If you plant, they will come

Bugs that is. They will come in droves to eat what ever you plant for you to eat. This week this fact is especially true of Japanese beetles. Oh my, they are having a field day eating my thornless blackberries and grape vines. So I had to get out the heavy artillery last evening and give them the old one, two punch. I sprayed with Liquid Sevin pesticide. I dont relish the idea of spraying anything but dang, we gotta eat too. I do always spray late evenings when bees are not active. So I solved the problem of Japanese beetles, hopefully for the remainder of the season.

I made myself a list of small task that I needed to get done yesterday and did manage to accomplish all of them. Amazing!! eh? But geez, little task can take all day when you let so many build up before you tackle one of em. I had lavendar that I had started from seed that needed to be put in the ground in the herb bed to live permanently. Got that done. Got the dill cut and in the freezer so it keeps fresh to make dill pickles later when the cukes come on. I have a shrub near the front porch sidewalk that was covering half the steps and sidewalk. Got it pruned back so you can walk by without getting your legs wet when it rains or in the early morning dew is hanging on.  I want to plant some fall cabbage also and finally got the soil in the peat pots and seeds in so now its cross my fingers and hope they come up and grow fast. Its hard to find fall cabbage and broccoli plants in our area. Most people just plant a garden in spring and once its gone they are done. I just happen to know the sweetest cabbage is grown in the cooler fall weather. After having Sasha to the vet for a minor skin infection she had to have a bath in medicated shampoo, so I got that done last evening as well. Jason had just mowed the yard and you know how fresh cut grass can cling and stain anything it comes in contact with. Well I didnt dry Sasha and just bathed her, rubbed her down and let her got. She too off running and would hit her belly and slide thru the grass clippings. Oh did she look awful when I put her back in her pen right before dark. Just glad she looks better today after she got dry and the loose grass fell off her coat.

Rodger got the field mowed yesterday around the garden and in the orchard, around the corn, pea and sunflower field. It looks so much better. Good thing the mowing got finished yesterday cause we got a pretty good little rain this afternoon. It didnt rain long but got things nice and wet. IF I can get my butt in gear in the morning and get the mulch put around the lavendar plants before the ground dries it will do them a lot of good. They do like water.

I didnt have too big a day planned today. Just catching up laundry, house cleaning, general every day stuff. Cook, clean, do laundry, dry, fold, repeat. Seems I have to drag out the vacuum every day now to clean up bird seed hulls out of the floor. I got 2 lil parakeets. My friend Jackie that I have known for many years has breeding pairs and had raised a few. I have had a few parakeets in my life so I do enjoy them. Jackie gave me a young one that she hatched (well her female bird hatched it) and another female that the others were being mean to. They hull their seeds out when they eat them and they when they flap their wings inside the cage all the hulls fly out in the floor. (self cleaning birds) So clean em up, repeat later in the day. But they are relaxing to watch. Me and my various birds.

A friend ask me the other day if I had any new pictures of the grandbabies. Well of course I do. So here you go Sissy. Enjoy the babies. Sissy dont get on facebook so she dont get to see the pics Amoy or Rob post of the kids. And yes I am a very proud grammy.

Love these 2 lil boys so very much. And their parents. Cant wait to see them this fall and steal hugs and kisses.

Not much else happening here on the homestead. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

stella

It has about killed me.........

But I finally got it done. As you well know and I have said before I like to paint in the house. It just makes things look nice and freshens the place up. But this laundry room has about been the death of me for sure. I just cant do the physical stuff that I use to. Between moving the appliances and all the bending and stooping and climbing I was so ready for bed last night. Got the whole thing painted. Got the mirror back in its place.

Damn it looks empty and sterile. The paint color was much lighter than I had anticipated. Almost white! No I don't do white. I did a lot of searching on Pinterest last night, scanned thru some blogs, pondered on things I had that I could re-purpose and use to add some life. Not to mention hiding the connectors for the washer. So far this is what I came up with. What do ya think?

