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Apples

It's been a very busy harvest this year, the dry weather has made the corn dry out fast and we are working hard to get the corn in before the wind knocks it down, the corn stalks are very dry and brittle.
An added bonus to the dry weather is the corn moisture count is down so much that we don't have to use the grain dryer. The grain dryer is usually a source of frustration that farmers have to put up with, and uses a lot of gas, and has so many safety valves that if you don't have everything perfect it will shut itself down, and then figuring out why is time consuming. The noise factor is another issue, the guys have to wear ear protection.

Its hard to believe we almost have the corn harvested already. We have a setback currently, a flat tire on the combine. It was perfect timing though because it's been raining ever since the tire went flat, so we couldn't work any way. Time to make apple sauce.

Fred, our goat, is drooling over the apples.

I have been busy with all the apples we were blessed with, a bumper crop, I have been making apple sauce by the gallon, apple pie, apple dumplings, and apple cake, then putting it in my freezer.

The goat and ram have been overwhelmed with how many apples we have been tossing over the fence to them. I think if they could talk they would be asking if we could please toss a little field corn there way.

This fall when the Field was harvested across the road and all that was left were hunting birds like hawks and scared Field mice,and snakes running for there lives, our new dog pepper thought would be fun to go check out the excitement and was hit by a car, we are down to one very happy dog now. Life for buster is back to quiet peaceful and normal, I wonder if Buster told pepper to go play in the street?, Shirley not. Jenny wren

August has been a hot house

The heat indexfor today is 99 and the humidity is 88%. My brother who lives in Texas can't believe the difference humidity makes, when you walk outside from an air conditioned house and into the humid day our glasses fog over. Its to hot to garden, to hot to bake, so I might as well blog.
It looks like fog but it's like a sauna

This is one of my new plants I grew this year. It's called Amaranth Hopi red dye herb. I am so excited that it grew.

The bad news is the basket class I go to has been canceled for a while, and I was hoping to get some interest from basket class ladies to dye their reed along with me. I hate to do all that work for no more than I need. In my research I found out that it is a grain that is really good for you. I have always wanted to buy a grain mill, but I will probably borrow an old friends till I know we like this kind of grain. I put a link below to some of the info if you are interested.

Garden & Yard

Meet Pepper

This is Pepper, we rescued her from a pound that seemed more like alcatraz. She was traumatized and very unsure. Luckily we had the foresight to put a dog crate in the van before we went to see what kind of dogs were available, because she was a mess by the time we got her home. She still gets car sick every time we take her anywhere. Buster is so miserable, poor boy! I feel really bad for him. He sits on the top step of the garage all bug eyed and nervous, because Pepper is very happy and wants to play rough.

The kids are so excited to have a dog that will play. This dog can run fast! Katie takes her for a run to the woods most evenings, its a farm lane that ends in a meadow and a large woods that we own, so I feel it's pretty safe.

I was going to blog about all the unusual herbs I grew this year but my computer need to be looked at, it's doing things that make me think it's got it in for me. I will be lucky if I get this published before it shuts me down.
Jenny wren

Someone at Jenny Wren's nest went Broody

This Spring I decided to get 4 new chicks. I was hoping for Americana chicks, but they were sold out, so the kids and I choose from what they had at the store. The kids fell in love with the silky bantams, so I let them get black and white silky. Then I decided I wanted to get barred rock and Rhode Island red. Of course I thought I had to have two of each. That was back in April.



Then I found out I could order the Americana chicks that I wanted, so I did. I kept it to myself because I knew better, and my husband told me not to get to many chickens, but the are so cute!
Any how, I ended up with twelve chicks because the kids thought they had to have more bantams, and I thought I could keep their interest in the chickens if they each had a couple of chickens to call their own. I'm not sure what Pip, the red faced chicken in the front, thinks about all the new babies, but we are going to find out soon, because the older batch of chicks need moved out of the green movable chicken house they are in. They have outgrown it, and the babies need to be move out of the brooder box.
we have been so busy, I can't believe how long its been since I have blogged.

2nd cup of coffee

Here's the new chicks on the farm,We have been very busy with the

start of planting season, and don't get to spend very much time with them. The first picture was not the one I wanted, but I could not figure out how to take it off. such is life in the bloggy world.

