That Little Stinker

Very early (about 2:00 a.m.) Tuesday morning our puppy was barking and barking and barking and....She just kept on barking. William got out of bed to check on her. She was looking out the back door so he opens the back door to see what kind of varmint was causing so much aggravation to the puppy.

When he came back to bed he said, "You'd never believe what was out by our garbage can." I guessed a deer. He said "No. A skunk!" I asked if he shot it and he said "NAH!! That thing would have sprayed everything." Then he said, "I backed into the house as quietly and as quickly as I could."

Now my William is over six feet tall, a rather large man and has size thirteen feet....The mental picture of him backing quietly and quickly brings a giggle every time I think about it. Even at two o'clock in the morning.

The little Stinker is still wondering around some where in our area. I just hope neither of us walk up on it while it is out strolling.

One Word

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's Beginning To Feel Like Winter....

Cold temperatures moved in last week. Nighttime temps dropped to the teens with the daytime temperature rising into the forties on most days. A couple of days the temperatures hovered in the high thirties.

We still have veggies in the garden though. The collard greens, green onions, kale, rosemary, chives and even the mustard greens are still surviving even after the low temps. The cold only makes the greens sweeter.

However, today we have temperatures that have almost reached seventy degrees. Instead of having the heat on five grates we have the front door opened to get some fresh air in here.

Springtime hasn't returned. It's only a respite for a day or two. Monday morning we are supposed to hit the teens again.

It's nice while it lasts.

Gray and Dreary Day!!!!!!!

We've had rain since last Sunday. Today is another gray, dreary day here in East Central Mississippi. That, my friends, is a good thing.

Some people get depressed when the sky is cloudy and gray. Not me! I love cloudy, rainy days. I can watch all the food networks while I knit and not feel a bit of guilt.

I've made eight toboggans and three ear warmers. I'm working on another ear warmer and then will start another toboggan as soon as I finish it up.

"Idle hands are the devil's workshop" doesn't apply here! My hands are most always busy. No time for idleness in this house. :)

The holidays are coming up. We are planning for a houseful on Thanksgiving day. Three of our children are supposed to be here along with the grandchildren, my mom, my stepfather and one of my sisters.

There'll be plenty of food, chatter and laughter. I have so much to be thankful for that there's no beginning and no ending to my blessings.

I wish everyone a blessed Thanksgiving holiday and Christmas season. Happy Thanksgiving, y'all.

I Don't Want To Give Up.....

So while out with Sakura (our Shih Tzu) I checked out the green bean teepee. I found some green beans hiding on the inside of the vines.

While the night time temperatures have dropped into the twenties for several nights, these beans had not been touched by the cold. I picked the beans and we had fresh green beans for our dinner that night. Even had leftovers. :)

I love the surprises I find in our garden even if it's almost the middle of November. Delicious surprises by the way.

Jack Frost Came For A Visit....

Ol' Jack Frost came for a visit the last two nights. He sat amongst the collard greens turning them sweet and tastier. Tonight for dinner we are going to see how sweet the collard greens have become. I am pairing them with baked sweet potatoes, cubed steak with gravy, one of the last three cucumbers from the garden and a tomato that I pulled last week when I thought Jackie Boy was going to visit us.

William has been watching the collard greens for weeks. He made a comment about how big they'd grown most every time he went outside. That is a lot folks for my hubby goes in and out dozens of times a day. LOL

I hope that he will be happy with the meal he's getting for his dinner tonight. He's waited long enough for the greens to be ready!

It's A Rainy Tuesday In Mississippi

The rain started falling about seven-thirty this morning and here it is after ten-thirty and there's been no let up. Rain is falling hard enough that a person would get soaked in short time but not the washing kind of rain. Just what we've been needing for several months.

The temperature is comfortable. I have the front door open so I can hear the rain dripping off the eaves of the house. The sound makes me want to cuddle back under the covers and snooze but then I'd miss hearing all that wonderful water falling from the skies.

Today is a good day for watching t.v. and knitting for a while. My heart rejoices!

Don't Forget to vote, today. It's your privilege!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Hate To Admit It.......

But I know I have to. Summer's coming to a close. According to the weather forecast for Friday night and Saturday morning, the temperature is dropping to a cool....er cold thirty-one degrees. That means FROST!!!!



This morning I gathered all the green tomatoes, the peppers, the cucumbers, the larger of the pear tomatoes and the last of the green beans.



The tomatoes are larger than the ones we grew in the earlier part of the summer. It sure panged me to pull those tomatoes from the vines. I wanted to let them ripen on the vine but it is not to be. I will wrap them in newspaper and put them in a box to ripen.



The squash plants have several small squash on them but the squash aren't as big as my pointer finger. They would be good salad fixings though. It would be a good idea to pick them tomorrow morning before we leave for our day trip.



All good things must come to an end. I've realized that I must say goodbye to the summer of 2010 and the fresh vegetables we've enjoyed from our garden but nowhere is it written that I have to like saying "Goodbye".



'Tis the cycle of life! Seasons come. Seasons go.

What have I been up to?

Sewing and knitting!

I knit while I'm watching t.v. and sew in between household chores.

I saw Martha Stewart make the baby changing pad on one of her programs several months ago. It's easily put together and will make nice baby gifts. There's a pocket on the pad for a diaper, wet wipes and a pocket for diaper cream. For the front I chose a colorful fabric and the backside is made of a hand towel. It can be folded and tied to fit into a diaper bag.

They're convenient to use when a mother needs to change her baby in a public bathroom. I love the idea of having the pad to lay the baby on instead of putting the infant on the bare changing table.

Laying the baby on a bare public changing table doesn't seem sanitary to me. I've seen many moms laying their tiny babies down on those cold, plastic, dirty changing tables. May be I can keep one of the pads with me and make a gift of them when I see a mother about to put her baby on a dirty table. :)

I will have to admit that the knitting is not done with needles but with a hoop. The hoop gets the job done and it's quick.

The little caps were play time. I made one and gave it to three year old Emmy Kate (the baby in our family and my great neice) for her baby doll. It IS getting cold you know.

The adult size caps I'm going to donate to a homeless shelter or the Salvation Army. There's plenty of people out there that can use a warm tobagan.

On an aside note.......WE HAVE GOTTEN RAIN three days in a row and from the forecast there's more on the way now. There was a tornado warning a few minutes ago for two counties southwest of us. The storm was moving this way although the tornado warning has been lifted. Thank God for the rain!

Rain Sneaked In During Early Morning Hours....

Sunday afternoon the rain came down for less than five minutes. I thought that was all we were going to get but early this morning the rain came down again. This time we got around a half inch. All the plants look happier.

More rain along with some thunderstorms are in the forecast for the next three days. I'm hoping that we get at least another half inch.

I've always taken for granted that the rain is going to fall, the breeze is going to blow and the garden is going to grow but it doesn't always happen that way. We're over twelve inches short in the rainfall category this year. The temperature was close to 90 today and there was no breeze blowing. The garden is still growing though. That's a good thing.

There's Just Nothing Like It!

I can't think of anything better than fresh greens cooked in a black iron pot with bacon to season them. Mustard and turnip greens grown without insecticides or commercial fertilizer. I know they are healthy eating.....well maybe they would have been healthier sans the bacon for seasoning but you only live once. :)

Add to those fresh greens a piece of chicken that is oven fried and a baked sweet potato...A sliced cucumber and hot peppers on the side rounded out the meal. That's what this southern gal calls a gourmet meal.

