Sky Number 9

Sky Number 8

With a bonus gator...

Sky Number 7

Storm Damage

We have had a lot of pop up storms in the evening here lately.   Two years we had a bad drought, and between my husband going on fire calls constantly and the well running low, I worried alot.  This year we have had a good bit of rain, so even with the bits of garden that was damaged, and fencing that needed fixing from trees, I am not complaining.

Sky Number 6

Prepper's Livestock Handbook Non-Review

Over at the 5 Acres & A Dream blog ( http://www.5acresandadream.com ), Leigh has a new book coming out.

Although I have not read it, I am looking forward to trying to get a copy.  A quick look at the table of contents shows that a lot of bases have been covered.  There are chapters covering breed selection, housing, feeding, reproduction, and health care. She even goes over food storage in the event of power failure. The book is available in stores and websites. An overview can be found here: http://kikobian.com

I planted a summer squash variety this year.

The only problem was the seeds we're not marked in the variety pack, and they all looked the same.  I thought I would be able to tell the difference when they started growing.

I was wrong.  Squash plants look exactly alike. 

Sky Number 5

Jungle Garden

We have been having rain.  A whole lot of rain.  First it was gulf rain, then Alberto, and then a system from the northwest. So steamy, then unbearably sauna like, and then two days of cooler weather, if you can call 88 degrees with 95 percent humidity cooler.  Our tomatoes loved it.

  So did our pole beans.  The beans went from sprouted to over our heads in a week.  My husband had the week off of work, and we spent a lot of time in between breaks in the weather putting up bean trellis. It wasn't fun - the rain made that Alabama red clay the goopiest stuff.  I am not quite sure how something could be so slippery and sticky at the same time. Oh yeah, and it stains.

Sky Number Four

Yellow Rose

Despite all the rain we have received, my roses have started to bloom.  Well, my yellow rose has - my lavender rose has succumbed to a fungus.  It didn't surprise me. I would not be surprised to look out my window and see the animals lining up two by two.  I ran out during a break in the rain to snap this picture.

Sky Number 3

Sky Number 2

Sky Number 1

Absentee Again!

I am at that moment when I realized that we are over a week into April and I haven't updated since December!  January was slow, but things have been swinging since February.  We have hatched biddies right and left, and had three kids and four piglets born. The hubby and I cleared an acre of land off for our ever expanding garden area.  We also burned off a seven acre lot in preparation for pasture or corn.  Between the day to day chores, and homeschool, 4-H, and ball, I have kept busy!

Homemade Bacon

The past two weeks, plus a cold snap, gave my husband and me ample opportunity to stock our freezer.  We had two young pigs that we had bred ourselves that we dispatched and put away.


My husband likes to cure and smoke meat, and his bacon is something to eat.  After two weeks of preparing it, I finally got a taste.  It was divine.  I will have to ration it out, or it will be gone in no time!

December Snowfall

Snow is rare in my neck of the woods.  When we get snow it is usually in February or March.  So it was a bit of a shock when we got some last week.

I woke up to few inches - just enough to dust everything.  A few hours of sun and it was gone.  It was pretty while it was here, though.

Early Turnips

I walked down to one of green fields, and ended up picking some fresh Turnips.  I also found a timber rattler, but that's a different story.

Homemade Yogurt

I have seen several recipes online for homemade yogurt and have always been tempted to try it.  But with milk hovering around the 3.50 a gallon mark, I have never done it.  The other day, however, milk was a dollar a gallon.  It was now or never.  I came home, got out the crock pot, and picked out the most scientific sounding recipe.

The milk did it's thing, and with very little help from me, turned into actual yogurt.  I must admit I was a little shocked it worked.

All said and done, I ended up with two quarts of the thickest, creamiest and yummiest yogurt ever.  I also ended up with two quarts of whey, which went straight to the freezer.

Cooler Weather

It seems like it took forever, but the temperature here finally dipped into the fifties.  It only lasted overnight, but it felt awesome. We opened all of the windows and enjoyed actually using blankets the other night.  The weather has been very reminiscent of last year, when it was hot enough to get tomatoes in November.  

We have a pile of branches that came off the trees that came down from Irma, and then from Nate. Add into that some pines we cut down from a pine beetle infestation, and we have a big pile that needs burning. It has been to hot to burn, but the cool weather gave us the opportunity to go light it up. Of course, we had to break out the marshmallows.