A Little of This and That

This week is flying by in a hurry. It seems that I just started Monday morning, and here it is already Thursday afternoon! We have had company since Monday staying with us. Three college girls came to vacation in our beautiful area of Tennessee. They stayed at our home during the night while going out to find fun things to do during the day. Our daughter was in hog heaven because it has been a week filled with girly activities. We enjoyed their stay, and we are praying for their safe return back home. Last night Michael and I went out for a church meeting. We came back home late, and we were delighted to find that all the girls pitched in and cleaned the house. It was like I had hired a maid. That was a wonderful surprise for me, and it has made today go much nicer.

I am still in the midst of canning tomato sauce. I believe I will be at this activity for the next week or so. I don't mind doing it, and I sure enjoy watching our pantry fill up with the work of our hands!

I am also planting fall seeds this week. I will be planting broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and more lettuce plants in the shop. I will be sowing peas in the garden. We still have some beds to clean out to make room, but the things in those beds aren't quite ready to be cleared out yet. They are still producing some, and I want to enjoy the harvest for as long as I can.

We did go to the fair last weekend. Michael and I met up with the local "Bee Lady". We were able to have a lengthy conversation with her. She has over 70 hives now, and she said that she has only extracted about 25% of her usual honey crop this year. Our late freeze was the first big problem for the honey production, and then our drought has added more problems. We still have about a gallon of last year's honey so I am hoping that our bees make enough to get us through until next year. The Bee Lady also gave me a sample of Sour wood Honey. I thought I hated sour wood honey, but turns out that the honey I don't like isn't sour wood. Sour wood Honey is very light in color...almost a clear yellow color. I had never seen it before. It had a very delicate flavor, and I liked it after all. She was able to transport her bees up to the mountains when the sour wood trees were in bloom, and she had a wonderful batch of honey to show for her efforts.

I still have many things to put my hands to this afternoon. I must get out of this chair and go get busy!!!
grace and peace,
julie