The pear tomatoes are ripening. I picked four on Thursday and had them with my scrambled egg on Friday. They had a good tomato taste for it to be so late in the season. When I was gathering the greens this afternoon I noticed there are a few more ready to be picked. Being the good wife I am, I'll let William have these.

There were a few yellow squash large enough to gather today. I sliced them and a couple of potatoes and an onion then stewed them down for dinner tomorrow night. I gathered a handful of green beans for our dinner also.

While I was in the garden I pulled a green tomato to slice and fry for our breakfast in the morning. I think we will have a bacon and fried green tomato sandwich.

We are enjoying the last of our bounty before the cold sets in and the veggies are gone. I'll miss running out the back door to gather fresh vegetables for our meals but I can begin to dream of the coming spring when the cycle will begin all over again.

The Morning After....

the rain was just as I expected. The greens look like they grew six inches overnight. The kale is big enough to pick along with the turnip greens and mustard.

I'm going to wait and pick the turnip greens and mustard over the weekend. I'm hankering for some more good old southern food. I am thinking there will be the mixed greens, fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, hot peppers, cucumbers and some of those pear tomatoes that are ripe on the menu for Saturday dinner.

The Jalapeno plants have a lot of peppers almost ready for picking. The plan for these peppers is to chop them and put them in the freezer for making salsa a little later on.

I guess I'd better get into canning mode if I plan to make the salsa, barbecue sauce and some jellies for Christmas gifts. Christmas will be "snuck" up on me if I'm not careful.

Today is sunny with a few white, fluffy clouds floating around. The leaves are turning on the oaks, sweet gums and elms. Fall is in the air but the temperatures today don't feel like fall. It's a bit warm outside today.

We finally got the propane installed for this winter. We had the house plumbed with two outlets but as large as the heater in the living room is we probably won't need another heater. That is unless we have another winter like last winter.

Life is good around Hunny Bunny Haven. Thanks for dropping by and please do come again. :)

RAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sweet, Blessed Rain!!!! The first rain we've seen in at least six weeks and probably longer. So long that I've forgotten the last time we had "good" water fall on our garden.

Rain has been falling for at least thirty minutes. We're predicted a half inch but you know what? A half inch is better than none! I can't wait to see our garden in the morning!

Thank you Lord!

No Frost.....

Yet!

We had some fall nearing winter temperatures this last week. One night the low was thirty-six degrees.

The vegetables in the pictures above are why it would be nice if the frost held off for a few more weeks.

We have some nice looking tomatoes that are still very green. It would be wonderful if these tomatoes could ripen on the vines or at least get mature enough that I could bring them in and let them ripen.

My youngest daughter gave me her prediction today. "Mom, these tomatoes will NOT be ripe before frost." Thanks Li...Just what I needed to hear. LOL I'm hoping that she is wrong too.

There's a good crop of new Jalapeno peppers on the vines. I'm hoping they will mature so I can chop them to go into salsa later on this winter.

But whatever comes that will be what comes. Nothing I can do about the weather. Maybe Ol' Man Winter will stay away for a few more weeks so Jack Frost won't come calling.

If there's frost in the forecast I guess I can pull the green tomatoes and we can go on a green tomato binge. We can have fried green tomato and bacon sandwiches, fried green tomatoes and grits or a plate full of fried green tomatoes.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Our garden grows because we keep it watered! Still no "good" water for us and it's not in the forecast for at least another week.

The vegetables are doing o.k. so far. That is everything but the kale. I think the bed we planted the kale in has a little too much sand and the water drains away from the roots too quickly. We could water this bed three or four times a week and it wouldn't be too much.

The armadillas almost destroyed the collard bed. They dined most every night in that bed. One night they rooted several of the collard plants out of the ground so William put some newspaper and pinestraw around the plants. That didn't stop the varmints. When we went outside the next morning they had been rooting again.

As you can see from the picture, we did solve the problem. William took some wire from old rabbit cages and cut it into strips. After he laid wire around all the plants it stopped the armadillas from dining on the bugs and worms. That wire plus a shotgun put a stop to those pesky rascals.

Our temp is supposed to be down to thirty-nine tonight. The high temperature is supposed to be seventy-two for tomorrow. I'm still hoping that our tomatoes, squash and cucumbers will get another week or two or three....at least a month of growing and producing.

From the weather predictions it's looking like the Naked Ladies know thier stuff. I have my fingers crossed they're wrong. There's some pretty tomatoes on those vines and it would hurt to see them ruined by frost but they're still too small to pull.

That's about all that's going on around here. I hope I can soon post about some of that wet stuff they call rain.

Thanks for dropping in and do come back soon.

Fire That Weather Guy!!!!!

I was watching the ten o'clock news on one of our local t.v. stations and that silly weather man said "Dry the rest of this week and there's no rain in sight for next week either." I say FIRE THAT RASCAL.

We need a weather guy that can do better predictions than the present weather man can do. We need a weather man that can see some rain in the forecast for several days.

Oh, well. Guess I'll drag out the hose and water the garden again. We've watered it until it's producing so it would be foolish to stop now even though we may have to float a loan to pay the water bill next month. Those fresh veggies are worth it.

But couldn't that weather guy pretend he sees some rain in the forecast? At least that would give us some hope. Think I'll call the station and make a suggestion. LOL

A Tease Is A Tease Is A Tease!

We received a "tease" of rain today. William put all his equipment back in his shop and came in telling me "It's raining!" I was so excited but before he could get seated in his recliner the rain had cease to fall and the sun was once again shining brightly.





That is what I call a "tease". However, according to the "weatherman" rain is in the forecast for the next three days. I am hoping and praying that that "weatherman" is right or I may have to fire him!




Some parts of the country are flooding, some parts are so wet that the homesteaders can't get their fall gardens in the ground and then there is our part of the country that is so dry that when we try to work our raised beds the dust is like a whirlwind, even with deep watering every week and sometimes twice weekly.



It is not for me to understand and I'm very glad that is so because I do not understand why some people get too much of what we haven't gotten nearly enough of this summer.



That's all I have to say today. Well except, my computer will NOT stay online. So if I don't post for a while you will know that I THREW THE DARN THING OUT THE BACK DOOR!!!!!! OR PUT IT IN THE GARBAGE WHERE IT BELONGS!

How Dry Is Dry?

How dry is it here? So dry that when we walk across our lawn it crackles under our feet. We need rain so very much.

We're keeping our garden watered but we can't afford to water the yard and the garden. We had to keep our priorities in order. It sure is hard to see my roses looking so bad and all the other flowers turning brown for lack of water.

I should have planned my flower beds more carefully. Instead of placing them around in so many different areas, I should have placed them all together. We could have kept them watered if I'd planted them all closer together. But NO, I had to place beds all around the front yard. It would cost a fortune to keep them watered.

When the weather cools down, I'm going to rework all the beds and bring them closer together. We can put grass where the old beds were.

Maybe, we'll get some rain in the next few days. I'm praying we do!

Do Naked Ladies Tell The Truth?