The quilts on the wall behind the appliances are family heirlooms that are very near the end of their useful life. They are falling apart. I remember sleeping under those as a child. They feel so good to touch. The picture on the right side has been thru a house fire, it belonged to my grandmother on dads side of the family. The feed sack dress by given to be by an aunt. On the left are 2 washboards, still usable(ha ha) that belonged to a family friend. Ya know, I keep in touch thru facebook with this fellows daughter, I might just contact her and see if she would like to have her dads old washboard. The wooden ironing board behind the washer that now hides the power supply to the washer was a gift from a former co-worker. Still in good usable shape(ha ha). I don't like to iron. Don't know many people who do. I still think I need to put up a small shelf to hold some old irons and jars of buttons. Maybe in a few days I will brave the weather and get out and find a shelf.
I can not believe I am about to show this in public. But it looks so much better than it did.

This is where things go when they are homeless. OK so I cheated an didn't show the floor area. Well with good reason. We garden, we like sweet potatoes. And sweet taters will not keep in our cellar. They need warm, dry storage. So that is where we store those in winter till the weather warms and by then they will mostly be gone. Except the ones I will use for starts for this years crop. This room also serves as a back entrance where we take off muddy boots and shoes in general. It gets a lot of dirt and clutter. Maybe more shelf space will help a bit with keeping that in check.

OK, this is it! This is where rugs go to die totally. Once they live a few months in here catching mud and other various things they are pretty gross. The towel serves to catch wet stuff, like snow, that we have almost daily seems like. This will be so nice IF and WHEN we ever get laminate floors down. Hopefully soon. Yeah my sandals are still out, thas what I wear to go feed chickens, cats and or the dog. Well at least they go on and off easier than boots, and I am not out there long, mostly. I am pretty happy with the end result now that I have this room painted. I would love to start on the dining room tomorrow but dang my body needs a few days to recover. Maybe I can just chill out and work on my quilt tomorrow.

We had a few snow flurries today but nothing on the ground or roads right now. I guess dad was right. It thaws a lil every day in February. It might snow one day, but its mostly gone the next. I can take that. Its the snow that lays on for days on end that get the best of me. Not much else happening on this lazy Sunday evening. The peach cobbler is almost done. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

House bound and loving it

I like being able to stay home and stay in when the weather is crappy outside. That is when I get things done inside. Things like painting, cleaning, you know the things most people choose to do in spring. I had gotten the paint to re-paint out kitchen a few months ago and just had not got started on it. So with it being cold outside and nasty and me with no real need to be out there I decided it was a prime time to get the kitchen painted. So that is exactly what I did yesterday. Actually, OVER- did it. I should have known better than to tackle a job that big in one day. But in my mind, just a lil bit more wont hurt me. Well those lil bits added up and dang it I hurt last night. Not to mention how sore I was this morning. But mission accomplished and I like the fresh coat of paint. Makes me feel better anyway.

It actually is the same color only a different finish. The paint color is Apple-a-day in satin finish over candy apple red in semi gloss. I do know one things for sure, if you have slight imperfections in your walls it is best to use a satin finish. A gloss with show every lil tiny bump in the wall board no matter what you do.  But things always look better with a fresh coat of paint. OK, OK, I know the pictures are not straight. Damn, was not even noticeable till I took a photo. I might change them, or not. Still have half a gallon of paint left so maybe I will paint the dining room below the chair rail this weekend if we get snowed in. Which IF the weather man is right we will get between 3 and 5 inches more of snow tonight. This time of year is when I can get lots done in the house without having to run in and out doing stuff outside too. I really want to repaint the whole house this winter before I get busy with greenhouse and garden stuff outside. Not sure yet about colors for the rest of the house tho. Probably close to the honey color I already have. Hopefully sometime soon we can get our kitchen floors done. I am so looking forward to something besides this linoleum in the kitchen. And as of right now we have carpet in the dining room. It has lasted well and still doesn't look too bad but will be a welcome change. Too cold out to mess with cutting flooring and such right now so that might wait till the weather is a lil more cooperative in early spring.

