An end of the season trip and so much more....

This is a post full of pictures. We have had some adventures lately and the true love of my life is now, on occasion, reading my ridiculous blog so I want to share some pictures with you and him..... Here goes.

Well, at the beginning of the week, we loaded up the car and I do mean loaded, and headed for Gulf Shores, Al. My sister and her family got a beach house for a week and we decided to take my mom (mimi) and go have some fun in the sun with them. Here is a picture going through the tunnel in Mobile.

This is a picture taken in the hotel. My niece decided to go back to the hotel with us every night. So the oldest is mine and the youngest my niece. I just thought this was a beautiful picture.

Here's my girl on the alligator in the ocean. My son is the one at the end of the line on a boogie board. They had a blast.

This is my oldest playing Frisbee on the beach with my nephew. She hates the beach but even she had a really good time.

Here's our temporary man of the house showing off more of his board skills.

And here is a flag that was at the beach house next door, I just loved it waving along the ocean front.

Now, we are back home and back to reality. No one wanted to leave but Mimi had to go back to work and so the fun was cut short. We had a great time but we sure did miss daddy being with us. Although, I don't think I would have been able to frequent as many little stores had he been with us. (ha ha)

Next, I wanted to share with you my new pot rack. I am hanging my cast iron on it. It has freed up some space in my hobbit kitchen and I really like it but I am not sure what needs to be put in the opening.

Then today, our neighbor came over and put up a temporary electric fence for us. The grass back here has grown to a level that we can not control so he fenced it in for us to put our horses on. I really need to borrow some goats.LOL

Here the horses are enjoying some new pasture.

I also thought I would share our baby chicks that are no longer babies. Every year we get about 5 or 6 new babies and here are a couple of this years crop. I think this one is so pretty. She is an Auracauna and she will lay blue/green eggs.

My honey loves a black chicken and our last one disappeared so here is his new black chicken.

Now for the bad news, before we left for the beach, I was of course, canning tomatoes and I heard a loud pop. I had blown up my cook top. So I just decided I will deal with it when I get home. Now I am on the hunt for the best deal on a cook top. In the mean time, I still have tomatoes running out of my ears, literally. So this is what little man and I fixed up today. We put my Coleman camping stove on a table outside and I began canning on the porch. I really should have been doing this all along, as it really saved my kitchen from heating up.

Oh and by the way, so far the best deal is at Cowboy Maloney's in Jackson. However, I have a few more calls to make.

I thought last but not least, I would end with a beautiful picture of our mammoth sunflowers. They started blooming while we were gone and they were quite the site to come home to.
Have a great weekend!!!

July is flying by.....

Well, we had a pretty good 4th. It was as good as could be expected without the love of my life here. My mother came down and my sister and her family. Our little version of Mayberry has a big Lena Day every 4th of July. We have politicians and speakers come and give their .02. My girls spent the day signing in participants for the antique car and tractor show. Then they moved on to making snow cones.

Last year my honey did the color guard. So this year in lieu of him being deployed they asked if my son could do the Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag. It was great. He was so nervous but it was truly a treasured memory for us all. Here he is on stage.

There are all kinds of events for the kids. The big one is the turtle race. Kids decorate their turtles and then race them around a circle. My son did it last year and my nephew wanted to do it this year. Here he is with his turtle.

They won 3rd. place. Needless to say, my sister and family will be back next year.

It was a great day and a great way to take our mind off of the circumstances of our day to day.

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Her"s one of my projects that I have somewhat completed.

Now keep in mind I did this myself and really could have used the expertise of my honey but I think it came out pretty good. I love Rue's new pantry and she was my inspiration. I love her wooden brackets and I think I will change mine out one by one. These shelves will be holding the majority of my canning. I have 19 jars of muscadine and pear preserves left out of the 75 I put up last year. If any of you would like for me to send you a jar leave me a link to your email. The harvest will be coming in again in Sept. and Oct. and I will be starting all over.LOL I would love to share our abundance.

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~~ Indeed, the Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its produce.~~

Psalms 85:12

And here's some of the produce this week. I am putting up corn, tomatoes, and peas this week. All of this harvest is slowing down the process of my really big project but it is making the days go by faster. Most days I look up and it's 2:00 before I even get the day started good.

I pray that we put up enough that we can eat from the garden all winter. We will see.

Have a great week.....