Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Pictures As Promised

Here are some of the pictures Julie promised.




"Missy" the newest member of the family




The first two raised beds, there are now four.


The view off our deck, the raised beds are just below the bottom of the picture


Jake coming back from feeding Violet, (there's Roxie the senior K-9 of the family

God bless,

Mike

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Enjoyable Weekend for the Most Part

We had a very wonderful weekend. It could have been more productive, but sometimes you just need to catch your breath. We did that very thing this weekend. My honey do list is still there, but we enjoyed ourselves and our family.

My father had died last summer, and we were given his fishing boat. We just made a trip to Ky. to get the boat over the Easter weekend. Michael finally took the time on Saturday to work on it a bit. This boat was something that both my Dad and my husband enjoyed working on together. It means a lot to Michael to have it and share it with his own children.

I guess I am still in shock and disbelief, and my brother even stated that I needed my head examined for what we did on Saturday morning. The phone rang while I was making breakfast, and it was our neighbor. She had raised a litter of English Mastiff puppies, and she was wondering if we would be interested. She offered us a great deal, but at that point I wasn't sold. I REALLY DID NOT NEED ANYTHING ELSE TO CARE FOR. I am a busy mother, and a puppy wasn't in the plans. However, 4 of my 5 children overheard the conversation. They B-E-G-G-E-D me. They even went to the ploy of stating the dog could be their combined Christmas present. I was suckered to the max! We went and picked our "little" puppy up Saturday. She is as cute as a button. This breed tends to be a bit on the lazy side. That was the only reason I consented! I will have Michael post pictures of her soon. She is turning out great, but it is still early. The children named her Missy, and I am saying "No, Missy" at least a hundred times a day!

The only glitch in the weekend was that Michael dropped some part of a tractor on his middle finger. He was tilling the large garden spot, and the tiller wasn't going deep enough so he went to adjust it. The cotter pin (I am not for sure about that spelling) rammed into his finger. We ended up going to the emergency room. UGHHH...he got 7 stitches and a shot. It is a nasty puncture type cut, but it hasn't slowed him down too much.

Since he took the time and donated his finger to till the large garden, I decided I should just quietly go plant my flowers over there. I did just that today. I planted quite a few flowers for cutting. I also planted our first large batch of corn. The real problem for me in this garden area is that our 4 hives of bees are over there. Now I know bees are suppose to be all busy with other things, but I tend to attract them. I managed to get a bee sting this WINTER. Our whole garden area will be filled with bees!! Oh well, maybe next year I can plant my flowers in one of my beautiful raised beds away from all the bees!

grace and peace,
julie

Friday, May 05, 2006

Happy Dance and Weekend Plans

I am so excited that Friday afternoon is upon us, but I am even more excited than usual. We are in the midst of baseball season at our house. Three of our boys play baseball, and it can be a bit overwhelming trying to schedule everything around games. Our third son plays on a traveling ball team, and Michael helps coach this team. This has been a great experience for him as well as our family, but it is very time consuming. We were suppose to go to Knoxville and play a tournament all weekend, but PRAISE THE LORD the tournament was cancelled. Now I know that a good baseball mother wouldn't be so excited about this cancellation, but this ball mother jumped up and down!!!

I was at the breakfast table this moring with my cup of coffee in one hand and a pen in the other writing as fast as I could. I wanted to make sure Michael and I were on the same page for our new weekend plans. We took a few minutes before he left for work to outline our plans. Our farm list grew by leaps and bounds, and if we get half of our list accomplished then I will be more than thrilled.

Our raised beds are coming along wonderfully. I am already thrilled with our results! I will have Michael post pictures a little later in the week. We are ordering lumber for 6 more beds, and that will give us a total of 10 beds for this year. I was hoping for 20 beds, but I will be thankful for the 10! As of today, we have 4 constructed and ready for planting. I tried my best to get Michael to let me use one of our beds for nothing but flowers. Growing flowers has been a passion of mine for a few years now. I love having fresh flowers all over our house! He told me no way was I to take a whole bed that we should be raising food in and grow flowers. Well, I have now decided that I am going to ask that my family build me my very own raised bed for Mother's Day, and you better believe that it will be full of beautiful flowers!!!! I'll let you know later how this one turns out!

grace and peace,
julie