I did venture outside today long enough to take care of the chickens and let them out for a bit. They are perfectly happy to stay inside the building and be warm. They have plenty of feed and corn, its just a matter of making sure they can have water. No matter what kind of waterer you use in this weather it will freeze. I have been just putting a bucket of fresh water in to the chickens morning an night and putting out a bucket of water for Luna and the cats as well. I went to get the water bucket to refill with fresh water this morning for the chickens and they had come out of the building and were eating snow. They really were thirsty even as cold as it was. But they went right back in as soon as I put new water in the house for them. They hardly eat any laying pellets in winter but eat lots of corn. Nothing outside in the yard for them to eat with all  the cold and snow we have had. Although they do get out long enough to venture to places in the yard where the snow has melted off and will get plenty of grit to help grind up the corn they eat. And most of my lil hens are still laying in this bitter cold. So all in all I guess they are warm enough in their house. Rodger picked up a couple more bales of straw from the feed store and put another bale in their building so they have plenty of warm bedding. Warm happy hens = eggs all winter. I really hate to butcher off this flock and start over but they are getting older and should be replaced. It is time to start thinking about getting my order in for chicks soon so they can arrive and be big enough to not be a big problem for the house sitters when we leave to go to Nevada this spring. And I do want to have some Cornish in the freezer before we leave as well. I am running really low on canned chicken and chicken stock in the cellar. I really noticed this today when I went to get some chicken and stock to make chicken and dumpling for supper. Talk about good country comfort food. Chicken and dumplings with green beans and dutch apple pie for dessert.

All from home grown and canned food. I did add a little bit of dried carrot and dried onion to the chicken stock when I made the dumplings. Not sure if I was just hungry or if they were that good but I think I ate too much. Now to dig into the apple pie a lil later. I don't have ice cream but I think snow cream would work just as well. Might wait till tomorrow to see if we have fresh snow to make snow cream with. We will wait an see.

When I stopped to see my friend Rosie this week on my way home she was telling me that someone close to her town that she knew had lost all their potatoes in their root cellar. She said they had froze with this bitterly cold weather. Kinda had me concerned about how ours had faired with the cold here. I went and got some taters from the cellar to use on the green beans for supper and they were fine as can be. They got lil green sprouts on them from it being warm in the cellar. And we still have our vent open too. Rodger keeps wanting to take the soil off ours and add a layer of Styrofoam insulation and put the dirt back to help keep it warmer. I think that would be useless work as it is working fine as it is. Thankful for our cellar and that it stays warm and keeps things from freezing.

Not much else happening here on the farm right now. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

It is officially winter time here

I think winter time just hit us head on. We had lots of rain for a couple days. And last night it all turned to freezing rain and everything is coated with a lil layer of ice this morning. Not as cold as they had predicted tho. In the mid 30's here and the layer of ice is melting off the back deck. Mind you I have not been out there. I have hard enough time staying upright on a good day, not gonna risk breaking some body part with ice on the ground.
Rodger went out earlier to let the chickens out. They are none to happy about not being able to stay upright either. For the most part they darted back in the building. Not a chance of them catching a worm or bug on a day not fit for man or beast. My hens are not laying well right now and haven't been since early fall. I think it is about time to order a new flock of birds and start over with some young hens next spring. Some of my hens are close to 4 years old now and time for them to make soup and dumplings.
Before it started raining and getting all nasty I went out to the herb bed and cut the last of my lil cabbage from last fall. Oh they were sweet as can be and made perfect coleslaw. They were not huge or any size to write home about but sure were tasty. I wanted to get some turnips out before the ice came and they are not big enough for anything yet. I guess I did plant them a lil later than normal. Someone had given me some turnips one fall and I still had some in the fridge to snack on several months later. The longer they sit the better they taste. I don't like them cooked at all but love to just peel and eat them like apples. With a lil salt makes a tasty snack in the winter. I remember dad use to "hole" up our potatoes in the fall and one year he pulled an put a bunch of turnips in a pile with the taters and in the middle of winter he got some out. Talk about sweet and good. I still remember that taste. I did see some small rutabagas in the bed tho. That was my first time planting those. Next time I make soup from scratch I plan to cube up some of the rutabagas to put in as well. Those as well as turnips are cool weather crops that store well and get better with age in storage. Time and cool turns the starch to sugars in these root veggies and makes them more nutritious as well as tasting better.
My herb bed needs some minor fence repair come spring tho. I just put up deer netting about 2 ft tall to keep critters like cats and the dog from walking in the bed and it has seen some accidents and incidents since it was first installed. Lots of places it sags and looks bad and has some tears and some of the post are leaning. The beds out back need repair as well. I did have some metal "T" post driven in there to hold the net up and all was well till Rodger swiped the side of his truck down one post and bent it over messing up the fence. Now the hens can get in if they happen to be inclined to. Not to mention the dent in the new truck from the gas tank to the rear bumper. Ugh! Its always something here. He had backed up the back yard to unload deer and when he pulled back out he slid down the hill against the fence post and at that point was not a happy camper I bet. Glad I was not home at the time.
With it being nasty weather I guess its time to hibernate and drag out the quilt and knitting stuff and get busy. I have a quilt top that my aunt Connie had made that I do want to finish this winter for sure. And I still have lots of tee shirt yarn to make another throw rug for the kitchen. I enjoy my hibernating weather for sure. Just hate the guys have to get out an go work in this kinda mess. But am very thankful for the blessing of being able to be home and keep the home fires burning so to speak. Got to work on baby-proofing the house too. Cant have lil Liam getting hurt when they get home in about 3 weeks. Cant wait to see that lil fellow again. He grows so fast and its amazing to see him in pictures and videos as he discovers his lil world and learns new things. Thanks to my beautiful daughter in law for taking time to share all those precious memories with us long distance. She is so great and catching him doing cute things and sending pictures and lil videos. Love this one of him as he gets this "crawling" thing down pat. He will be a lil speed demon by time we get to see him.

