A Busy Time of Year

Hello,
I haven't posted in quite some time!! It sure has been busy around here lately.  August was a birthday month, husband Dave and son Ben, celebrated their birthdays on the 8th, son-in-law Brad on the 14th, grandson Henry turned three on the 26th, and my Mom was exactly "three packets of candles" on the 27th. Between all the birthday parties we have all had enough cake and ice-cream for a while.

Daughter Emily started her senior year of high school three weeks ago, and started her first job as an hostess at Buffalo Wild Wings, she seems to be managing everything well.

The garden has kept us very busy, I have canned many tomatoes and will be canning more today.  I canned a half bushel of peaches and taught daughter Amber how to can peaches, I don't think she was very excited by the process but was pleased with her quarts of peaches. Our concord grapes are ready, I will be picking as many as I can today and plan to make grape jelly.  The first step in making grape jelly is to juice the grapes, I will start this process today, tomorrow I will have plenty of grape juice to make jelly with. We have also been enjoying cantaloupe and watermelon from the garden, yummy, they are so juicy and refreshing to eat on a hot day.

In early July we started a crock of sauerkraut. Dave and I picked about thirty-five cabbages and started the process of making sauerkraut. I shredded the cabbages and tossed the shreds in salt, after a bit Dave would take the shreds and pack them into the crock.  The packing part is hard work, the cabbage shreds just have to be packed, the salt begins to draw water out of the cabbage and eventually you have a brine covering the cabbage. Once the crock is full you add a little more brine, salt and water mix, tuck a cheese cloth over the cabbage and place a plate with a weight on top of that, then move the crock to a place where it will not be disturbed too much.  Fermentation takes about six weeks, it can be a bit smelly, so we put the crock in the basement, each day you must "skim the scum" a gray colored scum that forms on top of the brine.  We sit our crock in a galvanized laundry tub so any mess from the crock is contained.  Always make sure there is enough   brine to cover the shredded cabbage.  We were able to can the sauerkraut a few weeks ago and ended up with seventeen and half quarts - we tried some last week with a pork roast, it was very good.
Now you may be wondering what we are going to do with seventeen and half quarts of sauerkraut, well we will eat it over the next year, and will give a few quarts away.

Last night we took our pig in to be processed, the pig did not live at our property, some friends were raising a couple of pigs, Dave helped last night with the transportation of both pigs to the meat processor.  In about a week our pork, sausage, bacon, and hams will be ready for pick up. I know we will enjoy some of the pork with sauerkraut.

Our hens are doing well, we have seven, one died in the extremely hot weather we had in July, we are getting seven nice brown eggs each day and have a glut of eggs that I plan to start selling.  One of our favorite treats this time of year is egg salad with chopped tomatoes. We only eat this delicious egg salad this time of year because it is best made with garden ripe tomatoes.

This past weekend was Labor Day weekend, we planned to get a lot of painting done but the weather did not cooperate.  Last week we were able to prep and prime the hen house and Dave was able to put the first coat of fresh paint on it first thing Saturday morning, by noon it was too hot to paint and by mid-afternoon the temperature had  reached ninety-six degrees.  The hot weather made it ideal for power washing the pole barn, so Dave started in on that job and then popped down to our neighbor Nancy's house to put trim on her shed. Nancy then had us over for supper later in the evening.

While Dave was busy with outside chores I worked in the house, I had some sewing projects to finish, I made Henry a shirt on Friday, and started on Dave's shirt, on Saturday morning all I had to do was hen the shirt and do the button holes, well my machine has had button hole issues and this it would not make a button hole to save it's life.  I had recently had the machine serviced, when I got it back it worked better than it ever had and the button hole feature worked again, I made Patrick's shirt, then Henry's, although the button holes were looking a little less than desired, and of course the feature stopped working completely.  Boy was I frustrated!!  Dave said I could get a new machine, so after some internet research on Janomes, the only brand I wanted to buy, and a lengthy fact finding discussion with my mother, I arrived at Edwards Sewing Center. After a demo and learning that the Janome Magnolia 7330 had all of the features suggested by my Mom, I purchased the machine. I have never had a sewing machine like this, it is amazing, it sews beautifully, and is an absolute joy to use.  I finished Dave's shirt and shortened a pair of jeans for him and hemmed a dozen napkins. I then went to Jo Anne's and purchased fabric, battting, and interfacing to make a new raggy bag for fall.  My Mom made me a beautiful raggy bag this past spring, I receive compliments on it all the time, I have wanted to make one for some time, so chose fall colors for mine and the Janome performed splendidly.

