Homestead happenings

I love these sweet potato vines, they can fill in lots of bare spots and can take
some of the heat. This is my mail box, the block is for little people to check the mail.

A little experiment to see if we can have squash till frost,
They have buds on them so we shall see.

I see a little green this morning, not much but some is better than none.

Mornings are a special time for me, I love the freshness of a new day the thought that I get a new start everyday. That today is going to be better than yesterday. And I love to hear the birds singing. This week started off rough for me, and I realized that that I had not been seeking the Lord as I should. I have slacked off reading my Bible and having a prayer time. I have made an effort this week that every morning after I get Jeff off to work I have taken my Bible and gone outside and sat in the swing and done some reading and a few days of just weeping to my Savior. And oh how it has made the difference this week. It has just made a difference in how my days have played out. If you don't have a quiet time that you can just read and go to Him in prayer, I encourage you to find it. It will make a difference.
God Bless ya,
Tara

a few new pics

Here are a few pics I wanted to share.

I pickled these peppers today, aren't they pretty. I just love the colors.

JC at the barn, Elizabeth took this one. He is growing up so fast.

Best of friends, her name is Scarlet Rose

This is one of JC's new cats. We brought home 5 from the Farm Store a couple of days ago.

They were wild as a march hair when we brought them home, but no more! They are now his best friends.

We did have a problem this week, something got in the hen house and killed all our chickens. We are not sure what got them, but I think it was a coon. The dogs barked all night last night and we woke to a dead coon in the back yard that they had caught. The kids had been having a coon coming to the barn at night and I have a feeling it was him that got the chickens and him the dogs killed.
Lets see, I canned peppers today and yesterday I made a German chocolate cake and chocolate chip cookie bars and I made a batch of butter. I also cleaned the boys room from one end to the other and boy was it bad! There was so much dust you could have planted potatoes!
God bless ya till next time.
Tara

homestead happenings

Well the kids got home safe and sound from their church trip. I was ever so glad to see them safe and sound and in their own beds last night. I havent slept in several days for worry, which I know is a sin on my part, but I just couldn't help it.
Thank the Lord for the rain today. It has been weeks since we have seen rain in these parts and the Lord finally gave us some today. I took a 3 hour nap today and woke to a dark house, everyone asleep and it was raining.

This weeks agenda:
Monday: wash clothes, dig potatoes, and haul water for house
Tuesday: clean refrigerator, bake some sweets for the week, haul water for barn
Wednesday: work on school stuff for this next year
Thursday: go get a load of feed
Friday: town and bill paying day
And of course there is the everyday feeding and taking care of animals, trying to keep everything watered and trying to get some everyday school work done.

This weeks menu:
Sunday: We had homemade pizzas tonight. Even the crust was from scratch~
Monday: Hamburgers and fries
Tuesday: BBQ pork ribs, new potatoes, baked beans, fresh rolls
Wednesday: steak casadeas
Thursday: Roast, broccoli rice cheese casserole and green beans
Friday: sandwhich night

God bless ya,
Tara

Country Roads take me home to a place I belong.

There is no place like home

This is the road in front of our house.

Homestead happenings

Well kidos should be home tonight and I can't wait. This has been the longest three days. Jeff went back to work today. He has been so hot he went to the doc. Thursday and they drew blood and his potassium is really low, he is drinking lots of water and gatorade, but with this heat it's just not been enough. Since it was so hot yesterday and hubby was supposed to try and take it easy we decided to go to the movies. We had a good time, we never get to do anything with just JC so it was fun. Well we officially have no garden left. The deer have virtually stripped everything and our pump is messed up. I have just been in tears all week. Our goal of supplying our on food for a year is gone. We still have pork in the freezer, and we have a steer that will go sometime this winter, but I wanted veggies to. We currently still have onions, potatoes and the green beans that I canned. I guess I need to be grateful for what I do have so far. There are lots of people that sure have a lot less. A friend of mine told me last night that maybe the Lord knew I needed a break. Canning all summer is A LOT OF WORK! that is for sure for sure. God bless ya,
Tara

Well it is very quiet around here today. My two oldest have gone on a church trip for the next few days. So it is just me and JC here today. I guess me and him will have a play day today just the two of us. I don't get to spend just time with him so today will be fun. BUT I really miss my other two kids though. They can drive me CRAZY sometimes especially having two teenagers, but I have always loved having my children home with me. When we were in publilc school I relished summer breaks and holidays. Now this will be our 4th year to be a homeschooling family. God has truly blessed us by allowing me to stay home with our children and for me to see them grow and flourish in front of me. It is sad to see so many moms working and not get to spend their days with their blessings. If you are a working mom, I encourage you to take a step, a leap of faith and come home to your children. God will not let you starve I promise you. He gave you your children and he will provide for them.

God bless ya!

Tara

Great giveaway

Amy over at www.raisingarrows.net is having a great giveaway you have today and tomorrow to enter go on over and visit her. She has lots of great advice on homeschooling and such. You'll love her site.

4th of July

We had a great 4th of July this year. We decided to head to the mountains and go swimming and grill steaks. We didn't have much money to spare for the trip so I decided to make some chocolate chip cookies for our snaks and for lunch I grilled some t-bone steaks out of the freezer and make some hobo packets( new potatoes, onions, butter and seasonings wrapped in foil and placed in the coals). I made a packet for each of us. And to think we were eating like kings, but it all came from this farm. The Lord has a sense of humor I tell ya now. We have been praying for rain like crazy around here and we got to the lake about 11am and I had no longer got these steaks on and it started to thunder, it kept getting closer and closer, we no more sat down to eat and it started lightning like crazy. We had to pack everything up REALY FAST. We barely got in the truck when the bottom fell out. So we decided to head somewhere else, We drove around for a while looking at the hill country, just enjoying ourselves, the temperature was 71. It felt great. We finally decided to head back south to another lake closer to home, but the rain followed us there too. We found us a table and grill and parked, someone had just left it and the coals in the grill was still hot. We put our soaked charcoal on and some pieces of wood, to get it started again and I put the now cold steaks and potatoes back on to warm up. Where we were at was the swimming beach at this state park and he wanted to swim so bad, he kept asking to just go put his foot in, and everytime we did , boy a crack of lightning would hit and we would run back to the truck. Need less to say after a while the lightning quit and and we just had a slight drizzle. The kids swam anyway untill about 8 we finally got to eat our steaks and then we got cleaned up and went and watched the fireworks show that this park puts on every year. Even with all storms we had a great time, we needed to get away so bad. We have been working so much and the kids have not had much play time. The Lord blessed us with a great day! GOd is so good.

T-Bone steaks on to grill

Waiting for the fireworks


Sunset at the swimming beach after all the rain.
It was just beautiful!

Fireworks over the lake, they were awesome, the kids oohhed and ahhhed!

God is GOOD!

Busy Summer

It has been a long hot summer so far here in our area. We are dry, dry. We have finally got the irrigation pumps running, and water lines going the picture below is all my tomatoes and peppers, before we got the water running, they look a lot better now. June was busy for us. I catered a couple of events that took up a lot of my time, the kids had church camp and fundraisers for another church trip. July looks to be much better.

Tomatoes and peppers before we started watering. They got away from me before we could stake them, so they are sprawled everywhere now.

This year was one of our best for onions. Just look at the size of those things.


JC is always finding new critters!