Last night we were at my Mother-In-Law's for her 86th birthday get together with her children and some of the nieces. One of the great-grands came in with a flower they'd picked for Mamaw. It was a Naked Lady!!!!! According to legend (some swear it's fact) thirty days after the Naked Ladies start blooming we will have our first frost.

Do these ladies tell the truth? This is the middle of September. Are we going to have a frost here in East Central Mississippi by the middle of October? I hope not!

There's small tomatoes on the vines. The squash and zukes are blooming, the green beans are full of blooms and the cucumbers....Well, what can I say about the cucumbers? Maybe, that they're loaded with little cucumbers and with blooms. A frost in the middle of October would bring all this bounty to a sudden halt.

I am going to bet that the Naked Ladies are telling untruths this year, To be on the safe side, I'm going to hedge my bet with some white row covering to protect those tasty veggies that will still be maturing. That's just in case the ladies know something that I don't know.

Since my Mother-In-Law lives southeast of us, I decided I'd better check on my Naked Ladies....Yep, they're there, standing tall and dancing in the breeze.

We'll see if they speak the truth or not. I am marking on the calendar this date and will wait to see...............................

The Weather Report....

It's a beautiful day here in Philly today. The temps were down to around 60 this morning. The sun came out and it's been shining brightly all day. The temps are in the high 80s but it's comfortable outside. The skies are so blue that you can see forever. The leaves on the trees are still green and the green of the trees against the blue of the sky is breathtakingly beautiful.

There's no one who could paint a picture this beautiful except for the Master Painter! He has given me a day to enjoy and enjoy it I have. :)

Sakura and I took a walk around the garden beds this afternoon. I think every mustard and turnip green seed I planted must have come up. There's a sea of green in that bed. If we can keep the bugs from dining on the tender greens we should have plenty greens for eating this fall and winter.

The kale is coming up, too. I didn't have a lot of kale seed but there's a good stand of seedlings so far. I see some kale, potato and sausage soup in our future. Yummy!

While we were outside, I gathered some rosemary and oregano to make a rub for the roast chicken we're having for dinner tonight. Fresh herbs makes every thing taste better.

There were two cukes ready to be snatched off the vines, also. I plan to use them for dinner tomorrow night.

I guess I have had a case of thread drift....I went from the weather report to a garden report but good weather and a good garden kind of goes together as far as I'm concerned. We can't have a good garden without good weather. Don't you agree?

I'M HUNGRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm hungry!!!! While that's nothing unusual it's what I'm hungry for that is unual for me. I want some good old fashion southern food. You know, like blackeyed peas cooked with bacon grease in them, corn fried in a black iron skillet with butter, salt and black pepper, mashed potatoes, fried chicken with gravy and biscuits and a hunk of cornbread on the side. To top off the meal I want a fresh slice cucumber, some green onions and hot peppers (Cayenne or Jalapeno, doesn't matter as long as they make me sweat.).

I would be having sliced tomatoes with all the other goodies but there's no tomatoes in the garden.....No ripe ones any way. A few small green ones but they're not large enough to fry so tomatoes are out for this meal. :(

I don't usually want this kind of food and I usually eat very healthy with whole grains and low carb veggies due to the fact that I am diabetic. Yesterday and today I have been craving some good old southern cooking.

It's cooking right now. I don't think there will be cornbread but biscuits are a big MAY BE! The rest is a FOR SURE.

I took the veggies and the chicken from the freezer and then went to the garden for the cucumbers (yep there are cucumbers ready to eat...YIPEE), green onions and the peppers.
I will eat today and be good tomorrow.

Everyone deserves to "Pig Out" every once in a while. Today is my "Once In A While." I hope the food taste as good as it smells. YUM, YUM!

The Rain Came

A nice shower anyway.

Yesterday, William and I got the beds worked up with new compost in them. I planted the kale in the smaller bed and the turnip greens and mustard in the bed where we had green beans earlier.

William turned the water on this morning before leaving for school. Then the good water came late this afternoon. We should see little greens coming up in both beds in the next few days.

I'm not sure if we're going to plant any other fall crops such as beets, carrots or radishes. I want to plant some lettuce but will wait for a few more days because of the temperatures around here are still running in the 90s. That's much too hot for lettuces.

I'm satisfied now that we have the greens in the ground. I hope they will come up and grow off so we can put some into the freezer before a big freeze.

If we have plenty of greens I want to try Alex's recipe for Turnip Green Stew. It sounds pretty good and he says it makes a big pot so I can make one big pot and then freeze some for later.

It's kind of dull around here at this time. Fall is on it's way.....I think but Summer is hanging on for dear life. She's not giving up without a fight!

Labor Day is for......

Laboring. This day has been a regular Monday except for one thing.....William is home.

When I got up this morning I made breakfast, did a load of laundry, made the bed, make homemade barbecue sauce, made three pies, put the cole slaw together, put the meats we bought in bags and into the freezer, wash dishes two or three times, got the ribs on the grill and then into a crock pot, bake the sweet potatoes, transplanted the collard plants, put William's lunch together for tomorrow and I still have work to do. Is this why they call it Labor Day? LOL

I'm just thankful that we have the opportunities we have to work, the foods to cook, clothes to wash and beds to make. I got up with the silly assumption this was a holiday. ROFL

Oh well, we do have twelve collard plants in the bed and one bed is almost ready to plant the kale. I will try to get that done tomorrow along with fertilizing the green beans, cukes, squash and tomatoes.

Then if I'm not too pooped I will get the turnip green planted. I know I was going to do that Saturday but we went to see William's Mom instead. A good reason for not planting is visiting.

I gave the cucumbers a good going over this afternoon and there are several small cukes on the vines. One is what I will call gherkin size so it'll be ready for slicing in another few days.

The latest tomato plants are looking good. They've grown and look sturdy. Now if they'd get busy blooming. A few of the plants do have blooms but I'm selfish.....I want all the plants to have blooms and tomatoes and to hurry up with them. :)

One day this week I want to gather the basil and rosemary to go in the dehydrator. It will be nice to have my homegrown herbs for seasonings this winter.

After I gather the basil and rosemary I will get some chives and oregano along with the few plants of sage to dehydrate.

Herbs in the dehydrator should make the house smell yummy.

Time to get back to work. I hope you will come back again real soon.

Cucumbers!!!!!!!!!

Well, cucumber, then. The cucumber vines have loads of blooms but blooms were all I could find until....There it was...No longer than the first joint of my pinky finger....A baby cucumber!

The even better news is after I found the cuke it came a shower to make it grow. I'll be watching that cucumber like a hawk. :)

Now if the squash would grow and start blooming or better yet make some squash I would be a happy woman!

I wanted to share that there are some cukes on the vines now. There's hope. Lots of hope since the temps were in the high 80s today. I think it will be a while before ol' Jack Frost comes to visit us.

There's Blooms On Them There Plants!

I took a little stroll around the raised beds this afternoon while I gathered some Cayenne to go with my dinner. Some of the tomatoes are blooming and there's buds on the green beans.



The old pepper plants are putting new blooms on since we gave them a good dose of food and tied the stalks up.



The squash are growing this time around. So far nothing has decided to have the plants for dinner. Come to think of it, I haven't seen any grasshoppers in the garden for a few days. Guess they must be trying to move the ants out of their homes so the grasshoppers will have a winter home. BOO HISS....