On Sunday the high was sixty-six, a chilly north wind was blowing, and it was very cloudy, and we were cold! On Monday it was still very cool out, we got up early, I always do my heavy house cleaning and bread baking on Mondays so I started in on that and Dave headed out to put primer on the pole barn, he was able to get some painting done, then had to go to Lowe's to pick up five more gallons of primer.

Dave's Dad came over Monday afternoon and we had a nice visit and Amber, Brad, Henry, and Patrick stopped in, Ben was home for the day, Emily had to work, and Matt and Traci were at the lake. We made dinner for everyone, we decided to make beef ribs, we have never made them before, we followed a recipe but after two hours in the oven they were still too tough to eat, so we thawed some hamburger to make burgers, and I decided that it wouldn't hurt to put the ribs in the pressure cooker, which turned out to be a good decision, because thirty minutes in the cooker and the beef was tender as could be and falling off the bone.  So we ended up with rather a lot of meat, the plan B hamburgers, and the salvaged beef ribs, we also had spanish rice, macaroni and cheese, corn, banana pudding and pumpkin pie. The nice about preparing a large meal is that there are always enough leftovers for supper the next day, and the next day!

Anyway it has been busy lately, once the garden is finished and the pole barn is painted things will slow down  and we will have the winter to rest.  By February we will be anxious to start planning our garden for next year.

A nice day, and another recipe....

I was up at four this morning, took care of Dave saw him off to work and went back to bed until seven thirty. When I got up I headed out for my walk, I decided to do six miles today, the only other plans I had were to do some house cleaning, laundry, and sewing, then go to mass with my Franciscan brothers and sisters in the evening. Well as I walked I kept receiving text messages, a couple from my friend Cindy, a fellow Franciscan,  regarding our plans that evening, a couple from Emily letting me know what she was up to, she had spent the night at her friends house, a call from Matt telling me that he had had a call back from a job interview he went to on Monday and he had to go in for a second interview, and one from Amber asking if I wanted do something with her and the boys as she had the day off.  Well I walked for a bit, responded to the texts and thought about what Amber and I could do with the boys and decided that a day trip to Shipshewana would be fun.  I called Amber and she thought my idea was good and said she would be over in a bit, I told her to take her time I still had a couple of  miles to walk to get back home.
By ten thirty we were in Amber's van and heading north west on our way to Shipshewana. As Dave is working about twenty miles south of Shipshewana we decided to stop by the job site to say Hi.  Henry was very excited to see Grandpa climbing down a very tall ladder to come over to see him!  After our brief visit we continued on our journey.  By the time we arrived in Shipshewana it was noon, and I was feeling pretty hungry, we parked the van, popped Pat in the stroller and headed over to The Bread Box to get some lunch, I really enjoyed my chicken ceasar salad wrap while we sat outside on a covered, sunken, patio.  Once done with lunch we walked to the Davis Mercantile building, we went directly to the third floor to the candy store, then purchased tokens for the giant carousel.  Henry and Patrick really enjoyed the carousel!  We wandered around a few stores, purchased some adorable Cat in the Hat fabric, one print in yellow and the other in red, I will be making the boys a shirt each in the near future.  Our next stop was Yoder's General store, we looked around and then went into the grocery store section for an emergency BINKY purchase, Patrick was getting tired and we couldn't find his binky!!  As both boys were tired we decided to head home, both were asleep soon after we left and they stayed that way all the way home.
By four thirty I was off to Fort Wayne to pick up Cindy, we were heading to St. Joseph Catholic Church for evening mass.  Our Secular Franciscan Fraternity had scheduled the mass and it was said for the deceased members of our fraternity.  The mass was very nice, afterwards there was a dinner in the church basement, I guess each Wednesday evening they serve dinner, so we all got to hang out together while we ate dinner, it was good fellowship.
Matt was at our house when I returned home, great news, he was hired at Erie Haven, they have a fleet of cement trucks and do cement work, he starts on Monday and will being doing truck maintenance.   Tracy was at work so Matt stayed for dinner to celebrate his new job!  Dave cooked two t-bones on the grill, I cooked some yukon gold potatoes that I tossed with butter and parsley, made hollandaise sauce, and creamy cucumber salad, the guys then sat down and enjoyed their supper.  It is satisfying to make a meal that is enjoyed, and really satisfying when much of the food eaten we have produced, the steaks were from our steer, the potatoes and cucumber from our garden, and the eggs in the hollandaise sauce from our hens.  Following is a recipe for creamy cucumber salad, it is a favorite summer time treat that Dave really enjoys, it is very good served with baked potatoes.

