiting to get it done. It was one reason or the next why they wouldn't. Finally it took a  bit of complaining to his dads doctor about it all..  What an ordeal this has been for all of us.
So now his re-hab and physical therapy starts. Hotels are getting costly, so Senior has decided to pull our camper up there and park it in a campground...doing this will save us quite a bit.

On top of it all, NW got sick again. A violent gastrointestinal virus has been circulating around his school and classroom. Five other kids in his class have had it, along with 2 other boys on his baseball team. My poor child has been vomiting and having severe diarrhea since Sunday. He has had no appetite and has dropped 6 pounds. He has had severe stomach cramps that make him double over and cry in pain.
The doctor has given us a kool-aid solution with honey and salt to raise his glucose  and electrolyte levels because he was getting dehydrated. I feel so bad for him- It is always him getting sick and he doesn't understand why everything happens to him. My baby has missed out on so much this week at school and with baseball.  But today was better, he drank all the kool aid and ate a bowl of animal crackers..hopefully there is a light at the end of the tunnel for this nasty virus.

My garden is flourishing. Here are some pics of my baby cauliflower heads, and broccoli sprouting up.. I took these just a few days ago and the broccoli heads have doubled since...

And my beautiful first yellow rose of the spring:

 

Even Little Libby Lu-Lu got in on helping me water the roses:

 



-JUGM