This will be Liam's first Christmas and this grammy has already sent him several toys to unwrap at home. Not to mention he will get some new clothes and a small toy to have when he is here shortly after Christmas with us. He sure did not seem too thrilled with the Christmas tree tho. Maybe he was just having a bad day. He is cutting more teeth and that makes lil ones cranky. But cute none the less.

I have to wonder how long the tree will stay pretty with him crawling now. He will for sure keep his momma busy or building a fence around the tree. But thas why lil ones have good parents, to teach them things that will keep them safe. He loves their lil dog Abby, now if he can just catch her he will be a happy lil man.

Not much else happening here on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Farm work is hard work

I knew this all along but dang the older I get the more I become aware of this fact. Anything you do on a farm is hard work. We have been busy all day as usual playing catch-up. I needed to dig some horseradish for a friend so I could ship it out in the mail tomorrow and as I normally do I walk around the house with fork in hand to dig for roots. I passed by my wisteria that has been sitting in a pot for 2 years now. I stopped and dug a hole to put the plant in near the pole that runs up to our cell phone booster at the end of the house. Damn who knew there were that many rocks out there. I should have after all the holes we have dug to plant things over time. But I got'er done! Now I wont have to baby my plant and worry about the roots freezing and killing it this winter. One task down, many to go. I decided to fore go canning more mustard and turnip greens as I have more than enough for me and the kids to use. But I did dig some horseradish roots for my good friend Anna and those are in the box with the sage, homemade lotion and home grown cornmeal that I promised to ship to her. So off that will go tomorrow on my way out of town.

Rodger hauled water for us this morning and finally finished that up about noon. He had the yucky job of cleaning out our corn crib to get ready to put the new corn in when it gets a lil drier and he has time to pick it. I needed to help him with that and had to put off the job of cleaning the chicken house out for now. Maybe next nice day when I am home again. We had a good bit of corn left from last year and the year before in the lil crib here at the house. We use the corn elevator and wagon to load it to take to the field and dump for the wild critters to feed on till its gone. That should attract a few deer and many turkeys. Not to mention it will feed lots of lil birds for quite some time too. Lots of corn shells off when it gets run thru the elevator so the chickens will have lots to pick up and eat when they are out roaming about. This project involved lots of raking and fork work not to mention having to push the elevator to fill the wagon level and not spill over the top in some spots. Talk about hard on this ole gal. I already slept wrong night before last and had a pulled muscle in my neck and using the rake sure did not do it any good. Needless to say my neck is very sore and stiff about now.
Maybe I will sleep good tonight an feel much better tomorrow. Maybe......