Creamy Cucumber Salad

1/2 cup sour cream

1 T vinegar

1 t sugar

1/4 t dried dill

1/4 t salt

1 cucumber thinly sliced

1 small onion thinly sliced

Mix the first five ingredients together, then stir in the sliced cucumber and onion. 

That's it!

(you can substitute plain non-fat yogurt for the sour cream if desired)

Hot Summer Days and Chocolate Zucchini Bread Recipe

Henry the Farmer 

Patrick the Little Urchin!

We are in the middle of a heat wave, the temperatures have been in the mid to upper nineties since Saturday, and the humidity is very high, we are looking for a cool off hopefully by next Monday.  Today it is very overcast which has helped keep things cooler, but has done nothing to reduce the humidity.

I got up at four this morning with Dave, I made his coffee and a couple of sandwiches for his lunch, tidied the kitchen and got the laundry going.  Dave left for work at five, I showered, tidied our bedroom and headed out for a five mile walk.  When I returned I let the chickens out and Henry and Patrick arrived. After the boys ate breakfast, a nice bowl of oatmeal with cinnamon and applesauce mixed in, we went outside to hang laundry and weed the strawberries.  It is nice to get the outdoor activities done early in the morning before it really heats up, or in the evening as it starts to cool, but lately it has still been ninety degrees at nine in the evening.  While I weeded strawberries the boys played, Henry really likes to play on Grandpa's tractor, and Patrick just likes to muddle around getting into this and that and always manages to get himself very dirty! 

The boys will be picked up later this afternoon and then I plan to get some sauerkraut going, I use a recipe that allows the cabbage to ferment in the canning jar for a few weeks prior to processing in a hot water canner.  In August we want to get a pig and take it in to be processed, I am looking forward to some pork and sauerkraut dinners this fall.  I also plan to make chocolate zucchini bread this afternoon, we did not plant any zucchini but we have been given some, so we will make good use of them.  If you have not had chocolate zucchini bread you really should try it, it is a delicious sweet bread, I enjoy a slice of it spread with raspberry jam - YUMMY.  Which reminds me, I need to get my raspberry jam made. I picked all of our black raspberries over the last couple of weeks, they are currently bagged and in the freezer, perhaps on Friday I will get the jam made.  It looks as if we will have a bumper crop of concord grapes in another month or so, so I know I will be busy making making many pots of grape jelly, it is a favorite in our house.

Well that is all for today, Patrick is evidently worn out from his outdoor adventure this morning, because he fell asleep on my lap as I was typing :)

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

3 cups of all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 cups of sugar (don't forget this, once I did and the bread was revolting :)
3 large eggs   (this reminds me one of our new laying hens started laying :)
1 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup of nuts (optional)
1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 350, grease two 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 loaf pans.
2. Combine first six ingredients in large bowl.
3. Combine sugar and eggs, beat until blended, add oil and vanilla, beat until blended, add zucchini.  Add wet mixture to the dry ingredients in the first bowl, stir until just moistened, add chocolate chips and nuts.  Divide batter evenly between the two prepared loaf pans.
4. Bake 55 to 60 minutes or until wooden pick inserted comes out clean.  Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove from pans and cool on wire rack.

***Helpful Hint***

If you have lots of zucchini, grate it, a food processor will make this much easier, then bag up in 2 cup quantities and freeze, then whenever you want to make chocolate zucchini bread you will have the exact measure of grated zucchini ready in your freezer.