Another thing that has helped the garden is the showers we've gotten in the last two weeks. Good rain water always makes the plants happy.



A meal of fresh squash, green beans, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes and some green onions around the first of November is looking very inviting. Wish y'all could join us.

The Latest Around Hunny Bunny Haven

While I like to add pictures to my postings there won't be any this time either. Photobucket doesn't want to load my pictures anymore and the blogger loader will stick them in one spot and either they won't move or I'm not holding my mouth right. The news today will be without pictures.



This weekend on Saturday we got the peppers all fertilized again. Then it rained right after we put the fertilizer around them. That is a good thing. We're hoping that they'll start blooming again and we will have fresh peppers until frost.



I picked all the peppers ready to be harvested Saturday afternoon. Sunday I cut the stems off the peppers, cut the pods into quarters and put them in the dehydrator. This morning I had good, crisp peppers ready to be broken up for pepper flakes or ground into powder. The red Cayenne is going to be the flakes for our winter stews and soups and the Jalapenos will be ground into powder for seasoning stews, chili, or rubbing into meats.



Saturday we planted some more multiplying onions to fill the bed where some onions are already large enough to use in salads. When the bulbs we put out on Saturday come up we should have a good size onion bed. We use a lot of green onions in cooking. Maybe, I should say....I use a lot of green onions in cooking.



The cucumbers are blooming. I saw some blooms this morning when I went to the storage building to get the dehydrator. Our early cukes dried up and died so we're looking forward to fresh cucumbers in the next two to three weeks.



I planted the long, burpless ones earlier but planted the pickling type of cucumber for fall use. I don't know if we'll have enough to pickle but that would be an added bonus if we do.



The okra we planted for summer dropped it's leaves and died, also. There are two stalks of okra that came up volunteer. One stalk is producing. I cut six pods of okra off that one stalk. That's almost as much as we harvested from the whole bed of earlier plants.



I'm of the thinking that just maybe okra is not a good raised bed crop. The two stalks that came up on their own are scattered about the garden and they look healthy. Next spring we may need to make a bed that isn't raised for the okra.

We have some late blooming flowers around the yard. There are some bright, red Cannas blooming both in the front and the back yards. A Rose of Sharon is covered in big purple blooms in the back. Over the front arbor a sweet smelling rose is blooming. The rose is a barely pink color but the fragrance is what Heaven must smell like.

There are some blooms on the roses in the rose bed. This coming weekend I plan to prune those roses and give them a little dose of food then watch for their last burst of blooms before it's too cold for them to bloom.

Yesterday morning (Sunday) it was raining when we got up and rained most of the morning. A good, slow, soaking rain that has made all the garden plants, flowers and the grass stand tall.

That's about all the goings on around here. Thanks for dropping in. I hope you'll come again. :)

Everything's Moving Slowly Along

Things have been moving slowly around our part of the country. I haven't felt well so that's been a good excuse to stay inside away from the heat.

We did get the old tomatoes limbs trimmed off and the vines tied up once again. We still need to rake the old mulch out, fertilize the tomatoes and put new mulch around them. Then cross our fingers that this will work and the old vines will once again become productive.

We've gotten the newer tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and green beans taken care of and are now waiting for them to start doing their job of providing us fresh veggies for fall.

The greens still are not planted. The temps are running in the 90s. This leads me to believe that it's still too hot for turnips greens, mustard, Kale, Collards and lettuces to survive the heat. I may be wrong but I'd rather wait for another week or so than have to replant.

We've gotten several good rains lately. They did the garden a world of good. They also made this old soul feel better.

That's about it around Hunny Bunny Haven. I'll be reporting in again when I'm feeling more up to par and can get out the camera for some pictures. Come again, y'all!

'Til We Meet Again, Aunt Betty

I never knew my Aunt Betty very well. I remember some things about her when I was little. I remember starting to a new school when we lived in Louisiana. It was the same school she went to so she showed me to my classes. I was so scared and remember crying but it was comforting to know there was one person I knew there.

We moved back to Mississippi just a few days after school started. I don't remember seeing her again for a lot of years later. In fact around 45 years went by before I saw her again.

William and I decided I should visit my Louisiana Aunts and Uncles so I asked Aunt Shirley if she would get Aunt Betty to come see us. When we arrived, Aunt Betty was waiting to see us and she spent the weekend visiting with all of us.

It was so good to get to see her and talk with her about her children. She has seven children and their names all begin with an R. I've never met any of them and probably couldn't remember all their names......Rocky, Randy, Robin, Reed, is as far as I can go.

That's sad to me. These people are my first cousins and I've never met them. Nor have I ever seen pictures of them. Some of them aren't too much younger than I am. Then again, maybe they are quite a bit younger than I am after all I'm only seven years younger than Aunt Betty.

We got to see her on our 2009 trip to Louisiana. We talked a lot about gardening and raising animals. I was so surprised to find out that she had a love for both.

She looked a lot like my Grandma Teasley. She had a quiet way about her just as Mamaw Teasley did too. She favors my Daddy too. Aunt Shirley says that she and Daddy were just like Mamaw Teasley in their kind, low-keyed ways. :)

Aunt Betty was a hard worker. She worked to support her children by waiting tables. That's a job! Not that I've ever done it but I know standing on your feet all day is tiring because I have done that.

When we went to Louisiana this year, Aunt Betty was putting peas in the freezer and also she was having problems with her legs so she wasn't able to come to Uncle Max and Aunt Jackie's home for the lunch get together.

I thought about going to see her while we were in LA but never even mentioned it to William. Now, I'm sorry I didn't go because the opportunity won't come again.

I won't be able to sit across the table and talk while she eats tamales. Nor will I get to give her another hug...Not here on earth anyway. I will miss her when we go to visit our other aunts and uncles. There will be an empty place at the table from now on.

We should take every opportunity to see those we love, to spend time with them and if we don't know them very well to get to know them and what their lives have been like. Learn all we can about those we care about for one day memories will be all we have.

Aunt Betty, I'm sorry I didn't know you any better but I can say what I do know about you.....I love. Until we meet again....

I hope there are tamales in Heaven!

Twenty-Five Year Anniversary Celebration

The day Sandi was born is one of the four greatest days of my life. Two of the other wonderful days is when Mark and Lisa were born. The fourth was my wedding day to William.....Of course I have to throw in the days that our grands were born as being great days too. :)

I always wanted my children to have the best they could have. I don't mean by this that I want them to have a BMW to drive or Gucci purses or shoes. I mean I wanted them to have a spouse who would love and cherish them. Take care of them and do it willingly not because they had to but because they love their mate.

Sandi found that in Richard. I've never worried as to how she would live. He's always supported her and done the best he could do to care for her.

I couldn't have chosen a more perfect life partner for Sandi and I didn't even choose him. :) She did all the choosing herself...In fact they chose each other and I'm very glad they did.

On August 3, 1985 Richard and Sandi pledged to love and honor one another until death did them part. They've kept these vows honoring one another for twenty-five years.

In this day and age there's a lot of couples who never make it twenty-five years so yesterday (August 14,2010) they were honored with a 25th wedding anniversary celebration with friends and family gathering to celebrate with them.

Friends decorated the fellowship hall of the Philadelphia Church God and enough food was provided to feed an army. Everything was beautifully decorated and the food was delicious.

