These are our green beans. Kentucky Wonder Bush beans.

Look at all the blooms it won't be long now

Our bull likes to play with things and he decided to roll the hay ring around and rolled

it right through the hot wire into our garden.

We have had a busy day today, we didn't go to the lake or have lunch with our family. We stayed home and worked. I know we are such party poopers, but there is lots to be done around here. We finally got an old shed cleaned up and some new dirt brought in. I just have to decide what I am going to do in that spot now. I have narrowed it down to 3 things, herb beds, summer kitchen, or real pretty coverd seating area. Hopefully tomorrow I can get my tomatoes staked and we can begin to run the water lines for the irrigation pumps, I will need to plant more squash seeds and cuccumber seeds. Everytime I set them out, something is digging them up or pulling them up. I am about the get mad. I should already be up to my neck in squash. Not restarting seed.

I found a wonderful site this afternoon called http://raisinghomemakers.com

I think youwill love it. There are some very good inspirational writings. This is something I regret since we have made such a change in our lives is that I did not really try and teach my daughter how to be a homemaker, we have focused on other things. I ask of you if you have a young daughter please do not make the same mistakes I made. Start now, teaching them how to take care of their future home and the one they are currently living in. Teach them how to sew, cook, bake, craft, a love for service, a love for being a gracious hostess, a loving wife, and a blessed momma. Unfortunatley I did not realize that these were actually a mandate of the Lord. Dont forget the Proverbs 31 woman and Titus 2 .

I have been trying to get Elizabeth to help me do some cooking, but she absolutley detest it. Her famous saying is "Mom, they make cookbooks everyday, I can learn it then". I am in constant prayer for her and my self. I pray that I can be a blessing to some young mom and that she can learn from my mistakes, It is a lot easier and less painful to learn from someone elses mistakes than your own.

Praise to the Lord!!!!

Praise the Lord after much prayer and wrestling with satan Elizabeth decided to follow Jesus. Yep Elizabeth received Jesus Christ as her savior Monday night. I was so overwhelmed all I could do is cry. ...I am so proud of her. Satan is not happy right now and I know that we will still have some battles, but at least now we have the Holy Spirit to help us. God is so good to us, I can not begin to tell you how much.

God Bless ya,Tara

busy busy homestead happenings

We have been so terribly busy. It has been a while since my last post, but there has been a lot going on. We have been busy trying to grow our little farm. We bought two new tractors this month. Well one new and one is about 60 years old. The new one is a John Deere 5055 and the other a 1950 Ford 8-N. We needed these so terribly . We have been doing all of our work by hand for the last couple of years and we really needed an front end loader. and the 8-N is for cultivation of the truck patch. I am really excitied about this and we bought some more cattle, and equipment. We still are trying to get the pasture planted in grass hopefully by this time next week that will be finished. We also still have to build a corral, but not quiet sure where the money for that is going to come from yet. God has been so good to us lately that I can't even begin to describe it.

The chickens are growing really fast and I still need to get there mobil pens made and I want to order some broilers also. I am still looking for young pigs to buy, we only fed out 2 this year just to see how they would do and we have loved it, so I think we are going to try for 5 or six this year , we will keep 3 for the freezer and sell the other 3 to pay for feed and butchering cost. I am currently looking into getting some berkshire pigs, but we will have to see.

We had a chicken snake get into the brooder box the other day and it had a chicken hung in its mouth. The chicken was way to big for it to swallow. Lets just say its eyes were bigger than its mouth. My husband got the chicken out of the snakes mouth but it was too late they killed the snake and then the next day we had one killed by somehting else. But so far we have only lost 3 chicks.

Our main problem in our garden right now is the Colorado potatoe bug. We are officially enemies at this point. I do not want to spray insecticide, but I am not having much luck in other ways. I was told to put flour on them, so tomorrow we will try that, it sure isn't going to hurt anything. They have even attacked my tomatoes and peppers.
Well another storm is brewing and the lightning has begun pretty close. I guess I will call it a night.
God BLess ya,
Tara

Storms

We managed to escape the tornados by the grace of God only! He kept us safe and sound. We really needed the rain, but I sure was scared of the tornados that were dropping out of the sky everywhere.
I was blessed by a visit from an old friend this past weekend We had a really good visit and of course it was sad to see her leave. We are very behind in the garden. We had a flat tire on the tractor and then it got really dry and now it is really wet, but I am not complaining about the wet. It will be just fine. We have been rather busy but with what I don't know I guess a little of this and a little of that. With gas prices like they are we are going to have to start staying put! The kids and I did not leave the house today at all. It is a scary time right now for sure with prices of everything rising. I wan't to recommend a wonderful blog www.raisingarrows.net . Amy has a lot of good writings that I know you will enjoy reading.
God Bless ya,
Tara

homestead happenings

It is so much fun when you get to embarass your children. We went out to eat for Elizabeths

birthday and needless to say this was the result. I couldn't resist! She was red from her head to her feet.

We all had a good time eating dinner at a local mexian resturant for Elizabeths birthday.

Easter morning pictures. They were all pretty as they could be.