Late Evening Walks and the Wonders of Nature

As the weather has been warm and it does not get dark until almost ten at night, I often take my daily walk in the evening. Today was very warm, it was ninety degrees outside this afternoon, it was still ninety degrees at eight this evening when I left for my walk, if I had walked at three this afternoon it would have been miserably hot. I ended up walking six miles this evening so did not get back to the house until ten. I enjoy my walks, I have time to think, I pray, and I enjoy all of the sights and sounds of the ever changing country side. There are grasses along County Line Rd that are taller than I am, and I am 5'10", insects abound, I hear scurrying in the grasses and the occasional chipmunk rushes out in front of me, I see plenty of rabbits, a ground hog who lives by the creek, red wings who chatter and squawk at me, mourning doves with their beautiful mournful cry, an occasional possum, and gold finches darting in and out of the hedgerows and thistles. The corn has grown more than knee high, tiger lilies grow wild, fragrant dogwood roses grow wild in the hedgerow and are in full blossom. The many, many shades of green I see as I look across the rolling landscape of fields, trees, grass, hedges, all contrasting with the sky bring peace to my soul. This evening as I was close to home the fire flies were suddenly out in abundance, as I walked past an open area of very long grasses I felt as if I was in Aladdin's cave, the twinkling, winking lights of hundreds of fire flies was spectacularly beautiful. One afternoon recently I was walking with the grandsons, they were in the double stroller, as we came to the same open area with long grasses I saw something, we stopped and were blessed to see a very young fawn, it was no more than a foot tall, with white spots all over it's back, a sweet little face with very large ears that needed to be grown into. Henry was impressed with the fawn, we stared at it, it stared at us and then it started and ran off towards a wooded area, it was a truly a gift to see the fawn.

I enjoy my walks in the spring slowly everything turns green, the birds return, and then suddenly everything seems to go into overdrive, the rate of growth of some plants is truly amazing, by August things are looking a little shabby, a bit over the hill, and then the queen anne's lace blooms, followed in September by the golden rod and a beautiful purple wild flower, the days are pleasant the sky a clear beautiful blue, with October the weather is a little erratic the leaves change and look amazing and suddenly it is November, chilly, damp, and gloomy, everything is resting for a season and the threat of snow is ever present. Then winter arrives, snow falls, everything is quite, sounds travel in the crisp air and January can be bitterly cold and very sunny, by February the temperatures are warming up a bit, then March arrives with wind and rain and can't seem to make it's mind up if it is winter or spring, and then we are back to April and the whole wondrous cycle begins again. So why do I walk? It is good for me, physically and mentally, it keeps me grounded, and although I walk the same roads most days the sights and sound are always changing and occasionally I am blessed with a special gift to see.

Garage Sale Treasures

Last Friday morning Dave and I went "garage sale-ing" and boy did we find some good stuff. Dave left for work at five in the morning, he was back home by eight as they were unable to work due to a persistently steady light rain. It was too wet to garden and my daily chores were done we decided to head out to visit the garage sales. The first sale we went to had a ton of stuff, I got a purse for Emily and a really nice baby gate, I spent three dollars. As we drove away from this sale I realized that I had left our weekly local Courier, with all of the garage sale ads, at home. We called Amber to see if she still had her Courier, she did, so we stopped at the gas station picked up donuts for Henry and Patrick and popped over to their house, there we did a quick trade of donuts for the Courier.

Then we were off, we went to so many garage sales and we really found some good items, I picked up 6 sturdy wooden puzzles for the grandsons for a total of two dollars and twenty five cents. I purchased a box of cookbooks for five dollars, a glass serving bowl for fifty cents, a chicken cookie jar for three dollars, a wooden storage bench to keep the grandsons toys in for ten dollars, pants and snow pants for the boys, a lamp and doily, a table cloth, a yard of floral, backed, quilted fabric suitable for a bag, some games for the grandsons Memory, I Spy and puzzle cards, and a USA map place mat. I ended up spending just over thirty dollars.

By the time we returned home we were ready for lunch. After lunch the rain stopped, the sun came out and we were able to spend the afternoon working in the garden, I hoed the vegetable gardens and Dave mowed.

Garage Sale Treasures

The new toy bench modeled by Henry and Patrick!

My pretty lamp and doily.

The $2 Baby Gate!

Flowers in front of our home.

Birthday, Fathers Day, Welcome Home, Mission Trip, Birthday make for a Busy June, recipes included!!

A Very Busy June

Two weeks a go we celebrated youngest daughter Emily's eighteenth birthday! Just think all of my children are now "adults" :) Emily invited her cousins and some friends to share the day along with family, we enjoyed tacos and of course cake and ice cream.

This past Saturday evening Matt and Traci arrived safely home for good :) from Wyoming!!! YEA!!!

Last weekend we celebrated Fathers Day, Dave cooked some fabulous baby back ribs on the grill!!