It's wonderful to not only have each other but to have friends and family who care enough about you to come and celebrate with you. They received some very nice, thoughtful gifts also. Everything from cash, gift certificates, poems written in their honor all the way to spray to put on when they go deer hunting to keep Sandi and Richard from smelling human. LOL

They've had 25 years together and I wish them at least 25 more years together and more. I pray that God will continue to bless each of them and their marriage.

All this is not to say that there's been times they disagreed but they've always worked things out between themselves.

We've been blessed with good daughter-in-law and sons-in-law. I'm not saying they're perfect...Their mother-in-law isn't perfect either but I'm saying they're perfect for my son and my daughters.

I don't want to think of my life without all of them in it. God bless you both, Sandi and Richard. Marriage is a work in progress and you two have proven it's worth the work.

Cookout Celebrating William's 63rd Birthday

On July 23rd William celebrated his sixty-third birthday. On July 24th he celebrated again with a cookout and several family members. Unfortunately a lot of the immediate family members couldn't be here. None of the grands got to come. They were missed and we had to eat their food. ROFL



Here's the birthday boy all decked out in his party clothes. :)






This is about as partified as he gets! Anyway the party was VERY casual.



Sharing some Grandma/Granddaughter time. Mamaw Roberson and Erica Duncan in deep conversation.







William's Mother-in-law....That would be my Mom. My stepfather is to her right and that is all the pictures I have of him. I made two others but something went wonky in the camera so there were no pics of Dub.







Another Daughter, Sandi (on the right) and my Sister, Carolyn posing for the camera.







Sandi's husband Richard...Our son-in-law. Aw man, he's a really great guy! :)







Our niece, Daphne Freeman smiling pretty for the camera.







Shane Freeman, Daphne's Husband and our preacher man nephew! Another really great guy!







The next three photos are pictures of little Shanelets. :) These young men are Daphne and Shane's three boys, our great nephews.



Ethan trying to keep his mouth closed because as you can tell he has a mouthful of burger!

That's Timothy standing to the side.







Timothy you can cover your mouth but I know you have a hunk of burger in there. You can't hide it from me! :)

Benjamin with a happy smile. Does this grin mean he's had enough burgers and chips? Or is he trying to get a bigger piece of cake? Either way it's a smile I love!

We missed those who couldn't be here but we had a good time with those who could come. William loves having family around him. That's one of the things I love about him. Not to mention the fact that he's good at the grill too. I didn't have to do very much cooking for this get together and that makes for a more fun party....at least for me.

Food, fun and family. That's a true party.

Gremlins? Gnomes? Or....

Those six inches long black and red grasshoppers? They're not really six inches long but they eat like they are.

I planted some yellow squash and zucchini seeds a week or so ago. The seeds did their job and germinated to the nth degree. That means most all the seeds came up. I checked on them every day or so and they were growing. I was looking forward to fresh squash until frost...

But....some kind of critter decided the tender shoots were too tasty to leave where they were planted. I went out to see how much the plants had grown and they had completely disappeared. No sign of anything ever being planted in that bed.

Not to be out done...I replanted this morning. If the seeds come up and critters get them again it will be too late for planting squash in this area for late fall eating. I will have to keep a close watch on the plants when they stick their heads out of the dirt.

We have been blessed with a huge crop of black/red grasshoppers this summer. They are guilty by association as far as I'm concerned. I try to stomp them but no matter how hard I stomp on the varmints they hop off with me in hot pursuit. It takes several stomps to do them in!

We have removed the old tomato vines, the okra stalks and green bean vines from three beds. We have to get them reworked and more compost added to the dirt then......It's turnip green planting time.

I'm going to mix the turnip green seed with mustard seed and sew a bed with those. Another bed will have kale in it. The third bed will be collard greens.

William couldn't find any collard green plants so he bought seeds. I need to get them in the ground this week so they'll have time to get a good hold on growing before it turns cold. They should come right up what with the daily showers we've been getting. Not a lot of rain but enough to keep the ground damp and perfect for sprouting the seeds.

That's enough rambling for today. I'm ready to get the fall garden going and can already taste those greens with a big ham hock cooked in them. Cornbread, green onions and pepper sauce will round out the meal. "Yum, Yum" as Grandpa Jones used to say.

One more thing....I have pictures of William's birthday get together that I have to download and then I'll post pictures here so y'all can see his party attendance. Family members were at the party.

Thanks for coming. Come again any time. :)

Good News!

We got more rain this afternoon. Two times in three days! Now, that's good news!

There's still some thunder in the distance so maybe we'll get more in a little while. Rain makes me happy!

I'm off to start dinner for my hungry husband. He got to leave school early today and he's a Starving Marvin! Have a great afternoon!

Today Has Been A Hot One But....

I'm proud to say I braved the heat and went outside to pick some tomatoes and peppers. I can say it did not take me long to get all I needed gathered and get back inside. :)

All the vegetables that I planted this past week are coming up. They didn't look so good in the hundred degree heat out there today. They did get some good water late yesterday afternoon so maybe they'll be okay.

I think I need some shade cloth to go over the new plants while it's so hot. I don't know where to find any shade cloth here in Philly unless Lowes carries it. I will call them tomorrow and find out since William is planning a trip to Lowes tomorrow afternoon.

In the morning I'm going to pick all the little knotty green tomatoes on the oldest vines. I think there's enough to make William some Chow-Chow. At least we'll be using the tomatoes instead of letting them hang on the vines for stink bugs to eat or to rot on the vines.

After I get all the tomatoes off the vines, I'm going to pull the vines up to make a space for some collard plants. The bed may be large enough for the collard greens and some kale. I'll have to wait and see after I get the tomato plants out and get the bed ready to reuse.

The tomatoes we transplanted a week or so ago are growing and looking healthy. I sure hope they will produce some fine tomatoes. The other two tomato beds are about to burn out and it's just too early to give up fresh tomato sandwiches yet.

Life is moving slowly around here. It's just too hot to do anything else except to mosey along. I'm going to "mosey" on out of Hunny Bunny Haven tonight. Thanks for dropping by. Come again any time.

Well Ain't This Just The Cat's Meow?!!!!

We had to go to Meridian today and was gone for the most part of the day. It went and rained about a half-inch while we were gone and I DIDN'T EVEN GET TO SEE THE RAIN!

But I do see the cucumber seed and the butternut squash seed poking their heads out of the dirt! That, as Martha Stewart would say, is a good thing! :)

What's New?

Nothing much new around here. The weather is still all the news. Temps expected to reach 101 degrees today with a heat index over 110 degrees. We're staying close to the air conditioner where it's at least bearable.

I went outside and gathered some fresh basil to go in my tomato, onion, and cucumber salad we're having for "Lupper" (that's lunch and supper for those who don't know). I'm going to microwave some potatoes and grill a couple of small steaks. That's going to be our evening meal.

I plan to cut some fresh chives to sprinkle over the baked potatoes. So there will be another trip out into the heat. Also, have to heat the grill up and keep the steaks from burning. But, that's not like staying outside all evening nor is it as hot as heating up the kitchen with the oven/stove. :)

We've had a rough week around here. William's youngest brother had a stroke last Monday. He's recovering nicely except he still can't speak but for a few words. He was paralyzed on the right side at first but he has regained use of his arm and leg even though he is still weak in these areas.