But I do love fall. I think it is one of my favorite seasons of the year. The trees with all their beautiful color, cooler air, no humidity, just perfect weather. To me fall is like the last hour at work. You know its not long till you can get off work and rest up for the next round. That's kinda how it is here for me. We work out butts off all spring and summer with gardens and such, then in fall we wind down the work with the harvest and then you can rest for a while till its time to start over. Poor Rodger has to do stuff here and then STILL go to a job. I guess I enjoy it more because I can kinda hibernate after all the harvesting and butchering is done and the gardens put to bed for the season. I get to stay in and just do things I really enjoy for a few months. After a few months of that stuff tho I am so ready to get my hands in the dirt again and start planting things. This year I will be cooking for the deer hunters at the Drake Lodge in west Ky and for Snipe creek outfitters. I love doing this but it will be a little different this your without Aunt Ann. I have some really big shoes to walk in there. I helped her for about the past 4 years with the cooking and the lodge so its nothing new. Its just that this year she is not with us. Lots of hunters have been coming there for several years, some already know she passed away, some don't and that will be the hard part when they ask about her. The repeat hunters knew she was sick last year but some I had not phone numbers for to be able to contact them. I just hope I can do as well as she would have and do my best to make the hunters comfortable and make sure they are well fed. This I can do in her memory. I am looking forward to all this and the final hunting season in December. Then I get to be home for a while hopefully. I know I will be home for a good bit around Christmas cause Rob, Amoy and my lil Liam will be home for a week or so. Cant wait to see that lil man again. He got to go trick or treating for halloween. His momma got him a lil monkey suit for his costume. So cute don't ya think?

That lil fellow is such a beautiful combination of his momma and daddy. There really is nothing in this world like your grand babies. They are a whole nuther level of love ya didn't know existed.
And look at those 2 lil teeth he has. I can not believe he is old enough to be getting teeth already. Such a precious age.

And they got him a high chair and he looks like he is ready to put those lil teeth to good use here.

After he and Amoy were home for a visit they said he really didn't want his bottle much because he found out there is more tasty things than his bottle. Amoy had got him started eating baby food and for such a lil fellow he did really well at feeding time. UNLESS that was something that got his attention and he was totally distracted and it got a lil challenging to get food in his mouth and not somewhere else on his face. Cant wait till they get home so we can kiss those lil fat cheeks.

OK enough bragging but I earned the right like all grandmothers I think. Not much else happening here on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Can I just rant and fuss today

I will try not to cuss but just rant about the dang blogger site. As most of you know I do not have ads on my blog and never have. I don't get paid for the stinking ads that keep popping up at the top of the age when I log into to blogger to do a post. This just irritates the snot out of me. So if when you check my blog ignore the ads at the top which are mostly singles sites or just something that will take you to a pop up ad of some sort. Sorry, nothing I can do about them to get them off here. I might have to move my blog or create my own website. I will see what happens in the next little while.

Dang I cant remember what I told you last time I posted so will just update from memory. We are getting plenty of rain to make the gardens grow. It also makes the grass and weeds grow too. The garden is doing good. Rodger said he needed to trellis the cukes but after he told me they had started to vine already I suggested he not mess with them. We have had rain and with adequate rainfall plants will be brittle and break easily. So at this point I think it best to just left them crawl on the ground. Makes them a lil harder to pick but better than breaking the stems an killing them dead. I think we will have enough produce to restock our food supply for winter and lots to eat too. As matter of fact we had canned green beans with new taters last week.

We were so happy to have Aunt Ann and uncle Tripp to visit this past week. Ann is still battling cancer and is getting ready to take some stronger chemo treatments. She is very positive and upbeat and we are still praying an holding out for healing for her. Aunt Ann looks great, her hair is back after having the radiation and it looks good on her. Uncle is his usual jolly self. Love those 2 bunches. Looking forward to working the hunting lodge with them this fall. She brought me some June apples to make applesauce with and a gallon of blueberries for the freezer. Gosh the blueberries were huge an so good. I love to eat them just fresh or after freezing them take them out an let em partially thaw an then eat em. Blueberry banana smoothies are awesome too. Makes a quick easy breakfast for me. And its good for ya too.

Our lil grandson is growing like a weed out there in Nevada. I would so love to see him in person before Christmas. Dang plane tickets are so pricey. I do get pictures and videos from his momma and daddy often tho and we sure do love those. So being a grammy I have to share the pics with ya.