After a rainy, cloudy, cool week of weather Saturday morning arrived with blue skies, abundant sunshine and a gently breeze. Dave left for work at five in the morning and I started to plan my day. I had started laundry the night before so had a couple of loads ready to hang out, so ran my last load and did my normal morning chores consisting of letting the chickens out, putting away dishes from the previous evening, making our bed, and putting away folded laundry, and sweeping the floor. Daily chores out of the way I left to run a few errands, I dropped off the recycling, stopped by a couple of garage sales, popped into the grocery store for a few items and on my way home stopped at Convivium, a farmers market sponsored by a local church, where I purchased caffeine free mango green tea and orange papaya tea. I then headed home for heavy duty house cleaning consisting of window cleaning inside and out, carpet cleaning in high traffic areas, scrubbing the floor in the kitchen, eating area, hallway, foyer and bathroom, dusting, cleaning bathrooms, ironing and making an ice cream cake for Amber's 25th birthday, and a jar of salsa. Around eleven in the morning I received a call from Matt, he said they were just leaving Cheyenne, WY ready to start their sixteen hour journey home. During the afternoon Emily mentioned that Matt had posted on face book some ten hours earlier that they were over half way home, she called Matt to ask if he would be home soon, he said not until Sunday afternoon as they were currently in Nebraska. The busy day continued, at five Amber brought Henry and Patrick over, they were going to have a sleepover with Grandma and Grandpa while their parents went out to dinner with friends and then had a get together at their home. I fed the boys dinner, changed diapers, put them in their pajamas and plonked them in the double stroller and went off on my daily four mile walk. Both boys fell asleep quickly, when I was almost home, around eight thirty, I received a text from Matt stating that they were in Des Moines and were stopping for the night. I thought it was odd that they would stop while it was still daylight and thought back to the face book posting and wondered what they were up to! Around ten pm Matt called to see what we were doing, I said not much, just looking for a movie to watch on Netflix, he said well stay up, we are almost home and after we drop the moving truck off at Traci's parents house we will be over. We were so excited that they were home a day early. Around midnight a pick up truck pulled into the driveway and Matt, Traci, and their puppy Daisy came into the house, HOW WONDERFUL TO SEE THEM HOME, and HOME FOR GOOD! We visited for about an hour, then the kids left to run over to Brad and Amber's house to say Hi. By two in the morning I was asleep, the alarm went off at four am and I went to get Emily up, she was leaving on a Missions trip, she will be in Appalachia for week either roofing or building porches for people in need, and had to be at the church by six am. At five thirty we left the house, we turned onto St. Rd. 1 and had gone about a quarter of a mile when we saw something in the road, large black shapes, we slowed down and realized that about nine head of cattle were standing in the middle of the road. We called 911 to report a hazardous situation and then headed to the house where we believed the cattle had "escaped". Bear in mind it was five thirty in the morning, we had to knock and knock and knock on the back door of the cattle owners house, finally we woke them up and were able to let them know that their cattle were out, then contineu on to the church. Emily grabbed her luggage gave me hug and headed to the church vans to leave for Copperhill, Tennesee. I headed home with the hopes that the grandsons would still be sleeping and I could catch an hour or two of sleep. As I came back along St. Rd. 1 the sheriffs were slowing traffic and the family who owned the cattle had the herd rounded up and headed towards home! I got home, the boys were still asleep, Dave left for work, and I dozed for about an hour until they awoke, well rested to start their day. After a breakfast of pancakes, some play time and getting dressed, I made enchilada sauce, filling and prepared 25 enchiladas for dinner around nine-thirty, Amber arrived to take the boys home, I decide that I would not go to church as I was very tired so instead I went to bed and took a nap!!

Matt and his friend Jay arrived at our house around one with the twenty six foot long moving truck fully packed, the truck was unloaded, many, many, boxes were stored away in our attic, and all of their furniture and washer and dryer were put in our basement where they will remain for a short time until they are moved to a storage facility. By five we were ready to celebrate Amber's birthday and eat enchiladas and all the fixings we then headed outside to watch the guys play horse shoe, and some of us played a little badminton, we all enjoyed a pleasant evening and then headed in for ice cream cake. The party broke up around nine as we were saying good byes in the driveway our neighbor Nancy popped over to welcome Matt and Traci home. With all the kids, grand kids and, visitors gone, we invited Nancy in for a glass of wine. We enjoyed a glass of Dave's blueberry wine by candlelight it was a lovely way to finish a very busy weekend. (Nancy's weekend had been equally busy). Needless to say, I slept like a log last night and today I feel well rested and ready to tackle the world.