William's Mom had some tests done last Monday to check out some lumps the doctor found in her abdomen. The doctor is concerned that the cancer has come back. We're going with her tomorrow to get the results of the tests. I pray they are negative and must have faith in the prayers but I'm really afraid for her and for William (and all her family).

William will be starting back to school on Tuesday. He's supposed to start tomorrow but is taking off to go with Mamaw. I hope he gets to start on a positive note.

I know this isn't about gardening but it's about family and family is more important than gardening. Or it is to me, anyway. Gardening comes in second!

Back to gardening.....We did get the squash, zucchinis, butternut squash, cucumbers, and green beans planted. I hope these will produce better than the ones we had this summer. We also have eight tomato plants growing in a raised bed. Good food for the fall.

We need to get a bed or some beds made in which to plant greens. We can plant greens here until around the first of September and they will have time to get a head start on the cold.

Our fall/winter garden will include turnip greens, mustard, kale, swiss chard, lettuces, spinach and transplant some collard greens. The collard greens and kale will survive our winters. The other greens will make it through several light frosts.

I've been looking into row covers to protect the greens from frost. If I order the row covers the veggies should make it until we have a hard freeze. I'll go to any lengths to have fresh veggies on my table. LOL

That's enough rambling for me today. There's a steak with my name on it waiting to be grilled and a potato waiting to be baked. Wish y'all could join us. Maybe one day!

Thank Goodness For The Neshoba County Fair!

The Neshoba County Fair is being held this week....This fair is known as the Giant House Party. The fairgrounds have two and three story cabins built all over the grounds....except for the race track and an area for carnival rides and games. There are acres and acres of cabins and camping trailers set up just for the fair.

People come home from all over the world (or just come from all over the world) to attend the Neshoba County Fair. It's a huge reunion every year.

William and I don't attend this giant get together mainly because it's hotter than heck without being around the huge engines running the rides and the crowds of people bumping into each other swapping sweat.

William and I have looked forward to this week for another reason. We have had a very dry summer. There has been no rain to amount to anything for close to two months. BUT.......

Every year during the Neshoba County Fair it rains. It rains most every day. It thunders and there's lightening. This has been true this week. It has been a little rain every day since Saturday. Some days it was only a short sprinkle, some days it came a good shower for about fifteen minutes but today it rained for almost an hour. A good soaking rain...just what we need for our old veggie plants and the new ones we have growing.

William and I have discussed several times the probability of rain the week of the Neshoba County Fair. If we had bet on it we'd won and won big time.

The best thing about this is today is only Tuesday. By Friday we should be saturated. Maybe!

This is how dry we have been here in East Central Mississippi.....The Kudzu is withering and drying up. Now when Kudzu withers and the leaves start turning brown from lack of water, it has been extremely dry for quite a spell.

Where's The Turnip Greens And Collard Greens?....

I have the pepper sauce!

I canned these four jars of hot peppers on Thursday, July 22nd. If the vinegar gets as hot as the Jalapeno peppers are, I don't know if we'll be able to eat it.




I ate a Jalapeno pepper with my dinner last night and today I have a small blister on my bottom lip. Can't imagine what my innards must look like if the pepper blistered my lip. It was really, really good even though it was really, really hot! That's what summer is all about.....Fresh ripe tomatoes and hot Jalapenos. :)

That's enough about the peppers.....Today is my Sweet William's birthday. He's sixty-three years young today. Happy Birthday, Honey. I still plan to keep you to your promise of drinking coffee together each morning when we're eighty-two (You'll be eighty-two and I'll be eighty-three but who's counting?). You are my Sunshine!

All those Tommy Toes, Grape and Red Pear Tomatoes...

What to do? What to do? Make tomato juice! That's what I will do.

The Yellow Tommy Toes, the Jelly Bean Grape, the Red Pear and the Red Tommy Toes are producing a lot of tomatoes. Why do I do this every year? One plant each would be plenty to nosh on but NO! I plant three of each and then we can't eat all the tomatoes they produce and nobody wants the little tomatoes, they all want the ones the worms wanted. Well, I wanted them too. LOL

William gathered a plastic dishpan full of small tomatoes. I made salads, we ate them for snack, I cut them in quarters and put them with our eggs and bacon for breakfast and there were still loads of little tomatoes. So......I cleaned them and cut them in pieces, put one cup of water in the boiler with the tomatoes and cooked them. Then I strained the juice and all the pulp I could get through the strainer, put the juice in pint jars and canned it.


Now it doesn't look that good but it taste pretty good and will certainly flavor stews this winter. All those tomatoes only made five pints of juice but that's five pints of juice I didn't have. :)



I was feeling over run by "little" tomatoes but now I'm hoping that we have another load of them.

I've canned tomatoes before but never used the over abundance of little tomatoes to make juice. I'm feeling kinda, sorta proud of myself for finally getting IT!

Don't let produce spoil....Do something with it even if it's canning pale colored tomato juice. Looks aren't everything.....Nope....and I'm really glad for that!

Tomato Plants In The Ground.....

for fall tomatoes, I hope.

I just set out eight tomato plants for tomatoes until frost. There's four Marianna's Conflict for sandwiches, two Roma's for salads and two Red Pear for salads and eating straight from the vines.

We got a sprinkle of rain so I thought this would be a good time to get those plants in the ground. When I started digging in the dirt only the top was damp. A quarter of an inch down was dry as dust. We need a week of good soaking rain. Of course, there'd be some complaints about it raining so much.

In the morning we plan to plant some Yellow Squash and a couple of Zucchinis. We're going to take down the bean vines around the tepee and replant with Louisiana Purple Pod beans. They'll have time to make before the weather starts getting cold here.

We're probably going to pull up some of the cucumbers that are about gone and plant a hill or two of cukes.

Everything else will do until later on in the season. Then we'll plant some kale, swiss chard, lettuces and collard greens. If we can get another bed built I'd love to plant some turnip greens for fall/winter eating.

The multiplying onions are beginning to come out again. That is good. They're just off the back porch about three feet. I love to run out, gather green onions for salads, omelets and soups/stews.

That's about all that is going on in my world today. We're getting ready for a cookout on Saturday to celebrate my Honey's birthday which is Friday, July 23rd. He's getting to be an old man but he'll never catch up with this old woman. :)

Finally One The Worms Didn't Get.....

I went to see if there were any ripe tomatoes this afternoon and there were three ripe ones on the Dorothy's Mennonite Big Heart Plants. Two had been eaten by worms but there was one that the worms had not gotten to yet. I grabbed that tomato so fast it would have made the worm's head spin if there had been one on it or in it.

This variety of tomato is one of the largest that I've seen in years.



Not only is the Dorothy's Mennonite Big Heart a large pinkish color tomato but it's a great tasting tomato.



My dinner tonight was a tomato sandwich.



Now this is what I call a "Tomato Sandwich"! Yum, Yum!



I have gathered seven tomatoes from the DMBH vine... We got three and the worms got four. Unfair odds, I would say. The tomatoes are growing so large that it's hard to see any wiggly critters on them until we pull the tomatoes.

We have the Marianna's Conflict variety also. They're making a larger than usual tomato this year. Funny thing is the worms have left the Marianna's uneaten. They've only gone after the DMBHs.

