Celebrating God’s Good Grace

And, just like that it’s Summer.  Spring flew by for me. I can’t believe it’s almost July. Do you feel like time is moving too fast?  Can we slow it down just a notch please?

We got all the seedlings transferred to the garden mid-May.  They have done very well.  Tomatoes are now green on the vine and there are tons of them.  Peppers are flowering.  I harvested a few jalapenos this week. Green beans have already been producing well.  We only planted about 20 plants so, we are eating them as we harvest them.   Tomatillos are growing and all over the place.  We had no idea they are prolific volunteer plants.  We planted five and have about seven volunteers.  This may be the year for them!  Sweet peas and snap peas are doing ok. We didn’t plant enough to can so, like the green beans, we eat them when harvested.   Pulled two cucumbers so far.  Things are really starting to pop!  Pumpkins and watermelon, are flowering.  We lost our winter squash to a vine borer.  We were so disappointed!  It was coming along great, too.  Fail on the onions for the third year.  We may get a few but, we planted a ton.  We have been finding quite a few hornworms on the pepper and tomato plants so, every day we walk through and inspect and kill the ones we find. We are not sure why they seem so prevalent this year.  We do know they will wipe a crop out so, we are trying to stay on it.

I planted a small herb garden this year.  So far I have parsley, basil, cilantro and dill.  Trying hard to get some oregano to sprout. As you can see the cats really loved to lay in it so, hence, the chicken wire.

The raised bed by the cabin is growing lettuce, radishes and kale.  I am succession planting the lettuce and radishes.  Man, they are so yummy.

I spent the last few weeks of May spring cleaning.  I rearranged a bunch of stuff, got rid of some things and just generally gave the cabin an overhaul.  That felt really good. I was also finally able to get my patriotic decor up!  I was a little late with it this year.  Spring cleaning running late and a trip to Georgia threw my schedule off.  Here’s a few pictures. I did try and keep it simple this year.  That’s not easy for me.!

After celebrating my 63rd birthday here with Al I spent a few days in Georgia celebrating my grandson’s first birthday. Time flies when I am there.    I also got to spend a day with my sister antiquing.  We literally shopped ALL day.  It was so much fun!

While I was in Georgia Al picked some honeysuckles and made the tea. When I returned, I made some jelly. I haven’t tried it yet but, it sure smelled good. I also made some chamomile tea.  That should do it for any wildflower harvesting until Fall.

Now comes the berries.  The blackberries are huge this year.  Thank goodness for plenty of rain.  We gathered about 8 cups so far.  I made about 17 half pints of blackberry jam. We may try and make some blackberry syrup, too. There’s plenty out there!  We have not noticed any raspberries that are ready to pick.  We did find some wild strawberries though.  There wasn’t enough to do anything with it though.  We are hoping to at least can one round of raspberry jelly this year.  The jam that I did last year was too seedy for my taste.

And…….. We have cows again!  This time they came with a small mule!!  We decided to lease another portion of pasture as well.  So, there will be more cows coming!

July brought us my stepdaughter and granddaughter who came to visit us over July 4th. It was good to see them!  It was also good to see how the puppies would react to a small child. They did really well. Once they all played together enough they figured out the do’s and don’ts.  Gunner was the only one that couldn’t understand why he couldn’t nip her into to going his way.  She did really well with them both though.   They are big and still very much puppies!  So, we had to keep an eye on them. They don’t understand how big they are sometimes!  We also celebrated the 4th with some fireworks! That was so much fun!  I think we are going to make that a tradition.

As far as the basement goes, mine and Al’s offices now have four walls!  It’s pretty much finished with the exception of a light fixture and some shelves.  I hope to have pictures by the next blog!  I’m so excited to be completing this basement.  Once it is finished then we can spend some much needed time on landscaping.

We did get a new gate for the porch.  Well, Al constructed a new gate. The one we had been using was a bit janky to say the least.  This one is the real deal.   It gives the puppies more room to run. No worries for Bun.  She has her own porch off the laboratory.

Speaking of puppies…. Gunner and Gracie are growing like weeds.  Gunner is going to be huge!  They get along with all the other pets and are pretty gentle with the cats.

Bun and Honey spend their days soaking up the sun and their nights protecting the property.  Bagel, the beagle, is still hanging out here, too.  I guess he’s our part time pet.

The cats are doing their jobs well.  They love to follow us when we take the puppies for a walk. 

That’s it for now.  I hope to blog sometime in August and hopefully reveal our completed basement!! Fingers crossed!

Thanks for stopping by!

XO,

Elisa