Amber with Henry thinking about how they are going to blow out all of those candles!

Emily's birthday cake. Yellow cake with chocolate frosting and fresh strawberries. I sliced the strawberries early in the day mixed in a little sugar and let them sit for a few hours, they were nice and syrupy when I placed them on the cake.

Birthday girl Emily holding her nephew Patrick.

Ice Cream Cake

1 package of Oreo's

1 stick of butter

2 cartons of ice cream ( we like Breyer's)

Whipped cream

Hot Fudge or Hersheys Syrup

9/13 covered baking pan (or use foil to cover)

Put the entire package of Oreo's in the food processor and blend. Add to the oreo's 1 stick of melted butter and blend well. Put the oreo mixture into a 9/13 pan, bake in the oven for eight minutes at 350. Remove pan from oven, put hot fudge sauce, or hershey syrup over the oreo base, let cool. Put out the first carton of ice cream, we used vanilla, let it sit out for about twenty minutes to soften, carefully spread the ice cream over the oreo base, cover the pan and return to freezer for an hour. Sit out the next carton of ice cream, we used chocolate, carefully spread the softened ice cream over the vanilla layer, cover and return to freezer. Decorate with whipped cream and drizzle hot fudge or hershey syrup over the top to decorate. I used Redi Whip, and made 25 florets on the cake, I used these to place the birthday candles for Amber. Cover the cake, put in the freezer overnight. This is a really nice summer time "cake", make sure you have enough people to eat it all in one go as it will melt! You could double the recipe to make a cake for a very large group, or half it for small group, you can add whatever flavor or flavors of ice cream you like, and whatever toppings you like. We had a large group and all but one piece of "cake" was eaten.

Salsa

1 quart of tomatoes

1 clove of garlic ( I buy the jar of crushed garlic so about 1 tsp of this)

1 hot pepper ( I have a jar of sliced hot peppers, I use about seven slices)

1 onion cut in quarters

1 bunch of cilantro

1/2 tsp of cumin

1 tablespoon of lime juice

1 tsp salt

Put all of ingredients in the food processor, blend well. My family loves this salsa!

A prayer request and happenings around the homestead

Well first off I want to ask for prayer for my son Matt and his wife Traci, they will be driving home from Cheyenne Wyoming in two weeks - please pray that they have a safe trip home. It is about a 16 hour drive and as they are moving home for good they will have a U-Haul truck containing all their worldly possessions, and their own truck. Hopefully Matt's good friend Jay will be able to fly out to help them load up and drive home. Matt has served in the USAF for the past four years.

LORD HEAR OUR PRAYER

We are so excited that they will be home permanently in two weeks time!! Did I mention we are really, really excited!!

Yesterday we finally were able to take our steer, Jersey, into C & C Meats for processing, we had hoped to do it a few months ago, but due to all of the rain it was just too wet and muddy to drive a truck and trailer back to his paddock area. Jersey took some encouragement to get into the trailer, in fact our neighbor ending up picking up her Amish friend, Joe, and his son Jeremy to come and assist, once Dave, Joe, Jeremy, and our neighbors son Brian, were making the point that Jersey needed to get moving he took the hint and compliantly walked in.

The hard thing about raising a steer is that you do get attached to them, Jersey was such a friendly guy, everyday when I went out to feed him he would come over to the fence and let me scratch his nose and he liked to lick my hand, he would always come over if I called him, and if I ran alongside the fence he liked to race with me to the end of the field.

Most of our garden is now planted, just a few more things and we will be done. Sunday evening I spent about an hour to weeding in the blackberry patch, I have the wounds to show for my efforts, blackberry brambles are so spiteful! I have some herbs to plant out and some rhubarb, they are currently in pots on my front porch. We have potato bugs, YUK!I had to breakdown and purchase some Sevin, we are not organic, but we try to avoid pesticides unless absolutely necessary. Potato bugs are relentless and if left unchecked will eat all of the foliage on the potato plant resulting in a very, very low yield.

Good news on the chicken front, The Great Eight, have decided that they do like to go outside, they are still very cautious about food scraps, hopefully this will change, as all other chickens that we have had always loved to eat bread crusts, leftover pancakes, vegetable/fruit peels etc.

Thank you again for keeping Matt and Traci in prayer.