Here's a couple of pictures of the Marianna's Conflict tomatoes:



This is one of my favorite varieties to grow. They're a tasty tomato.



We're enjoying all the Tommy Toes too. I make a salad with the Yellow Tommy Toe and Red Tommy Toe Tomatoes: The salad is a light, healthy salad, colorful and pretty..





The recipe is below.

5 Red Tommy Toe
5 Yellow Tommy Toe
1/4 of a red onion
1/2 Burpless cucumber, peeled and sliced
Salt and Pepper to taste

In a bowl with a top, cut the tomatoes into quarters, slice the onion into thin strips, and add the peeled and sliced cucumber. Add salt and pepper to taste. Put enough Italian dressing to coat all the vegetables and stir well. Put the top on the bowl and refrigerate for about an hour (can refrigerate longer if you'd like).

This makes a delicious salad served with baked or grilled chicken or eaten as a light lunch. Serves two people.

Note: I use Low Fat Italian dressing..

Worms 3 Jan 0

Grrrrrrrrrrrr......When I was taking pictures last week; the Dorothy's Mennonite Big Heart tomatoes were turning pinkish. I reached into the vine to turn the tomatoes so as to get a better picture. They felt soft.

I went back to check on them the next morning. When I pulled them around to look at them there were big holes in two of them where worms had bored into the tomato. I pulled those and put them into the compost pile.

Today, William tells me that another tomato is turning pink. I go check it out and lo and behold another hole in the tomato. These tomatoes are big as saucers and would feed a family ripe tomato slices from one tomato.

I am so disheartened. I don't want poison on the tomatoes but I don't want the tomatoes to be worm food either. William bought some Dipel yesterday so I guess tomorrow we will spray Dipel on the tomato vines to see if we can get rid of the thieves eating our tomatoes.

It's strange that we have Tommy Toe tomatoes and some Red Pear tomatoes in the same bed that are ripening but have no worm holes in them. Only the big, pretty ones attracted the critters.

I guess I can understand that since the big pretty ones are the ones that attract me too. I have to even out this score. Better yet I have to stop these worms in their tracks.

One thing of note, Felder Rushing says Dipel is safe for humans but will kill worms. His statement that people could drink the Dipel if they could stomach it makes me think that Dipel must be very safe to use. I hope he's right.

I don't think I've mentioned on my blog that I hate worms. I'd rather have a snake thrown on me than a worm. That's how much I really, really hate worms.

Making Memories

....and bread!


Our granddaughter, Symanthia, has been visiting with us this week. Symanthia is entering her second year of nursing at Itawamba Community College this fall. We are very proud to be her Pappy and Granny!

She has made this visit a learning experience. She told her Pappy that she wanted to learn to use some of his saws. They spent one afternoon working with the saws. She was proud to tell me that she learned to saw a straight line. Good for her. Most girls are too girly to want to learn about saws or anything else that can help them help themselves later on. But, not our Symanthia!

Then she told me that she would like to learn to make bread. She mentioned Banana Nut Bread. I explained the difference in making breads like Banana Nut Bread or Pumpkin Bread and the yeast breads. She decided she wanted to make the yeast bread.

We found a French Bread recipe and got all the ingredients together then she set to work.

I guided her as she measured and stirred the ingredients. We had to take time to smell the yeast after it was added to the warm water. There's nothing that smells any better than yeast when it's activating. Unless, it's the bread after it's baked.

When all the ingredients were well mixed, I showed her how to knead. I think she kind of like the kneading. She learned quickly how to pull the dough up and turn it. She worked the dough like a pro.




She put the bread into a bowl for it's first rising. When it was time to punch the dough down, I thought she was going to punch it OUT! LOL She did a good job of that too.

After she let the dough rest for 15 minutes she rolled it out into a rectangle and then made her loaf. She sprinkled the cornmeal onto the cookie sheet and then put the loaf of bread on the cookie sheet to let it rise the second time.



She enjoyed watching the bread rise and become a much larger loaf than what it was at the start. When it had risen the second time into the oven the bread went.



She was so excited. The bread was smelling heavenly and she couldn't wait for it to finish baking so she could taste her creation. But wait she did..........


When the bread was finished she put it on a baking rack to wait for it to cool. Well...folks we waited just long enough to get the butter and for her to slice her first loaf of homemade bread.

Top of newly baked loaf:


Bottom of loaf perfectly golden brown:



Symanthia cutting the first slice of her loaf of bread:



Slices waiting for the butter:


The bread is delicious. I know because I got the first piece. Wasn't that sweet of her to let her old Granny have the first piece of bread she ever baked? I slathered some butter on the bread and had some good homemade bread baked by my granddaughter.

My slice!



She's taking the rest of the loaf home with her tomorrow to share with her Mom, Dad and brother, Jonathan.

We made a memory today. Maybe, some day when I'm no longer around Symanthia will be serving fresh, homebaked, yeast bread and tell the story of baking her first loaf of homemade bread on a hot, Saturday afternoon in July with her Granny Jan.

Even if the story is never told and she never bakes another loaf of bread today has been a very special day. I spent the afternoon with one of my granddaughters. That's time well spent.

Marshmellows And Roasted Wieners, Anyone?

The pine limbs are being burned today. I was nervous about a fire being set so near the house but Chad and John know what they're doing. They still have quite a lot of pine limbs to burn but they're doing a good job. The yard is already looking better. We've been looking at dead pine limbs all summer. It's good to have them out of the way.

When we came home from shopping I jokingly told John we'd roast marshmellows and wieners. While I love both of those, I'm not sure if they would have tasted good if we'd done the roasting over burning pine.





Chad and John have a hot job. We had to park our truck at the end of the drive and walk in when we returned from shopping. The heat from the fire was rough walking by it and they are out there keeping the flames under control.



William and I are trying to keep them furnished with plenty of cool water to drink. I asked them if they had any water and Chad was getting ready to drink water from the water hose. YUCK! I won't say what that would have been like but it wouldn't have been good.



I've been looking at our trees we have growing in the front yard. The Chaste tree is blooming. This is the first year that it's bloomed. The purple flowers are pretty.





The Crepe Myrtle is in full bloom also. The limbs are heavy with blooms. The color of the blooms is called red but it is more of a deep pink. This is one that Jackie Matthews gave me when I was babysitting Trinity.





The Weeping Mulberry has limbs touching the ground. It's so pretty with the dark green leaves and weeping limbs. It's not yet tall enough for children to use it to hide under the limbs.

The Butterfly Bush has been pretty too. The blooms on this bush are such a dark purple that they appear black. I gave it a good pruning in the early spring but it's grown at least three feet since then. Most of the blooms are gone. I need to check to see if another pruning will give me another burst of blooms.

Daddy set Crepe Myrtles across their front yard next to the road. When suckers came up he brought me some of them. They were set near the road at the home where I lived at the time. I later move from that house. William and I married and bought the place where we live now. Sandi brought me one of the trees that had come up from the suckers Daddy had given me several years before. I put the one Sandi gave me in our backyard. It's beautiful this year. I now have one of the trees that came from Daddy's Crepe Myrtles. :)

I enjoy walking around in our yard looking at the trees, bushes and flowers. Most of them were given to me and bring back sweet memories.