I really love this pic of him and his momma. So precious and you can only imagine what is going on in that lil mind.

Love this one too, he is in a big hurry to get out of that car seat and into something else.

I think I want this one printed off and enlarged, matted and framed. He is a happy lil boy here and if you see the clock in the background it says 1:35 and I just wonder if  he is keeping his momma up. But who would not want to stay up and see that sweet smile. Cant wait to see that lil boy in December. But in the mean time we will enjoy him thru pictures, videos and hopefully Skype once I get my new computer. The one I am on now is old, about 8 years old, and is not capable of video chat. Today I had a warning pop up telling me to shut the computer down to prevent damage due to over heating. I know the cooling fan is not working properly and soon or later I will be puter less. So Rodger told me to go ahead and order a new one. So I did and it will probably be here this week from Amazon. Until then I will keep my fingers crossed.

I did get out and empty out the greenhouse today and move the pots that had plants in them to the herb bed for the summer.So soon as we get time and its not hot as blue blazes outside we can take the greenhouse down and store it away till next spring. I got in the herb bed later and got some of the weeds pulled out of there. I really need to add a good deep layer of mulch in there so I don't have to spend all summer weeding that thing. That gets to be a big job to keep up with. Not so bad right now but when I get busy canning it will get far ahead of me and then I just have to wait till fall and make the best of it. Maybe I can pull the other stuff out tomorrow and get the black plastic laid down in there to kill the weeds and then plant some stuff that I need to replant in there. Sure will make it much easier to keep up with. I already have a pot with some parsley and chives started and just need to make a place for  them that wont get over run with grass and weeks. I still don't have the old bath tub set in the ground to start my fairy garden yet. I am collecting ideas on Pinterest right now for that. I saw a big dried gourd that had the side cut away in a fairy garden for a house. I do have gourds so maybe that is an idea for my fairy house. Yeah like I need something else to tinker with. In this weeding process this evening I did find a lil Mexican cuke plant that had come up volunteer tho. So I will let it be and hopefully get a lil trellis put up for it to grow on.

Not much else happening here on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

I know, I know, leave it to me

I know, I have been MIA for a while, again. No I been right here, not gone, just at home tryin to keep my oars in the water. You already know that I don't play by the rules. I am in the process of trying to get my meds adjusted as far as times that I take them so they can work better for me and not make me a zombie during the day. Its OK to be sleepy at night but dang being in a brain fog all day. Makes for some real unproductive days. But I am making progress. So on to the next project.

We got the garden planted and all the stuff is up and looks good. We still need to plant tomatoes and peppers, cabbage and broccoli, melons and squash. We have been having some rather cold nights with temps in the 40's which is not normal for us and I didn't want to plant tender crops in the garden just yet and let them get frost bit. I do think now the danger of frost is past so we will try to get those in the ground in the next few days. We had to make a trip out of town today to the bigger city to pick up some supplies and we got a roll of 6 ft wide landscape fabric which we will put in the garden, bury the edges of it to keep it in place, make crosses in the fabric and set the cantaloupes and watermelons in the holes so they can grow without competing with the weeds later in the summer. Hopefully we can take the fabric up and use it again next year. If this new roll last as long as the stuff we used up here in the yard when we first moved it will probably last us a lifetime. Good sturdy stuff. The plants in the greenhouse look good. Now to get them in the garden.

My new lil greenhouse sure has been handy this year. I finally got enough energy get in the yard and do a few more chores this past week. Our grape vines were in bad need of fruit pruning. As you can tell from this picture.

You can click on the picture to enlarge it and better see the many lil grape clusters on the plants. I did fruit prune them and take about 50% of the lil clusters off to give the ones left a chance to get bigger. Then I got another idea. I know, I know, you should not prune plants in the middle of summer when the sap is up. But prune I did. The grapevines were pretty scraggly with limbs goin ever direction. Makes it really hard to mow when you are getting stabbed and scrapped by grape limbs. So I clipped them back.
Before:

After:  

 Mission accomplished:

 I got all the wild limbs clipped and you can actually mow under the vines and this should greatly improve air circulation and prevent fungus on the grapes. There are lots of nice young growth on the ground after I finished. So I have a friend who is wanting some grapevines. I know, I know, THEY say you cant take cutting and start plants in summer time. But dang it, you know I had to try. So I took the cutting to the picnic table, trimmed em up, fixed a pot of potting soil, got out the rooting hormone, a pan of water, dipped the cutting in the water and then the hormone and stuck em in the dirt. We shall see IF they makes roots or not. I will let you know on this one.