2nd cup of coffee: "Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Link Up Here for the Random Doz



1. How do you feel about 'Gladiator' sandals, also called 'Roman' or 'Jesus' sandals? A fashion yea or nay?
If it doesn't have arch support than I wont wear it.

2. What is your favorite pizza?

I found a recipe at All recipes.com for Valentino's pizza crust, it is so good I think my family would be happy to eat it more than once a week.

3. There are plans in the works to sell roughly 1,000 items from Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas. This means you could buy Picard's chair for your family room. If not a Star Trek item, what prop, background, set, etc. from what TV or movie would you buy if you could?
[Ex: Hurley's 'I Love my Shih tzu' shirt from LOST, the plantation home 'Tara' from Gone With the Wind, or Tracy's tambourine from the Partridge Family.]

I don't care for material items, it shows in my house, I recently had my brothers and their family's over for Easter and it made me look at my house from another perspective, all my furniture is second hand, and or sounder end tables that look like they were dropped down the stares. it made wonder what they thought of me?. but I guess I don't care that much.

4. Name a local food or restaurant that your area is famous for.

Pizza king, they have the best Pizza.

5. What is your current favorite snack?

Hershey bar, and pecans eaten together.

6. Hypothetical: You are required to be a reality show contestant. Which show would you choose based on your probability of success? (You cannot choose 'none.')

A. Dancing with the Stars (I have two left feet)
B. Biggest Loser(I would wimp out)
C. Survivor(I would die)

7. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being uninhabitable and 10 being cleanliness that meets the standards of OCD, how clean is your vehicle's interior?

Yuck ( its farming season, and I am top gofer, and run after two teenagers, that make me on call all day, driving dirty men and stinky kids when ever and wherever they need to go.

8. It doesn't feel like Spring until _________.

My hands get warmed up and I get to plan seeds in the earth, our last frost date is may the 10, and it feels like an eternity away.

9. Something that made you laugh really hard recently is ____.

My kids

10. Tell me about a goal you're working toward.

loosing my winter blubber.

11. Share a thought-provoking or inspiring quote this week. cant come up with any right now.

12. Name one thing that you do as a parent that you absolutely know will make your kids happy. If you're not a parent, feel free to substitute 'friend' or nomenclature that works for you."

Getting ice cream, Eric is lactose intolerant so we try not to eat dairy and say yummm in front of him, so when we get out with out Eric we get ice cream.

Rileys post

Greetings! A blog post from the other fledgelings from the nest (Riley). I am taking this chance to brag about my hobby of keeping pets. But first I must apologise for the mess I have made of this blog. I absolutely HATE the setup of these blogs. I had a terrible time trying to get my pictures on and kept accidentally deleting them. Finally I gave up on organization and put my pictures on indiscriminately.

The corn snakes you see are two of my favourite pets. their is a male and a female. The males name is Julius Squeezer and the females is Scarlet. I got them as hatching's on August 30, 2009. That makes them about 5 months old.

In the plastic container pictures are before and after pictures. The one below the other is when I first got them and the one above is from a few days ago. They have both grown about 4 inches and will eventually get about 3-5 feet in length. Not your largest snake but impressive enough.

In two of the pictures you see Julius climbing on the handle of a door and then their is another picture of him climbing up in between the door without any support. This is a small example of their athleticism. I had to put clamps on their cage lid because they kept inch worming their way up the corner of the cage, pushing up the lid and escaping. They are constrictors and are quite Strong. Their is also a picture of Scarlet trying to be a hat on my head.

Their is also several pictures of my fire bellied toads. I got them for Christmas last year. They are very pretty and entertaining. You can tell I had fun designing their cage.

The picture of the Betta is a fellow I just got a few days ago. The plant in his boll is a live plant called a Java fern. He has been very entertaining to watch. Especially when you put a mirror up to him.

And lastly my least favorite pet. the garter snake at the top used to be my favorite but now he is about a year and a half older and a lot bigger and nastier. The cute thing in the picture is now about two feet long and has a grumpy disposition. He or she (I don't know which because it's wild caught) is relatively docile if you have been holding it for a wile but if you wake him\her up you might get bitten. Just yesterday I caught a night crawler for it and brought it up and the little devil bit me, then musked ( a nasty thing, garter snakes are somewhat like skunks in that respect, secreting a nasty smelling liquid when first caught, startled, or in this case just plane mean) then ate the worm. How is that for thanks? I am going to let it go this spring when it warm up more.