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.

No Hour Wasted

I am a big believer that being involved in an outdoor pursuit will help keep kids out of trouble.  Horses, fishing, raising livestock, and hunting, if they like any of them.  These activities will either keep you so busy you don't have time for trouble, so broke you can't afford trouble, or both.

Happy likes horses, Rooster likes fishing, they both have livestock projects, and they both are becoming interested in shooting sports.  To that end, I told them the other day if they could get up and do their schoolwork, get good grades on said schoolwork, get all inside and outdoor chores completed, we could go fishing.

A couple of hours on a peaceful lake is great time for my kids to open up and talk about whatever may be on their chests.  They caught some fish, identified them, and released them.

Hurricane Damage

Well, technically, it was tropical storm damage since Irma had downgraded by the time she got to us. We were blessed in many ways.  My preparation for the storm included filling the bathtubs with water so we could flush the toilet, and stuffing the freezers with jugs of water. Even though we live in a very rural area, we never lost power though.  The nearest "big town"  is twenty minutes away, and several neighborhoods lost power for a day or two - not really that bad.

I was saddened to hear about the people who were injured or lost their lives further to the south. I was very grateful that no linemen or first responders were injured in our area. My husband volunteers as fireman, and he spent several hours clearing roadways.

The only damage at our place was a handful of trees that snapped in our pasture.  We think it may have been straight line winds, because the trees were grouped fairly close and they snapped off about ten feet from the base.  Most of the time in our area, trees are uprooted from a ground saturation/wind combo.  All of the animals weathered it just fine.

Some Things This Summer . . .

We had bunnies born.

My roses bloomed.

I had an excellent crop of figs.

The dear husband and I got a much needed vacation.

And I processed twenty five gallon of pears.

Mexico Beach