 So once they were in the pot I put them in the greenhouse so I could take care of them till (hopefully) they make roots.

OK I was all done playing in the dirt so I moved on to the strawberry bed out back. OH my!!!!!

 I did not know there were that many berries ripe out there. So this required a trip back to the summer kitchen to get a container to pick berries.

I know, I know, the bowl will not be big enough but it is what was handy. Ended up I picked about a gallon of berries off this lil 8ft by 8ft bed. Yeah I know, I know, there are berries in the field ripe and the bed beside the driveway has a lot of ripe berries in it too. Yeah I picked the ones here at the house. Still have not got to the field to pick those. Maybe tomorrow.

After I finished picking berries Rodger came out and I suggested we go to the field and drive the post to support the new grapevines we planted the past couple years. So off we went. We got the supports put up and Rodger is way far behind on the mowing with all the rain we have had. Can ya tell?

There are about 30 grapevines in this lil vineyard once they get big enough to make grapes. There is a grapevine at every metal rod that you see. This clover we planted creeps and mats on the ground and gets rather tall It is pretty tough stuff but we had hoped it would be shorter to cut down on mowing and help keeps weeds from growing. The orchard has grass that is almost as tall as some of the young trees we have planted this year. It will look pretty tho if Rodger ever gets it mowed.

A pretty heavy thunderstorm blew in just as we got finished driving stakes and it was getting dark so I did not get to pick the strawberries that are in the field near this vineyard. Just not enough hours in the day.

We went out of town to get a pressure switch for our water pump today and to pick up a few supplies and as I already told you we got landscape fabric to keep weeds out of the melons. We went to Lowe's and I picked up 3 - 8oz containers of Valspar paint for free. I had coupons that I had saved for a free 8oz sample of paint so I took advantage of that lil deal. Got a couple colors and 1 white. I wanted the white to re-paint the base of our dining table. We made a stop at Walmart for a few other things we needed and Rodger had some gift cards that he had gotten from cashing in his reward points from one of our credit cards. Needless to say it is not safe to allow him in Walmart "lil boys" clothing section. He picked out several lil outfits for Liam. Who am I kidding? I picked out a few myself for that lil man. I cant believe how much this lil fellow has grown in just the few weeks since we have been back home. Although his daddy did tell me he is a lil colicky. Bless his lil heart, I hate this so bad. Sure is hard to see those lil ones hurting and not be able to fix em. They tole me today they are gonna change his formula to a soy based one to see if that will help some. I know Rob was on soy formula when he was a baby. I just pray this don't last long for him. I know it is hard for Rob and Amoy being so far from family and not having anyone close to help out so they can rest a lil bit. But this sweet lil boy will be worth all this and I am sure they would tell you the same things. Just precious.

                                           He looks like he is just itchin to get hold of something.

                                               Lookin all gangsta!! and cute.

 And just look at that sweet lil smile. Not long till he will be able to interact with his mommy and daddy more. I know they cant wait for those days. This Grammy sure misses that lil fellow.

Not much else happening here on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Hope you have a safe and happy memorial day weekend. Thanks to all our service men and women, past and present for your service to our country. God bless you all and keep you.

Stella

I gave birth and our family expanded

Yep for those that know me personally, bet that title got your attention. I can hear the gasp now. But its really true. It was 31 years ago today that I gave birth to the most beautiful little baby boy I had ever laid my eyes on. He has grown into a fine young man that I am proud to call my son. I hear lots of moms and dad talk about how their kids have worried them to death, out doing dangerous stuff and stuff that could kill them. I am so blessed that I did not worry about those things as either of my boys were growing up. My motto is "give them wings, and give them roots". I guess we always second guess ourselves as parents but in the end I can say I am proud of Jason and fine young man he has become. I think he has finally found someone who loves him as much as his momma as well. This momma is happy. Happy birthday Jason. Love ya bunches.