I can't blog without mentioning the garden. The Dorothy's Mennonite Big Heart Tomatoes are beginning to turn pink. One of them feels soft so I don't know if it has blossom end rot or if a "critter" has bored into it. I have to remove the soft one to keep the others from becoming infected with whatever is wrong.



That's it for today. The limbs are still burning but the yard is looking so much better, I walked around making pictures of trees in ninety-six degree weather and got a snapshot or three of the tomatoes. If I had to sweat at least I enjoyed the getting sweaty part.

Thanks for coming in for a visit. Hope to see y'all soon.

It's Summer Time But The Living Isn't Easy.....

The house is comfortable but outside is like an oven set at 500 degrees. O.K. not that bad but hot enough.

The vegetables have been fertilized again and watered deeply this morning. I'm sure the heat will evaporate the moisture pretty quickly. At least they got a drink of water.....We'll just have to give them another drink in a couple of days.

The skies got a little dark a few minutes ago. Every time this happens my heart leaps just knowing rain is coming but the sun is shining again now. I know the rain will come so I'll not give up hope.

The younger tomato plants are beginning to give us ripe tomatoes. William picked some Tommy Toes and Red Pear tomatoes this morning. We still have several other varieties that have green tomatoes on them but none are ripening yet.

I've been watching the Dorothy's Mennonite Big Heart tomatoes. The fruit on those vines are large as a saucer. I hope they have a good taste. I know sometimes the large tomatoes aren't as good as the smaller ones but I have great hopes for these. If the Dinner Plate tomato produces larger fruit than the ones on Big Heart I can't wait to see them.

We going to rip the squash and zukes out, rework the soil and add some composted cow manure then plant tomatoes where the squash were. I have some Roma plants, Marianna's Conflict and the Jelly Bean plants almost large enough to set out. We doing this in hopes of having tomatoes until frost. :)

The green beans have some new blooms on them. Maybe the rain we received last week has caused the beans to start blooming again. The beans on the tepee aren't looking so healthy. Because of this we are thinking about ripping those vines out and replanting with some Louisiana Purple Pods. There's enough time before frost in our area for more beans to produce.

We're also thinking of digging an area to plant some late peas. We haven't gotten past the thinking part of this though. It's hot and the ground is hard. Thinking about the peas may be all we do. LOL

A side note: Today is the Fourth of July. The day we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence so many years ago. We have been a free country for a long time but only because our young men and women have been willing to fight to keep us free. I want to take this time to thank all our soldiers who have fought and died for this great country down through the years.

On a personal note I want to thank my Daddy, my Father-in-law, my sweet Husband, William, my precious son, Mark, my precious gift and grandson, Matt and my sweet son-in-law, Lance for their service to our country. I love you all and appreciate all that you've done to keep us free.

In rememberance: Joshua Shane Ladd; Rest In Peace precious one. Your family misses you. Your service to your country cost your life. We can never repay you. Thank you seems so inadequate. You'll never know the appreciation we have for you and your love for the United States of America. We do thank you, appreciate you, love and miss you.

To Blog Or Not To Blog.....

that is the question.

Nothing has changed since the last time I blogged. It's still too dang hot to be outside for any period of time and we still have a need for rain even though we had a good shower one night last week.

Our garden is just sitting there wanting water. We're getting tomatoes, cukes, hot peppers (and I do mean HOT!!!!!!) okra and some beans along but that's it for now. Not much of anything though.

There was one small incident that I can relate. Our water bill has always been wonky. One month it is twenty-two dollars but the next month it will be nearly fifty dollars. It seems the fifty dollar months are months we do not use an excess amount of water and usually a month that we get plenty of rain.

This morning an employee from the water company came calling. He was looking for the location of our water meter. hee hee hee....Go figure. Now I'm afraid to get this months water bill. It will probably be a hundred and fifty dollars. Why can't people do their jobs correctly. If they can't find a water meter ask where it's located before the bill runs sky high.

We still don't have our air conditioning unit fixed. But we should have a new one in the next couple of weeks. Window units come in handy when it's necessary. However, with the high water bill I'm expecting there will probably be an extremely high electric bill too. Looks like no food for August. ROFL

That's all the excitement around here. Fact is, I couldn't stand much excitement as hot as it is. :)

Thanks for dropping in. Maybe next time there'll be more to report.

Back To My Roots!

Our trip to Louisiana went wonderfully well. We got to visit with one of Daddy's sisters and the two surviving brothers. Aunt Betty was unable to come to the get together and she was sorely missed.

There's just nothing like sitting around a table with coffee cup in hand listening to my family reminisce about their earlier lives. It's a living history lesson.

Uncle Max gave me a picture of my Daddy and him when he was about seven or eight. Daddy must have been about nineteen or twenty. Daddy's face is not clear in this picture but the picture is around seventy years old so I guess that's to be expected. Even with his face blacked out my Daddy is a handsome man. :)



One of my first cousins, Cliff, came to visit with his parents while we were there. He brought three of his four children. I had not seen Cliff in near on fifty years. It was nice to get to know a little about him and his family while we were visiting Uncle Max and Aunt Jackie.

Becky also came over and brought her newest granddaughter, Shelby. Shelby is only four months old and a little beauty. Two of Becky's granddaughters stayed with their great-grandmother and great-grandfather on Friday. Bailey and Madison is their names. They are cuties.

Below is a picture of my sweet aunts and uncles: From left to right: Uncle Henry Teasley, Aunt Jackie Teasley, Aunt Shirley Smith and Uncle Melvin Smith. Seated is Uncle Max Teasley. Precious, precious people.



Cliff and his children; Katie, Sarah (in front) and Jeremy Teasley.



Cliff almost lost Sarah to William. She really took up with William and wanted to come home with us. :) All the children were sweeties.

Now is the time to share the pictures of the Great Tamale Eating Event:

Each year we visit with Aunt Jackie and Uncle Max they get tamales to have to nosh on before lunch. As Aunt Jackie calls them "They're just a little snack." before lunch.

Uncle Max goes to pick the tamales up and they are placed in the center of the table and everyone dives in. I'll admit I am one of the divers too. I don't allow any pictures of me and my tamales. Everyone else is fair game. :)





Along with the tamales, Aunt Jackie always lays out a feast for our lunch on the get together day. That woman is a wonderful cook and can work a circle around me even at her age of seventy-seven.

These wonderful people know that I love them but I don't think they will ever know just how much they mean to me. They're a part of my Daddy and that right there says it all.

This last picture is of the Red River as we traveled across it near the town of Clarence.



We had a long trip home. Uncle Max drew William a map that would take us through Natchez on our return trip. William missed his turn in Winnfield which sent us about seventy-five miles out of the way. We did get to see parts of Louisiana that we'd never seen nor would we have seen traveling interstates. However, most of the scenery was nothing but trees. LOL Sometimes I felt we were in "God Forsaken" country. We made it to Natchez but the missed turn caused us to have a longer trip home. Oh, well I was in good company. :)

We always have a wonderful time visiting Western Louisiana. I should say we have a wonderful time visiting my family in Western Louisiana. It's a treat each time we get the opportunity to go. I'm already looking forward to next year. I hope Aunt Betty can be at the get together then.

Thanks Uncle Max and Aunt Jackie for making each trip a trip we'll never forget. We love you all! God bless.