Arial Photo of our house

One day several weeks ago, Spencer came in and asked me if I had seen the small plane flying really low over our house. A few days later a man came to the door selling arial photo's he had taken in our neighborhood!

Halloween Aprons

Chandler and Desi in their Halloween aprons I made for them.

Sweet Potatoes!

This year we decided to try our hand at growing sweet potatoes, something we'd never done before! Here is the first one we harvested! Isn't it a beauty?? They are so good when fresh from the garden. Something else we will do again.

Chickens

For some reason Spencer decided we needed chickens. We'd considered it for quite awhile, but weren't sure we were ready to jump into farm animals again! Having Max, the cat, in the house seemed to be just enough! However, Spencer can be just as persuasive as his mother always was, so, Saturday we went to the hardware store and bought 15 baby chicks! Now for another project at the "Funny Farm"....building a chicken coop! Fortunately they will be in a box in the garage for several weeks, giving us time to get what we want built and ready for them. We are anxious to have fresh eggs again! Hopefully by Spring.

Barn roof repair

I think all we do is repair stuff! Sunday we worked on the barn roof, taking off old vents and roof cap that were leaking. Once again we were practicing ladder safety at the "Funny Farm"! I really hate climbing ladders so this was another challenge for me! Ron on the other hand, who doesn't realize he has artificial knees, just does whatever he has to do! Only one booboo to report for the day. Ron's face should have had a few stitches but I was able to close it up with butterflies after we got the bleeding stopped! Now we have to replace the 4 skylights but that will be another day!

Saturday night

By the end of Saturday the new door was assembled and in place for the night. It will have to come out again to finish fixing the roof and wrap the sides with Tyvek. Tomorrow is another day!

Desi

Desi was as entertaining as always on Saturday while the work was being done on the living room. The box the door came in was turned into a tent.

Roof Damage

This is the damage we found when the fireplace was gone. Yesterday and today were spent repairing the roof and installing the new door.

Fireplace cleanup day

Today we finished the clean up of the living room fireplace. We couldn't have done it without Spencer and the aid of Bill Elmers bobcat. What a wonderful neighbor he is to let us borrow it. And...what a great grandson we have to help us so much. Unfortunately, now Spencer wants a Bobcat!!
Next will be the repair of the roof, and then the installation of the sliding glass door. I think this is going to make a great patio area. If we live that long!!

End result on Labor Day

This is what it looked like at the end of the day! I'm sure Spencer is having second thoughts about staying with Nana and Papa. He is such a big help to us and we love having him here. My plastic job worked, the rain is not getting inside! YEAH! Now the fun of cleaning up all the concrete block and rocks. I started on it today but as soon as I did it started pouring. Tomorrow is another day.

fireplace destruction on Labor day

We spent our Labor Day working on the continuation of the destruction of our leaking fireplace. It is gone now and we decided the open space was beautiful looking into our back yard so decided to put in a sliding glass door! Went to Home Depot and got the door and it's waiting patiently to be installed. I, however am a little impatient! The whole is blocked up temporarily with plywood and plastic, since we are expecting rain for 3 days. Hopefully we don't get another 20 inches like last week!

Peter Piper finished the peppers late last night and here is the finished project! For some reason my family thinks this just "Happens"! If that were true, I wouldn't be so tired today. Now to start on the Jalapeno's.

Today Farmer Ron and Spencer went to work in Mt. Grove again and left me to tend the garden. (Probably a big mistake!!) Ron is still not feeling well and his blood pressure is still way out of control even with the changes in his medication. Hopefully this problem will be fixed soon. It is so sad to watch such a strong man feel so bad. It is such a blessing to have Spencer here right now. He is a great help and really watches out for his Papa.
After they left I went right out and started rototilling without the aid of a rototiller again! While I was digging I found another hill of beautiful red potatoes that we had missed. What a bonus! I planted more green beans and cucumbers today, then picked all the peppers. I'm not sure what a "peck of peppers" is but am pretty sure this is more! Now for the fun of canning them all. Off to the kitchen to begin!

I think Spencer is probably wondering why he came here by now! He has shoveled 2 trailer loads of compost and has another one waiting for him! We are trying to build up our terrible soil behind the shop where the corn is growing. We also have watermelons, cantalope, acorn squash, okra, green beans, and sweet potatoes growing back there.

A bountiful harvest!

I've never had fresh potatoes right from the garden! Sure didn't know what I was missing! What a treat. They taste completely different. Next year we will have to plant more. I'm sure that will make Farmer Ron happy to hear! I just hope we will be able to store them successfully. We were able to get them in the ground early enough to beat the bugs so we didn't have to fight them off the whole growing season. YEAH :)

corn

We ate our first corn from the garden this week. Boy was it good! Can't wait to have some more.

We had a broken water pipe going out to the back garden. Eric came and he and Spencer were able to dig it up and we will be able to water again. However, God did it for us this time! We've had rain on and off for 24 hours. What a blessing.

There are literally hundreds of peppers ready to pick. Guess I will be busy canning for awhile.

We are really enjoying the potatoes, squash and cucumbers. Nothing better than fresh veggies from the garden.

Beautiful birthday gift

One of my favorite memories when I was a child, was my mom singing this prayer to me. Desi stayed with us one day and we went for a walk. The moon had come up and we sang this all the way home! Sabina and family gave me this plate for my birthday. I love it! It means so much to me.

Birthdays at the lake with the Jacobs

Today we celebrated our birthdays again! Spent the afternoon on the dock at the lake. It was really hot and humid today. We loved watching Desi jump into the lake. I swear she is fearless!

My 2 favorite farmers

Here are my two favorite farmers admiring their work from the "Gatormobile"!

garden # 2

One garden wasn't enough...now we have two! Ron and Farmer Frank now have 3 plantings of corn, some watermelons, cantelope and as soon as we get home they will plant sweet potatoes. Hopefully the stupid deer don't eat everything in the mean time.

garden progress May 25th

The garden is really growing! Now if we could get the rabbits to leave the beet tops alone we'd be doing well. We put covered them with Remay so they should be o.k. now. However, the deer ate all the peaches off our new trees in the boxes. I guess it's time to think about an electric fence.

We left for Missy's on the 26th and were only on the road 2 hours when Ron said..."wonder how the garden is doing?" This is a sick man!

Desi's first sleep over

Monday afternoon, after spending two days at Sabina's trying to unclog her kitchen drain, fix her dryer, dishwasher and garage door, Desi came home with us to have her first "sleep over"! Getting her to go to sleep was the biggest challenge for me. Papa managed to sleep through the whole thing! She was finally asleep enough by 11 that I was able to sneek out of her room and try to get some sleep myself. She cried out several times but after consoling her and reminding her that we would take Max for a walk in the morning she was back to sleep. At 5 she was in the middle of the hall, screaming bloody murder! At that point I gave up and put her in bed with us. Papa got up and made coffee, since he slept through the whole ordeal.

Flowers

After being sick last week it was so nice to get outside and see all the flowers that had bloomed. The Peonies just opened yesterday. This is just one of many bushes of them and many colors too. They are my very favorite flower. Can't wait until they are all in full bloom. We are so blessed to have bought a home from people who love flowers as much as we do. Thanks Lois and Frank! We are really enjoying the fruits of your labor!