And yep our family expanded this past week as well. We gained a beautiful daughter. So proud of Rob and his bride Amoy and so pray for a happy, healthy wonderful future for the 2 of them. Soon to be 3 of them. OK I know ya wanna see pictures. So here we go.

Yep thas my backside, sis in law Tammy was taking pics as the wedding progressed. Thanks Tammy, we all were so happy you and Kim and lil Harper were there to share this wonderful day with us.

This is the momma (me) and daddy(Rodger) of the groom. So love these 2 kids. What a joy this young man has been in our lives and this beautiful young lady has brought joy since we have known her as well.

 

This is the beautiful bride Amoy and her auntie Paula. I just wonder if this lil boy that is coming in May will be spoiled. I am thinkin, yeas.

 

This the groom and his groomsmen. Matt Vanover college roommate and best friend from Ky on the right, Matt Warnert friend and co-worker from Elko on the left. We got to meet a couple of Rob and Amoys friends from Elko at the wedding. All great young people. Kinda re-instills hope in humanity to know there are still many good quality young folks out there that are real and not so fake.

This is Stacy Warnert friend from Elko, and Sophia Boreland, sister of the bride. All 3 of these lovelies are live wires. So fun to watch them dance.

This is Amoy dancing with her brother Donovan, better known as Junior. He was such a nice guy. And oh my goodness can he dance. Not to mention his wife Kerry. They reside in New York so they have lots of opportunities to keep in practice.

I think most every one had to kiss the "baby". I am tellin ya it is gonna be rotten before it gets here.

Another pic of Amoy and Junior dancing with Robs aunt Tammy in the background.

This lil cutie is Amoy's lil niece Jovi who was the cutest lil flower girl ever and did a wonderful job scattering rose petals in front of the bride.

Sophia, Amoy and Rob in the limo after the wedding on the way back to the hotel. I am thinkin they had too much fun.

The beautiful bride and groom after the ceremony and at the reception.

The bride and groom at their table, with best man standing and aunt Tammy's backside.

 

Amoy's mom Vera standing left, with Kerry in back, lil sister Samara in the aqua dress, Sophia in turquoise dress and aunt Paula on the right. Sweet bunch o ladies.

A bunch of softies acting all tough. 

We had a great time visiting with all the family and at the wedding. There are more pics out there and I will share more later as I get copies of them. 

The mother/son dance went well. Rodger danced with Amoy. Not that he or I can dance but we can fake it. Anything for the kids. Love them dearly. I sure do not feel I lost a son but really gained a daughter. May God bless them both.

We flew from  Las Vegas on Friday morning back home. We left being kinda concerned with the weather that had blasted the mid west and north with lots of snow. We had no trouble on our flight. No delays in Detroit and made it to Lexington on time to finally arrive at our house about midnight last night. A good nights rest sure does a body good. I think Tammy and Kim finally got landed a couple hours after we did. They were flying American airlines and got delayed on the tarmac at Las Vegas and in Chicago. I still prefer to fly Delta. So far we have always got where we need to be on time with them. 

All was well on the farm, Jason cared for the chickens while we were gone. I went to close up the chickens tonight to find I have 2 hens that want to set. So I stuck eggs under one of them. Not sure if the other one is serious or just threatening. Will see tomorrow and if she is serious she will get eggs too. Before we left I got my Cornish cross ordered. This time I ordered from Cackle Hatchery. There are owned by the same folks that owned Marti poultry farms that I ordered the best chicks from in the past years. Not sure when they will be here. But hope soon enough we can have them butchered off before the first part of May. Luna was so happy to see us when we got home. I guess she thought she had been abandoned. She almost got in the truck with us when we pulled in. But now she knows we home. I think Possum thought we had runned away too, he was a lil shy when I first got here. But he is back to his routine now. He is at the chicken house when I close the chickens up for the night. He gets in front of me on the way back to the house till I tell him to go gt on the porch and lay down and I will rub his belly. And he takes off and gets just inside the gate on the deck and rolls over on his side so I can rub his belly for a minute and he is fine after that. He is sure a big boy. Long way from the lil orphan kitten that I nearly fell and killed myself to feed last summer. 

Not much else happening here on the farm today, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella